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With revenues remaining ‘flat,’ Chico just sent over $14 million to CalPERS in “catch-up” payments – that’s where the Measure H revenues are going, just follow the bouncing dollar sign.

29 Aug

My husband and I recently took a “working” vacation – workation? We needed a new toilet for our rental, and finding the prices at Chico home improvement stores to be prohibitive, we went to Oregon to find a better deal. With school in and Summer slowly giving over to Fall, our usual motel had a cheap room for us. We got more savings at local grocery stores and produce stands. We stocked up on household stuff at Walmart, including all the type of over the counter medicines that are taxable in Chico. Shoes on SALE! at Big 5, we bought two pairs. We saved money that offset the price of the motel even further.

I’ll say, you need to do stuff for your mental health too. Every now and then, we need to get out of town, see how other people are doing things. As a Chico resident, I can tell you first hand – Chico has become an unpleasant place to shop, financially, morally, and aesthetically.

Medford, for example, has a vibrant retail sector. The stores are clean and well-run, and you can find what you need, no empty shelves. Their Winco is bigger and has a wider brand selection of various products. There are two really nice natural foods stores, with super fresh local produce. We couldn’t do the U-Pick farms this year, but we found really good apples and pears at the grocery store, for $2.50/lb.

Free parking everywhere, no kiosks, no hassle getting where you want to go.

Here’s the funny thing – while Chico is reporting flat revenues, even after a full one-cent sales tax increase, Medford reports their revenues have been on the up, up, up since COVID ended. With no state or local sales tax.

Chico made the same mistake that a Redding City Council member has called out – basing budget projections on one-time money, and then crying poormouth when the funds dry up. Specifically, American Rescue Funds. Those funds – millions – were horribly miss-spent by the city of Chico, and furthermore, included in budget projections for the future, even though they were one-time grants.

Having spent those funds like a pack of drunken sailors instead of dedicating them to needed infrastructure projects, they had some nerve to put the bite on voters to approve that one-cent sales tax. Of course they put up a simple majority measure that guaranteed the money would go into the General Fund, with no restrictions on spending.

“The ending of federal funds, like the American Rescue Plan, and a drying up of city grant money ($5.2 million) are creating a gap that could lead to dipping into the general fund for programs, including those for the homeless.”

“programs” – yeah sure! As usual, employee expenses continue to grow. According to city finance manager Barbara Martin, “On the expense side, personnel costs remain the leading driver. Unfunded pension liability continues to loom large, with the city’s payment for the upcoming year exceeding $14 million.”

Yep.

Meanwhile, “City of Medford revenues are not flat; recent trends and future projections indicate growth, though the rate has varied. While growth slowed slightly during the COVID-19 pandemic, city reports and budget adoptions show upward trends, with a significant increase projected for the upcoming 2025–2027 budget cycle…”

Medford voters will be asked to approve a Transient Occupancy Tax increase. My husband tells me Oregon’s overall TOT is higher than California. But who cares – it’s a percentage of the total room price, and the places we stay in Oregon are so much cheaper than their counterparts in California, TOT is more like a charitable donation to keep the town you’re visiting ahead of the extra infrastructural strains of tourism. I’ll say, the big, busy streets and intersections around our hotel and the retail areas we patronize are well planned, well maintained, and pedestrian friendly.

UPDATE: I looked it up – Medford has a 10.5% TOT, 9% of which goes to the city of Medford to help provide the amenities that tourists enjoy while remediating the strains of tourism, like extra traffic. Meanwhile, Chico charges 12% TOT, 10% goes to the GENERAL FUND. As you will recall, the General Fund is a grab bag with no restrictions. Again, the General Fund is looted every year for millions (this year over $14 million) to pay the unfunded liability left by the completely unrealistic shares that city employees pay for their overly generous benefits.

When we shop in Chico, I oftentimes have to sit in our truck while my husband goes into a store to safeguard tools we have to carry in the back of the truck. We’d never think of walking to do any shopping in Chico, even small grocery purchases, and we never ride our bikes in Chico anymore. People who have moved here within the last 20 years just wouldn’t get it – Chico was better than this when my husband and I were raising our family here. Now it’s gone past the pale, and I don’t know if there’s any coming back.

My prediction – they are going to try to float a bond for the sewer.

City of Chico fumbles through Warren settlement – how much is this Whack A Mole game costing us? Meanwhile, Van Overbeek says we’ll be needing more money for the massive sewer job Downtown. Sales tax revenues are flat. Where will the money come from?

