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Recent History: how soon Council would like us to forget their illegal attempt at a Pension Obligation Bond

9 Nov

A reader sent me this Action News Chico article from last April, thank you. This is fun to read, because it’s all turned out to be a pack of lies. Since this article was written, the city of Chico was threatened with a lawsuit from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, which forced them to drop their illegal Pension Obligation Bond. A bond is a tax, and it’s illegal to institute a new tax without the consent of the voters.

But no mention of that dilemma from the media – “At its meeting Monday, the council directed city staff to initiate a court validation process which is required in order for the city to issue pension obligation bonds in the future.” As if it’s perfectly okay.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.actionnewsnow.com/templates/AMP%3fcontentID=574295841

There are a lot of clues in this article. First of all, Sean Morgan points directly at the pension deficit as the city’s main problem. He also admits that CalPERS “has invested poorly” and they “need you to contribute more.” Who does he mean by “you,” is the question.

City of Chico exploring new options to cut the threat of possible bankruptcy

As pension debt grows, the city is looking at considering at least one pension bond. This could potentially help the city refinance its outstanding debt.Posted: Apr 27, 2021 5:56 PMUpdated: Apr 27, 2021 5:56 PMPosted By: Dani Masten 

CHICO, Calif.– The City of Chico has been working with CalPERS, the pension government program for many years.

Councilmember Sean Morgan said he believes the program has invested poorly over the past year and now the city is feeling the consequences.

“What they do when they do bad investing is they go back to the municipalities and say we don’t have enough money, we need you to contribute more,” said Morgan.

The city has $150 million of unfunded pension liability. This includes an increase of $51 million over seven years with payments at $9 million yearly, which could reach over $14 million by 2030.

“So we have $150 million of unfunded pension liability,” said Morgan. “That is how much the whole is. Now, we have to pay CalPERS 7%.”

There it is – we – no mention of raising the employee share. They raised the shares for public safety members last week, but only after giving them a raise bigger than their new shares.

Right now, the city said it is trying to get a bond to cover the pensions they have stacked up. If they are able to get the bond, the city claims it will be able to repair roads in Chico and Chico Fire will be able to hire more firefighters.

Enter Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association with their Cease and Desist Order, which is not a legal binder in itself, as Rob Berry claims, but threat of a lawsuit if the city proceeded. The city wisely realized they couldn’t afford a lawsuit and pulled their request for court validation.

The following comments from Morgan are total BS. This guy is no financial wizard, it’s all over his head, but he tries to pretend he understands it.

“It takes that $150 million and you can re-finance that over here, issue a bond and pay somewhere between three and four and a half percent on it,” said Morgan.

What a huckster. He should try out for the next local production of “The Music Man”. He can’t guarantee the interest rate – have you watched the market lately? And he’s forgetting – the bond has to be paid back AHEAD OF EVERY OTHER EXPENSE BEFORE THE CITY. If the bond does poorly on the market (and why would Morgan think they can make better investments than CalPERS?), the city would have to dip into the General Fund to pay the service on the bond. The consultants said other cities had laid off public safety personnel when their investments tanked, and paid the service out of their General Fund and other city funds, like sewer and streets.

The next paragraph shows that the average voter is aware of the problems we’re facing, but easily fooled by council’s insinuation that the tax/bond money would go toward public services. And the press does nothing to inform them otherwise.

Some people in Chico were happy to hear the city is working to find a way to pay off its debt while still being able to care for the community.

“Yea, I think a bond would be helpful,” said Chico resident, Jeff Boone. “We got a lot of infrastructures that need help around here.”

“The roads in Chico need to be repaired because every time I go down a certain road it is all bumpy and messed up,” said Chico resident, Markus Boone.

And here Morgan tries to tell us, but not really, that the bond will “help the city with it’s cash flow to help fix the roads…” What is that? Sounds pretty non-commital to me, just like they told us they’d use the Garbage Tax proceeds to “fix the roads…” That’s their bullshit mantra, “we’ll fix the roads...”

Morgan said this bond will help the city with its cash flow to help fix roads in Chico short–term.

And the rest is history.

At its meeting Monday, the council directed city staff to initiate a court validation process which is required in order for the city to issue pension obligation bonds in the future.

Directed Staff to take an illegal action toward stealing money from the taxpayers to feather the nests of people who make 3, 4, 5 times the median income.

