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Senator John Moorlach: Chapter 9 bankruptcy, a “friendly alternative” to waiting for pensions to tank our economy

29 May

Sheesh – at least a month ago, Bob sent me this taped interview with SoCal Senator John Moorlach (R, Orange Co.), and I’ve only recently been able to finish it.

https://calocalelectedofficials.org/cleo-call-with-john-moorlach/

Not that Moorlach isn’t an engaging speaker – he’s very natural and easy going, and he puts financial matters in terms the average person can understand. But, it’s so shocking, I had to listen in bits and pieces, and then I had to rewind a lot. 

Moorlach has an impressive resume, in fact, I wish he’d run  for governor. A certified public accountant and financial planner by trade, he has served since 2015 as California State Senator, 37th District.  He started his political career as Orange County Treasurer-Tax Collector, from 1995 – 2006. He quit his Treasurer job to run for Orange County Board of Supervisors, serving for the next 10 years. He left the Board of Supervisors to run for Senator in 2015. 

During his campaign for county treasurer, Moorlach exposed his predecessor’s risky and illegal finance escapades and predicted the coming Orange County bankruptcy – according to wikipedia, the largest municipal bond portfolio loss and bankruptcy in U.S. history. He led Orange County back to solvency (he talks about how in the interview) He has earned a reputation as an expert on municipal bankruptcies. 

He suggests the same remedies for California’s financial problems that we have heard from Edward Ring, Adam Andrzejewski, and many other financial “experts.” I don’t usually care for “experts” but all this stuff sounds perfectly legitimate to me,  cause I’ve seen the books Downtown, and these guys are RIGHT ON.

So, I hope you will listen to that interview, but I tried to squeeze Moorlach’s suggestions into the 250 word limit imposed by the Enterprise Record:

State Senator John Moorlach (R, Orange County) tells us, “if you abuse a defined benefit plan, you are headed for trouble.” The abuses – a “reckless” investment target, a retroactive change in the retirement formula that increased benefits by 50%, and employee unions bankrolling board members and judges, making it almost impossible to take any proactive measures on the pensions.

As we’ve been told repeatedly by city staff, Chico is in trouble.

Moorlach notes that Wisconsin’s pensions are 100% funded because they dumped the DBP and instituted “shared risk plans”. They changed the retirement age to 65, raised employee “shares”, and therefore the total agency contributions. They ended the Cost of Living Increase and went with a realistic investment projection of 3%, as opposed to CalPERS’ “reckless” 8%.

But, Moorlach says, pensioned legislators are unlikey to enact this solution, while “the proposition route has been brutalized by the AG’s we’ve had…”

Moorlach’s suggestion is Chapter 9 bankruptcy, a “friendly alternative” to waiting for pensions to tank our economy. “A federal judge can rescind, change or modify existing local bargaining agreements.”

Moorlach believes a well-managed DBP would work. That would require the following changes:  employees pay more; no COLA until a plan is 80% or more funded, and realistic investment target of 1 – 3%. I would add, sustainable salaries and reduced retirement health benefits. Why are we paying health benefits for people getting 70 – 90% of their highest year’s salary?

We must elect city council members in November who will accept these measures and act now.

Juanita Sumner, Chico

 

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CARD needs to fire Miss Management

24 May

Meanwhile, back at the hen house…

A little over 2 months since the COVID shut-down began, less than 6 months into the year, and CARD has a $440,000 deficit?

According to Enterprise Record reporter Laura Urseny, “Unable to collect revenue from halted programming and hall rentals, the Chico Area Recreation and Park District is looking at ways to cut expenses, including the possible abandonment of Shapiro Pool. It faces a $440,000 deficit in its preliminary 2020-21 budget.”

Looking at their 2019-20 budget,

https://www.chicorec.com/district-budget

I see that program fees and facility rentals brought in about $4.3 million last year – wow, that’s about $338,000/month. But that’s divided over 12 months – they make most of their money between May and September, with weddings and kids’ camps. Urseny also reports, “On the good news side, however, the CARD office at 545 Vallombrosa Ave. opened to the public Friday, and youth summer camps are on the horizon.“

So let’s remember, like the figure the city has thrown out – these “losses” are projected. They don’t know what they would have made, who could know that. Let’s see CARD’s totals from the same period last year, and then we’ll talk.

Here’s one of the real sources of CARD’s money problems – Miss Management. She is a silly gal. For some reason, she’s been spending $11,000 to fill and maintain a swimming pool that has not been open to the public for swimming since 2016. “CARD has leased Shapiro Pool from the Chico Unified School District for decades, but over the past few years shut it to the public because of the expensive and public health risk of the old equipment, which it can’t afford to replace. It cost CARD about $11,000 a year in supplies and 300 staff hours, with only one event — a dog splash gathering — all year.”

First they deferred maintenance on that pool for years, allowing it to sink into sub-code condition, Willmann admitted that several times over the course of the Measure A campaign. It’s also in the budget – look – they spend millions on their own salaries and pensions but only about a $2.5 million on “maintenance and supplies”, roughly half million of that is utility bills. Meanwhile, last year, they spent $1.7 million (see 2018-19 budget) on their Unfunded Actuarial Liability, or Pension Deficit.

