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Mayor Sorensen agendizes another discussion about the Cal Water rate increase

8 Oct

A big thanks to Third District Supervisor Maureen Kirk for showing up to speak at Chico City Council this past Tuesday on the water rate case proposed by Cal Water. Kirk detailed the reasons that Butte County is protesting this case, although, I am not sure if the county will seek Intervenor status. Kirk herself went ahead and got “Party” status – that’s all I could ask of an individual, and I’m very grateful to Maureen. She was nice about it, said the CPUC process was “complicated” – it’s onerous bullshit meant to keep people, even your county supervisor, from sticking their nose in Cal Water’s business. She told the council they should put their lawyer on it. 

I was kind of surprised to hear Chico Mayor Mark Sorensen move to agendize a conversation about the water rate increase. I frankly didn’t expect them to do anything. But excited? No. At this point, with the ship moving slowly away from the dock, it almost looks like they are intentionally tarrying so they won’t have get on board.  I’ll stop there, before I offend anybody.

I’m already offended, but I’m just an old chatterbox.

I’m going to write a letter to the CPUC on behalf of all of you Chico Taxpayers, our protest. I’ll be working on it, don’t bother me.

 

City council makes last minute agenda change, announces Cal Water presentation tonight

6 Oct

Added to the council agenda late yesterday, Cal Water is scheduled to make a “presentation” before tonight’s regular council meeting.

I have been asking Mayor Mark Sorensen to become an “Intervenor” and formally protest this rate hike. He has not responded to me in any way, but announced at a previous meeting he wanted to bring Cal Water in.  I’ve watched the agendas eversince, and when I checked the agenda that was mailed to me last week for tonight’s meeting, there was nothing about Cal Water.

Last night after I heard it on the news, I checked again – still nothing. My Third District Supervisor Maureen Kirk e-mailed me to say she’d seen the news bit but had also checked the agenda and found nothing.

Oh, but now it’s suddenly on the agenda. The miracle of computers, eh?

It’s scheduled for the first part of the meeting, under “Presentations.” When I received the agenda last week, North Valley Ag was the only business listed there.

I know – it really doesn’t matter. I’m not planning to attend. I sent a list of questions to Mark Sorensen and Sean Morgan:

I see the Cal Water presentation has been added to the agenda – it was not on the agenda I received last week, I looked for it.  I heard it on the news last night that Cal Water would be making this presentation.  Thanks for keeping me in the loop (sarcasm alert). 

 

I don’t know if the public will be allowed to ask questions, but looking at their presentation I see there’s nothing about employee expenses, pension liability, or how much employees pay toward their own  benefits and pension.

 

I hope one  or all of you will ask these questions. And, I’d also like to know – why hasn’t the infrastructure been maintained? Why all these repairs now? What projects do they have to show for the last three consecutive rate increases we’ve received over the last 5 years? One notice listed $384,000 for pensions, and only $164,000 for infrastructure. I still have that notice.

Thank you for your due diligence to this matter, Juanita Sumner

I’m going to hold my breath until after the meeting. The Marysville City Council also invited Cal Water in for a “presentation.” They listened politely, asked a few pointy questions, and then voted unanimously to become an “Intervenor” and formally protest the proposal. 

Maureen Kirk has got “party” status, meaning, CPUC sends her updates of what is happening with our case. I’ve asked and asked for the county to become an Intervenor, Maureen has told me she’s going to check again with county counsel Bruce Alpert to see if that’s happening. 

Imagine my surprise when I read this on the Marysville For Reasonable Water Rates:

Interestingly, Butte County is also seeking party status. It filed its motion in late August.

“With or without consolidation, the proposed rate increases would impose a significant burden on the county, as a customer of Cal Water. Further, the rate increases would affect an undue hardship on county residents in the Chico and Oroville districts, as many Cal Water customers in these areas are of limited means,” Butte County’s county counsel wrote. “The average income in the affected county areas is low to moderate, with many customers on fixed incomes and/or government assistance. Economic development in these areas is slow to regain footing, as the economy is slow to recover.”

