Chico Taxpayers Association

Another nail in the coffin of Downtown Chico with the pending closure of longtime business Collier Hardware. Think it has to do anything with the atmosphere the city has allowed to foment Downtown?

Today an overdose death at Chico Plaza – who is actually surprised when they read these reports? When my husband and I drove through Drugtown yesterday, I looked across the Plaza – I wouldn’t have got out of my car on a bet. Tents scattered around what used to be a “public” bathroom. More tents at City Hall. Dirty half dressed creeps staggering around in a state of hangover, waiting for their turn in the “public” toilet. To get high? They look like they live from one fix to the next. Morning looks like my dad after 6 days on the road – the come down. By afternoon everybody is bubbling along, just got their “medicine”. By evening they’re really high, and really nuts.

If you want to find out what night time in Drugtown is like, read Butte County Accidents and Crimes Facebook, I don’t recommend seeing it for yourself.

Maybe we should ask Mayor Kasey Reynolds how long she thinks her business – a candy store within a block of the Plaza – will last. Like Collier and Northern Star Mills and Richardson Furniture and Osers, I remember being in Shuberts as a child. I have a Grange cook book of my grandmothers, from the 1930’s, with an ad showing the same logo they still use today. I have a family album with pictures of old Chico High, CSUC buildings that don’t exist anymore, and a really bitchin’ shot of Hooker Oak before it was nothing but a stump.

Wow, how Chico has changed in my lifetime. I think we’ve all noticed how radically it’s changed in just the last 10 years. To think my family really enjoyed Downtown Chico, many businesses. My husband and sons and I enjoyed events like Friday night concert and Farmers Market – remember the conga line for a piece of fudge at Christmas preview? Remember Nut Cracker ballet in store windows? When I go down to the city center these days, all I have are memories of what it was.

How many more nails will it take to close the coffin on a great little town? Can we stop it?

As for our current drug and mental health crisis, we have to stop voting for people who put the bums before the citizens – we need more “whimsy” on council? How does an idiot like that get elected? Obvious answer – idiot voters, too lazy to study the real issues, and look at what other towns are doing, right or wrong. Voters need to know what they want before they vote, and then keep demanding it.

As for the physical state of our city, we need to demand that the city put a moratorium on new development until we get existing parts of town on schedule for infrastructure improvements. We need to get our sewer system fixed – whole parts of town, including the city center, are sitting on failing sewer and water pipes. Other whole parts of town are not even hooked up to sewer, with old septic tanks leaching into the ground. Think what that means in a heavy rain storm. Our streets are in a state of emergency, parts of town have no drainage or sidewalks.

I honestly believe we need an outside agency to come in and test our drinking water. We also need a good audit of our drinking water supply before we build new subdivisions.

To accomplish this we need a city attorney who is qualified to advise us toward better planning decisions – why did our city attorney allow council to put Valley’s Edge on the ballot if it wasn’t a legal measure? Was it illegal? Do we trust our current city attorney to advise us any further?

Of course Council hires the city attorney – so we need to communicate to our city council reps what we want out of a city attorney. We need a person who is qualified and has a proven record in municipal law. I don’t know where they’ve got the past couple of city attorneys – it would be nice to have more sunshine into this process.

But none of that is going to happen if we don’t demand it.

I got the wind knocked out of me about two weeks ago when we found out a friend of ours had died of an overdose at the Safe Space Shelter. We had known the young man since he was born, his parents and grandparents being long time friends. He was a friend of my older son, and he spent a lot of time with us. We spent a lot of time with his family, camping trips, Easter egg hunts, and we never missed Pancakes for Peace.

I am angry. I watched our town turn into an “Unsafe Space” over the span of this young man’s life. I tried to get the attention of my council representative, telling her about things I’d seen – obvious examples of a laissez faire policy on drug possession and use. She was not interested in pursuing the conversation publicly. While heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine are all very illegal in the state of California, as is public intoxication, the city of Chico has a “council them and move them along” policy when it comes to enforcing the laws against public use and distribution of illegal substances.

Low barrier shelters have become the modern opium den.

In 2020 Oregon tried an “experiment” with decriminalizing drugs. An “experiment” using humans for test subjects.

Apr 10, 2024 — Oregon decriminalized drugs in 2020 with a goal of addressing the root issues of drug users’ addictions by putting them into recovery programs .  “a health-based approach to addiction and overdose is more effective, humane, and cost-effective than criminal punishments.” That short-lived experiment has now been called off, with Oregon’s legislature voting to recriminalize drug possession. 

https://www.innovatingjustice.org/publications/drugs-recriminalized-oregon

Even proponents admit it was a failure, citing a “brutal spike in overdose deaths” following the implementation of Measure 110.