Willmann would also have us believe that “programming and rental fees are the majority revenue source for the special district…”  That is not true. Again, look at the budget. While program fees and rentals brought in $4.3 million, TAXES brought in over $4.5 million, especially when you add in Park Impact Fees (payed by developers and added to the price of a house)  and Neighborhood Assessments (paid by residents in newer subdivisions) – over $200,000/year. 

Willmann persists in denying that RDA pass through comes from taxes. Wrap your head around this – RDA pass through money is generated from bonds that are guaranteed with the 2% annual increase in property taxes. That money is borrowed at a rate of $2 interest for every $1 spent. Taxpayers are on the hook to pay it – how is that not a tax Ann? She wanted to put us another $30 million in bond debt with Measure A – that’s Miss Management popping up her potato head again.

Another persistent lie Willmann keeps spreading is that ” Property tax is the next largest income source, which could also be down.” Two lies in one, really. As I just explained, property tax is their Number 1 source of income, not their “next largest“. Furthermore, it’s hardly going down. Again, look at the budget, it’s right there, up every year, even given the losses from Paradise (that’s another conversation). In fact, CARD’s total revenues increase by at least a million a year. Given the current building boom, it will continue to go up more and more each year.

Here’s their real problem: as the revenues go up a million or so a year, payroll costs also go up a million or so a year. And, they seem to outstrip revenues by about a million a year.  This year’s budget shows a $166,000 increase in pension payroll payments. Part of that was Willmann’s recent salary increase.

And here’s another reason CARD is in decline – every time they sense a dip in revenues, they cut workers instead of management.  Ann Willmann took a raise this year, and every year she’s been General Manager. She now makes over $127,000/year, and pays only 8% of her benefits costs. But here she says, again, they will cut workers if they don’t get their money.

“’Everything’s on the table,’ she said, in reference to pay cuts, fee increases and layoffs.”

Everything?  Will she take a pay cut? Offer to pay more than 8% toward 70% of her $127,000/year salary for the rest of her life?

“The preliminary 2020-21 budget presented Thursday showed total revenue of $8,890,128 — down about $34,000 from the previous year. It also shows operating expenses at $9,329,919, with a projected net income loss of $444,291…”

Hmmm, “operating expenses” (about 2/3’s payroll) are up by just about exactly the amount projected to be lost? It’s like walking into the kitchen, and finding somebody with one hand in the cookie jar and the other hand in their mouth, and having them tell you that you need to better stock your cookie jar. 

But, Miss Management stands firm over her own best interests, throwing the taxpayers under the bus with this threat, “The preliminary budget includes a conservative estimate and will require difficult decisions that will affect program offerings and operations in the future.”

READ THE STORY HERE:
By  | lurseny@chicoer.com | Chico Enterprise-Record

CHICO — Unable to collect revenue from halted programming and hall rentals, the Chico Area Recreation and Park District is looking at ways to cut expenses, including the possible abandonment of Shapiro Pool. It faces a $440,000 deficit in its preliminary 2020-21 budget.On the good news side, however, the CARD office at 545 Vallombrosa Ave. opened to the public Friday, and youth summer camps are on the horizon.

CARD has leased Shapiro Pool from the Chico Unified School District for decades, but over the past few years shut it to the public because of the expensive and public health risk of the old equipment, which it can’t afford to replace. It cost CARD about $11,000 a year in supplies and 300 staff hours, with only one event — a dog splash gathering — all year.

At Thursday’s board virtual meeting, General Manager Ann Willmann asked the board for preference, which was unanimously for “giving it back to the school district.” The matter will come back to the board at the next meeting — June 18 — giving the public a chance to weigh in on the pool, along with the preliminary 2020-21 budget.Because programming and rental fees are the majority revenue source for the special district, without the usual spring recreation selections and halls being closed because of coronavirus, the district is down in revenue. Property tax is the next largest income source, which could also be down.

“We had zero programming in April and May, and afterschool programs bring in about $150,000 a month. There’s expenses there too.

“We’ve definitely had a loss of revenue,” Willmann said Friday.

The board Thursday approved a preliminary budget required by law that shows a roughly $440,000 deficit, but chair Tom Lando said what guides the district will look nothing like the preliminary budget. Willmann noted Friday that CARD needs a balanced budget, and will be looking at a combination of strategies.

“Everything’s on the table,” she said, in reference to pay cuts, fee increases and layoffs.”

The preliminary 2020-21 budget presented Thursday showed total revenue of $8,890,128 — down about $34,000 from the previous year. It also shows operating expenses at $9,329,919, with a projected net income loss of $444,291.

It’s hard to guess the revenue and expenditures, said Willmann, because changes occur daily. Resources like parks and activities fields have to be kept up, even though unused. Some part-time staff has been brought back to help with that, but partial staff related to programming have been let go. Some maintenance projects are being delayed.

The sooner the county re-opening occurs, the sooner revenue from programs and facility rentals can come to CARD. But the reopening schedule is still fluid, so predictions are difficult.

Willmann told the board in a written statement that, “The preliminary budget includes a conservative estimate and will require difficult decisions that will affect program offerings and operations in the future.”

Willmann told the board that online registration was ready once the county health officials gave the go-ahead to reopen, and the traditional youth summer camps were on tap. In addition, pickleball courts and the Humboldt Skate Park are operating, and bathrooms at CARD parks were open.

“The current phased reopening will affect classes, youth and adult sport leagues, aquatics, senior programming and special events,” she wrote in her budget report.

