“There’s no question that the massive shutdown in much of the state’s economy, ordered by Gov. Gavin Newsom to battle the pandemic, made things worse for the millions of Californians already feeling economic distress.“
Yes, the shutdown, not COVID, has been the main source of our miseries in California. In Newsom’s California, the rich got richer, and the poor got poorer.
“While most workers in upper-income brackets could adjust by continuing to work from home, Californians in low-wage service sectors such as hotels and restaurants saw their jobs disappear.“
California has the highest gas tax in the nation – although, sometimes Pennsylvania edges us by a percentage of a cent. Ironically, both Pennsylvania and California are listed in the bottom 10 as far as roads go. Of course the price of gas affects everything.
“Overall, living costs in California and the four other Pacific Rim states are up 8.2% in the last two years, driven by especially sharp jumps in the costs of food, energy and automobile fuel, PPIC calculated.“
And not necessarily in that order – the price of gas drives up the cost of food and all other commodities. And they’ve admitted, as we buy more, they raise the prices, so it’s obviously manipulated with the blessing of the government. Think ENRON SCANDAL.
What is the city of Chico doing to help the poor? Well, at present they sit in closed meetings discussing tax increases. The Finance Committee meeting at which they discussed their plans to raise sewer fees via such schemes as a “volume tax” or lease/sales of the sewer plant was closed to the public, as admitted by the clerk. The rest of the meeting was continued to a special meeting scheduled for this coming Monday (1/31/22). They held their discussion of the Community Grant Block Funding awards, but went right ahead and discussed the sewer taxes in a closed meeting. I can’t believe people don’t see that as a blatant move to keep us from knowing what is actually going on with city finances.
Here’s a blast from the past – an article from the Humboldt Times Standard, about a 2011 sewer increase – 22%. Read the article – it sounds like the city didn’t really inform the public, and people were not aware that they could protest the rate hike formally.
Reading various local news sources, I see Chico PD are attempting to convince us that they are taking a “tough stance” on crime. A recent special tax force on retail robberies has made the news. A patient observer has to ask, “Just now? Now that the city is pursuing a sales tax measure?”
We’ve sat through 5 years of a growing anarchy in our town, a madness has swept the streets while city management have sat by wringing their hands. For years they claimed they couldn’t arrest people caught with stolen merchandise, caught in the act of shoplifting, caught in people’s homes in the middle of the night. City Public Works Director Eric Gustafson told me people who illegally camp in Bidwell Park have “4th and 14th amendment rights”. And they told us the jail won’t hold them. Now they are all the sudden going to switch gears? I smell something wrong here.
Dan Walters oftentimes seems to be thinking what I’m thinking. He sees this as a statewide pattern, coming straight from the stinking head of the stinking fish, Gavin Newsom.
“It is amusing — and a little pathetic — to see California’s liberal politicians slide to the right in response to an upsurge in crime.
Gov. Gavin Newsom is leading the unsubtle rhetorical shift from criminal justice reform —i.e. reducing punishment for those who transgress — to demanding crackdowns on criminals”
As in Chico, they are responding to crime sprees reported during the holiday shopping season – the old “smash and grab”. In Chico it was more like simple looting, the perpetrators simply filled their bags with merchandise as helpless employees cowered nearby.
No, this doesn’t look good to customers, who broke new records this year for online shopping. According to CNBC and other sources, many Americans just “sat out” the shopping season this year, and over 60% of consumers did their Christmas shopping online in 2021.
Apparently, this freaked out both Newsom and the mayor of San Francisco.
A week before Christmas, with retail stores seeing a wave of smash-and–grab robberies and cities reeling from record levels of homicide, Newsom unveiled what he called a “Real Public Safety Plan” that “focuses on new investments that will bolster local law enforcement response, ensure prosecutors hold perpetrators accountable and get guns and drugs off our streets.”