19 Aug

I’ve been reading an obscure book I picked up from a cousin. The author describes the pitfalls of Democracy. He opines that a decision made by simple majority – only 50%+1 of the voters – is tyranny.

I’ll agree, but what are you going to do about tyranny when you live in tyranny? Over the last 10 years, our liberal state government has quickly and decisively chipped away at our voters’ rights, allowing simple majority decisions on tax measures. When California voters put a measure on the ballot seeking to restore the 2/3’s requirement for tax measures, our governor and his friends in the legislature went to un-precedented lengths to make sure that the voters could not stop tax increases, declaring our citizen’s initiative to be illegal and taking it off the ballot before we were allowed to vote on it.

So here we are in Tyranny, what to do, what to do. People are leaving – to those people, I say, thanks for nothing, you cowards. If all I can do is mau-mau the flak catchers, well, that’s what I’m going to do. Let’s start with the bi-weekly idiot show known as Chico City Council. The problem with Democracy, is who runs it.

https://www.actionnewsnow.com/news/city-of-chico-seeking-relief-from-some-of-the-rules-in-the-warren-v-chico/article_d87c143f-6805-4c8d-8647-511ee41f723d.html

The public has been kept out of this conversation for years. Just now we’re hearing that our city legal advisors have been incompetent. The incompetent leading the stupid (council). Just now they’re asking themselves questions like, was the settlement about the eight people named in the suit, or is every unhoused individual that shows up in town part of the “protected class” of litigants? They never asked that question in the beginning? Our $200,000+/year attorneys never asked that question?

We’ve been stuck in this mire since 2018, when Andrew Coolidge went with the liberals on council to sign the Shelter Crisis Designation. That agreement came with over $4 million, but it set us on a path that has led to millions more lost down the rabbit hole. Or let’s say, the mole hole. Council, including Coolidge and current mayor Kasey Reynolds, hired the attorneys who have misled them, and then none of them thought the logical thought – “shouldn’t I check with my own attorney to see if any of this shit is legal or makes sense? What is a ‘class’, anyway?” Even if any of them have had doubts about what any of our city attorney’s have told them, they didn’t have the balls to check into it, or even express their doubt.

The last person on council who asked the pointy questions was Kami Denlay.

Nowadays, it’s common for people to ignore court orders, even defy the orders of the President of the United States. Why didn’t our council refuse to go along with Judge England’s insanity? Because they were afraid, afraid in their little panties – Sean Morgan admitted that on his radio show. Afraid what the consequences would be for them personally. They didn’t give a shit what happened to our town.

While they diddled millions away on the lawsuit, and the not-so-clever game of Whack A Mole they’ve engaged in, they’ve left our streets and other infrastructure to go to rot. They’ve approved subdivisions in every directions, failing to address major infrastructural issues around the existing parts of town. Like the 150 year old sewer lines running under Downtown Chico, into the surrounding neighborhoods, and in one case, directly into Little Chico Creek.

Yes, the sewer line from Tin Roof Bakery was found to be dumping human waste into Little Chico Creek. That story came out because the breach was found by a Chico State class on a field trip. The city has known the sewer lines were a disaster for over 50 years, but nobody has had the guts to do anything about it. They went along spending money on jolly projects Downtown: a $4 million-plus plaza remodel that nobody wanted; lateral parking/no let’s make it parallel again/no let’s make it lateral again; Studebaker strips on the sidewalks, then tore them out to bulb the corners; most recently, “parklet” seating for bars and restaurants, along the very streets that will have to be torn completely out over the next 10 years. All paid for by the taxpayers, many of whom are still waiting for sidewalks, drainage and new sewer lines in their neighborhoods.

Why has the sewer job taken so long? Because instead of directly addressing the problem and applying for state and federal funding to help with the cost, city “stakeholders” have been engaging in a circular argument about turning the sewer job into a total remodel of Downtown Chico. Here, just a year ago, Addison Winslow addresses his happy-wanderer fantasy for a Downtown remodel.

People Always Ask Me, "How Is It Being on the Chico City Council?"
byu/addisonforchico inChicoCA

Meanwhile, city revenues are flat, two years into a full cent sales tax increase that was supposed to be the end-all of our problems. We’ve heard about businesses closing Downtown – look around the rest of town. Look at the city reports – sales tax revenues are DOWN, not up. How do sales tax revenues go down after a full cent increase?

