Archive | Uncategorized RSS feed for this section

Measure J was just the test run for the sales tax increase

12 Mar

Brian Nakamura forwarded along Jennifer Hennessy’s answers to Stephanie Taber’s questions from last week’s city council meeting.

Stephanie’s questions, below in black, with Hennessy’s responses in blue, and my smart ass observations in green:

1) What/who is the source of information that is now being used to verify the $500 loss (or whatever the current figure is) in revenue due to the defeat of Measure J?  At the offset of the proposal there was no definitive way of separating how much revenue was received based solely of cell phone calls and texting and how much on land line costs.  At least that was my understanding.

Answer:  City staff will be able to determine Measure J’s impact over time, as Telecommunication companies stop collecting the tax on cell phones and voice over internet protocol (VOIP) services.  Future UUT revenue will be compared to revenue collected prior to the notification to the companies to cease collection of this tax. 

Wait, this doesn’t sound right. For one thing, in December, Hennessy reported a loss of $500,000 to the General Fund, and blamed it directly, in so many words, by name, on “the loss of Measure J.” There was no doubt in her mind, our budget had been hit broadside to the tune of $500,000 by the petty taxpayers who defeated that ill-begot scheme. Now she tells us, she won’t know how much, til “over time”?   She’s our budget director, in charge of our financial “IN” and “OUT” boxes, and she doesn’t know where our money comes from? She gets checks all year from the phone companies, but she doesn’t keep track of how much? That answer sounds fishy to me on a number of levels. 

2) Are telephone tax collections a separate revenue line item that can be compared month-to-month and year to date?

Answer:  Yes, revenue collected for Utility Users Tax on telecommunication services is reflected in the City’s General Fund, under account 40492. 

And here she says the opposite – that the revenue collected is kept track of in the budget?  Month to month? I looked in the budget, available under “Finance Dept” on the city website.

Click to access 2012-13CityAnnualFINALBudget_000.pdf

Yes, under the General Fund summary, page FS-1, Fund 001, Utility Tax is separated out – gas, electric, telecom, and water – but only year to year. I wonder if she even read Stephanie’s question all the way through. The fund is there, but we don’t see how much is added and subtracted, just the balance. Like she says for Q #1, we would have to have all the budgets, and compare that number from year to year, and we’d have to know how much money had been taken from that fund in order to figure out how much had come in over any particular year. She knows that stuff, or she should – why she can’t give us a straight answer is beyond me, and it just makes me suspicious of everything they say Downtown.

What they continue to say Downtown, is that Measure J is to blame for all our fiscal difficulties. This even as they sign that new cop contract – raises, especially for lieutenants, fully-paid “employee share,” the whole nine yards. And did you see those new cruisers they bought, just to be “traditional”? They’ve also raised department head salaries about $25 – 30,000 each.  Oh, but $900,000, or uh, is it $600,000 – oh, just $500,000? Really? Well that’s still a TRAGEDY! QUE LASTIMA! You rotten, petty taxpayers! You’re so stingy! 

This is their foot in the door for that sales tax increase, you just watch. 

And don’t forget, Frank Fields said he’d have the UT rebate application on the website “in the next couple of  weeks,” so I’ll keep you posted there.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

The figures are in – Schwab, Gruendl and Goloff just flat LIED about Measure J

12 Mar

As most of you probably remember, Measure J, the cell phone tax measure, was promoted by Ann Schwab, Scott Gruendl, and Mary Goloff. I really have to hand it to them – they were the only ones with the balls of brass to put their names on this obvious money grab.  That doesn’t mean I have anything but contempt for this group, I’m just saying, I’d hand “it” to them, “it” being a big turd.

In the argument they posted in favor of the cell phone tax, Ann, Scott and Mary claimed, ” A loss of $900,000 a year would result in reduced police and fire services, road maintenance and park funds.’

Where’d they get that figure? In the same argument, they cited “the average cell phone bill of $50 per month…”. I remember doing the math, and asking, “how could that add up to $900,000 a year?” My husband said it was possible, but I had to remind him – only AT&T and Metro PCS – the two cheapest cell phone providers out there – collected the tax. How many people in Chico use those providers? We don’t know, but it’s hard to figure how these two providers, who cater to welfare recipients and other low-income customers, could possibly come up with $900,000 a year in tax.