“A few days before his announcement, San Francisco Mayor London Breed did a two-step of her own. Clearly worried that the wave of store invasion robberies would discourage tourists and Christmas shoppers, Breed pledged to end “the reign of criminals who are destroying our city” by becoming “less tolerant” of what she called “bullsh*t.” Breed also declared a state of emergency in the city’s Tenderloin district due to surging street crime.“
And the city of Chico is worried too. Worried that they won’t be able to pass their sales tax increase measure! So, just look at the news – suddenly Chico PD is ENFORCING THE LAW!
Compare their current attitude to that of a year ago. While Chief Mike Madden refused to arrest transients for camping in the park, breaking into homes, or harassing business owners and customers, he personally threatened three women with imprisonment for attending a city council meeting.
So, let’s ask ourselves, what’s behind this new attitude? Yeah, they want their sales tax increase, so they can put more of OUR money toward THEIR pension deficit.
In the early 2000’s, the phone company came through our mid-Chico neighborhood, replacing the phone lines. They were out there for about two weeks, our service was interrupted, and we were able to chat with them about what was going on. The senior technician told me, “people all over this town are paying for internet, but they’re not getting it.” He said the phone lines were over 50 years old, and starting to crumble. He said we were lucky to get phone service.
Well, now that he had mentioned it, we realized – since we had moved into that house in 2001, we’d immediately found that we got better reception for our phone in the front yard. We also noticed that many of our neighbors would stand in their front yards, talking on their cell phones. It was an “a-HA!” moment.
We were new to internet, it hadn’t occurred to us – our internet would be out for days at a time, and we just figured that was par for the course.
Here we are, 2022, and it hasn’t changed much. We have better phone service, but our internet is still sketchy, we’ve had to learn to turn devices on and off to reconnect. I found out how weak it really is when I tried to participate in Zoom meetings after the city closed meetings to the public in 2020. I just couldn’t get into the meetings a lot of the time, and while staff was sympathetic, they couldn’t help me – they don’t run the internet.
When I tried to “attend” a Finance Committee meeting last year, I was unable to get in. I called the clerk on my phone as instructed, but neither she nor the IT guy could get me in. When they informed committee members via email (which is funny, they could get my emails but I couldn’t get into the meeting), Randall Stone was the only member who seemed concerned. Meanwhile, Sean Morgan observed, “she must have poor internet...” – as if that was my fault?
Fast forward to Mark Orme’s scheme to sell us internet service. Orme is planning to use COVID relief money to get into the internet business – $4.8 million – telling us he can offer it at a more affordable rate. While I don’t understand the mechanics of this proposal, it’s very clear – staff and council know we don’t all have equal access, but they keep closing the meetings and telling us we can “participate” via Zoom.
According to the city’s consultant ($$$$), there’s not only gaps in service, it’s based on how much you can pay. So they are shutting out people who could least afford all the taxes they are bringing up in their closed meetings.
“There are gaps in affordability in Chico and there are gaps in service availability meaning that it is not ubiquitous. There are different pricings and different availabilities in different areas of town based on the infrastructure available,” said EntryPoint Networks Solution Services Director Bruce Patterson.
That’s right, “based on the infrastructure available…” So yes, we’ve been paying for service we don’t get, and with Staff’s knowledge.
Patterson says the average person pays per megabit is around 70 cents but says he’s seen cities using this same model that people pay as little as 3 cents per megabit.
And here finance director Scott Dowell admits those of us who don’t have good internet are “at a disadvantage…” This isn’t what they said when I was struggling to get into that meeting.
“You are at a disadvantage if you do not have a speedy, reliable internet service. We’re almost shifting theconcept that, shouldn’t we treat internet service as a utility that everyone should have access to at a reasonable price?” says Dowell during a phone interview with KRCR Tuesday morning.
I’m fed up with the closed meetings. When I complained to my district rep, Kasey Reynolds, she just shrugged it off. “We discussed meetings last night, we will be having the next two by zoom (while the Governor has indoor mask mandate still) then returning to in person meetings. Trust me I would rather be in person too i hate zoom!“
She has obviously heard the consultant’s report regarding the state of our internet infrastructure and service, but she unapologetically tells me that meetings will remain closed for another month, while they put the tax measure on the ballot. Having hired a consultant with taxpayer money already, in closed meetings. I’d like to see the screen door bust her right across the ass next November, but I don’t have the money to run against her, I’m hoping some good candidate will step forward. We’ll see.