City policies are driving shoppers away, that’s how. They keep telling us we don’t pay enough to have the kind of services that used to be what cities exist to do. How has this happened? Ask yourself – how have you voted? Have you voted?

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Thank you Doug LaMalfa, Hang In There Baby!

11 Aug

I watched the live-stream of the Doug LaMalfa “town hall” this morning while I was doing chores. I think I been traumatized. It was completely fucking nuts. These people have no interest in our community, they are more interested in tearing it down.

I’ll give it to LaMalfa, he was really hanging in there, answering questions, over a screaming mob of people that looked like extras from the filming of “Night of the Living Dead”. He plodded on, answering a question about The Big Beautiful Bill – not a question really, but an attempt to further the same misinformation coming out of the liberal media and the Democratic party. It’s like Groucho Marx asking you when you stopped beating your wife. When he was done he patiently asked for the next question. A woman stepped up to the podium, she seemed rational, but she just wasted her time with a snarky, self-serving diatribe about Donald Trump.

They don’t even think for themselves, they have to be fed by groups like ReSisters, a hate group based in Connecticut, on the writings of a very hateful and divisive man named Howard Zinn.

https://resistersct.org/take-action/power-of-one/

ReSisters promotes hatefulness and divisive behavior, for people who have no real stake in your community, just a jealous and zealous desire to destroy anything they can’t have for themselves.

I would have liked to hear more about forest clearance and fire prevention, improvements to the electrical grid and roads, and internet for rural areas. Unfortunately nobody asked rational questions. The meeting wore on, I finished my chores and turned off the phone. I’ll give Doug a 5 out of 10 for hanging in there, but I felt like the meeting was stolen by a bunch of outside agitators and people who have no real stake in our community. I don’t know what LaMalfa could have done to prevent that, but I hope he just keeps doing it. Somebody has to push back against the haters. That’s why I voted for him, and he’s doing the job I wanted him to do.

Where is the city getting the surplus funding to take the UAL down from $150 million to $92 million?

2 Aug

I hear people bitching about tariffs raising the cost of living. No, it’s the cost of government that is raising the cost of living, especially in California.

It’s tough keeping anything affordable in California, Chico is a particularly egregious example. If you shop in Chico, you are paying for bad management and self-service Downtown, and that’s getting expensive. According to the latest reports from City Mangler Mark Sorensen, Chico revenues are flat, while expenses continue to go through the roof.

As reported in the Enterprise Record in in May of this year, “The Chico City Manager’s office anticipates flat revenues for the upcoming fiscal year (ending June 2025) while facing rising expenses due to inflation. Revenue for the upcoming fiscal year is estimated to be no higher than the $100.6 million reported for the previous fiscal year. A significant portion of the city’s funding (52%) comes from sales tax, and statewide projections point to a slight decrease (1%) in the previous year’s sales tax revenue, with only slow growth anticipated for the following year.”

Revenues are flat? But they told us Measure H was a big success, that the millions were rolling in, that the new revenues were being used for all that roadwork around town. In reality, most of that work is paid for with state and federal funds, like the state gas tax, and Americans with Disabilities Act funding. Most of the money from Measure H is being funneled into increasing payments toward the pension deficit.

Here’s a city report from 2022 with the details.

https://chico.ca.us/documents/Departments/City-Manager/Better-Chico-%E2%80%93-Join-the-Conversation/copy_of_city_and_calpers_3-2022.pdf

This report is a must-read if you want to understand how the public pensions are funded, and by whom. What is the UAL, or pension deficit?

Unfunded accrued liability (UAL) is the difference between what the pension plan is worth [what has been paid into it through employer – the taxpayers – and employee contributions] and what is expected to pay retirees. It estimates for current employees and recipients of deferred benefits, as well as retirees. The UAL for the City is about $150,769,372. The City cannot use bankruptcy as a means of relieving this shifting burden.

This “burden” has been created by unrealistic contributions, and over-generous salaries and benefits. Instead of demanding higher contributions from employees and basing salaries somewhere in the realm of reality, city management has made contracts that do not take our current financial position into consideration. When they want money, they tell us we’re in the City of Dire Straights, but when they are dealing with the employee unions behind closed doors, the sky’s the limit.

What has the City done to reduce the cost of employee pensions? You tell me. Here’s what they’re saying, which is completely misleading.