Wow! That was hard-hitting stuff.

But there was more.

“The county, as a Cal Water customer and on behalf of its residents residing in the Chico and Oroville districts, has an interest in opposing consolidation and minimizing the proposed rate increases in the above-captioned application based on the direct burden to the county and the hardship of the affected county residents,” the county’s filing said.

Wow again!!

Butte County isn’t taking any guff from Cal Water. The gloves are off.

Well, that’s nice of the MFRWR to say, but I’m very disappointed that Butte County did not use Bruce Alpert’s very expensive time to pursue Intervenor status. 

I’m disappointed in myself somewhat, I wish I could muster up the motivation to file for at least party status, write up some sort of protest – but here’s the thing. I don’t like standing up like that, with nothing but a cold breeze blowing up the back of my skivvies.

We’ll have to see what our council decides to do.

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Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association: Taxpayers must defend themselves and take a more active role in opposing taxes

4 Oct

Thanks to Bob and Jim, who both sent this link in response to my whining about the “deluge” of tax increase proposals rolling toward the 2016 ballot:

http://www.hjta.org/resources/taxpayer-tools/defeat-local-sales-tax/

This is a good read. Starting with some background about the history of sales tax in California and the rules by which sales taxes can be enacted, raised, and spent, this article explains how taxing agencies can actually spend these monies just about any way they want if they choose their words carefully.  

Sales taxes are subject either to a simple majority (51%) of the voters – for general sales tax increases that can be spent at the taxing entity’s discretion – or a two-thirds majority of the voters – for a special tax with a specific purpose.

HJTA explains, “In an effort to circumvent the two-thirds vote requirement for special taxes, some cities and counties have placed majority vote general sales tax increase measures on the ballot along with a companion advisory measure ‘advising’ local officials how to spend the tax proceeds without actually legally dedicating the tax proceeds for the ‘advised’ purposes. With this strategy, local officials can spend the tax proceeds any way they want and are not legally bound by the contents of the companion advisory measure.”

I’m pretty sure the same holds for a bond or assessment on homes, but will have to check into that.

So far, tax increase proponents in Chico have been asking for some pretty specific stuff. CARD says they want some $10 million-plus for an aquatic center, they’re probably going to ask for a bond on our homes. Meanwhile, Chico PD is stumping for a sales tax increase, specifically for staff. Both of these sound like they will require two-thirds of the voters. 

That should be comforting, but like HJTA says, “Opposing and defeating a sales tax is often not easy, even when a two-thirds vote is required to pass the tax.”

I started this organization back in 2012 to fight Measure J, the cell phone tax proposed by then-Mayor Ann Schwab and other members of council. I had heard about it somewhere, and in my research, I found out they’d been illegally taxing our cell phones for years, and this measure was their attempt at making it legal without really explaining that to anybody. They didn’t want to tell us – if we overturned that tax, they’d have to REFUND MONEY THEY’D BEEN STEALING FOR YEARS. 

We overturned that tax, and they had to offer the refunds.  They cried about it, but continued to raise their own salaries and refusing to pay for their own benefits and pension. Like Jarvis says, “Local governments have been placing sales tax measures on the ballot in response to alleged ‘budgetary problems.’ Such ‘budgetary problems’ are often a result of wasteful or excessive spending by local government officials, including high pension costs and excessive personnel costs. Local governments also like to play budgetary shell games in which they place a sales tax measure on the ballot to fund a politically popular purpose, and if the tax passes, it would enable the local government to free up money from the general fund that can then be spent on the pet projects or programs of local politicians.” 