So I did what I usually do, I wrote a letter to the editor.
As the city of Chico uses taxpayer money to pursue a sales tax increase measure, discusses a consumption-based sewer tax, and anticipates a state-wide rental tax, they continue to work in meetings closed to the public. Staff and council claim the meetings are available on Zoom, even while acknowledging that internet service in Chico is not equitable.
According to the city’s consultant, “There are gaps in affordability in Chico and there are gaps in service availability meaning that it is not ubiquitous… based on the infrastructure available.”
When I tried to participate in a morning Finance Committee meeting via Zoom last year, Imade it clear to Staff and committee members that I was not able to sign into the meeting, it kept cutting out. Sean Morgan observed, “she must have poor internet.” But the meeting went on anyway.
Council and Staff are well aware that Chicoans do not have equal access to internet, but they continue to close meetings to the public. Furthermore, committee meetings, even though it is possible, are not recorded for further viewing. When one member of the public asked about this, the clerk informed him that is not required. That is council’s decision.
Furthermore, council and committee members are allowed to review and redact anything they do not want in the minutes, keeping the minutes held up for months at a time.
“Taxation without representation – the quandary of a populace that is required by law to paytaxes but has no say in the matter.“
I was cleaning my computer files and found this report from a January 2018 Council agenda. I’ve contacted Jamie Cannon in the city Human Resouces Department and asked her to direct me to a more recent report with current figures, I’ll post any response I get from her.
This is an old report but it shows how the city’s (taxpayers’) contribution GOES UP AUTOMATICALLY EVERY YEAR, with no input from the taxpayers, while any increase in employee share has to be bargained and approved by the employees.
This report also shows that we pay ALL OF THE UNFUNDED LIABILITY, WHICH MEANS, WE’RE PAYING MORE SHARE THAN IS REPORTED IN THE “REGULAR” PAYMENTS. They don’t include the UAL when they figure shares, they exclude it and just leave the taxpayers to pick it up. The whooooooole thing!
Tomorrow night council will consider asking employees to pay part of the city’s payroll share – 3 – 6%. But no mention of what a consultant told the Finance Committee in September 2020 – “each year the city makes two types of payments to CalPERS – the ‘normal cost’ or ‘payroll’, and the ‘extra’ payments toward the Unfunded Actuarial Liability (UAL)…”
Look at the city’s share of the cost, and compare it to the employee shares, and then join me in demanding that the employees pay not only bigger shares toward the payroll share but pay the same share of the UAL.
I hate to discuss COVID or the mandates because it attracts the biggest creeps to my website, and it’s cost me at least a few regular readers. But I had to post this article by Robert F. Kennedy, son and nephew of two of the biggest Democrats of all time, criticizing the mandates.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.: I’m going to tell you these three things that you need to remember in this critical day and age. 1.) Once government acquires a power, it never lets it go voluntarily. 2.) Every power that government acquires, using this pandemic as a pretense, it will ultimately abuse to the maximum effect possible. This is a rule that is as certain as gravity. 3.) Nobody has ever complied their way out of totalitarianism. Every time you comply the demands will get greater and greater.
Let me repeat, a Democrat said this. That surprises me, and gives me some hope of a sane resolution to all of this, because throughout the COVID scam, this country has gone completely partisan. Democrats have been expected to follow the party line, and they’ve been absolutely fascist about it. And if they haven’t stepped up, their creepy fascist friends have subjected them to public humiliation. Suddenly, here’s a Democrat whose family has been held up as liberal icons for my entire life, telling us the Democrats are WRONG.
First of all, what he says is historically true. Look at what 911 did to our rights – you can’t fly on an airplane, or even go into an airport without a special ID. AKA “papers”. Now you have to show papers to go to a restaurant or a movie theater.