Beginning in 2011-2012, the City began negotiating lower wages with staff and paused cost of living increases for most employees to reduce what the City pays for CalPERS. In 2013-14 the City required employees to start paying some of the “normal cost” of their pension. The “normal cost” is the actuarial amount determined that is used to pay for active employee pensions. In 2015-16 employees became increasing responsible for paying some of the City’s share of pension costs and are now paying from 7.5% to 16.75% of their wages. In the 2020-2021 fiscal year, employees paid $1,020,000 of retirement that was previously paid by the City.

Here’s what really happened. In 2011/12, city council, led by then-council member Mark Sorensen, hired a guy out of Southern California for the city manager post – Brian Nakamura. Nakamura was what I call “an assassin” – he was brought in to cut staff, brutally, and get rid of any employees who were not considered to be part of the game. Sure, he cut “some” salaries, but he raised the city manager’s salary by over $20,000, up to over $200,000 a year. Now Mark Sorensen, who hired Nakamura at that unprecedented salary, is making over $211,000/year.

Nakamura did inform the public of the UAL, and the fact that neither management employees nor public safety were paying anything toward their own pensions. But the contributions he suggested were ridiculously small, and have remained that way – 7.5% – 16.75% of their salaries? And they expect the taxpayers to pick up the rest – the UAL – with interest.

“Has the City done anything else to be proactive about pension reform?” No, but they went about guaranteeing that they will get their sweet pensions without ever having to pay any reasonable share of the cost.

“The City created a Section 115 Pension Stabilization Trust to pay for future pension costs of employees. As of 1/31/22 there is $2,707,773 in this irrevocable trust account to pay towards future pension costs.” Remember this part, later we’ll see just where they get the money.

This report shuffles along through the barnyard. “Are there any additional ways the City can explore reducing pension costs?” And here begins the Big Lie.

“The City has explored Pension Obligation Bonds, which would allow the City to sell bonds to pay pension debt at a lower interest rate” Again, a lie. A Pension Obligation bond does not reduce the cost of pensions, it just shifts the entire burden, permanently, onto the taxpayers.

What they are not telling us here is that what they tried to pull – instituting a POB without an election – is illegal. They aren’t telling us that Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association issued a Cease and Desist Order, threatening to sue the city of Chico for trying to institute an illegal tax.

This sounds like another chapter of Al Franken’s book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. That was a good read, until Franken himself became a politician and a lying liar. Oh well.

The report goes on to tell us about staff’s additional efforts to get us to pay their bills – “Additionally, staff continues to campaign for pension reform within California and has met with CalPERS executives and attended board meetings to ensure the City’s voice is heard on their desire for reform.” These are exactly the words late CARD manager Ann Willmann during her parcel tax campaign. It’s a campaign folks, run by the California League of Cities on behalf of their CalPERS addicted members.

And I’ll leave you with this little pack of threats – “Why can’t the city leave CalPERS?” This is how it cuts-and-pastes, but it’s all there, I don’t have time to fix it. A figure that really bothers me is the UAL they posted in this report, dated 2022 – $150,769,372. In 2023 they reported it was only $92 million? That’s another post, or you can figure it out for yourself. Paid down with “Surplus General Funds”? Where exactly would that come from?

  1. Why can’t the City leave CalPERS and create a new retirement system for employees?
    If the City were to leave CalPERS immediately, money in CalPERS accounts would be placed in a trust to pay
    current and future retirees. If the plan is only funded at 50%, payment to current/future retirees would be 50%
    of what employees had originally been promised. This would likely result in litigation for the City.
    If the City were to leave while paying retirees full benefits, a deposit would need to be made with CalPERS to
    cover existing/future retiree benefits. Funds would be placed in an “exit trust” that would be considered
    financially “safe” resulting in interest rates of 1-3%. This is opposed to the CalPERS rate of 7%. The amount of
    the “exit trust” is required to be 4-6 time the UAL. (current UAL is $150,769,372). The deposit must be much
    higher because the interest rate in the trust account is so much lower than CalPERS 7% rate. Once the City
    leaves CalPERS, employee unions will negotiate a new defined retirement contribution.

Hey Mister Sorensen – nice town you got there buddy! Time for Chico to make a change in management.