Hey, you want to hear something even funnier – stay tuned.

And now it gets ridiculous

6 Nov

https://www.actionnewsnow.com/content/news/Two-Chico-councilmembers-issued-recall-notices-in-one-week-group-behind-it-explains-why-575679461.html

If “Chico Voters” were really concerned with fiscal responsibility, they would join us in beating the onerous and regressive sales tax increase proposed by the full council. The group states, they have concerns about every council member. Really? Alex Brown voted for the tax increase, but I don’t think they will be confronting her in her office at Chico State. The early statements the recall proponents made about the skating rink being bad for the environment came right out of Brown’s mouth.

Brown is up for reelection in a year. Think she’s scared? I think this is her desperate attempt at a bid for reelection.

We’ll have to see how this circus plays out. As much disgust as I feel toward Morgan and Coolidge, I would not support either recall – it’s just money down the drain. And it’s duplicitous, no matter what Chico Voters says, it’s a power grab.

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While there are reasons I’d like to recall Andrew Coolidge, this recall looks like a hoax

5 Nov

I saw a story on KRCR News about the Coolidge recall that answered my suspicions about the motives behind this action – a “Chico resident” who admits “the best way to break the cabal that is anti-progressive is to get rid of Coolidge.”

https://krcrtv.com/news/local/chico-mayor-unbothered-by-recall-efforts-recall-group-says-signatures-are-being-collected

I resent the recall proponents, because they’re not out to protect the fiscal security of our town, they’re just making a power grab. Worst of all, they’re distracting people from real issues at hand. Read an agenda, this council is on a bender of irresponsible spending, and all the recall people have to say is the ice rink is bad for the environment.

I feel a streak of Craig’s momma coming over me, but I’ll stifle it. Instead of posting that old bit again I wrote a letter to the editor.

Proponents of the recall of Andrew Coolidge claim “fiscal irresponsibility,” but I don’t know if that’s genuine. One supporter admitted to KRCR News, “the best way to break the cabal that is anti-progressive is to get rid of Coolidge.”

This recall looks completely political. Concerned about fiscal matters? Why not take on the onerous and regressive general sales tax measure that Staff proposed and Council greedily approved for the 2022 ballot?

Let’s talk about fiscal irresponsibility. Council just approved raises for the police department, in exchange for those employees paying more toward their pension share. Unfortunately, the raise was bigger than the increased share. This is how the Unfunded Actuarial Liability, aka pension deficit, grows. Every raise increases the base. The tiny extra contribution from the employee goes like spit on a griddle as the UAL increases by millions a year, with Staff allocating money from our infrastructure and services to make increasing “extra” payments toward THEIR pensions.

The UAL was created and is perpetually increased by this type of mismanagement. As long as Council is led by Staff, who stand to gain with every contract, we will be stuck in this downward debt spiral. Coolidge’s irresponsible suggestion to use sales tax revenues to secure bonds will increase our debt by millions.

Adding insult to injury, the city is using The People’s money to run their tax campaign, since the FPPC has relinquished responsibility to enforce election laws.

Let your district representative know how you feel about this grab.

I would advise you to do same – write to both the paper AND your district rep!

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Why recall Coolidge when we can just beat down his tax measures?

3 Nov

Oh yeah Halloween is fun, but just like any bender, there’s always The Morning After. Sure, I enjoyed binging on scary stories and horror movies, but you know, these days, nothing is as frightening as Reality.

The reality for Chico is mismanagement. Staff is only concerned with their own salaries and benefits, and council is led by Staff, like a pig with a brass ring in it’s nose.

It’s a mutual back-scratching: Staff gets their salaries and sweet benefits for which they pay very little, and Council members get generous campaign donations at election time.

Our society is so messed up right now, people are desperate to believe. They believe the lies politicians make, even after Watergate. And they forget, how easily we all forget.

In 2018, Andrew Coolidge voted with the liberals on council to declare a “Shelter Crisis”, which started us on the road to Perdition (welcome to Perdition, California). So, here we are today, despite promises made to us by Coolidge and the other “conservatives” on council, we offer more services to the “homeless” than we did 4 years ago, but we still have a judge holding us by the pubic hairs, saying we are not doing enough.