Here, councils’ favorite pets seem to be cops and firemen. I was just reading this old article from News and Review, June,  2013, same old story:

“Constantin then advised the council that the city has $3 million less in “spendable” cash than last year, and that the Chico Police Department payroll is 2 percent over where it should be at this time. Meanwhile, the Fire Department payroll is 11 percent over what it should be, in spite of some savings from the reduction of staff at Fire Station 3 at the Chico Municipal Airport.”

While Constantin would now like everybody to believe they’ve tightened up their “loosey Goosey” budget, you will still find “budget appropriations” on almost every council agenda – that’s $taff saying, “we’ve gone over budget again, and we need to have more money…”

Public Safety is a hungry monster in our town, it eats almost all our city pie. The city sewer, airport, development, and other funds have been pilfered to meet payroll overruns, workman’s comp overruns, and even PG&E gas bills that run over-budget because, as ex-finance director Jennifer Hennessy explained, the cops get paid to shower and dress – called “donning and doffing” – before and after every shift. That’s a lot of hot water. 

search term of the week: “how to defeat a city sales tax increase…”

4 Oct

I’ve been busy – I got a splinter in my finger and whoa, it got infected. Having run the gamut with the local medical scene, I waited until it was swollen up like a basketball and then I got a new razor blade out of my husband’s tool box and I cut it.

BOOM! Bloody puss everywhere, what a mess. I had to cut it a couple more times to get all the junk out, squeezing it and dabbing at it with a Q-tip soaked in witch hazel. Then I took a pair of scissors we got from the vet, and I cut the rest of the blister off so it wouldn’t get full of puss again. At this point I started to see tadpoles swimming in my eyeballs so I had to quit.

I would have amputated the finger to avoid a trip to any of our filthy local medical establishments. I’m looking at it right now, poking it with my other finger and everything – I can’t believe it’s almost healed already. Feels brand new, except a stiff little scab on the tip of my finger. It’s shocking how an injury like that just takes all my concentration, even now I think about it every time I touch that finger to the keyboard.

It’s still hard to concentrate with all the stuff going on around here. It’s like one of those tv shows where the plot line is so complicated, if you miss one episode you might as well quit watching. And when I turn to fellow audience members to see what happened while I was in the bathroom, I get, “sorry, I missed that meeting…” or “oh, I don’t have time…”  

After a recent conversation with one of my elected representatives and staff regarding the homeless situation, crime, and the County Behavioral Health Department, I’m tempted to blow this whole Chico scene and go off grid.  Just say,  Fuck it,  like EVERY DAY.  But when I look at that sea of crap floating in here and all I got is this little dinghy, I want to scream at the top of my lungs, “Man the battle stations!” There is nothing left but The Fight. I won’t give up everything I own here and hit the road like a dust bowl Oakie.  

So imagine my delight when I look at the search engine and see “how to defeat a city sales tax increase” hanging among the debris of the week? Somebody else is out there!  

I wonder what they found besides this blog. I type their search phrase into the computer.

I find out, right off the top, about two-and-a-half years ago, the voters of Los Angeles defeated a half-cent sales tax increase – $211 million/year “to prevent layoffs, fund the Los Angeles police and fire departments and improve city streets and sidewalks.”  Facing a $215 million deficit, 55% of voters just said “No!” to their city employees’ outrageous demands. Good for the people of Los Angeles. But that’s kind of a squeaker.

Next I read an interesting story from Park City, Kansas, a small town near Wichita, where a sales tax increase was placed on the 2008 ballot.   According to a pre-election article in  the Wichita Business Journal, ” a proposed one-cent sales-tax increase over 10 years — to be decided by voters Nov. 4 — to finance the construction of an $8 million recreation center is putting Park City’s pro-business reputation under fire.”

There are pictures of businesses around town with “Vote No” messages on their marquees – a sign at the local Spangles gives a phone number and encourages passersby to contact their  council members. “Park City business owners talk about the competitive disadvantage and how a higher sales tax rate would drive patrons to places outside the city with a cheaper sales tax.”

Good for Park City business owners, and good for the voters who turned out to trounce that measure by 88%.