15 Jul

A shooting death at the “alternative” camp site – over dogs. A late-night attempted robbery at the pick up window of a local restaurant. A car crash and related fight and shooting at the Chico skate park. What the hell?

https://krcrtv.com/news/local/chico-man-not-charged-with-homicide-in-campground-shooting-claims-self-defense

There are too many things wrong with the above story to point out – but I will ask, why are these people allowed to have dogs, and guns? The story provided on Butte County Fires and Crimes describes a situation that shouldn’t even exist – an outdoor insane asylum, “sanctioned” by city of Chico “management“.

Also on Butte County Fires and Crimes Facebook, a man provided a video of an attempted robbery –

https://www.facebook.com/groups/butte.county.fires.accidents.crimes/

Chico crime is getting out of control. I was parked waiting for my food at Los Bestos Mexican Grill on Mangrove tonight when two men wearing ski mask came up to my car they kept saying to open my door possibly robbery luckily I was able to drive off.

Please watch out everyone this was on Mangrove Chico.

I’d say, just don’t go out at night, but it’s not just nighttime. The skateboard park on Humboldt is becoming a regular crime scene at any hour. A couple of bad guys who didn’t like each other turned what is supposed to be a kids’ playground into a meeting place for druggies and criminals – at 11 o’clock in the morning. The new park proposed for Marsh Junior is their admission that the old park is a failure. Well get rid of it!

Actually, I can think of two other things we need to get rid of – City Manager Mark Sorensen and his fist puppet Billy Aldridge. This is mismanagement. Can you believe we pay some these fellas over $200,000/year EACH in salary to “manage” our town? Plus benefits, and that is another problem.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/california-might-stop-making-necessary-debt-payments-2-years

Thanks to The Dude for this article from Zero Hedge – we’ve talked about OPEB before – Other Post Employment Benefits. This is the debt created by both employer and employees paying completely unrealistic shares toward very, very generous post-retirement medical benefits, leaving the rest to ride the market with CalPERS, and then left in a bag to be picked up by the taxpayers. Well, Newsom, up to his pointy ears in his own debt, has decided we should just stop paying it.

That’s so funny – hey, let’s all stop paying our mortgage, our car payments, our credit card bills, and see how fast we end up at the “Alternative Camp Site”.

When I voted for Trump, I knew he couldn’t do anything for California. It’s up to California voters. It’s up to Chico voters.

Oh, Jesus.

Infill makes sense, but sprawl makes $$$$$

11 Jul

Summer heat has set in and the fruit stands are up and running. Today my husband and I picked 12 pounds of peaches at one farm and grabbed a really nice melon at another. Melon is just starting, peaches will be over soon, so we go out regularly to stock up so I can freeze enough to get through winter.

It’s nice to live within proximity to farms, they don’t have this kind of produce in stores. We need to protect our farmlands, once they are developed for housing, they’re out of food production. It is backwards thinking to pave over land you can grow food on for housing to bring more people and more demand for food to your area. Water matters too, and the south east foothills are our watershed.

I live in what’s considered an old neighborhood in Chico, my house was built in the 1960’s. But in the 1950’s, the land was an almond orchard – there were still almond trees around the property when we bought it. There are/were properties around us of an acre or more, “ranchettes” subdivided out of the farm on which our house sits, but over the last 20 years, several of those have been developed into tiny housing subdivisions. This is “infill”. It makes sense since the neighborhood is no longer suitable for agriculture, and there are already streets, electric lines, and sewer lines present. Makes more sense than developing land that is not connected by infrastructure, like the proposed development known as “Valley’s Edge”. Valley’s Edge is the very definition of “sprawl”.

The sprawl vs infill argument is being led by developers, and shills such as Bill Brouhard and Tom VanOverbeek, as has been the entire development discussion, for years. Developers have a variety of reasons why they don’t want to build infill, but here’s the main reason – they can get sprawl land cheaper. They don’t want to pay people reasonable prices for their infill lots. And they don’t want to deal with the neighbors, because that might mean less money.

In our neighborhood, a developer paid a woman less than $200,000 for 1.9 acres of land, on which he built a seven house subdivision. Within four years, he sold the first house for over $650,000. That developer had been granted variances to the building code that would have allowed him to shove in ten huge houses rather than the five that would have been compatible with the neighborhood, at a higher density. The two story houses came right up to the back fences of their existing neighbors.