Kennedy is right, “We need to resolve here and now that this is the hill we need to die on. ” And the Democrats know he’s right too, because they’ve launched a full-on attack on the long-time entrenched Democrat.
Attacks on Kennedy because he and his wife don’t see eye-to-eye on the issue, articles accusing Kennedy of “propagandism”, etc. What surprised me, were the tabloid style articles coming from longtime media standards like US News, AP, and the LA Times. This is just a hysterical tar-and-feathers party.
I don’t take partisan stands. If the government is wrong, Republican or Democrat, it’s wrong.
At last, a somewhat more objective piece on the Chico sales tax measure council is working to place on the ballot (Spring ’22?) Of course it’s from the Redding news station.
The reporter didn’t go to a Chico city Staffer, they didn’t just stop some half drunk dooffass on the street, they went to the Chico Chamber of Commerce. Why is that important? First of all, the Chamber represents businesses all over town who will be affected by this increase. And, under past director Katie Simmons, goaded on by members Tom Lando and Marc Francis, they not only endorsed a sales tax increase but made an analysis of exactly where the money should go. In their January 2018 “Special Report,” the chamber recommended “$3 million for Chico PD, $90 million for roads, and $130 million for pensions…”
Here’s the blog post I wrote about it, but the report is no longer available at that link.
What the chamber describes is a “special” tax requiring 2/3’s approval by the voters.
Yes, the Chamber was describing a “special” tax. Then Katie Simmons left to become the disaster relief coordinator in Paradise. Things have changed at the Chamber, under interim director and local businessman Mark Chrisman. While I get the idea Chrisman believes the city needs to put a sales tax increase on the ballot, he’d be more inclined to support a special tax.
“First of all, it’s a general sales tax, not a special sales tax. The general tax goes into the general fund which means it’s at the hands of the city council, how they want to spend the money,” says Chrisman during a phone interview with KRCR Wednesday. “There are two sides to this coin. There’s the consumer side paying the 1%, but then there’s the other side: how are those funds going to be used?”
Good questions, citizen Chrisman. A general tax can be spent on anything, and judging from the conversation at that May 2021 Finance Committee meeting, it’s going to the pensions.
The city of Chico knows they can’t get 2/3’s approval. At that May 2021 Finance Committee meeting, Sean Morgan made it clear he does not want to pursue a special tax. Since this meeting was closed to the public, available only on Zoom, I’ll have to quote the minutes:
“Mayor Coolidge stated we should include parks. Chair Morgan stated that if we say parks, police, and fire, that’s a special tax.”
Morgan also asked staff to look into a Transient Occupancy, or Bed Tax increase. He and Coolidge also want bond(s) attached to the tax, and Morgan wants a Pension Obligation Bond. That’s so funny, because in his preceeding report, Manager Orme denies any such desire.
“We keep hearing this is going to pensions and that is a false argument to be had.” A false argument? Really? Keep reading. Remember, these are the minutes as transcribed by the clerk and approved by every member of the committee and the city manager before they were posted.
“Chair Morgan asked if staff could bring a recommendation to Council that includes a potential sales tax, show the difference in revenue based upon a half or one cent tax, and he is not opposed to a TOT increase as long as it’s not crazy. The POB was before mass inflation and the rates have changed. He suggested using a pie chart that shows how this would all flow together.“
Services Director Scott Dowell was glad to oblige. “Director Dowell stated we’ll need more than $50 million, the City would need more like $100 million to pull that off. If we move forward on the pension obligation bonds, how will one affect the other?“
So there they were, plotting to convince us that the revenue increase would go toward infrastructure and public safety, all the while intending to use the revenues to secure a Pension Obligation Bond. The committee directed Staff to bring back another report answering those questions at either the July or August meeting. Both were closed to the public, available only on Zoom. When I tried to participate in a Zoom meeting, my computer cut out constantly, and despite messages and phone calls to the clerk asking for help, the meeting continued without me. That’s how much they care about “transparency”.