In 2014, Wichita tried their own sales tax increase – to fix roads was all I could find on that – but the voters defeated that measure by 62%. There were three sales tax increase measures on the Sedgewick County  ballot that year, all defeated.

Kansas kicks ass. 

But, I can’t find very much about how they defeated these measures.  And there’s not much news for what happened afterwards. I found an article that threatened more highway fatalities because Missouri voters defeated a sales tax grab.

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/blog/morning_call/2014/08/missouri-sales-tax-hike-defeat-could-mean-more.html

That’s all they have – threats. Here in Chico, our police department threatens not to do their job. Well, they already don’t do their job, so what do we have for perspective?

I find, I’m not the only person who thinks the government is a financial black hole, that our public employees are only interested in their personal finances, and that we the taxpayers have had enough. 

 

 

 

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Meet serial criminal Joseph Hammett – he’ll be out on bail in your neighborhood before you know it!

2 Oct
Below is the story of a serial criminal,  a guy who has a history of petty crimes in our town, but is still running around loose, committing more crimes. The first story, posted the other day in the Enterprise Record:
Man arrested after car, foot chase

By Staff Reports

POSTED: 09/30/15, 7:25 AM PDT \| UPDATED: 2 HRS AGO0 COMMENTS

Chico >> Items stolen from two vehicles in Chico were found after a Butte County Sheriff deputy detained a man and a woman early Tuesday morning.

Deputy Josh Brazzi was patrolling an area in west Chico around 3 a.m. when he spotted a white Honda Civic speeding in the Dayton Road and Pomona Avenue area, according to a press release.

The vehicle sped into an apartment complex at 851 Pomona Ave., and the male driver and female passenger ran from the vehicle.

Brazzi was able to detain both subjects after a brief foot chase, and later found items in the Honda reportedly stolen from two vehicles earlier in the evening, including a surveying laser worth about $3,500.

Driver Joseph Hammett, 24, was booked into Butte County Jail on charges of burglary, possession of stolen property and driving on a suspended license. He was out on bail for vehicle theft.

The female passenger was interviewed and released.

Notice it says, “He was out on bail for vehicle theft.”

“vehicle theft” usually means, he stole a car. Stealing from a car is called “vehicle burglary.”   Stealing a car would usually be a felony, simply because of the dollar value of the car. Why this man would be out on parole after his history is beyond me. Here’s a court filing regarding similar a similar charge from 2013.

http://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/nonpub/C075371.PDF

On August 30, 2013, a Chico police officer observed defendant Joseph Eugene Hammett, whom the officer knew to be on parole. After conducting a parole search, the officer ran a records check which revealed that the bicycle in defendant’s possession had been reported stolen.1 1 Because the matter was resolved by plea, our statement of facts is taken from the probation officer’s report.

Defendant pleaded guilty to receiving stolen property. (Pen. Code, § 496, subd. (a).) In exchange, a prior prison term allegation (id., § 667.5, subd. (b)) was dismissed with a Harvey waiver.2 Defendant was sentenced to county jail (Pen. Code, § 1170, subd. (h)(1), (2)) for the upper term of three years, awarded 52 days of custody credits and 52 days of conduct credits (id., § 4019), ordered to make restitution to the victim, and ordered to pay a $280 restitution fine (id., § 1202.4), a $40 court operations fee (id., § 1465.8, subd. (a)(1)), and a $30 court facilities assessment (Gov. Code, § 70373). We appointed counsel to represent defendant on appeal. Counsel filed an opening brief that sets forth the facts of the case and requests this court to review the record and determine whether there are any arguable issues on appeal. (People v. Wende (1979) 25 Cal.3d 436.) Defendant was advised by counsel of the right to file a supplemental brief within 30 days of the date of filing of the opening brief. More than 30 days have elapsed, and we have received no communication from defendant. Having undertaken an examination of the entire record, we find no arguable error that would result in a disposition more favorable to defendant. DISPOSITION The judgment is affirmed.