The neighbors protested and the subdivision was cut to seven houses, still incompatible with the neighborhood. They are shoved in so tight there’s no parking except garages (full of crap) and driveways (huge boats in front of two houses. So their extra cars and various visitors spill out onto the street in front of other peoples’ homes, putting a kink not only in neighborliness, but pedestrian and bicycle safety.

So I like infill, I really do, but it has to be done within the code and legal density of the existing neighborhood. And hey, how about a little fucking respect, okay? The developer instead went around our neighborhood taking pictures of our years old homes, pictures of “code violations” like an unmowed lawn, a taller than average milk weed growing next to somebody’s mail box, a guy’s trophy car on blocks in his driveway. They attacked us, for trying to get the city of Chico to respect the law and the city code, as well as neighbors who had been paying property taxes for nothing for years. That’s why people don’t like developers, they aren’t very nice, they seem to be set on taking advantage of other people to fatten their bottom line.

Given new state mandates for MORE HOUSING, people are no longer allowed to protest badly planned subdivisions in their town. Valley’s Edge is GO. So, I can only say, get your peaches while you have the chance, enjoy your lawn and shady trees and maybe that tiny tomato patch while you can.

Bidwell Park has literally become a cesspool

3 Jul

Last year we talked about a shigella outbreak that had been confirmed by Butte County Health Dept.

Shigella outbreak in Chico – UPDATE July 11 – “bacterial” outbreak reported at “sanctioned campground” on Eaton Road

A friend of ours had reported his own illness, and then we started hearing about other cases. The city admitted an outbreak at a “sanctioned” camp, but denied it was a public health problem. The county reported 44 cases by August, and it became apparent that this illness was making it’s way up the state by way of “unhoused individuals”. But the city of Chico still denied any problem and refused to do anything about it.

Shigella – it’s no hoax, but city management is in complete denial

From the Safe Drinking Water Foundation –

Shigellae may be more prevalent in surface waters, such as rivers, lakes and shallow wells, than in groundwater sources. Surface waters can be easily contaminated by sewage. Water treatment plants can remove Shigellae with the use of chlorine, so the bacteria are more prevalent in raw, untreated water. Shigellosis occurs more in the summer than in the winter. Communities that effectively treat sewage and keep water supplies safe drastically reduce the number of cases of shigellosis.

One Mile Pool should have been closed. As you read above, “shigellae” are hard to detect in surface water like creeks, and how would they treat the creek?

Chico officials say Sycamore Pool is safe

By October the city was still assuring the public that One Mile was being tested and cleaned regularly.

https://www.actionnewsnow.com/news/shigella-concerns-grow-at-sycamore-pool/article_a24b6442-56a6-11ef-b747-4300126e02a8.html

This year the city finally had to admit there’s a problem and close the pool after several children ended up at UC Davis hospital in Sacramento.

https://www.actionnewsnow.com/news/community-concerns-growing-over-safety-of-the-water-at-sycamore-pool-in-chico-due-to/article_1a41bc0c-7a81-43a0-ae14-6ec647f3a482.html

Now it’s e coli. These kids are in serious condition, with what could very well amount to life-long problems, for a swim in the park? But the city was still denying the situation could be linked to a bacteria problem at One Mile as of a week ago. Now they’ve posted a “no swimming advisory”, which I believe is all they need to do legally to keep from being sued any further. But I think it’s too late, I think these kids will have a conga-line of lawyers at their door.

https://marlerclark.com/news_events/chico-advises-no-swimming-at-sycamore-pool-high-bacteria-levels-reported

The city won’t admit that their laissez-faire camping policies have turned One Mile into a cesspool – ” container for the temporary storage of liquid waste and sewage.” It’s against the law, and always has been, to defecate or urinate within proximity of a stream or waterway. I remember when the police used to hand out tickets to Chico State students for public urination – now this?

Folks, you get what you’ll accept.

No wonder LAPD didn’t want the National Guard – $29 MILLION for police response, much of it overtime

22 Jun

I wonder what’s been happening in Los Angeles, because the media seems to have dropped that story. The Dude sent me this interesting piece a couple of days ago –

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/cost-restoring-order-los-angeles

“The Overtime Epidemic – The City of Los Angeles is no stranger to excessive overtime pay. Open the Books reported last year that 20 city employees earned at least $300,000 in overtime pay in 2023. That’s before even factoring in their base salaries.“

At last the dirty little secret is out in the open.