With large money-making gatherings — like large weddings or parties — not likely in the immediate future, CARD plans a limited reopening of rental halls, along with rentals of picnic areas and sports field once the county signals.

However, the district will move forward with Chico Rotary sponsored Centennial Park on Ceres Avenue, estimated at $1.5 million. CARD plans to tap the city pool of park-development fees to cover development, but the project is also financially supported by the Rotary club in honor of its 100th year.

Her budget report indicated the district has a restricted reserve of $1.2 million for emergency operation, and Willmann encouraged that amount to be increased to $1,800,000 over time.

A public hearing on the budget, which can be seen online www.chicorec.com or in the CARD office, is planned for June 18, with final adoption of the budget on July 16.

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Chico PD needs more than a new Chief, they need a Chief De-escalator

18 May

You can always tell when Enterprise Record Publisher Mike Wolcott has been out of town – he edits a number of other papers in other towns. When he’s gone, the letters section stalls along at 3 – 4 letters, when he comes back, it’s what I call a “letters barf” – he runs 8, 10, 12 or more letters in one day. A letter I work on for a week or more is lost at the bottom of a pile. Oh well, it’s his paper, he can cry if he wants to. 

Here’s a letter I don’t want to see buried – thanks Scott Rushing and George Gold for bringing this up. The city is looking for a new police chief right now, and they haven’t been inviting the public into the conversation. Two councilors I spoke to indicated to me that Chief O’Brien has already picked his own successor from within the department, his deputy chief, Matt Madden.

One councilor told me we pay our chief so little here that it was hard to recruit. “I’m not saying we should spend more I just looked at other communities that are like size and their Chiefs are 20-40k higher.”

That’s funny, cause when I was searching Matt Madden online, I found this coincidental news about an officer who recently retired from Chico, who happened to have the  same last name, from Open Payrolls:

“Abigail Madden worked for the city of Chico, California and in 2017 had a reported pay of $119,894.45 according to public records. This is 76.8 percent higher than the average pay for city employees and 88.5 percent higher than the national average for government employees.”

This woman was just an officer when she retired, and she was making over $100,000 in salary. Our police department employees are paid well, in fact, if you look at the Secretary of State’s website here, you see, in total compensation, they are paid almost as much as Sacramento Police, including the chief. And, Chico cops have bigger benefits packages:

https://publicpay.ca.gov/Reports/Cities/City.aspx?entityid=365&year=2018

https://publicpay.ca.gov/Reports/Cities/City.aspx?entityid=79&year=2018

The same council member told me, “We always got away with Chico being such a great place to live and a premier department. We are struggling to keep both those titles.”  Sorry, I don’t  remember when Chico PD was a “premier” department. I remember all the way back to Bullerjahn, and I remember one bad chief after another. I also disagree that Chico is not a great place to live. What I would say is, our council and $taff have not done their jobs, and have led us into the current state. That’s what needs to change – new council and staff.

We need to pressure our current council to look outside Chico for a new chief. Look at nearby towns with better records, look for cops who will accept a reasonable salary and benefits to do the job they are sworn to do, UPHOLD THE LAW. For EVERYBODY, not just the entitled class.

Here’s a letter from George Gold and Scott Rushing that reminds us that cops are there to protect ALL of us.

Moral Imperative. There are now three pieces of legislation on the books that address law enforcement conduct. They codify peace officers conduct as relates to use of deadly force, release of records, and the public’s access to law enforcement records. These legislations are now the law and they combine to guide all police departments in California as regards transparency and these new limits on police behavior.

Chico’s next police chief must, as part of his / her oath, swear to uphold these new laws. Additionally, a new police chief must approve, ratify, and recommend de-escalation and crisis intervention training for every police officer in Chico and, officers must learn how to apply these trainings in the field. De-escalation conduct by Chico’s police officers must be the primary path of all police / citizen interactions. So far today, this approach to community policing has not been implemented.  The unnecessary and tragic death of Tyler Rushing is just one example of how current policy has failed. This must change.

Each police officer must take it upon themselves to practice these new behavioral requirements. In fact, each police officer has a moral imperative to speak up when these policies are not followed.

— George Gold, Chico, and Scott Rushing, Ventura

Open the meetings to the public, or stop having meetings until the Shut Down is over

15 May

At about 1:30 this morning I was awakened by a ping from my husband’s cell phone. It’s startling – the damned thing vibrates across the window sill above our bed, zzzzzzzzz! I always think, it’s one of our kids, that wakes me up fast. 

No, it’s SPAM from Chico Engaged!

lisa welch at May 15, 2020 at 1:39am PDT

This is a great inspiring article.You put really very helpful information... rijschool zoetermeer

And  then, another ping, about an hour and a half later –

lisa welch at May 15, 2020 at 3:05am PDT

Thanks, very good post. Keep posting.
https://drivercompany.nl/rijschool-pijnacker/

The article this SPAMMER was posting on was posted two months ago, “Do NOT amend Ordinance 2466!”  There hasn’t been a legitimate comment on that posting since I responded to CHATter Charles Withun 18 days ago. That’s why I get the pings – I comment or vote on other’s comments. I tried to disable the notifications on my account, but they just keep coming. At whatever hour of day or night they are working in “the botnet”. 

I’ve notified the clerk, and I’ve spoken with others who have also notified the clerk. I know the clerk’s office is working hard at getting this system to function, and they’re frustrated, sure, but why don’t they just tell the city manager it’s NOT WORKING, and get us back into regular meetings? 