Well, they couldn’t. In subsequent discussions, finance department employee Frank Fields estimated a truer figure of $600,000/year, and, at a December council meeting, Finance Director Jennifer Hennessy reported the actual figure at $500,000. Yes, exactly $500,000, no odd dollars or cents. Go figure.

This whole discussion has been highly questionable. So you know Stephanie Taber, she did the asking. She stood up at the end of the meeting and asked very pointed questions about the figuring for Measure J. Crickets chirped.  Mayor Mary Goloff thanked Stephanie but neither offered answers of her own nor questioned $taff. So, Stephanie had to e-mail her questions to Brian Nakamura, Jennifer Hennessy, and the council.  The first two deal with Measure J, I didn’t include the others because I want to focus here on Measure J. I’ll  get back to the others.

Stephanie’s letter begins, “Perhaps you were unable to jot down the questions that I asked so here they are again:

1) What/who is the source of information that is now being used to verify the $500 loss (or whatever the current figure is) in revenue due to the defeat of Measure J?  At the offset of the proposal there was no definitive way of separating how much revenue was received based solely of cell phone calls and texting and how much on land line costs.  At least that was my understanding.

2) Are telephone tax collections a separate revenue line item that can be compared month-to-month and year to date?

(Questions 3 and 4 left out)

Stephanie Taber

On Sunday evening Silly Manager Brian Nakamura e-mailed back, saying, “I wanted to share that Ms. Hennessy has provided draft answers for me to review and share and its my delay that is slowing down the response to your questions.”  And he said he’d get back to Stephanie, which I assume Stephanie will clue us in there when she has something.

In the meantime, she answered Nakamura, ” As to the comparison one year against another to verify the $900K lost as a result of the defeat of Measure J, it would be of value to have that specific item as part of the quarterly report since a lot of taxpayers are skeptical of the figure. “

Yes, a lot of taxpayers are skeptical of that $900,000  figure – we’re damned sick of hearing it repeated. The News and Review used it in a February editorial, even after they’d printed Frank Field’s estimate back in November. I asked Robert Speer about it when I sent in a letter last week, he printed my letter and thanked me for it, but did not respond to my remark about the $900,000 figure.

What is this – the Big Lie? They think if they just keep repeating that figure, we’ll buy it hook, line and sinker? Well, that probably works when they’ve got both newspapers and the tv station to go along with them.  We need to get some folks writing letters, demanding answers to the “creative bookkeeping” they’re using Downtown. Ask questions people!

I did some asking – last week I dropped another note to Frank Fields over in Finance. I asked him, again, how many people have applied for and received cell phone tax refunds, and what’s the average refund amount? Frank is a sport, he got right back to me:

Ms. Sumner,
 
To date, we’ve processed 91 refund applications averaging $52.65 each.  In addition, I have another 10 or so applications waiting to be processed.
 
Finally, we’ll be posting the “UUT refund application” for the annual UUT refund program in the next couple of weeks.
 

Frank

Vielen Dank Frankster, that is just what I suspected above.  If the average refund is $52.65, that works out to $4.38 a month in tax – almost twice the figure Schwab, Gruendl and Goloff stated in their “argument for.” That would also make the average bill about $87 – again, almost twice the figure stated in the “argument for.” 

From the voter’s manual: “This rate, if applied to the average cell phone bill of $50 per month, would equate to a monthly charge of $2.25 as opposed to the current charge of $2.50.”

Boy, there it is – as Al Franken would put it, “Lies, and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them.” 

And here’s the link to that refund application:

http://www.chico.ca.us/documents/CellPhoneRefundApplication_011713.pdf

Tags: , , , , , ,

So much for “pension reform”!

9 Mar

Yes, the people of Chico WILL pay over half the “employee share” for our new assistant city manager, for his pension and his health benefits.

At this past city council meeting, in answer to the issue of getting employees to pay their own share,  Mark Sorensen was saying that new employees would have to pay their own share!  Unfortunately, Sean Morgan reminded him, only if they come in from outside the California Public Employee Retirement System.