But overtime costs reached new heights in 2024, with the city spending a record $1.1 billion on extra hours. That’s enough money to pay off the city’s entire budget deficit. In overtime alone, five people earned more than the $400,000 salary we pay the President of the United States.

Oh yeah – how about Butte County? Here’s a post I did last fall when they were telling us they needed more sales tax money –

Hey Butte County, instead of threatening to cut my services if I don’t pay more sales tax, how about you answer this question – why does one sheriff staff sergeant more than double his regular pay – $114,848 – with $157,467 in overtime?

Another claim the city of Chico and the county of Butte are constantly making is that they are short of public safety employees. This next paragraph has played out in agendas from both the city and county over the past 5 years. Early retires (cops and fire are allowed to retire with their highest year’s salary at age 50) exacerbate the staff and budget shortages, followed by the usual poormouth claim that we need more money to pay more staff higher salaries. So (bust a snicker) we can “attract good candidates...”

Hey, that’s not working! Our public safety employees are still self-important entitled assholes who put their own safety ahead of the people they are supposed to serve. Now they’re OVERPAID self-important entitle assholes, and that just makes them bigger assholes. And, as explained in the next paragraph, it puts our city and our town, and our entire state, farther back in the financial shitter.

“A revenue pinch amid Covid lockdowns led to a spate of early retirements that have exacerbated the need for extra-hours pay. And as the Los Angeles Police Department faces rioting, the force’s ranks are at their smallest in two decades—but the payroll is still growing.“

Folks, that’s why they call them PIGS. Ever watched a pig eat? Well, right now, we’re watching our local law enforcement eat us out of house and home.

LA is screwed.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/los-angeles-taxpayers-foot-millions-peaceful-anti-ice-protests

The violent and destructive Los Angeles anti-ICE protests cost taxpayers $32 million, according to a report by the city budget chief.

Controller Kenneth Mejia posted the figures on X, detailing what the money from local taxpayers will be funding. City taxpayers are on the hook for emergency services, cleanup and public property damage, all stemming from the protests that turned into riots, according to Mejia’s post.

More than $29 million, or 92% of the cost, is for the Los Angeles Police Department’s response. Part of these funds will also cover the cost of the citywide tactical alerts.

No wonder LAPD didn’t want the National Guard!

This is happening where YOU live. Contact your city council and county reps and ask them just what the hell you have received in return.

AB 1383 reverses gains made by the Public Employees Pension Reform Act – even Jerry Brown doesn’t like it

12 Jun

Earlier this month, the city of Chico agreed to pay for extra cancer screening for Chico PD and Fire. The first thing I realized was, the city (the taxpayers) already provide these employees with health insurance, really nice insurance, better than the average taxpayer can afford. Not to mention, salaries of $100,000+/ year. But we also have to pay for extra cancer screenings?

Here I’ll ask, where’s the free screenings for those of us affected by the Park Fire? How come we treat these people like sacred cows while the rest of us struggle to pay for health care? Or just don’t get any?

The California budget is billions in deficit because of entitled, self-centered, GREEDY employees. Public safety employees get the best salaries and benefits while paying unrealistic shares toward these plush benefits. You ask them, how much can we give, and they always answer “MORE MORE MORE!”, threatening service cuts if they don’t get what they want.

The public employee unions have brought forward California Assembly Bill 1383, which essentially undoes the reforms created by PEPRA. The Public Employees Pension Reform Act of 2013 raised the age at which employees could retire and required public employees hired after 2013 to pay at least 50 percent of normal costs of their own benefits. It also prohibited public employers from paying any of the required employee contribution.

In past the city of Chico actually paid the entire cost of pensions for management and most of the cost for public safety. Meaning those employees – the highest paid – contributed NOTHING toward their generous benefits packages until 2013. That is a big reason why CalPERS continues to be drastically under-funded and why cities all over California are having budget crises and raising taxes. PEPRA was not quite as far as I’d like to have taken it, but at least it was something. AB 1383 puts us right back on the Road to Perdition.

https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab1383

PEPRA requires each retirement system that offers a defined benefit plan for safety members of the system to use one of 3 formulas for safety members, 2% at age 57, 2.5% at age 57, or 2.7% at age 57.

This bill(1383) would establish new retirement formulas, for employees first hired on or after January 1, 2026, as 2.5% at age 55, 2.7% at age 55, or 3% at age 55.

PEPRA requires all public employees to pay at least 50 percent of normal costs and prohibits public employers from paying any of the required employee contribution.