Notice, right in the beginning, it says, he was already on parole at the time of this incident.

Why are serial criminals walking our streets, committing new crimes? 

Reading over this report, I see the district attorney isn’t really taking these people seriously. My husband recently got BUSTED! He was taking a load to the dump without a tarp over it, and there was a CHP officer with a very satisfied smile on his face waiting along Neal Road. That’s right Honey, it was a TARP STING!

We got the ticket the other day – 200 fucking dollars. For not having a tarp over a load of old bicycle parts and other junk. He had an old hockey net tied over the top, thinking, they just wanted you to tie it down. No, CHP said, it had to be a tarp!  $200 fucking dollars!

But this guy is out stealing bikes, breaking into cars, stealing cars – and he gets out with about a $300 slap on the wrist.

Old Yiddish Proverb: When the fish stinks, it’s the head of the fish that stinks. We have a many-headed fish in Butte County, starting with the county board of supervisors, and including our CAO, our DA, and our city council, city managers, and police chief. 

And, I love that “0 comments” on the article – where’s Rick Clements? Where’s dbski4it? Where’s the outrage? 

U-6, labor force participation, the poverty rate, and the New One Percent

28 Sep

I was just questioning the affordability of Cal Water’s proposed rate increase, here:

https://chicotaxpayers.com/2015/09/23/are-cal-waters-rates-affordable-for-butte-county/

Since then I’ve been seeing more evidence that NONE of California can afford to foot the bill for Cal Water’s champagne lifestyle anymore. Read Dan Walters, here, in the Sac Bee, published just the other day.

http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/dan-walters/article36719727.html

Walters is talking about our “true unemployment rate” or U-6, “which counts not only workers who are officially unemployed, but those ‘marginally attached’ to the labor force and those involuntarily working part-time.”

In Chico, for example, we have hundreds of part-time CARD workers, who by a decision of the board, were cut to 28 hours or less so that CARD would not have to pay Obamacare on these people. Meanwhile, roughly 33 CARD management employees enjoy fully paid packages running as much as $23,000  a year and full retirement at age 55 – for which they pay nothing. 

Walters reports, “Our U-6 rate is 14 percent, down a bit from the recession but still the nation’s second-highest, topped only by Nevada’s 15.2 percent.”

And here’s something I had never heard before – Walters compares our unemployment figure with our employment figure – the “labor force participation rate”. 

“Finally, the true employment picture is affected by the “labor force participation rate,” the percentage of those in the prime working age group (16-64) working or seeking work. Ours is 62.3 percent, the lowest level in 40 years.”

So, “When more than a third of potential workers sit on the sidelines, the official unemployment rate, or even U-6, look much better than they truly are. The true underemployment rate may be closer to 20 percent.”

That sounds more like Chico to me, where most of the people I know are not as employed as they would like to be – construction workers who are not getting 40 hours a week even in this supposed “building boom” we’ve been hearing about, salespeople who are not making enough sales to earn a living, retail workers who are held to less than 30 hours a week because their boss, like CARD, can’t afford Obamacare. 

I talked about the poverty rate in Chico in a recent blog – that’s people living below the poverty level ($24,000/year for a family of four). Chico’s poverty rate is higher that California – 23% compared to 17% statewide. That’s according to

http://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/INC110213/00,0613014

Statistics are tough – we aren’t counting all those street people, this is information given by households to the Census Bureau. “Household” meaning a group living under one roof. We also have the State Franchise Tax Board, the IRS, the Social Service administration and the welfare agencies. According to all those people, Chico is poor by state standards, even with all those public salaries over $100,000/year – it takes a lot of poor people to balance out Mike Ramsey and Mark Orme. 

So, we’re poor for California – according to Walters, California is poor by national standards.