But Chico continues a policy of counsel and move them along. It’s a fact, and everybody knows, we have a serious drug problem in Chico, with overdoses becoming almost routine.

Where are the drugs coming from? I can’t believe they are not being transported by the armies of the night that live undocumented in various illegal encampments around town. If you spend enough time Downtown or in Bidwell Park you will see people making drug deals right in the middle of Downtown Plaza.

Drugs are also common at Butte County jail. The news has reported both incidents of drugs being smuggled in, and overdoses, often deadly. The jail is just another layer of the drug trade in Butte County. And it’s overcrowded, so oftentimes dangerous people are being released right back into the county to continue to use and move drugs.

One guy who has been popping up in the police logs for years, arrested over and over, has led Chico PD on several car chases in stolen cars. Once he hit a gas meter and shut down two blocks surrounding Hooker Oak School. But he kept being summarily released, only to be caught again within months, same thing. Finally they found him with drugs taped to his butt!

Apparently, strip searches were not routine on check-in, but they finally found some reason to search him, and there were drugs in his shorts. It sounds ridiculous, but I can’t believe that wasn’t his motive the entire time, transporting drugs into the jail. I don’t know if they’ve changed that policy.

The city of Chico takes a very defeatist attitude toward the situation. They have been bitch slapped by the court, they say. The police and sheriff complain about overcrowding and not having enough staff, despite 10’s of millions received from various grants and emergency funding. The Behavioral Health Department complains they don’t have enough money to pay the kind of salaries it takes to get “good” people. They have a budget that rivals the White House.

Being angry doesn’t bring our friend back, but I’ll tell his story as often as I can and I’ll blame it on the city of Chico, County of Butte, and Safe Space Shelter for the rest of my life.

You saw it on the news, “your tax dollars at work,” they finally open the road – it’s a piece of crap!

Last night, my husband and I did something we haven’t done in a long time – we went out at night. We haven’t been out in Chico for years – the atmosphere has gotten very unpleasant. All our favorite restaurants have closed. Downtown is a crime scene. And then you have the drunks! Who wants to be a statistic?

But last night some cousins of mine were driving to town for a high school basketball game on the South End of town, so we drove over to say Hello. Great game, I saw my teenage cousin for the first time – I picked her out of the crowd, because she looked like my grandfather, who also played basketball for the same school. It was fun. We’ll do it again.

It was good to get out, and it took us out to Bruce Road, which we had not used since it was closed for the widening.

First of all, contrary to the signs and what the city of Chico has said, Measure H funds were not a viable part of this job. Most of the money – ask Mike Mangas over at KRCR news – came from federal and state grants that have been in place for almost 10 years. The city is being dishonest about the amount and use of Measure H funds – maybe Measure H funds paid for the lies on those signs?

Measure H goes into the General Fund, and despite claims of “accounting” for these funds, we only have reports from the Finance Department. They can do whatever they want with money in the General Fund. It’s like pouring a glass of water into Chico Creek and telling people you know where that glass of water went.

Okay, you know you love this one – here’s Richard Lewis describing how the city of Chico spends money.

So let’s get back to Bruce Road. As soon as we rolled onto the new surface, on a new set of tires we just bought in October, we felt like we were on a dirt road crossing the canyon in an old stage coach. Bump-bump-bump-bump-bump! The surface of the road is riddled with bumps and lumps. The cement was not properly poured. My husband, a contractor who has been on major jobsites all over Chico, remarked that they must have poured it on the hottest day of the year. Thinking back, that’s when they poured it – when we had triple digits. Temperature and humidity really matter when you pour concrete.

The city uses the same contractor for all these jobs. They don’t use the top-rated concrete company in town, they make and set their own cement. Cement is an important job that needs to be done right, by a company that ONLY does cement. Instead the city goes cheap-ass with a construction company that makes it’s own cement. CHEAP-ASS!

As we bounced along the road, I heard Neil Young, warbling along – “It’s a piece of crap…”

With video of the carnage going on in and around Los Angeles on the news every morning, I heard today on The National Desk that the feds are threatening to cut emergency funding until the state legislature gets a better plan for fire control/prevention.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said “State and local officials were derelict in their responsibilities”. People are calling for the resignations of both Governor Newsom and LA mayor Karen Bass. I would like to add a few names to that list: Chico City Manager Mark Sorensen, Chico Parks and Natural Resources Manager Linda Herman, and Public Works Director Erik Gustafson. As well as the CAO of Butte County and the Public Works Director.