This new guy from Hemet, Mr. Orme, former assistant to our current city manager Brian Nakamura, WILL ONLY PAY 4 PERCENT.

Sorensen explained it to me in an e-mail:

“The California law that passed last year requires that new CalPERS participants go into a lower benefit tier, and prohibits the employer from paying any of the ’employee share.'”

You get that – “new CalPERS participants” – not new employees. This Orme guy, transferring up here from city of Hemet, CALIFORNIA,  is already IN CalPERS. So, according to Sorensen, “Mr. Orme would not fall into that legal requirement that he pay the ’employee share.'” 

Gawd you just have to hand it to these people, they are pretty damned slick! The crap they pull, right in broad daylight. 

But Pollyanna Sorensen still stands behind this whole deal, like the steadfast tin soldier. He claims this new policy regarding, well, some new hires, will provide “some encouragement to move existing employees to pay their own ’employee share’,” promising, “there is a definate [sic] desire to move in that direction.” 

Desire on whose part, I’m asking. Not sure. He offers no further illustration. 

Let me color this in for you, my interpretation, see? There’s a lot of ugly jealousy among the ranks Downtown. First we have this problem of “compaction” between supervising lieutenants and their subordinate sergeants – the lieutenants are jealous because the sergeants use overtime to make almost as much as their lieutenants. Now I’m hearing from Sorensen, existing employees need to see it stuck to the new employees before they will do the right thing, maybe. This is sickening to me. I can’t formulate much of an opinion of our city workers. They seem like a pretty “Me” kinda bunch. 

And then you have our council. Sorensen says they’re working as hard as they can, but “trying to move 9 bargaining units and contract employees into that direction has not been easy.“

Do tell. 

Have you ever noticed that the bad kids get all the attention?

 


				
Tags: , , , , , 
			


	


		

		


	




			
                



	
	
April is “Taxpayer Appreciation Month”

	
		7
		Mar
	

	

	

		
 Sue had a brainstorm the other night – let’s raise awareness of the amount of tax money collected in this country, and show some appreciation for the taxpayers who foot America’s bills.


You know, I tried to find a figure on what Americans pay annually in taxes, and it was very confusing.


First of all, if you have a job or a business, and make any money whatsoever, you pay income tax.  If you work for somebody else, they have the happy job of vivisecting your wages into little piles and sending this here and that there – your “social insurance” and all that crap. If you are a self-employed small business owner, you can either do this yourself, or hire somebody like RUSH Personnel to do it for you. Take it from me – it’s a real pain in the ass.


If you own a house, screw you – you pay “ad valorem” or property taxes. Sheesh, what a scam there! A tax to own your own home, give me a Jesus H. Break. A tax based on roughly ten percent of what the county assessor determines to be the “value” of your house. Based on, well, mostly revenue needs! This tax gets split between the state thugs, the county thugs, and, if you are unlucky enough to be annexed, the city thugs. They say they use it to fix your roads and pay for your schools – what they mean is, pay salaries and benefits.


Listen you smartass renters – where do you think Landlord gets the money to pay his property taxes?!


Then there’s “excise” or sales tax – this is a phrase that will put sixty years on my 17-year-old, who feels this is one of the biggest hokums ever perpetrated on humankind – a tax on spending money you already paid taxes on.


I think “excise” covers “utility” tax, thankyouverymuch.


There’s so many ways they get to you. I know, we beat Measure J, but did you know, California has some of the highest cell phone taxes in the state?


Mooo-oooo!


I realize, taxes pay for stuff I want to have. I like paved roads, I’m glad to have public schools and other institutions. I’d like to be able to depend on cops and fire. I realize taxes are supposed to be the collective way to pay for stuff everybody wants and needs.


But we don’t get the service we pay for. The streets in some of our older neighborhoods are so badly maintained – I’ll never forget the pothole at the corner of Filbert and Downing that “voided” the warranty on my right front tire.   The park looks terrible, the trails are  not maintained, non-native overgrowth prevails and there’s garbage and dog poop laying on the ground. The other day on my way to a morning meeting, I found one of those dog poop bags – you know, the ones on which they spend some $60,000 a year – full and tied to the branch of a small tree alongside the trail. 