Coolidge landed on his ass in November of that year, getting thrown out by angry voters who complained that he had sold them out. I was shocked myself that he would support the SCD – when Coolidge ran in 2014, he expressed total disgust for homeless people, telling a group of Chico Taxpayer members that he had taught his children to call Chico Plaza “Bum Park”. But I knew why he’d voted for the SCD – that vote came with $4 million, to be spent at the discretion of council – which means, at the discretion of Staff.

While Chico was apparently rid of Coolidge, we were stuck with the SCD. Declaring that there are not enough shelter beds, even though there were and are consistently empty beds at the Torres Shelter, meant that we had to let the bums take over our parks, creek ways and other public open spaces. All the sudden, public urination/defecation, littering, nudity, and simply TAKING public property were legal, according to City Manager Mark Orme and Public Works Director Erik Gustafson, who claimed the bums had 4th and 14th Amendment rights to kick the public off of public lands.

I know people were mad at Coolidge, including Rob Berry over at Chico First, who made very disparaging remarks about Coolidge. So, again, I was surprised when Coolidge threw his hat in for the 2020 election, and idiots like Berry just ate it up and endorsed him. Berry even mentioned the SCD vote, but for some reason, he believed Coolidge had mended his ways, and would get us out of the onerous declaration. And last June, after many promises, Council majority threw out the SCD. I thought that was It.

So I’m standing here scratching my head over council’s recent decision to reinstitute the SCD. They are moving forward with plans to remove a children’s rec facility from the public fairgrounds to build a “homeless village” of some kind. What the hell? Maybe I watched too much sci-fi over the holiday, I’m starting to wonder if they were all replaced by bots.

I already informed my district representative, Kasey Reynolds, that I will not be supporting her in 2022. In about exactly a year, she’ll be on the ballot. By then, the districts will be redrawn – I believe they’ve hired a consultant and that is all going on right now behind closed doors. That’s why they were so quick to fill Huber and Denlay-Klingbeil’s seats with their own conservative picks. The liberals got to do the gerrymandering last time, so now, as Reynolds assured me in an email last year, the conservatives will have their way.

Piss on the voters/taxpayers.

Coolidge is so confident of his position in the Catbird Seat, he’s proposed multiple new taxes. He wants a one-cent sales tax increase on a general measure, which means the money will be spent at the whim of council and Staff. He has also said he wants the sales tax revenues to secure bonds. He mentioned “road bonds,” but since council and Staff actually pursued a Pension Obligation Bond illegally, I don’t believe roads are their concern. The only real debt the city has right now is the Unfunded Actuarial Liability, a.k.a., the “pension deficit”.

Still in shock that the voters would reinstate this total jackass, not to mention, Sean Morgan, I was very happy to hear there’s a rough beast coming round toward Coolidge. I didn’t watch last night’s meeting, but I’ll probably take a look at it, just to see this gal walk up and make a declaration of her own – Morgan Kennedy of “Chico Voters” is going to circulate a petition for Coolidge’s recall.

I’ll tell you what, after two totally disappointing and humiliating recall efforts in the last year, I’m back to thinking recalls are risky. For one thing, it’s probably wise to gauge the support in the community before you pay the lawyer and the printer and grease all the other palms required. Secondly, you should have a good candidate for replacement of the recalled individual. Third, are you sure you just can’t wait for election time and put your energy, money and time into a good election campaign? In future, these are questions I will ask before I ever get involved in another recall.

And before I sign another recall petition, I’ll have to look into who is running the recall, and what are their motives. I haven’t been following social media, cause it’s so ugly, so I had never heard of Morgan Kennedy.

“We are a group that is concerned with fiscal responsibility, ” she stated at a press conference held today (11/3/21) at City Hall. I don’t know if that’s her real motive, but judging from stuff she’s written in past, I have to suspect this is really an effort to bust up the conservative majority on council. This article from Chico Sol, written by Kennedy, shows she has a very keen interest in upsetting what she sees to be the conservative agenda.

http://chicosol.org/tag/one-chico/

I’m sick of the “Battle for Chico”. Neither the Chico First freaks or the needle exchange junkies represent the town I live in. They’re just the loudest mouths out there, it’s rule by mob these days. While the rest of us quietly do our jobs, pay our taxes, and try to keep our kids from getting swallowed up by the quagmire our town has turned into.

Another deal breaker is that she’s trying to say that Coolidge can be recalled by the town at large when he was very clearly elected by the voters of District 5. She’s arguing with the county clerk, this I see to be a sign of incompetence.