I don’t care about Bass – that’s LA’s problem. But after the Camp Fire, Governor Newsom promised to add to the Cal Fire fire prevention teams – that never materialized. He did nothing to help LaMalfa pass his Fix Our Forests bill . Likewise, neither Butte County nor the City of Chico have done anything about major fire hazards within their jurisdictions, despite major fires over the last 7 years that have caused evacuations. The city of Chico left dead vegetation and standing dead trees in Bidwell Park after the Stony Fire (2018) and refused to take a proactive stance against illegal activities in the park.

Butte County board of supervisors recently rejected plans to clear brush from or improve Doe Mill Road, denying that it is a designated fire evacuation route. Then why were people directed by law enforcement to use that road to get out of the Park Fire evacuation zones? It was a major route out of the Camp Fire, along with Garland Road. Both Doe Mill and Garland are so narrow in sections that two way traffic is nearly impossible. The surfaces of these roads make it dangerous for sedans. Brush lines miles of roadway – imagine driving through burning brush on a one lane dirt road with a conga line of hysterical evacuees right behind you.

How can we force changes to Chico policies? Call for the resignations of Sorensen, Herman, as well as Butte County CAO Andy “Maximo” Pickett and Works Director Joshua Pack. These people are derelict in their duties. Email your city and county district “leaders” and tell them they’re next if they don’t start hiring some better people at more rational salaries.

And when they tell you they don’t have the money, ask your county supervisor where they where they got $57 million for their latest pension bond payment. Chico’s annual payment has reached $18 million. That’s where your infrastructure funding has gone.

Time to GET MAD folks, GET REALLY MAD, and channel your anger at those who are the problem – your government officials.

Last week I posted the “Butte County Pension-Obligation-Bond-Payment-Strategy-Summary” You may recall, the county signed onto two pension obligation bonds in 2004 with the specific purpose of using debt to pay debt – like taking out a new credit card to pay your old credit card. County staff and supervisors told us they would make enough money off these bonds to both pay the debt service on the bonds AND make larger payments toward the pension deficit. They told us they would save money because the bond rate was lower than the rate CalPERS is charging us for the pension deficit.

But you see here

https://chicotaxpayers.com/2024/10/24/whats-the-real-reasoning-behind-butte-county-measure-h-a-billion-dollar-budget-with-57-million-year-in-pension-bond-payments-projected-by-2030/

that since they instituted the POB, the pension deficit has ROCKETED. “In June 2024, the Chico Enterprise-Record reported that Butte County’s pension deficit was growing and that the budgeted payment for the year was about $18 million. The deficit grew by $28 million over the 2021-22 period.”

Grew $28 million? That’s their plan? Wow, that’s some “strategizing” they’re doing over in O-ville.

How did that happen? Ask your county supervisor why they raise their own salaries every year. And read this again –

Life keeps me busy, but when I found this item through a search for the Butte County Pension Obligation Bond I thought you might be interested in taking a read. This bond was passed illegally (without voter approval) in 2004. These notes are verbatim except for my note in RED typeface. Read more at the following link.

https://www.buttecounty.net/DocumentCenter/View/1551/Pension-Obligation-Bond-Payment-Strategy-Summary-PDF

The County’s POB 2004 Series A issued for $28.02 million are taxable fixed rate
bonds with annual principal payments, which started on June 1, 2014 and
continue through June 1, 2034. The bonds have an interest rate of 5.408%
through fiscal year 2023-24 and an interest rate of 6.076% from fiscal year 2024-
25 through maturity.
The County’s POB 2004 Series B issued for $21.875 million are taxable variable
rate bonds with annual mandatory sinking fund principal payments, which started
on June 1, 2014 and continue through June 1, 2034. The bonds’ variable rate is
set monthly at London Interbank Overnight Rate (LIBOR) plus 30 basis points.

NOTE: THEY LATER SECURED A FIXED RATE, but at a higher rate. Read below.

PENSION BOND PAYMENT STRATEGY
On January 10, 2012 at the recommendation of the Finance Work Team and KNN,
the Board adopted a payment strategy for the POBs that maintained a consistent
percent of payroll charges to department budgets with a five year ramp up to
approximately 3% of payroll. The strategy also included a provision for the
County to annually revisit the strategy to update the balances and rates and
determine if a pre-payment plan for Series B has become advantageous. The
initial ramp up and projected payroll collections rates were as follows:

Projected Payroll Collection Rates
Fiscal Year Total % of Payroll Miscellaneous Rate Safety Rate
2012-2013 2.00% 1.70% 3.41%
2013-2014 2.25% 1.89% 4.06%
2014-2015 2.50% 2.10% 4.51%
2015-2016 2.75% 2.31% 4.96%
2016-2017 3.08% 2.58% 5.54%
(through 2034)

In 2020 the County refunded the Series B Pension Obligation Bonds as
historically low interest rates gave the County an opportunity to negotiate new
terms with the holder of the Series B bonds for a fixed rate of 1.17% and
prepaid $9.5 million; thus eliminating the variable interest rate risk over the
remaining loan term.