I have made this point several times to council. At the last meeting, Sean Morgan made a limp-wristed gesture toward opening the meetings.

“”at the next possible meeting…I’m not saying ALLOW it… but discuss having public attendance…”   That, Folks, is called, “posturing for your peanut gallery“. The rest of them voted unanimously to approve Morgan’s little gesture, because it didn’t amount to anything. Close your fly, Mr. Morgan, the show’s over, and will soon be forgotten. 

The meetings either need to end until the Shut Down is over, or they need to end the Shut Down and let the public back into the meetings. 

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No matter how much the taxpayers dump into the pension system, it will fail and drag our economy down with it, unless we take immediate steps toward true reform

6 May

Listening to Robert Koyasaki’s Pension Time Bomb radio show made me so mad I had to take a break. But I finally finished the discussion between Koyasaki, a real estate investor, economist Edward Seidle, and Phoenix Arizona city council member Sal DiCiccio.

https://chicotaxpayers.com/2020/04/30/if-you-see-more-revenues-coming-in-to-your-city-and-you-keep-wondering-why-your-roads-are-looking-like-crap-and-you-believe-youre-not-getting-the-type-of-services-you-should-be-getting-its/

DiCiccio explained that cities across America are unable to provide basic services because staffers are pouring all the taxpayers’ money into their own pensions. Because of excessive salaries, ridiculously low contribution rates, and horrific mismanagement of pension funds, the pension deficit, or Unfunded Accrued Liablity, ” will continue to climb. No matter how much money the taxpayers pour into this system, pension expense will continue to outstrip revenues.

First of all salaries excessive – our city manager, for example, at $207,000/year in salary, makes almost 5 times the median income in our area. Many economics experts, including Seidle, have said that if the salaries were more rational, the pension system would work.

Second, agencies pay too little, with employees contributing almost nothing. In fact, until Orme started paying in a few years ago, he was paying NOTHING. His predecessors, like Tom Lando, Greg Jones, Dave Burkland, and Brian Nakamura, paid nothing. Lando is now getting over $155,000/year in pension, plus COLA, having made absolutely no contribution for his entire career.

These agencies have used CalPERS like a credit card, and now they want us to pay.  First of all, the agency doesn’t pay enough in total.  As of now, the city of Chico is paying, depending on the employee group, between 20 and 30% of total payroll cost, with employees, also depending on bargaining group, paying between 9.75 and 15%. Finance mangler Scott Dowell said in his power point presentation that “City of Chico employees are paying, or are nearly paying, HALF of the CalPERS pension costs.” That is one of the Big Lies. See, he forgets to mention, the Unfunded Actuarial Liablity, or “pension deficit”, which is over 65% of total cost, and the taxpayers pick up that whole tab, with interest.

That UAL is created by agencies that don’t pay enough on payroll, and don’t require enough of their employees. The money they don’t demand becomes the pension deficit, and then the employees are off the hook to pay it. They contribute NOTHING toward the pension deficit, or UAL, payments, the  taxpayers are stuck with the whole turd. 

And then there’s mismanagement of funds. CalPERS is our pension system. They have been criticized for promising too high a return from the stock market, especially since they make horrible investments. They tell their member agencies they only have to pay so much, and then when their investments tank, they come banging on the door for more.

DiCiccio and Seidle explain that no agency requires any member of their pension boards to have any financial credentials or education – the boards are made up of union members. These people are completely dependent on Wall Street money managers.

DiCiccio says, “The wall street money managers are screwing everybody,” from the taxpayers to the employees. He gives an example, which is verified by Seidle – one Phoenix employee group paid $40 million to their money manager for a $4 million return on their investments. Seidle adds, “In the last 10 years the fees have grown exponentially because they are doing high cost high risk investments, which have much higher fees.” And there he also mentions the high risk investments – in one case, CalPERS board members were caught buying bad stocks off of friends.

https://www.breitbart.com/local/2016/06/03/former-calpers-ceo-sentenced-4-years-taking-huge-bribes/

So, what can we do? Unfortunately, we can’t just stop paying our taxes, that’s not going to go anywhere. Also unfortunate – most states, including California, have passed legislation that protects the pensions of those members hired before 2013. “The California Rule,” passed by the state legislature behind closed doors, says, in fact – we must pay the pensions before we pay for anything else.

Last night, watching Chico City Council’s latest remote meeting, I saw it right in front of my eyes. It was in the report Dowell made to council at last night’s remote meeting. He showed council that list of services that $taff plans to cut. One cut that was taken off the list since he made the same presentation at last week’s Finance Committee meeting was deferring payment of the annual Unfunded Actuarial Liability. That is an annual payment, the penalty for missing it would be about $355,000 in late fees. But last night Dowell said there was plenty of money to make that payment  in the General Fund – $9 million. That’s just this years payment, up about $1 million from the payment I saw in last year’s budget.

Dowell, Orme, Constantin and the Public Works staff have acknowledged for about 5 years now that they have not been funding street maintenance or repairs, but they’ve never missed a UAL payment. If that’s not Mutiny folks, I don’t know what to do with my yardarm.

So here are my solutions to this mess:

  1. Get all new employees off CalPERS and give them 401Ks
  2. The city of Chico needs to pay more in payroll, which would mean, all pre-PEPRA employees would have to pay more, despite their ridiculous shares.
  3. Pre-PEPRA employees should have to pay toward the “catch-up payments” or “UAL” – they should pay at least the same shares they pay toward the payroll portion.
  4. Retired employees making more than $(??,???) per year in pension should have to contribute or lose benefits.