So I will not, and I hope you will not, be distracted by this ridiculous attempt to fool the voters. It’s true, Coolidge was legally elected, his office is not the issue. It’s what he and the other council members and Staff are attempting – to saddle the citizens of Chico with new and unfathomable debt.

Kennedy complains that the skating rink is fiscally irresponsible. She sees, as I have, that people are pissed about that. It’s funny what gets people’s attention. She’s trying to get in your head. But she won’t talk about the $1 million+ the city just allocated to “fund a homeless solution…” , whatever the fuck that means. She won’t talk about the $1 million+ the city is handing over to “guarantee” air service. She’s not talking about the ridiculous exchange of sewage for water from Paradise. She’s not talking about the asinine deal with PG&E. She’s not talking about the pensions. She’s not talking about any of the real financial issues that are coming before council, she, like Staff and council, thinks she can get you with nothing but a carrot.

Don’t bite!

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Here’s a scary story that will make you think: Jack London, “In a Far Country”

30 Oct

Well, what a week. I had made an attempt to ignore the news but you know Dave – he sent me a story about the new cop contracts. Talk about scary – this is how these idiots on council and staff just keep ratcheting up the pension deficit – they just gave the cops a raise to pay more of their own share. This is what my dad always called rabbit math, my accountant explained it in his language – they keep raising the base of the debt, without raising the payments enough. It’s this dizzying spiral of debt, the bigger it gets, the more I just want to stick my head in a good book.

At Halloween, I like to read a scary book. After I finished “The Road”, by Cormac McCarthy, I picked up a book of short stories by Jack London.

Sure we all think of “Call of the Wild” cause we had to read that in school. Yeah that’s a great read, I read it with my kids, twice. But London had a fixation with death, and he knew how to put together a good Gothic story. One of the best Gothic horror stories I’ve ever read is “In a Far Country”.

https://www.prosperosisle.org/spip.php?article317#InaFarCountry

Set in the Yukon, this is a story of two guys who get stuck in a small cabin through a very dark winter. It reminds me of a lot of situations from ordinary life – marriage, right off the top of my head. Home ownership, fraught with peril. Parenthood, oh God. Or college dorm life. Or a long car trip, or a camping trip. There’s lots of times in life when you just want to murder somebody.

And how many times have you been involved with a “Happy Wanderer” – somebody who seems to have absolutely no concept of pitching in, helping out, carrying their own weight, or God forbid, pitching in for the group effort. Ever wonder what happens when two such individuals are left to their own resources?

That’s the story of Carter Weatherbee and Percy Cuthfert, two “tin horns” who decide, in mid-life, to undertake a trip to the Yukon. How’d you like to get stuck with these guys? “The two shirks and chronic grumblers were Carter Weatherbee and Percy Cuthfert. The whole party complained less of its aches and pains than did either of them. Not once did they volunteer for the thousand and one petty duties of the camp. A bucket of water to be brought, an extra armful of wood to be chopped, the dishes to be washed and wiped, a search to be made through the outfit for some suddenly indispensable article—and these two effete scions of civilization discovered sprains or blisters requiring instant attention.”

This is so timeless. Okay, maybe most of us don’t have to bring water in with a bucket, or chop firewood, but we’ve sure as hell had roommates or family members who never wash dishes, don’t flush the toilet, leave their crap all over the place. And whenever the bills come up, they complain about their job, their boss, their ex-wife, yeah, we’ve all known Weatherbee and Cuthfert.

So who would be surprised when their party decides, without any apology, to leave them behind in the middle of nowhere. Frankly, they are nicer than some people I’ve traveled with – the two shirks are left in a sturdy old cabin, fully stocked pantry, and a wood lot with enough fuel to last years. They are happy to stay behind as the party slogs ahead to hard work, scanty provisions, and uncertainty.

“Things prospered in the little cabin at first. The rough badinage of their comrades had made Weatherbee and Cuthfert conscious of the mutual responsibility which had devolved upon them; besides, there was not so much work after all for two healthy men. And the removal of the cruel whiphand, or in other words the bulldozing half-breed, had brought with it a joyous reaction. At first, each strove to outdo the other, and they performed petty tasks with an unction which would have opened the eyes of their comrades who were now wearing out bodies and souls on the Long Trail.“

But there’s some dark foreboding. “The cabin was one of the many mysteries which lurk in the vast recesses of the North. Built when and by whom, no man could tell. Two graves in the open, piled high with stones, perhaps contained the secret of those early wanderers. But whose hand had piled the stones?” Other graves are mentioned, filled at various times. I’m not sure – say you pulled up at a hotel, out in the middle of nowhere, and there were graves in the parking lot?