Last night on the news I heard them looking for park volunteers. Screw that! We have half dozen rangers who make over $80,000 a year, plus benefits. I see the park ranger truck parked here and there along the road, no ranger in sight. I sure as hell don’t see any ranger out there with a trash bag, picking up anything. I sure don’t see anybody over there at that freeway job writing tickets for fugitive dust or violation of the noise ordinance (regular crews are relegated to a 7am – dusk time limit) or the tree ordinance (9 inch diameter my ass!).  


I’d sure like to see some taxpayer appreciation out of these city workers, who get damned generous salaries, all of them, and don’t pay nearly enough of their own benefits packages.  I’d be happy if they’d do their jobs. 


We must demand of these people.  Next time you see a public worker, ask them, when’s the last time they thanked a taxpayer? Then give them the opportunity. 

				
Tags: , , , 
			


	


		

		


	




			
                



	
	
Chico has new Assistant City Manager – Nakamura hires his former assistant from Hemet. No nepotism here.

	
		6
		Mar
	

	

	

		
According to the Press Enterprise, out of Riverside California, nearby Hemet’s assistant city manager, having been passed over for their city manager position,  has been hired for the assistant city manager position here in Chico. Don’t you hate hearing it from somebody else?


“Mark Orme has resigned as assistant city manager in Hemet to take a similar position in Chico, he announced Wednesday, March 6…  Orme, 40, will work under Brian Nakamura, who was Hemet’s city manager for three years before resigning in August to go to Chico.”  


Read the whole story here:


http://blog.pe.com/hemet/2013/03/06/2347/


And here’s my prediction: Nakamura, who is about 50, is grooming a replacement for his own retirement coming up here in a couple of years. 


Tom Lando, who helped Nakamura get the city manager job, and who also helped Chico City Councilor Mark Sorensen get his current position as Biggs City Manager, is setting up the deck to get his sales tax increase proposal onto an upcoming ballot.


Thanks very much to “can’t see the forest,” an anonymous poster, for this tip.  I will try to keep an eye on the PE, it’s a good news source, and I hope you will come back and visit us frequently. 


Connie Hall Multimedia, Pix, & Web Design - Hemet, CA


Connie Hall’s facebook photo – nice knockers Babe! But if I were your mother I’d tell you to button that shirt.



















 


I’m guessing she’s got a regular culture going on under those claws. The caption says she’d rather give up food than her long nails – I’m guessing, she’d rather give up work – she seems to have intentionally made herself completely useless.  I don’t know how she could be trusted to operate a keyboard without setting off a nuclear attack somewhere in Kazakhstan.


 


I’m glad your enjoying my blog Connie, your lighting up the board – but this is an old post, how about coming around to the current conversation, instead of playing lurking heckler? What, nothing intelligent to say?










 

				
Tags: , , , , 
			


	


		

		


	




			
                



	
	
Nakamura’s response to Stephanie Taber’s question about “compaction” between cop salaries. Or is it “compression” – he can’t make up his mind

	
		2
		Mar
	

	

	

		
Well, Stephanie had to resend her request once, but Brian Nakamura finally responded.  He’s done this to me – he always makes a dumb excuse why he hasn’t responded sooner. He told me he got my e-mail address wrong, and here he tells Stephanie he had a response in his drafts file. I guess he was too busy attending a ceremony for a cop killed 75 years ago, or maybe too busy driving between Chico and his home in Hemet?  Whatever – his response isn’t anything to write home to Mama about, but I’ll share it anyway.  For Stephanie’s request see









Hi Ms. Taber,


 I apologize as the email I was going to send you was still waiting in my draft box, but it was in regards to compression and my interpretation. Essentially, a compression issue occurs when a salary of a subordinate employee within a department creeps within a certain salary range of his/her immediate supervisor. In this particular case, and as you have identified, the incentive to become a manager is lessened when a subordinate’s compensation (with overtime) overlaps that of a supervisor with exempt status or fixed salary. Addressing the compression should not


 In regards to the newly created departments, those directors will be paid a salary commensurate with their span of control and duties. Their contracts will be negotiated in accordance with existing at-will employee contracts which spell out the salary and benefits available and as established in the management pay and benefits resolution(s). Severance is limited to a maximum of three months and that is still an option, not a guarantee.