NOTE: THEY USED CAMP FIRE SETTLEMENT FUNDS TO DO THIS

Department payroll collections for the Series A and new refunded bonds debt
service will average approximately 2.36% of payroll per year for the remaining
terms of the bonds (2034 for series A and 2029 for the newly issues bonds). The
collection rate for the Series A and refunded bonds is projected to average
2.58% until the refunded bonds mature in 2029 and decrease to 2.00%
thereafter, until the Series A bonds mature in 2034. Since FY 2012-13, the
average department collections rate has also been 2.36% of payroll

NOTE: here’s a September article about a supreme court decision about legality of bonds without voter approval

https://www.thecentersquare.com/california/article_b7cc3e12-7204-11ef-8619-23e5ee66e138.html

Speaking of making housing more affordable – according to Realtor.com, property taxes and insurance coverage are out-pacing mortgage costs for new homeowners. “These ballooning expenses are rewriting the math of homeownership. In September, 32% of the average single-family mortgage payment went to property taxes and home insurance, the highest rate ever for data going back to 2014, according to Intercontinental Exchange”

Here’s a joke on us – Butte County and City of Chico get our property taxes, but they’ve deferred services over so many years to screw us into raising our own taxes, they’ve caused conditions that force up our insurance rates.

It’s not just home owners – if you rent, your landlord passes these costs into you.

Utility costs are another factor that needs to come up in discussions about affordable housing. PG&E, Cal Water, and Waste Management all raised their rates this past year. What does the city of Chico do about it? They could mount a legal objection before the CPUC, and this would have more weight in the discussion than our complaints. Instead, city of Chico adds an extra 5% “Utility Users Tax” to our power and water bills, and a franchise tax to power and trash bills.

It’s called “talking out of both sides of your mouth” – the city of Chico talks volumes about providing “affordable” housing, then seems to do everything completely the opposite. What city management really wants is more expensive housing, new housing, with builder fees and bigger property tax bills.

In other news, there’s one whopper of a pot hole developing on Vallombrosa just off Manzanita. I mean, it will void the warranty on your tires. The city took a swipe at it with some slobbers a few weeks ago but there it was again within a few days.

Vallombrosa is not only a heavily used corridor, it’s a historic road right next to the park. Some pretty pricey houses too, with big tax bills. It has never received proper treatment, even as new subdivisions have been allowed in people’s back yards all through that neighborhood, the traffic all siphoned toward Vallombrosa. The road floods in a heavy downpour because there is no drainage. Pedestrians and cyclists, you are taking your lives in your own hands. Meanwhile, the city admittedly used Measure H funds to resurface a county section of Stilson Canyon Road.

Last city council meeting they discussed implementing red light cameras. They say it’s for safety – oh Bullshit – some idiot consultant told them it would bring in a lot more revenues. Like the parking meters Downtown, red light cameras are instant, everything is done automatically, and most people probably just pay without question.

We’ve all heard stories about people beating red light camera tickets with their dashcams – yeah, they make mistakes that cost the driver not only a fine but higher insurance. But did you know red light cameras are also believed to cause more rear-end accidents? People are afraid to take a chance, so they jam on the breaks. This is something that can be documented and compared with past statistics. The same reports claim that the cameras also reduce “t-bone” accidents – I don’t know how they would know that – read drivers’ minds? “Wow, I’d normally pull out in front of a speeding car but I’m afraid I’ll get a ticket so I won’t…“

And here’s my final thought here – why does Chico always get on the ass-end of a fad? Years ago, bigger cities started putting in ice rinks for Christmas – so Chico finally gets in on that, and it’s lost an increasing amount of money every year. CARD took over and was able to show a profit? Well, remember that when they try to put another parcel tax on your house.

Paradise Rec District decided to fold their rink, after losing money every year since it opened.

A staff report by the Paradise Recreation and Park District shows the event lost at least $340,000 since it opened in 2013, excluding the 2018-2019 and the 2020-2021 seasons.