Back to the poverty rate. It’s not only higher than the national rate, but as the California Budget and Policy Center points out, the data indicate that 22.7 percent of the state’s children are living in poverty, and they are nearly a third of all officially impoverished Californians.

As dark as that situation may sound, it’s actually worse. By the Census Bureau’s supplemental poverty measure, which uses broader factors including the cost of living – especially housing – 23.4 percent of Californians are impoverished.

Those data are bolstered by two other factoids. Nearly a third of California’s 39 million residents are enrolled in Medi-Cal, the federal-state health care program for the poor, and nearly 60 percent of K-12 students qualify for reduced-price or free lunches due to low family incomes.

According to the Census Bureau, a lot of Chicoans have no healthcare insurance, more than the state average, so yeah, we have a lot of people who are eligible/enrolled in Medi-Cal. 

I found another “factoid” site when I was looking at all these figures, the California Employment Development Department:

http://www.labormarketinfo.edd.ca.gov/cgi/databrowsing/localAreaProfileQSMoreResult.asp?menuChoice=localAreaPro&criteria=high+wage+occupations&categoryType=employment&geogArea=0621017020&more=More

Above you will find the “High Wage Occupations” in Chico. Are you surprised to find it is mostly doctors and other medical professionals? Of course not, that’s come up before – doctors are the highest tier of the new One Percent who own most of the wealth in America, followed by professional athletes.

Are you surprised to find “Chief Executives” at Number Four in Chico? That includes public and private enterprises. In Butte County as well as Chico, I will throw out a guess – most of these positions are in the public sector, Dave Little just ran an editorial about it.

I would also include the “quasi-public” sector – the utility companies, like Cal Water and PG&E. Cal Water management pay nothing toward their benefits and pension, I haven’t been able  to find out about PG&E. 

The One Percent, vs the Ninety-Nine Percent who are too stupid to get it? 

 

How many ordinances do we need to clean up the park and get rid of the criminals?

15 Sep

Today I had some errands Downtown, so I set off on my bike about 1pm, on the usual trek through lower Bidwell Park and over the creek via various trails, bridges and subways. As the park becomes more overgrown and the trails deteriorate it’s become more of a gauntlet.

I have never liked the subway at Annie’s Glen. I wanted to believe it would encourage more, hmmmm, should I say appropriate use, of that part of the park, and provide a safe passage over a very busy car zone, but I knew it would become a pee-smelling dungeon of horror.

I was trying to get a good picture when a cyclist entered the tunnel and I got out of the way.

I couldn’t get a better picture of the tags, the litter, or the still wet puddles of pee.

The tunnel is dark and the light shining in at the end washes the shot. I didn’t want to stand around down there too long – it stinks, and you have to be careful somebody doesn’t come along and run you over. As I was standing there, a man carrying a dirty back pack and covered in grime himself, slowed to a stop and said “Hi” way too friendly. I got on my bike and left.

The whole park gives me the creeps. Overgrown weeds, stands of dead trees, fallen piles of dead limbs, and overgrown poison oak as far as the eye can see. Long used trails, both paved and unpaved, undermined by gophers.

Here the bike trail is crumbling into the weeds.

Here the paved bike trail is crumbling into the weeds.

 

Broken pavement is dangerous for bikes and pedestrians, a real liability for the city of Chico.

Broken pavement is dangerous for bikes and pedestrians, a real liability for the city of Chico.

I wanted to take more pictures, but I’ll tell you what – I don’t feel safe milling around Bidwell Park by myself, anywhere in the park, any time of day. Every time I stopped to hold my  camera to my face, I could hear some cop saying, “well, you really got to keep an eye out for yourself Ma’am…”  I felt uncomfortable taking my hand off my bike to steady the camera.

It’s not just the park, of course.  How about that sign on the post office annex on Vallombrosa – after it’s been open 24 hours for years, they’re closing it at 10pm, until 7am, “due to security concerns.” How many of our personal freedoms will we end up handing over to these creeps? 