To make it more clear regarding at will employee contracts I’ve provided you with a copy of a blank one for your review.


 If you have any additional questions Ms. Taber please feel free to contact me and I apologize for not getting back to you sooner.


 All the best,


 Brian


First of all, it’s not “compression,” Brian, it’s “compaction” – please get your Newspeak straight! They make up these words so we don’t understand what they’re talking about, but this guy spins it out so fast he can’t even remember what he made up. 


There he says it though, Stephanie was right. “Compression” or “compaction” – a turd by any other name still stinks. What it means – a boss is not getting paid enough more than their (oooo!) “subordinate,” and that makes the boss just plain jealous. 


In the dictionary, “subordinate” is often substituted with “inferior”.   Is that really what Nakamura thinks of our employees? Well, that’s the problem – we have two police lieutenants making a formal complaint, which is often the precursor to a LAWSUIT, over the fact that their “subordinate” sergeants get overtime, and are therefore able to extend their “subordinate” salaries up to and often well beyond that of their supervising lieutenant. In other words, the “subordinates” aren’t “subordinate” enough!


One solution to this problem, which would also solve some of our financial problems Downtown, would be to take “structured overtime” out of the cop contracts. Cops through the rank of sergeant are guaranteed overtime, which they trade back and forth among themselves in order to as much as  double their salaries. It’s pretty convoluted – they tell you they are actually required to work that 15 hours on regular pay, but they get so much beyond that 15 hours (which can be used to sleep, eat, go to a gym…) that the average officer making a base salary of $65,000 can easily boost his pay to as much as $120,000.  Look at the salary chart in the Enterprise Record and see for yourself. The police budget is over $22 million – our total city budget is about $43 million. 


Instead the cops are demanding and Nakamura is recommending a pay increase for lieutenants. He’s already recommended a $13,000 salary increase for Chief Kirk Trostle (that’s in the “reorganization” report in next week’s agenda).  The new cop contract is full of raises, can you believe that? How is this “reorganization” saving us any money?


I’ve invited Mark Sorensen to discuss this topic at a Chico Taxpayers Association meeting, but I haven’t had any response from him. I’m predicting Sorensen will rubberstamp anything Nakamura puts in front of him. This will prove to be his undoing in 2014. 






				
Tags: , , , , , 
			


	


		

		


	




			
                



	
	
John Salyer: Government progressives like to use studies to scare the public into giving up individual freedoms

	
		1
		Mar
	

	

	

		
John Salyer sent the following letter to the Enterprise Record, printed today. I know this is a hot topic, so I’m posting it here. Thanks John!


From Chico Enterprise Record, March 1, 2013:


Thank you Scott for your letter/opinion: Research not a valid health study 2/15/13! I have the same concerns about this type of study, but oftentimes my concerns are met with “if it will save one life it is very much worth it!” 


Big Government Progressives (like yourself and the majority of the Chico City Council) like to use studies like this to scare the ignorant and/or the extremely busy public into giving up more of their individual freedoms for the (supposed) good of the collective. Plastic bag ban, smoking outdoors in the park, global warming (ooooops excuse me climate change since that actually happens naturally with or without us), the list goes on and on………


I am also concerned about the negative economic consequences of plastic bag bans and plastic bag taxes, both for bag manufacturers and businesses that use the bags. Not to mention that any environmental benefit we’re likely to see from bag bans and bag taxes is speculative at best.


If it neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg what difference does it make to me? I would say that banning plastic bags picks the pockets of most citizens especially the poor who are least able to adjust to arbitrary price increases. Maybe there is a grant for that so we can financially enslave future generations more than we already have 😦


Here are more links that are discussing this potential safety issue:


http://www.publicceo.com/2013/02/food-borne-danger-of-plastic-bag-bans-studied/


http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/saunders/article/S-F-s-plastic-bag-ban-may-be-unhealthy-4264075.php


I guess we will have to agree to disagree!