Let me know what you think.

Schwab shuts down local businesses, kicks the public out of public meetings, but her bike shop is wide open and making lots of money – what?!

1 May

Happy May Day – whether you celebrate it as a tribute to the work force or as a rite of Spring, take time to enjoy the sights and sounds of Spring.  It’s my dog Biscuit’s 14 birthday, and she’s raring for more. 

Friends of mine have promised to go to Sacramento today and participate in a protest of the COVID Shut-down at the State Capital. Of course the CHP would not give permits, so they will drive around the Capital building in cars, honking their dissatisfaction with the governor’s foot dragging in lifting the order for counties that have not manifested a real threat – like Modoc County, who, in the spirit of Captain Jack,  went ahead and opened up today, despite Newsom’s onerous orders. 

https://news.yahoo.com/no-coronavirus-cases-california-county-165302692.html

Most Butte County towns would like to  follow suit. Mayors and county board chairs all over Butte, Glenn, Sutter and Yuba County have signed a letter to the governor, a written request from Senator Jim Nielsen and Assemblyman James Gallagher that he lift the order for our counties.

Conspicuously absent is the name of Chico mayor Ann Schwab. An excerpt from the Enterprise Record:

Jake Hutchison  4/

OROVILLE — Assemblyman James Gallagher and state Senator Jim Nielsen have put forth a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office with a request to begin opening up economies in their collective region amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.The letter, which was announced Friday, has gained signatures from elected officials throughout the north state including Butte County Board of Supervisors Chair Steve Lambert, Glenn County Board of Supervisors Chair Leigh McDaniel, Paradise Mayor Greg Bolin, Oroville Mayor Chuck Reynolds and Willows Mayor Kerri Warren.

Various points are covered in the letter such as economic impact and low infection rate. It also cites Enloe Medical Center’s handling of the potential medical surge by opening an additional facility with beds.“At this point, given the COVID-19 numbers locally — and our enhanced healthcare capacity — we ask you to allow our counties to exercise local authority to implement a careful and phased reopening of our local economies,” the letter reads.The letter also cites concerns of long-term economic impact creating health issues.“The public health stakes are high too,” the letter says. “We know that prolonged recessions cause dire public health issues of their own. The indirect impacts of this virus can cause a higher risk of heart disease, acute sleep deprivation, depression, decreased response to vaccines and an increase in smoking and drinking alcohol.”

In March, Newsom launched the stay-at-home order and numerous businesses were closed if deemed non-essential. Since then, many people have been out of work or furloughed as a result.

On the other side, the virus is considered deadly and highly contagious, prompting the extreme response.Chico Mayor Ann Schwab chose not to sign the letter, saying that she had a good discussion with Gallagher but after thinking on it was concerned about opening up too early.“I think the request comes too soon and could put an additional strain on our health care system and endanger lives,” Schwab said, adding that she does agree with many of the points made in the letter but still thinks some safeguards are needed.Additionally, Schwab said the governor has announced that he was aware of the differences from county to county in relation to how the virus has made impacts.

“The governor has already said he realizes the virus has affected different regions in the state differently,” Schwab said. “When the time comes that we can join the state in reopening, I want to have some parameters in place before those announcements are made.”

I just don’t know where Schwab is coming from. She says she wants more safeguards? Force us to wear masks, but not the N-95 which are the only ones that really protect us? She’s practicing behavioral experimentation.  This is the woman who gave us the single-use bag ban, but you’ll notice, she doesn’t make a squeak as grocers all over town refuse to allow our used bags in their stores. 

Schwab is just a Democrat, and that’s her first priority – toe the party line.  There she says it, ““The governor has already said he realizes the virus has affected different regions in the state differently,” Schwab said. “When the time comes that we can join the state in reopening, I want to have some parameters in place before those announcements are made.”

Sure, the governor has acknowledged different regions are different, and that some have a lower infection risk based on the characteristics of their region. But, little dictator that he is, he steadfastly denies our sovereign right to take care of our own business based on our needs and situation. Like Schwab, he’s  a creepy, entitled little fascist who wants to be king. 

Well, excuse me, but My President, The Donald, has declared the social distancing bullshit is over. Let us get back to work, and back to SPENDING MONEY. The city cries poor mouth, and wants a sales tax increase? Well, Mark Orme’s capricious and subjective shut-down order is doing more damage to local retail every  day. People are shopping online and in other, friendlier towns,  and liking it. If Chico Council doesn’t wake up soon and wrestle back control of the city from Queen Ann and Sir Mark of Gisborne, the damage will be irreversible. 

Let me tell you, I suddenly realized the other day, Schwab’s bike store, Campus Bicycles, determined to be “essential” by our city mangler Orme, have been open the entire time, every day of the pandemic. I called the store one day, and a bright and pleasant young man answered the phone. Yes, the store is open, wide open – no appointment necessary, nor did he mention any restrictions on how many people can be in the store at one time. I asked about repairs, cause I’ve taken my old puddle jumper in to Budd Schwab before – he’s got some kind of reputation for fixing bikes, from when he just worked at Campus. The boy on the phone surprised me – repairs are backed up 2 – 3 days, which is very unusual. He said business is very good, very brisk, and attributed that to COVID. 