This bill(1383) would authorize an employer and employee, through the collective bargaining process, to agree to terms in a memorandum of understanding where the employer pays a portion of employee contribution.

Jerry Brown gave us PEPRA, so I was not so surprised to hear that he criticizes 1383 – thanks to The Dude for sending me this piece from Cal Matters.

Unions want to chip away at Jerry Brown’s pension law. He has something to say about that

Just an end note – neither police nor fire are listed on the top 10 most dangerous jobs in the United States. According to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports, loggers have a more chances of getting injured, even killed, than either police or fire. So do “roofers, fishing and hunting workers, construction helpers, aircraft pilots and flight engineers, truck drivers, refuse and recyclable material collectors, structural iron and steel workers, underground mining machine operators, and agricultural workers. ”

We’ll keep an eye on this one.

City of Chico spending Measure H money to tell us how great Measure H is? What?

9 Jun

I was looking at a friend’s Facebook page, when I saw a notification from the City of Chico Facebook – “City of Chico Celebrates second anniversary of Measure H”, insinuating that all that roadwork on the southeast end of town is being paid for with Measure H money. No, it’s not, it’s being paid for with state and federal grants of all kinds, as well as ADA money. Don’t take my word for it – read the budget yourself. It’s good for you, like cod liver oil. We also pay for the fulltime employee tasked with pumping out bullshit on the city Facebook page!

Click to access FY2024-25-Proposed-Budget-Presentation_FINAL.pdf

Type “pension” into the F-search and prepare to have your mind blown. You’ll see that they siphon the CalPERS “catch-up” payments out of every department fund, including the Measure H fund. This year the payment was over $18 million – that’s more than half of what they claimed they would receive from Measure H.

Measure H is in trouble. When I read the comments on the city’s posting I was glad to see that I’m not the only one who sees through the bullshit. Here’s a sampling, verbatim.

“Stop building new roads for developers and fix the potholes on the existing roads! Drive around Chico and see how many “invisible” crosswalks you see…”

“There was no reason to spend $24 million widening that seldom used road except to support Valleys Edge…” Yes, the developers should pay for work necessary to support their subdivisions, like all those new entryways poured into that field alongside Bruce. They also used Measure H money to resurface (NAME THE ROAD)

“They will be using some Home Depot asphalt going around in city trucks patching holes. I’ve seen 2 guys going around a couple weeks back and not even 2 days later the holes were back open…“

Actually, they typically use the leftover asphalt (“slobbers”) from the new roads they’re putting into new subdivisions and apartment complexes around town. They have to get the asphalt out of the truck before it gets hard, or it will screw up the equipment, so they dump it wherever they can. And then it’s all over passing cars, and the hole is back within a week.

“That $54m could go into fixing a lot of potholes around town. We are taxed to the bone and yet not one single improvement has been made. Roads are crap…”

“Want an itemized list of where the money is really going, millions of dollars were allocated for camp fire victims but spent on project in Chico.” ( NOTE: in the 2024-25 budget they are still listing victim’s fire fund money, claiming that the city was a victim because of evacuees, but that the money can’t be spent on regular budget items like streets or sewer – does that make sense?)

“can they show us the receipts? Id like to know EXACTLY where the money is spent.” (Look at the budget.)

“lol is this a joke it was suppose to go to increasing fire department and law enforcement – maybe have more than 3 jail sheriff at night” (here is some obvious confusion with county measure H – did they choose ‘H’ for both measures so there would be this kind of confusion? We’ll never know. )

One person suggests “let’s not piss it all away...” to which another answers, “they will“

I didn’t get every comment, but I sure as hell didn’t see any positive comments about the way the city is spending Measure H money. Looks like Chico citizens have next to no faith or trust in their city “leaders”. And yeah, I looked at the commenters’ facebook pages – this is a pretty cross-cut section of Chicoans, from working class people who are having serious problems trying to pay their bills, to well-heeled people who have to drive their nice cars over shredded streets to woke idiots who just hate the “conservatives” no matter what they do. People are PISSED OFF.

And city staff obviously feels the heat. This is the reason for those fucking insulting signs – “Thank you Chico Voters!” “Your measure H dollars at work”. That’s a lie, and you can see it in the budget. This is why the city has resorted to, again, spending taxpayer dollars to sell a tax measure to the taxpayers.

Don’t eat shit, demand better. You get what you will accept.

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