John Salyer

				
Tags: , 
			


	


		

		


	




			
                



	
	
Nakamura announces a $50 million dollar deficit but still won’t make the cops or fire pay their own way. When will Mark Sorensen and Sean Morgan pull their “fiscally conservative” thumbs out of their asses and do something?

	
		23
		Feb
	

	

	

		
My husband and I both laughed out loud the other night when Brian Nakamura announced our city is about $50 million in deficit. Not that we thought it was funny, it was more of a nervous reaction.   I had to hear him say it a couple of times before the smile slid off my face. 


Then he offered up his puny little reorganization plan that might shave, heavy on the ‘might” – $1 million a year. He’s firing people across the board, and it’s only saving, again, “might” save, $1 million a year. According to the budget figures, that would still leave us in deficit. Has he got some other plans?


His first plan, to land himself a job at $217,000 a year, with a sweeeet benefits package, including a full year’s salary in severance pay, was a roaring success. According to a human resources “wiki” I read, it is customary to give an executive employee a severance of a month’s pay for every year served – Nakamura has not served us six months, yet has a promise of a full year’s salary if we have to let him go for any reason short of homicide or red-handed embezzlement. Thank you again,  Mark Sorensen, proxy dupe, and Tom Lando, puppet master. Boy, wouldn’t you like to get a look at Sorensen’s contract as Biggs city manager, or the contract Lando just got as interim rec manager out in O-ville?


And now these overfed blue jays are the ‘thin blue line” between the city and BANKRUPTCY. They are currently negotiating contracts with Chico Police and Fire Departments.  According to an article in the paper the other day, I was right,  the police alone take over $22 mil, or about half our $43 million a year budget. According to that article, they spend over a million a year on campus, messing with the college kids. 


Let’s face it, it didn’t cost them $100 to arrest that pervert that’s been over there raping who knows how many young women for who knows how long. They claim to spend more than $1 million a year patrolling the college area. Why? There’s a college police department. Why not force the campus police to take over? Why do we have to pay more in taxes for a special “C Team”? Can they get Leslie Nielsen for that kind of money? 


Chico PD just wants more money, more money, more money. They can’t help themselves, they’re pigs. They demand all kinds of perks and benies out of the city – they don’t even pay to purchase or clean their own uniforms – meanwhile, they tell us, they are too short of staff to actually do the job. They don’t prevent crime, they come along afterward and make a report about it so they can ask for a bigger budget the following year. They still haven’t solved the “clown bandit” capers, or those robberies that occurred every summer, again and again the same victims, including the hair stylist over on East Avenue who had her plate glass window smashed out at least twice and her cash register stolen. 


Right now they’re replacing their vehicles – they get new vehicles every five to six years, wouldn’t you like to live like that? Well you ought to, you pay for it!  Go on, go over to Wittmeier, and when they send you into Jackie’s office, you just tell her to call Brian Nakamura, he’s got a little voucher over there for you. She will laugh that jersey girl laugh and say, “No, really Hon, how you gonna pay for this?” 


Yes, the cops get new vehicles, they get a uniform allowance, they get paid to exercise, they get paid to go to their third cousin twice-removed’s funeral. A bunch of them got paid yesterday, along with Brian Nakamura, to stand around and yak it up over a guy who was killed 75 years ago. 


Yes, Officer Carlton Bruce. I didn’t know him, I’m sure he was a wonderful man, 75 years ago. But if I were his wife, I’d still be pissed at him for walking into getting his face blown off. I think Bruce made a number of classic mistakes, and up until now, nobody thought it was worthy of an annual ceremony. Where’s the ceremony for Rod O’Hern? O’Hern was shot in the face and permanently blinded by the accomplice of a suspect back in 1995. He subsequently left the force and moved out of the area. I don’t know if his family still lives here, but at the time of the shooting, he had a six year old and a pregnant wife. These folks could probably use a little comfort for what they went through, but I guess you have to be dead to get any respect out of Chico PD. 


I remember that incident, and the problems that caused it have not been solved. Just this past holiday shopping season, only a short walk from the scene of the O’Hern shooting, two women and a ten year old girl were maced and their purses stolen at the MacDonalds on East Ave.  That crime has not been solved.  Our police department continues to take without really giving us anything.  Now they want bigger salaries for their management positions, because they are so jealous and greedy they need to see $$$$ before they will do their jobs. 