When the POB came before council, little Kami Denlay informed the group that it’s illegal to foist a tax, including a bond, without the consent of the voters. The rest of council ignored her. Fortunately I wasn’t the only member of the community that was watching, and I wasn’t the only person who reported council and Staff’s intentions to the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. HJTA immediately responded with a Cease and Desist order, meaning, if the city moved forward, they would sue.
The city’s response was to pull all discussions regarding the POB from the public. Meanwhile, I am still waiting for the clerk to post the minutes for the subsequent Finance Committee meetings. Yeah, that’s right, closed meetings, minutes over 6 months behind. Want to know why? Because there’s really only one staffer who transcribes ALL the minutes, for every meeting. And then she has to have then approved by every member of whichever council, committee, commission or task force, and let then redact, or remove, any comment they made that they don’t want the public to see. In fact, you see nobody is quoted completely, you get the clerk’s summary of what was said. They list members of the public who address the group, but not what they say. In fact, Dave complained that the Zoom videos were not made available for the public, and the clerk simply responded that she is not legally required to do so! I heard that exchange, but it was not included in the minutes.
Knowing fully well there is a back log (there have been lawsuits over lack of minutes), you’d think Orme would hire more employees for the clerk’s office. Instead, he gave Clerk Debbie Presson a raise and then hired $100,000+ “Public Information Officer” Linda Gizzy. If you study up on the duties of the “clerk of the record,” you’ll find, she’s supposed to be our Public Information Officer. She’s supposed to insure that the people have all the information, instead, it looks like she’s doing just the opposite.
So I wrote to the clerk, asking her when the minutes would be available. I’ve been enjoying a somewhat friendly relationship with the clerk’s office, but I sure as hell haven’t had a response to that inquiry. So much for Sunshine! Oh yeah, Orme talked about that too, let me know if you agree:
“City Manager Mark Orme stated because of due diligence of staff and the policy makers, we now have more transparency and trust of the public.“
UPDATE: I never got any response from Chrisman or anybody from the Chamber, so I’m going to throw out a guess – they’ll endorse it. The chamber is partially funded by the city of Chico, they get 10’s of thousands of dollars toward their CEO salary, so I doubt they will rock the boat. Sheesh, I hope they surprise me!
REVENUE MEASURE STRATEGY CONSULTANT City staff released a Request for Proposals (RFP) to obtain submissions from qualified firms to advise on developing appropriate ballot language for a proposed one (1) percent sales tax measure to appear on the November 2022 general election. The RFP further requested the consultant assist on educating voters on the revenue measure and on developing materials and conducting outreach efforts to ensure citizens receive objective and accurate information related to the revenue ballot measure. (Report – Mark Orme, City Manager)
Recommendation: The City Manager is requesting authorization to enter into a professional services agreement with CliffordMoss to develop appropriate ballot language and create materials and outreach efforts to ensure citizens receive objective and accurate information related to the November 2022 revenue ballot measure.
But the meeting is closed for the COVID shut down. The best way to contact these people is in their mailbox. Find that here:
PG&E has not been doing the work they were ordered to do after the Camp Fire
This sentence is confusing: “The company also noted that the monitor does not suspect that the company’s leaders are honest in their efforts to rectify the situation.“
If the monitor suspects the company is being dishonest, I agree. We have a property east of town, and we’ve had three different contractors from PG&E evaluate and mark trees on and adjacent to our property since the Camp Fire, asking us to open our gate so they can come in and cut the trees. We’ve showed up on the appointed day, left the gate open all day, and nobody has ever showed up. Same goes for trees marked by the same contractors all up and down the roads around our property, trees they could have taken at any time without asking for anybody to open a gate.
I sent pictures to Mike Wolcott and his former star reporter Natalie Hansen, and they never even responded, even though Hansen was doing a fluff piece on the subject.