Clean and Safe, a group started by Downtown business owners, in partnership with the city of Chico, Chico Police, Chico Chamber and Downtown Business Association, held a press conference to talk about a general feeling of insecurity around town, the rise in crime, and the filth in our public areas. They’re asking citizens to come out for a creek clean-up this weekend.

I’ve participated in public clean-ups run by Butte Environmental Council, but I feel this has become a job that goes way beyond the scope of a feel-good volunteer weekend. They’re talking about deconstructing homeless camps, dealing with human feces, old bedding and clothes that could be contaminated with bed bugs and scabies, hypodermic needles, and all kinds of questionable debris. 

Here’s a red light – they want all participants to sign a waiver of liability.  BEC has never asked me to sign anything like that. 

I did stop at One Mile to take a picture of the work being done there at the parking lot. They’ve contracted with Butte County sheriff for low-risk “home release” inmates. Wow, this is just the kind of work they should be doing all over the park.

Here at the parking lot at One Mile they've cleaned away non-native species and just plain dead stuff.

Here at the parking lot at One Mile they’ve cleaned away non-native species and just plain dead stuff.

 

Here's a pile of Vinca they've just rolled away - Vinca is non-native, pushes out natives, and makes a great hiding place for rats.

Here’s a pile of Vinca they’ve just rolled away – Vinca is non-native, pushes out natives, and makes a great hiding place for rats.

 

Wow! There's the usual pile of broken beer bottles.

Wow! There’s the usual pile of broken beer bottles at center.

 

Here's our crew - "home-release" inmates from Butte County jail.

Here’s our crew. The guy in the reflective vest is jumping up and down on a pile of stuff they’ve loaded into the dumpster. 

While I love what they’re doing, I wish they would move it along a little. It’s been going on for a few weeks now. These people are obviously not professionals. It’s a physically demanding job, they should have better equipment, better shoes and clothes too. They move like people who are doing it for free. 

Some friends of ours who live in Forest Ranch got their entire five acres swept like this by a professional outfit with industrial power tools, arranged through Butte Fire Safe Council. It cost them $900 and it was done in three days.

Looking at Bidwell Park right now, you see what would be considered egregious fire code violations only 15 minutes into the hills. That park cuts a swath right through some of the most heavily populated areas of our town.

The overgrowth and neglect of public properties just invites camping and other illegal activities being reported throughout the park and other water ways in town.  The park and creeks serve as highways for criminals to predate our neighborhoods. 

Cleaning up their camps just allows them to come back and make a new mess. 

I feel the police need to be more aggressive in their sweeps of these areas. I think they should do a different section of park or water way every day, and use the kind of lines used in cadaver searches – line up arms’ length apart with people from fence to creek, and literally beat the bushes. They should continue this aggressive policy until they stop finding people camping in these areas.  I don’t know what they’re doing, but we keep seeing pictures of extensive, filthy abandoned camps under bridges and other obvious places, camps that were obviously built and lived in over a long period of time, at least a week – but we wait until they leave and then we clean it up?  

 

I’m assuming this is what is behind Clean and Safe’s efforts to get a new ordinance, extending the Sit and Lie ordinance, which was written specifically only for Downtown Chico, to creeks and other public greenways. I don’t know how many ordinances they will have to pass before things get better. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks Maureen Kirk for taking action on the Cal Water rate hike – time to put some heat to Mayor Sorensen’s seat

2 Sep

Third District Supervisor Maureen Kirk has filed paperwork with the CPUC to become a “party” to the recent rate increase application made by Cal Water.  She’s been keeping me informed of the process. Here is a notice about the first hearing on the matter. Of course it will take place in San Francisco.