Another party member’s parting observation: “the Kilkenny cats fought till neither hide, nor hair, nor yowl, was left. You understand?—till nothing was left.” And the other members nod their heads and mush their dogs into the horizon.

It’s a dark and scary story, not unlike Poe. Says a lot about human behavior. Makes you think.

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Bubble Bubble, Toil and Trouble: Chico City Staffers have been trying to foist their pension deficit off on the taxpayers for years now – are you going to bite the ice rink carrot?

18 Oct

Here’s a recent history lesson.

At a 2018 Chico Finance Committee discussion I attended regarding possible revenue measures, a consultant proposed a seasonal ice rink Downtown as a carrot to get the voters to pass a sales tax measure. He said he’d given a Tahoe town the same advice, they’d taken it, and their measure passed.

And so it goes. Council recently decided to spend $400,000 to install a seasonal ice rink at the Downtown Plaza. Just think what that money would look like on the street in front of your house.

The city of Chico funds Chico Chamber, and commissions the Chamber for various studies and reports. A 2018 Chamber of Commerce report recommended that city staff pursue a sales tax measure. Their recommendations for spending the revenues were $3 million to hire more cops, $90 million to fix roads, and $130 million to go toward the pension deficit. At present, council is not being forthcoming with a spending plan. They have proposed a simple majority measure, so they can spend this money any way they want.

A few years ago, the Finance Department staff, on the suggestion of another consultant, instituted a “Pension Stabilization Trust”. Funds are appropriated (embezzled) from each department based on a percentage of payroll into the PST. None of those department funds are restricted, meaning, they don’t have to be spent on sewer or streets or parks or whatever, they can be “allocated” away to pay for any whim of council. In fact, the PST is the only restricted fund the city has. Once the money is in the PST, it’s restricted for use in paying the pension deficit. Once a year the Finance Director makes a “side fund” or “extra” payment to CalPERS – the first year, about $8 million, this year $11.5 million. Staff and consultants have projected that the payment will reach $18 million by 2026. See where this is going? No matter how much they pay, given the ridiculous salaries, benefits, and employee shares – not to mention new hires – the deficit just keeps going up.

There is a faction that is trying to “defund” the police. Well, there you are folks. Make them pay their own benefits! I want good police, but I am uncomfortable with people who say they want to protect and serve as long as they are allowed to enrich themselves with mandatory overtime and an automatic “step increase” salary scale. Kasey Reynolds told me they need to offer these overly generous salaries and benefits to attract good employees, I think she’s got it upside down. Good people don’t hold a town hostage for their own enrichment. This is a racket.

Meanwhile, council has reinstituted the Shelter Crisis Designation, in order to kick children off of a public facility in favor of a tiny house village for transients who will not be served any other way. What ever happened to those days when the county opened the unused buildings at the fairgrounds during extreme hot or cold weather? Now we have a permanent homeless camp at a public property that at present constitutes one of our biggest tourist attractions? Including Andrew Coolidge’s Home and Garden shows – gee, while I’m perusing hot tubs I have to wonder who is breaking into/stealing my car? Screw that, I can buy a pretty spiffy tub online:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Intex-28405E-Pure-Spa-4-Person-Home-Inflatable-Portable-Heated-Bubble-Hot-Tub/50217226?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=1187&&adid=22222222227038182785&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=92177086817&wl4=aud-430887228898:pla-183841348097&wl5=9032580&wl6=&wl7=9032568&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=112549749&wl11=online&wl12=50217226&veh=sem&gclid=Cj0KCQjwtrSLBhCLARIsACh6RmgCEC7MxaazmqztHrcE1TCzP4bINXGnXH1vrFoLAjOub9cHNPpF24kaAr6bEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
I actually owned one of these for years, it was incredible.

Keep those letters coming to the ER, and contact your council reps – remember, always cc the other six.

Mark Orme’s personal pension deficit is over $70,000 – hey little Piggy! Pay it yourself!

16 Oct

Dave (thanks Dave) put the numbers on the 1% sales tax measure proposed by Staff and Council –

“That 180 million is going to cost us over a quarter billion. In other words, we will have to pay over 73 million in interest to get 180 million. In other words, the interest will cost us over 40% of the bond.”