I think that sucks Ann, you rotten bitch. Scuse me for emoting, but who the hell does she think she is? Who gets to decide, what’s an “essential” or “non-essential” business, what kind of shit is that? Orme decides, and Ann gets to decide if he keeps his job, I think that’s pretty obvious.

But you know the worst thing the city has done, is shut the public out of meetings, that’s very purposeful. They are also hiring a new chief of police right now, and that isn’t even on the agendas. Huber wants to bring back the supplemental allocation that was removed from the April 7 agenda. They’re playing hard and fast with the rules, hoping you’re just sitting behind that mask breathing your own methane, too stupid to say anything. Take off the stupid masks and wake the hell up People!

Here’s a letter I sent to the Enterprise Record.

Since March 13 Chico has endured the COVID shut-down. Schools closed, working parents left without daycare, “non-essential” businesses closed, and  city management threatening to close parks if we do not observe strict “social distancing” guidelines. 

The result – on the positive side, Butte County only had 15 (Wolcott updated me to 16) COVID cases and all have recovered.  On the negative, city management has admitted the shut-down has been bad for the economy, predicting millions lost in city revenues if the economic strangulation continues into Summer. 

But Chico mayor Ann Schwab has refused to sign Senator Nielsen and Assemblyman Gallagher’s request to open up the county again. The mayors of every other town in Butte County have signed the letter, which states, “We know that prolonged recessions cause dire public health issues of their own,” but Schwab wants to wait until the rest of the state, including hot-spots like San Francisco, are opened up. 

Meanwhile, Schwab’s bike store, deemed “essential”, is doing great. An employee told me, “people have a lot of time on their hands due to COVID,” sales are booming and repairs are backed up, which is unusual. 

I think that’s outrageous. How is a bike store “essential”, but not a clothing store or a barber shop?  Public meetings are closed to the public right now, but the Mayor’s business is open and making a hefty profit.  That’s ridiculous. Sign the letter Ann, and end the shut-down.  Or step down as mayor, due to obvious conflict of interest. 

Juanita Sumner, Chico CA

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If you see more revenues coming in to your city, and you keep wondering why your roads are looking like crap, and you believe you’re not getting the type of services you should be getting, it’s the pensions

30 Apr

Thanks Dave, for sending me the link to this ongoing discussion about the Pension Time Bomb.

Robert Kiyosaki, entrepreneur, author, and radio show host, just published his latest book (co-author Ed Siedle)  in January, “Who Stole My Pension? How You Can Stop the Looting” .

In this five radio part series, he speaks with his co-author, Ed Siedle, and his local city council member Sal DiCiccio (Phoenix, AR) how public pensions are ruining our economy.

Kiyosaki states what should be obvious, “This pension thing is very suppressed, people don’t know much about it. If you think COVID is big, the pension failure will be bigger.”

Yes, we’re being misled as to the enormity of the problem by public $taffers that put their own interests first. Chico City Manager Mark Orme and his Ass City Mangler Chris Constantin, along with “Services Director” Scott Dowell, have walked a tight rope – they tell us we need more revenues but they won’t say why. Even when they tell us that revenues have been ahead of budget, they keep saying we don’t have enough money to maintain infrastructure.  If you pay attention, you see what Kiyosaki and his guests are saying – the city gets more revenue every year, but it’s just never enough.

Phoenix AR council member Sal DiCiccio says it very plainly.  “If you see more revenues coming in to your city, and you keep wondering why your roads are looking like crap, and you believe you’re not getting the type of services you should be getting,  it’s the pensions. Every city and state is on the same plan. Phoenix is a growing economy but we still have crappy roads because more and more money is being sucked into government pensions.”

Regardless of whether you live in a “right to work state“, DiCiccio explains, the unions  elect all the politicians, putting millions into elections every year.  In Chico the biggest donors are the Chico Police Officers Association  and the Service Employees International Union – SEIU was the biggest single contributor to CARD’s ill-fated Measure A, and CPOA president Jim Parrott ran the campaign pac. 

DiCiccio says “We’re becoming a pension machine, and they’re making the cities unliveable.”  Next time we’ll talk about why. And  get ready for the next installment in Kiyosaki’s series – “Kentucky Fried Pensions.” You  can see more at his website, 

https://www.richdad.com/radio

Staff says revenues are “over budget” but still recommends massive cuts to services in face of COnVID panic attack

26 Apr

The Finance Committee met Wednesday (4/22/20) under cover of COnVID, with no public present, and a questionable comment system.  Luckily, the reports are available so we can see what they’re up to, even if we were not able to comment at the time. These issues still have to come to a council meeting, so why not  talk about them now and send our comments directly to the councilors before their next clandestine meeting?

Finance Director Scott Dowell gave his usual presentation, and while he said repeatedly that city revenues have been “over budget,” he still warned that the COnVID panic was going to set us back. So, city management has already been making cuts.  Dowell presented the order of the cut-backs to the Finance Committee last Wednesday (4/22/20).   They’ve already begun Phase 1 – in fact, as you may know, for example, there hasn’t been a capital project in Chico for over a year now, since they gutted the streets fund to pay their pensions. 

FYI – the improvements being made along Hwy 32 are being done by CalTRANS.