Let’s face it – they got Camp Fire funding in 2019, and they got COVID funding in 2020-21. When that dried up they were left with donations and sponsorships, and what they could get in dwindling admissions and skate rentals. The city of Chico used General Fund money to float their rink, and now CARD is using their General Fund money to run it, shifting the burden of this folly onto the taxpayers.

Same with red-light cameras. While Sacramento is ending their red light program because they are losing money on it, Chico jumps on the dogpile – how much will they spend, just “looking into it”?

https://www.kcra.com/article/sacramento-ends-red-light-camera-system-drivers-react/60206739

These dipshits continue to do everything they can to raise the cost of living. When they say they want to build more affordable housing, you can bet they mean just the opposite.

Right now you will find hundreds of houses and apartments for rent in Chico, hundreds more for sale – there is no “housing shortage” in Chico. The real issue is affordability, not availability, and building more houses has never brought down the price.

So, I believe, people who tell you there is a housing shortage in Chico, 1) have land they are trying to sell 2) have a political agenda they are trying to realize 3) have drank the Kool Aid handed out by either 1 or 2.

It is a fact that building new housing on the edges of your town creates Blight. While “suburbanization” and “sprawl” have long been agreed upon as causing Blight of interior parts of a town, we blame the people who buy the housing instead of the city that permits it, and then devotes more funding to maintaining newer neighborhoods than older established neighborhoods. Why? Because as houses age, they don’t generate as much property taxes as new neighborhoods, end of story. It doesn’t seem to matter that those residents have been paying, and paying, and paying, the employees Downtown demand more and more revenue to pay their exorbitant salaries and benefits. Fees for development projects, or even a simple hook-up to sewer, are based not on what they actually cost, but on as many salaries as can be allocated into them as possible. Here’s just one post I made about the allocation process, as explained by a consultant who was paid for by the taxpayers.

So, I was interested when I read a letter to the ER about infill. We used to hear a lot about infill housing, but it seemed to have dried up. I never felt it was done right – a bunch of houses, shoe-horned into a flag lot in somebody’s back yard – parking problems, drainage problems, and then on trash day so many cans on the street it’s actually dangerous. Poorly done sewer hook-ups with no proper street repair. A sidewalk that extends across the entrance to the new developement and then drops off 6 inches into a pit. Infill can be done better, and done so that it is a benefit to the neighborhood instead of a detraction.

So I wrote a letter about it. Let me know what you think.

I’d also like to hear more about infill, but not because I believe there is a housing shortage. I believe that before we build out into cattle pastures and flood plains, we should fix older, decaying neighborhoods. While new neighborhoods spring up in orchards and pastures on the edge of town, historic neighborhoods suffer from pitted streets, flooding, no sidewalks, old power lines hanging in overgrown trees, and 20th century phone and internet service.

I don’t think we need to “streamline” the permits process, we need to hold infill developments up to the standards the surrounding neighborhood was built with. We need to maintain traditional parking requirements so we don’t have streets so crowded with cars that traffic (including pedestrians, bikes and safety vehicles) is constricted. We should not let ourselves be talked into sub-par housing based on a perceived housing shortage. We should build for the market, not political agendas or profiteering investors.

There are things the city could do to motivate the type of small infill projects that should rejuvenate our older neighborhoods and provide good housing. For starters, lower the fees for sewer/drain hook-ups, sidewalks, lot splits, ground work and other basic permits needed to ready a lot for development/sale to a developer. These fees are currently based on allocations for bureaucratic costs that have nothing to do with development.

We could do better.

Happy Thanksgiving? Are you grateful?

Here’s what I’m grateful for – 12 years with Chico Taxpayers Association. My first blog post from 2012.

Notice, if you check the new link, Lando’s pension jumped almost $15,000 in the last year – that’s because he is still working, for Paradise Irrigation District. Yes, Lando has continued to collect retirement while working for various public agencies, like the city of Oroville rec district and PID. That also raises his retirement costs, of which he pays almost nothing. In fact, he paid NOTHING as a City of Chico employee – Chico management paid nothing until Brian Nakamura took the reins in 2012, instituting a 3% share for management.

That’s right, 3% for 70% of their highest year’s salary. Plus COLA. Through constant pressure we’ve managed to get them to pay more, but it’s still less than 10% of cost.

So see, there’s the little victories. Teeny, tiny victories. Just think if more of you pitched in!

Stop sleeping on your stomach and complaining about your sore asses Folks. Wake the hell up. Next time you see Tom Lando at the grocery store tell him he should pay for your groceries. Be nice, but let him know, you know what he’s doing, and you don’t like it.