“That’s over 73 million that won’t go to roads, won’t even go for cops or fire or even the crazy pensions. It goes right to Wall Street. And not the Wall Street in Chico.“

Dave added later, “One of those consulting firms the last city council hired said for an average family of four the 1% tax increase would cost them $800 in additional tax a year.“

I’ll add, at the present time, the city has no other real debt except the pension deficit, also known as, the Unfunded Actuarial Liability (UAL). They have leases on equipment and vehicles, but nothing approaching the UAL. Last time I asked the Finance Dept for that figure, it was over $145 million. And growing, despite increasing “stabilization” payments.

Those “stabilization” payments are funded by “allocations” from every department, a percentage of payroll. The last payment was over $11.5 million, and the Finance Dept. and various consultants have said that payment will keep going up, projecting $18 million by 2026.

Staff has brought in paid consultants to talk about a Pension Obligation Bond, leasing city infrastructure such as streets – Sean Morgan wanted to lease the airport. They’ve discussed every jackass notion that skitters across their shallow brain pans, but they refuse to discuss raising the employee contributions.

Here are the topics that need further discussion: The California Rule, and Defined Contributions vs Defined Benefits.

The California Rule states that our public employees have been guaranteed certain benefits, and that we can’t go back on those agreements. But here’s the thing – the California Rule doesn’t say we can’t require higher contributions out of employees.

Defined Benefits are the current agreement. That means, no matter what happens with our city finances, we have to pay the pensions – 70-90% of the employees’ highest year’s earnings. A good laywer could easily make the argument that WE didn’t promise these benefits, CalPERS did. They told us they’d make enough on the market to cover the insane pensions. Instead, we keep getting reports of malfeasance and mismanagement – including bribe taking and self-serving investments. They’ve failed to make their target year after year, and raised the city’s contributions as a consequence. Right now, the taxpayers are footing over 30% of the pensions, with the employees limping along at 15% or less. Management, with the highest salaries, pays only 9%.

Defined Contributions – that is what it sounds like. That’s what private sector employees get – if anything. That means, wthe employer (us) promises to contribute a set amount, based on a percentage of their salary. And then they can contribute as much as they want. That’s how 401K’s work.

They have special 401K’s for public employees, called a 457 Plan. Are you ready to be pissed off? In addition to his CalPERS pension, our city manager Mark Orme has negotiated himself a 457 Plan. According to publicpay.ca.gov , in 2020, the city put over $18,000 into Orme’s 457, in addition to over $22,000 toward his CalPERS pension. According to Transparent California, even with Orme’s 9% contribution to CalPERS, that leaves a deficit, just for Orme, of over $70,000. Plus interest fees.

I feel Orme owns that deficit, and should pay it. Or just take less in benefits. With a total salary of over $220,000/year, and a $62,000 benefits package, this guy is greedy pig.

Which will be the subject of my next letter to the editor, stay tuned.

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Stop a train wreck before it happens – email Chico City Council and tell them you won’t support a new tax measure until we have a conversation about the employee contributions

12 Oct

I was actually surprised to see this letter from former city councilor Karl Ory. I’m not surprised that Ory is still active with the local Democrats, but I’m kind of surprised he’d attack a sales tax increase measure that he himself proposed while on council. Sure, it’s partisanship – whenever we have a change in the council majority the losers sit along the sidelines throwing eggs.

Letter: Conservatives have bled the city dry

The council proposal for a general sales tax increase is DOA. Conservatives have bled the city dry for a decade and will oppose any tax increase. Just ask Juanita Sumner and the Chico Taxpayers Assoc. But worse, this council has alienated nearly every moderate voice in the city. On their agenda is denying climate change, steamrolling a 1,448 acre development, doing away with the Greenline, and generally kowtowing to their developer benefactors.

Councilmember Morgan’s KPAY broadcasts show he intends to ride liberal bashing all the way to Sacramento. Tax revenues will be used for salaries and benefits; no assurances any will go for roads and creekways. This is just a sham to make them look good.  Afterward they’ll wring their hands and say they tried. Maybe blame the loss on the previous council.