Please write to your council – at dpresson@ci.chico.ca.us – and tell them the police and fire need to pay their own pension premiums. Currently the police PAY NOTHING and fire only two percent, toward  pensions representing 90 percent of their highest year’s pay available at age 50. Our city is over $50 million dollars in deficit on these crazy contracts, and we will soon be forced to pay more toward the premiums. That either means new taxes, or it means the cops and fire need to step up and do the right thing. 


Mark Sorensen and Sean Morgan ran as “fiscal conservatives.” Somebody should write them a letter and tell them, “that means, you’re supposed to be saving money!”  Somebody might ask them what they’re doing taking  salary and benefits for their council position when both of them have very nice salaries and benefits from their publicly-paid day jobs.


Write to Brian Nakamura at bnakamura@ci.chico.ca.us, and while you’re asking him to bring the cops and fire to the table, ask him to pay his own pension share as well – he currently pays only 4%. 

				
Tags: , , , , , , , , , 
			


	


		

		


	




			
                



	
	
Stephanie Taber – Citizen at Large: What is “compaction”?

	
		18
		Feb
	

	

	

		
The city is currently in contract talks with various employee groups, and this week’s council agenda includes a little snatch of the cops’ contract.


6.1. SUNSHINING OF PUBLIC SAFETY MANAGEMENT INITIAL NEGOTIATIONS PROPOSAL

Under the terms’ of Council’s request to sunshine employee group proposals, the Council has received

the first proposal from Public Safety Management (PSM) for consideration. The fiscal impact of PSMs

proposal is approximately $10,367 per year in order to rectify an on-going compaction issue. The city’s

proposal consists of administrative changes and has no financial impact.


I’ve been reading these agendas for years now, and I still need to bust out my dictionary and do a lot of research online just to figure out what’s going on. “Fiscal impact” means, the new contract is going to cost us money, I got that much.  But, what’s “compaction?”  Long time council watcher Stephanie Taber wrote this note to staff:


Could you have someone in PSM define the word “compaction” as it is used in the “Fix Compaction for Police Management”.  It’s apparently the salary spread, or lack of it, between a sergeant and a lieutenant pay scale which is normally 5% but because at the lieutenant level they no longer get overtime it is obviously more advantageous to a promotable employee to stay at the sergeant level.  Is that the crux of the argument?


Also, what will be included in the benefit package offered to the newly created department directors.  I am particularly interested in whether they will pay their full share of their pension plan and if they will have a special severance package and if so what that would be.  They appear to be salaried position and increases will be based on merit???  A little more info would help.


Thank you.


st 


I think Stephanie is right – I just saw an episode about this on “The Office.” Dunder-Mifflin has just been bought out by Saber, and Michael and Jim find themselves vying for the office manager position. Then Oscar explains that sales staffers make more money because of commission, so they both change their minds and want to be salesmen.  


Yes, Chico PD and Fire often double their salaries with overtime. They agree to $60,000 salaries and end up taking as much as $120,000.  So,  I can certainly see this “compaction” business to be a problem, especially when you’re dealing with people who routinely put  their own interests ahead of the community. 


You’ll have to follow this link to get the report, and then scroll all the way to the bottom – Debbie Presson and staff purposely load these reports in such a way that they cannot be cut and paste. Even Mark Sorensen has complained about this – I feel it’s Presson’s way of keeping the public out, but you think whatever you want: 


Click to access 2-19-13CityCouncilAgendaPacket.pdf


I will also post any response Stephanie gets from staff, but don’t hold your breath, she usually has to yank their chain a few times, Goddess bless her! 


DISCUSSION:


I’d like to get a discussion going on this subject, so I’ll lead with a few snippets from the report. Now remember, I have to go between two screens and hand-type this stuff, thanks to city clerk Debbie Presson, so pardon me if I tend to get a little beee-chee.


The report leads off:


“Historically the compaction issue for the Police Department was masked by merit pay. Once merit pay was eliminated (2008) it exposed several structural problems.  The first structural issue relates to compaction. The second to internal promotions.”