Phase 1
Delay new capital or one-time expenditures for 6 months until 1/1/2021.       CUT SERVICES                     DONE
Delay General Fund transfers to emergency reserves and replacement funds.                                              DONE
Delay or eliminate new recruitments.                                                                                                              DONE
Defer CalPERS UAL payment in July and pay monthly. Will cost $328,661 in interest.
Delay or Remove General Fund transfers to Private Development Funds for 1 year.  CUT SERVICES          DONE
Close City Hall Operations One Day or More per Week (Utility Savings).                                                      DONE
Furloughs (continued health benefits).             CUT SERVICES WHILE STILL PAYING                                 DONE
Hiring Freeze.                                                                                                                                                  
Utilize Section 115 Pension Stabilization Trust.
Grant Opportunities.                                                                                                                                       DONE

Note that almost everything they’ve done on this list results in a direct cut in services. But, they are still making payments on their Unfunded Accrued Pension Liability, threatening a loss of $328,661 per year in interest penalties if they don’t.   They just  raised development fees, so we’ll see what happens with the Development Fund. And, while they say they’re delaying recruitment, they just hired two new positions, including a Public Information Officer – why would we need a PIO at a time like this? 

And there’s the Pension Stabilization Trust – they’ve been siphoning millions out of other funds, into that trust, to be saved for paying down the pensions. Will they use it? Of course, that fund is restricted to paying their pensions. 

I think this illustrates what I’ve always said – the first thing they cut is services, which is the whole point of having a city.  Look at the street in front of your house – unless you live in a new subdivision, you haven’t seen road crews in your neighborhood for years. Unless they were shoveling slobbers into pot holes. (Slobbers are the left over asphalt or cement from a job, they have to get rid of it, or it will dry rock hard in their truck, so they go through an old neighborhood on the way back to the yard and empty their truck into potholes. These patches last a week at best, and will get all over your car if you drive through when they are still wet).

And get ready, cause they will continue to cut services, cut services, cut services, until we agree to pay their sales tax increase. 

Phase 2
Initiate Financial Emergency Budget Policy.  CUT SERVICES
Suspend Minimum Staffing limits.    CUT SERVICES            
Negotiate temporary salary reductions. Why isn’t this number 1? And why not permanent? Why not negotiate higher shares? 
Institute Department-wide reductions (utilize plan revised plan from Sept 2018). CUT SERVICES
Layoffs.   CUT SERVICES

Phase 3
Discontinue Waste Hauler Franchise fees to Roads. CUT SERVICES – DONE  (they’ve already deferred these fees from the roads for 2 years)
Freeze Existing Capital Projects.   CUT SERVICES
Discontinue funding for Arts Commission projects.  REALLY A NO-BRAINER, WHY WASN’T THIS IN PHASE 1? 

I’m sure you have your own questions – put them in an email, and send them to council.

ann.schwab@chicoca.gov

alex.brown@chicoca.gov

sean.morgan@chicoca.gov

kasey.reynolds@chicoca.gov

scott.huber@chicoca.gov

karl.ory@chicoca.gov

randall.stone@chico.gov

Should public meetings continue without the public?

23 Apr

One of the most frustrating aspects of the current health crisis is there seem to be no consistent rules for anything.  The Establishment seems to be making it up as they go along.

Here in Chico, COnVID Czar Mark Orme is making the rules, having been handed the whip by everybody’s favorite Mistress of Mayhem, Ann Schwab. Orme has called for “remote meetings” of various boards and commissions, including City Council. He has suspended “parts” of the Brown Act (!). He has decided that the public can only comment by computer, and he’s chosen an online system  that doesn’t work.  The public must either chime in ahead of time on Chico Engaged! or comment via email, a special address that feeds live to the clerks.

I have to say, the clerks are trying hard to make this work, but it’s not. For one thing, council keeps calling “special” meetings, with only 24 hours notice, so that kind of puts a kink in getting your comments in ahead. Does that matter? Does council actually read the comments on Chico Engaged? Did they read this one?

“John Maxon 19 days ago

I could not agree more. Get rid of those who cannot live in civilized society

John owner of

Grease trap Cleaning Cincinnati Ohio Grease trap Pumping South Bend Indiana Excavation Contractor Evansville Indiana Mold Removal Dayton Ohio”

John is obviously following the blogger’s advice – comment on other websites, especially the free ones! There are at least a dozen spam ads on that website, scattered across various postings. 

I don’t believe council members read every comment posted on Chico Engaged for any agenda item. I don’t believe they read all the emails either, it’s not possible, even for a speed reader. At the first meeting the clerk read them aloud, but that was probably almost as onerous for council as having to actually listen to members of the public, so they stopped that. Now the clerks have to decide whether comments are “pro” or “con” and tally them as such. Wow, so much for all those eloquent speeches we’ve got used to over the years. Hey folks, don’t waste your time, just type in PRO or CON. 

 

I don’t believe they should  be holding meetings right now, there has not been anything on these agendas that should qualify for a “Special”, let alone an “Emergency” meeting (1 hour notice). 

As one local gadfly noted: 

“On March 12, during the Emergency Agenda, the City council passed the following motion:

‘To limit city council meetings to one meeting a month; Those meetings should only be held if there are essential government operations that need to be discussed; insure that only essential city staff need to attend these meetings; and ask staff to address how we can provide safe space for the public to interact with the council during those essential meetings. This will remain in effect for the duration of the Butte County Local State of Emergency. The next scheduled meeting on March 17 should be rescheduled.’