Karl Ory, Chico

Yeah, we all know, the liberals have done plenty of bleeding in their day. They’ve voted right along with the conservatives to approve every new subdivision that’s come before them. They’ve also unanimously approved the employee contracts with overgenerous salary and benefits and unrealistic employee contributions toward the UAL. They all get money from the unions at election time, and many of them continue to take donations from power players like PG&E and Franklin Construction. But Ory is spot on when he says, “Tax revenues will be used for salaries and benefits; no assurances any will go for roads and creekways. This is just a sham to make them look good.  Afterward they’ll wring their hands and say they tried.“

Of course the liberals would do same if they had the majority, Ory himself proposed a 1-cent general sales tax increase when he was on council. If you haven’t noticed this pattern before, you just moved here, or you’re deaf, dumb and blind. But I’m not going to squabble over that – when the liberals get the majority again I’ll criticize their poor management. The common thread here is that the money is not going to the roads or any public services, it’s going to service a bond(s). Remember this bit from the 9/21/21 council staff report:

“General Obligation Bond
If the City were to pass a general sales tax, the Council could also consider issuing bonds to fund infrastructure, facilities, and equipment. The debt would be repaid over time with anticipated increased
revenues. A general obligation bond would require a two-thirds vote of the electorate to pass.
If the electorate were to pass a bond for infrastructure in the amount of $180,000,000 with interest at a
rate of 3.5 percent over a twenty (20) year period, the annual payment would be $12,664,994.”

They want to use the sales tax increase revenues to get us deeper into debt. Think about that – not only will they NOT be using the sales tax money toward infrastructure as Coolidge keeps saying, they will be taking another 12 and a half million dollars away from infrastructure to pay off the bonds.

And yes, “bonds”, plural. They want money to pay the pension deficit, having failed in their attempt to make an end-run around the voters with their proposed Pension Obligation Bond.

Read the reports people, don’t just allow yourself to be mesmerized by their moving lips. They are liars, and they will lie to get what they want. Coolidge is one of the most bald-faced liars I’ve ever heard. And the local media just eats it up without question.

I can’t just sit by and watch the insanity, I had to respond to Ory’s letter.

Karl Ory is right, (10/9/21) “Tax revenues will be used for salaries and benefits; no assurances any will go for roads and creekways.” Correct, council has approved a general sales tax increase measure, meaning revenues will go to the General Fund and be spent as council determines.

Ory, a two-time council member, knows that the pension deficit (Unfunded Actuarial Liability) is the city’s only real debt, created by unrealistically high salaries/benefits and unreasonably low employee contributions. He knows that council directed staff to establish a “Pension Stabilization Trust,” into which money is purloined from each department – money that should go toward city services – to pay down the UAL. Recently, council and Staff tried to establish a “Pension Obligation Bond” without voter approval, only the threat of a lawsuit from Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association stopped them. They told us they’d spend the garbage tax on the roads, but as Ory has also pointed out, the money has gone to the General Fund every year, spent on salaries, benefits, and new positions.

Look at the city budget – the city’s biggest expense is staff, taking almost the entire budget. Where are the services? Last year over $11.5 million went to the pension deficit. But the deficit keeps going up, because council keeps approving unsustainable contracts. Mark Orme created three new positions last year, at salaries over $100,000.

Until we have a real conversation about who owns the UAL, Chico Taxpayers Association will definitely oppose any new tax increases.

Juanita Sumner, Chico CA

Here’s another blurb from that 9/21 report:

  • there will be costs associated with educating the public on the proposed measure (hiring a consultant to conduct such work) and costs associated with placing the measure on the 2022 ballot (such costs will be estimated by the City Clerk in working with the County Elections Office)

    • Yes, the rules for using taxpayer money to run political campaigns are foggy, the FPPC seems to be standing down on this. So, they will be going up your ass with your own money. Let’s try to stop this taxpayer-funded train wreck before it gets out of the station – email your district rep, and tell them not only will you not support this tax measure, but you might just be voting for somebody else when the time comes.

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    Council to reconsider Shelter Crisis Designation

    5 Oct

    Tonight Chico City Council will discuss reinstatement of the Shelter Crisis Designation. Remarks made to me by Sean Morgan indicate the SCD will allow the city to suspend general health and safety code and allow “the unsheltered” to occupy just about any city property.

    So, you thought the “Occupy” movement was dead?

    While Morgan denies the SCD will come with new revenues to help deal with this problem, I don’t see anything about that in the report.