Reading through this article, it doesn’t look like anybody is taking this too seriously, including the judge that ordered the work. So, this summer, we lost Greenville, and we almost lost Chester. Whole towns that have been inhabited by generations of tax and rate-paying citizens, just GONE.
It’s the same old story – the outrage isn’t big enough yet. How many more towns will they burn before people really get mad?
I happened to read the ER the other day, when Mike Wolcott ran a swishy push piece about Chico City Manager Mark Orme. I’ll tell you what – Orme has been hearing his own name around town lately, and not just from me, and it’s pissing him off. So he called Wolcott, who is a stooge, and asked him, could he write something nice, and oh yeah, don’t forget to mention the tax measure…
“November 2022 may seem like a long time away, but there is a lot going on in the city of Chico government right now. A city tax is currently being planned to be on the ballet next year. Meet the person in charge of running the city of Chico day-to-day: Mark Orme.“
This is called “rebranding,” or changing a bad reputation to a good reputation. I learned about this tactic watching the various consultants who have conga-lined through the city of Chico and Chico Area Recreation District. If there were polls on city leadership, Orme’s ratings would be dropping about as fast as Joe Biden’s. Let’s face it – look around you, and ask yourself, how much has the city deteriorated since Orme rode into town in 2013? How much have the pensions gone up? How come Orme got a 457 Plan (special 401K for public workers)?
Somebody had to answer this obvious push piece, so I wrote a letter to the ER. It’s time to push back, and keep pushing, until Orme gets the message – GET OUT!
Chico City manager Mark Orme is correct, the state’s CalPERS program is dysfunctional and puts a strain on the city’s finances. It’s frustrating that the only solution Orme offers is raise taxes.
How about opting out of CalPERS? According to CalPERS, someone would need to acceptresponsibility “for sufficient funding to continue paying the retirement and death benefits paid and for future benefits”. If employees would agree to pay their own pension deficit, take more rational pensions, and pay more reasonable shares of the cost, we could all be done with CalPERS.
Employees pay 9-15% for pensions of 70-90% of salary, creating the deficit. Just look at the math. But, employees do not pay toward the deficit – the taxpayers are left on the hook for an increasing amount every year. Last year Staff directed $11.5 million from city infrastructure and services toward “extra” payments to CalPERS. If they won’t agree to ditch CalPERS, why not ask employees to share in the “extra” payments?
According to Transparent California, Mark Orme’s personal pension deficit is about $70,000. At a base salary of $207,000/year, Orme could easily afford to pay his own pension deficit and more than his current 9% share.
The ER reporter forgot to ask Orme why he didn’t recommend a 2/3’s ballot measure – here’s why – a simple majority measure isn’t restricted to public safety, streets or fixing the sewer plant. The additional revenues would most certainly disappear down the pension hole.
If you are unhappy with the current leadership and direction of the city of Chico, remember this – city councils come and go, but the city manager stays in place, making the same recommendations no matter who’s on the dais. Write your letters to council, the paper, let them know how you feel about Orme’s tax measure.
NOTE: Here’s a union mouthpiece from Glenn County who decided to chime in on Newsbreak App:
Jeremy Lazarus16h ago – This writer knows nothing about PERS or the City’s budget. The current pensions are absolute trash and account for a very small amount of yearly budget. If employees are expecting to pay more without a wage increase then it is no longer a benefit and no longer a desirable job. I suppose you’d prefer unqualified workers responsible for the City’s infrastructure.
This is what I’m up against trying to shed some light on city operations and the pensions. As soon as you go up against a tax measure you find yourself up against the unions. When we opposed Measure A, the CARD parcel tax, we were fighting Chico Police Officers Association and the Service Employees International Union, the two biggest public workers unions in town. They put over $60,000 into pushing Measure A, because they knew it was intended to pay down CARD’s pension deficit, and whatever is good for CalPERS, is good for the unions. We beat their asses, sent them crying home to their mamas. And I’m ready to do it again, how about you?