Since that time there have been two ‘Special Meetings’ on March 25 and last night 4/21 and a regular meeting on April 7. That’s four meetings in under 6 weeks. The non-emergency schedule is three meetings in six weeks. Notice a problem?

Regular meetings require 72 hour notice. Special meetings require on 24 hour notice. Emergency meetings require 1 hour notice. We have had one emergency meeting, two special meetings and one regular meeting. All but the first one had no public in attendance.”

Yesterday morning (4/22) there was a “remote”  Finance Committee meeting. There was nothing on that agenda that required immediate action, just updates, reports included in the agenda. Except for the General Services Director’s report, which should be included in the written reports, but for some reason is not.  

The meeting was live streamed, and I was told I would be able to watch it and comment with the link provided. But when I tried to tune into the website at 8:15 for the 8:30 am meeting, it demanded a password. By the time I got the city IT guy to give me the freaking password, the committee had already heard, discussed, and voted on the first item. He and the clerk were flustered, I could tell they had not worked out all the bugs. 

I watched the rest of the meeting – I’ll blog the finance reports later, very interesting.

There’s no conversation with the public. These committee meetings used to be where citizens could actually engage these people on specific issues before the full council is called to make a decision.  Where we could ask questions. Too many questions. 

So, I had to wonder – what is the county doing? Cause they actually have WORK going on, you know, fixing roads, etc.  They actually have essential business to discuss.  I found they also have a totally different online comment mechanism, way better than the city. Here’s the agenda for next Tuesday (4/28/20) , and you  can comment on various items any time after they post the agenda.  Check it out. 

https://buttecounty.granicusideas.com/meetings/506-board-of-supervisors-meeting/agenda_items?page=3

 

The meeting will be live streamed – here’s the link to the main page, you will see the video link on Thursday when the meeting begins. 

http://www.buttecounty.net/boardofsupervisors/boardmeetings

Next time – the finance reports. 

 

 

 

Speak now, or forever hold your hands over your junk

19 Apr

Here’s a California town that is  finally starting to wonder, “Didn’t we all fix this in 2012, by approving Proposition 30, increasing taxes on ourselves to fund education?”

“Where did all the money go?”

https://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/opinion/districts-couldnt-stop-raising-employee-pay-now-kids-will-pay-the-price/

In 2012 San Diego County voters approved Prop. 30, a bond that delivered  over $1.25 billion, raising annual  funding by $4700/student. But, citing over 200 layoffs in one county district (  https://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/education/sweetwater-considers-more-than-200-layoffs-and-closing-learning-centers/  ), redirection of special education funds in another district, and countywide budget problems, critics are saying the money was not used for the kids, but went into the pockets of those districts’ employees. 

“The truth is that districts are having difficulties because they’ve chosen to give most of this increased revenue to themselves, in the form of pay raises.”

“An analysis of pay data for San Diego County K-12 employees from 2012 through 2018 (the latest available) shows employees who have been with the district during this time have seen their median total pay rise $19,814/year, or 32 percent. That’s an average growth rate of 4.78 percent per year, during a period when funding rose at 5.38 percent per year.”

Furthermore, “according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the people of San Diego County have gotten raises at 2.21 percent per year.

“In other words, our school districts have been using their increased funding to give themselves raises at a rate matching the rise in revenue, well in excess of inflation or wage growth everywhere else.”

Let’s all harken back to 2016, when Chico Unified passed Measure K. 

https://wordpress.com/view/noonmeasurekchico.wordpress.com

Just a few months later, I heard CalSTRS and CalPERS were upping the required contributions for district employee pensions and benefits. I contacted district finance mangler Kevin Bultema and received the following response:

“The increase PERS and STRS costs are certainly a challenge for the district’s operations budget and will need to be addressed with either increased revenues from the state or cuts in CUSD’s program expenditures in the future.”

This isn’t just about school districts. All our local government agencies have the same problem. CARD will most certainly put up another tax measure, I’ll bet we’ll see it as soon as 2022.  The city is working now on their 1 cent sales tax increase measure.

But, steam is building, people are getting mad. In this last election, more bonds and parcel taxes were defeated than ever before. We may have reached the boiling point. So, we need to turn up the heat. 

It’s time to work harder than ever before to inform people about these tax measures, the pension deficit, the “catch-up” payments to CalPERS, etc.   

  • write letters to council members expressing your opposition to ANY tax increase measure until they clean their house. Remind them we beat Measure A and we’re ready to kick the shit out of whatever they got coming  (be nice!)
  • demand lower staff salaries and higher employee shares toward both payroll and “catch-up” pension payments
  • write letters to the papers saying same – the News and Review is back up online, although pretty weak, there is a comments mechanism and you don’t have to register to post 
  • make your own fliers and post them legally on bulletin boards around town – post the facts, keep it simple, stick to one subject at a time. For example, did you know, Chico city council members make $600 a month (mayor makes $720/month) and get health benefits packages worth about $18,000/each? Ask your district rep, it’s a real conversation starter!
  • join us here, cause if you live in the Chico City limits, you are a Chico Taxpayer. All I ask is you keep your comments on topic, no personal attacks, no spam. You don’t have to use your whole name, you can use a nick-name, and your email is undisclosed. You DON’T HAVE TO AGREE with me or other posters to join the conversation, but don’t come here looking for a piece of anybody or your comment will die lonely in the spam file.

The time to act is NOW. 

 

 

 

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