    Here’s what I suspect: Morgan and friends are going to set up camp at Commanche Creek and Teichert Ponds. And the report says they can make up their own health and safety code – “please shit in a bag and put it in the trash…” ?

    I feel this crisis has been created by the county and, in some part, by the city of Chico. And they continue to mishandle it. The airport resting site was a joke, and I think several council members knew that, and meant it that way. Jesus Center and Torres Shelter won’t cooperate and the city won’t make them cooperate. Consequently, there are empty beds at taxpayer supported shelters while these people are allowed to defile our public lands. Despite the fact that the city and county both give financial support to these shelters, these agencies refuse to hold the shelters up to their true purpose, which is “getting people off the street”.

    Many of these people have drug or mental health problems. Drugs and drug use are illegal. But Chico PD claim they can’t arrest because Sheriff Kory Honea won’t hold arrestees, claiming the jail is overcrowded. Consequently, DA Mike Ramsey won’t prosecute, and these people are released on their own recognizance into our community. Even those convicted are not supervised – the “failure to appear” charges just stack up.

    This is kind of a fucked up mess. There are a lot of things wrong here. The simple solution is that Chico is not responsible for this problem – no city is required to provide social services.

    I don’t go to meetings anymore, I don’t go to Downtown Chico for ANYTHING anymore. What a shit hole they’ve made of our town. But, the clerk has left Engaged up and you can still join the conversation there. They only allow 500 characters – that’s not words, that’s letters, and even spaces! But I squeezed in the following comment, and I hope you’ll join me.

    https://chico-ca.granicusideas.com/meetings/369-10-slash-5-slash-21-city-council-meeting/agenda_items/6154f373f2b6705afb000624-5-dot-3-declaration-of-shelter-crisis-pursuant

    “Butte County collects almost $100 million/year in fees for transfers of mental patients and jail/prison releases from other counties. Mental patients are held for 45 days and then released into our community. The jailer claims overcrowding and releases inmates. The county provides no follow up services or supervision of these people. Failure to Appear charges are ignored. County mental health service centers are only open M-F, 11:30 – 4:30. The county needs to do more, the city is not liable.“

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    Dan Walters: here’s the truth about Biden’s “infrastructure bill”

    3 Oct
    https://calmatters.org/commentary/2021/09/biden-3-5-trillion-bill-high-income-californians/
    https://calmatters.org/commentary/2021/09/biden-3-5-trillion-bill-high-income-californians/

    Sorry, the link loaded twice, but this is a good read. President Joe Biden wants us to believe his $3.5 TRILLION “infrastructure” package is about improving roads, utilities and quality of life for millions of people, but it’s really about undoing one of the good things Donald Trump did. In 2017, Trump got legislation passed that lowered taxes on working and middle income people while lowering deductions and therefore raised taxes on “the rich”.

    “As the nation’s most populous state, California obviously has a major stake in what the ultimate package will contain, if there is one. But the state has another, less obvious stake in how it’s financed because of something called SALT.

    It stands for “state and local taxes” and four years ago, a Republican-controlled Congress and GOP President Donald Trump, as part of a major tax overhaul, imposed a $10,000 limit on how much SALT could be deducted on personal income tax forms.

    In a tradeoff, the 2017 tax legislation doubled the standard deduction. The two actions had the effect of increasing federal taxes on high-income residents of high-tax states such as California while lowering the federal bite on low- and middle-income taxpayers.“

    The effect – “In California, that meant San Francisco and other Bay Area communities such as Marin, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. In Santa Clara, for instance, the average tax return with itemized deductions reported outlays of $46,817.53 in state and local taxes, but could deduct just $8,931.28 due to the SALT limit.“

    As you’d expect, “Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer of New York and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California have been trying ever since 2017 to undo the SALT limit, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom has publicly supported repeal. That’s why California has a big stake in how Biden’s “human infrastructure” package would be financed.“

    “But how? Politically, it’s a tricky issue for Democrats, who want to change the limit without appearing to provide a windfall to the wealthy.“

    “Putnam Wealth Management has published a monologue on the potential ways the SALT limit could be modified or repealed, one of which would place an income limit on restoring deductibility so that those with the highest incomes would not benefit. Other alternatives include doubling or tripling the limit or changing the Alternative Minimum Tax.“

    While singing “Eat the Rich,” they are actually planning to put the working and middle income population on the spit. Yet another reminder of The Road.

    Yeah, Lemmy is God.

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