Fighting a lying machine like Mark Orme is tough. You know what they say – liars never sleep. Over the last few days, we’ve been hearing about a group of Chico Public Works employees who went before council the other night to expose the disparity of pay in the PW Department. I’ve always noticed that the lower-level workers get paid squat compared to management. Here’s the story from Action News in Chico:
CHICO, Calif. – Dozens of City of Chico Public Works employees were at the City Council meeting tonight sharing their concern with low wages and lack of workers to the council.
The story quotes one senior worker who makes the usual complaints about losing employees and difficulty in recruiting due to low wages. We’ve all seen the result – just drive around town. So I looked at the secty of state’s website, publicpay.gov, as well as Transparent California. Both sites depend on information given by the agencies, and most agencies aren’t too anxious to hand over this information. So you see some discrepancies, mostly due to how they list the figures. Let’s take a look at Erik Gustafson, who is listed under “Operations and Maintenance Director”, or by his original title, “Public Works Director”.
On both sites you’ll see that his salary has gone up every year. Contrary to claims made by City Manager Mark Orme. In an interview with Chico Enterprise Record, Orme claimed city employees haven’t had raises for years.
Look at those two sites – they have slightly different figures, but both show a steady increase. According to TC, Gustafson’s salary has gone up every year, from total pay (which includes overtime and holiday pay but not benefits) of $132,623.06 in 2016, to total pay of $144,482.54 in 2019. Public Pay lists his 2020 salary at $147,925.
But look at the “workers” salaries. You need a name to search TC, but here’s the page from publicpay.gov that shows the disparity.
Three “supervisors” in the $90,000 range, then a sudden drop to $68,000/year for the highestpaid “senior worker”. Also note the disparity in the benefits packages – hey, guess what, management pays the least contribution at 9% of cost. You also see another problem with Chico – top-heavy management. Two managers? One of those positions was just created by Orme earlier this year. Both making in excess of $100,000 to sit in the office buffing their fingernails? While the guys who drive the heavy equipment and man the shovels are living on less than $70,000/year? In Chico? No. I wasn’t surprised to hear their union rep say they can’t even afford to live in town.
So here’s the rest of that piece from Chico Action News. There’s another article in the ER, linked above. I wish the workers would point out what I just pointed out, but you know, they’re afraid to push too hard, might get fired. But Orme is obviously trying to use workers’ complaints to insinuate that the taxpayers are the problem. I wouldn’t be surprised if Orme is behind this grandstanding. Don’t buy it.
“Ultimately, we wanted to point out to them that we have a serious situation with our wages and we’re trying to gain their support and trying to do that through educating them on what we do and what we bring to the city, what we bring to the table. Hopefully they got the message,” said senior maintenance worker James Erven.
Erven tells Action News Now they have lost 12 people in the last four years to higher paying jobs and have several people who are constantly looking for new positions.
“We have positions that starting wage is beneath minimum wage, that’s a problem. We have a hard time recruiting qualified candidates,” said Erven.
There was not an agenda item topic regarding this issue, but public works employees shared these issues to the council during the business on the floor portion of the meeting.
Three employees shared their concerns, then they all left the meeting. City Council heard their concerns. Our reporter reached out to council members, but was unable to get a statement from them regarding these issues.
The area director for the union representing public works, Del Mallory tells me these employees have not received a pay raise in 11 – 12 years and several can’t afford to live in the city. He says they are finally putting their foot down and addressing this issue.
“We finally reached this breaking point where folks are fed up and they’re ready to fight. That’s why we’re here because we need to engage our city council into this conversation so they know that we’re serious and that we need them to bargain with us in good faith,” said Mallory.
He says their next bargaining meeting is tomorrow, and that they are determined to get what they need.
“We will bargain with the intent to get a deal, but we are willing to do whatever it takes to get a good deal,” said Mallory.
City Council also directed the City Attorney’s Office to analyze the cannabis ordinance, so they can revisit the topic in a future meeting. The council was also introduced to ARDA Demographics tonight as their representative said there will be two public hearings regarding redistricting before any maps are created.
Chico Taxpayers Association 