“The police manager to police supervisor pay ratio immediately experience compaction when two lieutenants were promoted from the sargeant ranks. This compaction was never remedied, and eventually led to a personnel grievance filed by these two lieutenants.” 


(The spelling error there, by the way, belongs to our “quality employees”  – it’s sergeant, not sargeant)


There you have it. Two of our police department employees, lieutenants,  are complaining they don’t get paid enough. That’s the kind of “quality” employees we attract with these salaries. I have a salary sheet from 2010, listing four lieutenants – their salaries range between $108,000 and $126,000/year.  They’re complaining about salaries like that? And on top of that, they pay NOTHING toward their own pensions and benefits. They are eligible to receive 90 percent of their highest year’s pay at age 50. 


One of those Lieutenants listed on that salary sheet is Linda Dye, who recently invited me to get the hell out of the secret meeting I stumbled into one day Downtown.  Here’s something weird, maybe somebody can explain this to me – in addition to her $109,000 salary as Lieutenant, she received $11,557 in “special pay,” $3,619 in “other pay,” and $939 in “overtime.” Well, gee, I thought that was the problem, that Lieutenants don’t receive overtime? 


It says, right in the agenda report, “As a lieutenant, you are not eligible for overtime, are on call, and serve as ‘at will’ employees.”   


I’ll have to ask somebody about that and get back to you. 


UPDATE: Stephanie Taber reports she has had no answer to her e-mail question, nor was she able to get an answer at Tuesday’s meeting. They don’t discuss the cop contracts in front of the public, the item was included because by law they are supposed to show us the contracts before they sign them. Supposed to. They signed Kirk Trostle’s contract without showing it to the public – it was signed on Tuesday, and when I asked for it on the following Friday it still wasn’t available to the public. That just shows you how the city of Chico respects the rules. 

				
Tags: , , , , 
			


	


		

		


	




			
                



	
	
40 people have so far applied for their Measure J refunds – don’t forget, time is limited on these refunds

	
		12
		Feb
	

	

	

		
I wrote to Frank Fields over in the city Finance office and asked him how many people have applied for refunds so far – he says,  40 people.


I want to be happy about that, but when I figure, how many people get AT&T, which is the most popular carrier, and when I think about how many people voted against Measure J, I just figure there ought to be more people applying for this refund.


But, it’s a real pain in the ass to get all your bills together – or, as Jim pointed out – PRINT THEM ONTO PAPER, if you get electronic billing – then, either carry them in during business hours (yes, your work hours), OR, stuff all that tree pulp into an envelope and mail them in, yadda, yadda, yadda. 


So, I wrote back to Frank, and I cc’d Brian Nakamura and Mary Goloff, asking for that electronic application that Jim and Rick came up with at our last meeting:


well great, we must be getting to people. I’ll do everything I can to get the information out there and we’ll see if we can get 100, maybe more. Thousands of people voted against Measure J, and I’m guessing thousands in town get AT&T, which we know to have collected the tax. According to my research, AT&T is the most popular carrier.  There’s been a lot of money collected improperly here over the years, so, I hope the city will go further in noticing this refund and returning as much of this money as possible, it’s really the right thing to do. 


I think we need to allow electronic applications. I have friends who get all their bills electronically, that’s the new fad,  – save the planet, right?  I think a lot of people do it. My friend Jim keeps his billing in a folder on his desktop – he could send this in with an e-mail application, paper-free, no trees harmed in the processing of the application. It does seem silly for people who have used electronic billing to have to print out all those bills to get the refund, or their UT rebate, for that matter. 


 


I think this is how we should do all Utility Tax refund/rebate applications in future, so I’m forwarding this message along to Brian Nakamura and council members. 


 


thanks for your work in this matter Frank, Juanita Sumner




I neglected to ask Frank, what was the average refund amount, but I’ll get back to him later and also ask again how many refund applications. I don’t mean to be a nuisance, but judging from the number of searches I get regarding this refund, I think plenty of other people are interested too.  Here’s that application link again:




				
Tags: , , 
			


	


		

		


	




			
						

			    
← Older Entries

				
Newer Entries →