 

9/21/15
9:00 a.m.
ALJ McKinney
Comr Sandoval

A.15-07-015 (PHC) – In the Matter of the Application of CALIFORNIA WATER SERVICE COMPANY (U60W), a California corporation, for an order (1) authorizing it to increase rates for water service by $94,838,100 or 16.5% in test year 2017, (2) authorizing it to increase rates by $22,959,600 or 3.4% on January 1, 2018, and $22,588,200 or 3.3% on January 1, 2019, in accordance with the Rate Case Plan, and (3) adopting other related rulings and relief necessary to implement the Commission’s ratemaking policies,
Commission Courtroom, San Francisco

The pre-hearing conference is the first open forum in the general proceeding. Its purpose is to determine the potentially affected parties, specific issues, and to develop a preliminary filing and hearing schedule. After the conference, the Administrative Law Judge issues a scoping memo that lists the issues raised during the pre-hearing conference and a schedule for addressing these issues in the general proceeding.

Section (a) of Rule 1.4 of the CPUC’s Rules of Practice and Procedure provides the ways in which an interested person/organization can become a party to a proceeding. 

(a) A person may become a party to a proceeding by:

(1) filing an application (other than an application for rehearing pursuant to Rule 16.1), petition, or complaint; (the term “application is not referring to a form, it is a formal document that the party creates and submits to the CPUC)

(2) filing (i) a protest or response to an application (other than an application for rehearing pursuant to Rule 16.1) or petition, or (ii) comments in response to a rulemaking;

(3) making an oral motion to become a party at a prehearing conference or hearing; or

(4) filing a motion to become a party.

As such, this 9/21 Prehearing Conference is one forum at which Butte County (or any other affected entity) can request to participate as a Party.

I think this is a job for the Mayor, or the Vice Mayor, the City Manager, Assistant City Manager, or some other paid representative of the city. I will send this notice to Mayor Sorensen and City Manager Orme. For one thing, I was just reading over the rules for their travel expenses, and they can afford a lot better hotel than me. For another thing, as elected officials and staffers, they will get a lot better reception from the CPUC people than I would.

I was very disappointed with Sorensen’s limp-wristed motion at last night’s council meeting – a presentation from Cal Water? You mean, an opportunity for Cal Water to pitch the rate hike? 

I informed Mayor Sorensen about the application for this rate hike back in early July, days after it was filed. I sent him the case information and contact information.

Since I informed Supervisor Kirk she’s filed the paperwork to become a “party” and she’s needling the county to apply for “Intervenor” status and formally oppose this rate hike.  

The city of Marysville had a presentation from Cal Water August 18. Directly after that presentation they voted unanimously to apply for “Intervenor” status and formally oppose the rate hike.

Meanwhile Sorensen is only now asking to agendize a presentation?  

It’s time to write those e-mails, tell him we want Intervenor status, we want a formal protest.

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How will Obama’s “Cadillac health plan tax” affect city of Chico?

1 Sep

 

I heard the term “Cadillac Plan” in reference to public and quasi-public pensions and healthcare plans a few years ago. These are “defined benefits” plans – as it was explained to me, this means, the pensioneer is guaranteed payment, no matter the economy. Meaning, we, the taxpayers, are on the hook for these benefits that we were never allowed any oversight in negotiating, no matter that our jobs are headed overseas, and our homes are threatened with foreclosure.

Let’s face it – we never would have agreed to pensions or healthcare benefits for which the employee pays little to nothing, and  we certainly would have chortled and guffawed at pensions of 70 – 90 percent, available at age 50-55. But we weren’t consulted. 

These contracts are still negotiated behind closed doors without public  oversight. They show us what they’re doing, between sessions,  but it’s not like we’re allowed to push some button and throw the whole thing out when it sounds crazy. And how would we know – have you seen the kind of double-talk these things are written in? 

Steady public pressure has made slow changes. “New hires,” meaning those newly hired employees who have never worked for any public agency, are now required to pay 50 percent of their own pension and benefits. The police department has taken in a couple of new recruits from the academy over the last few months, but Chico mostly hires people who are already in the stream, and they are allowed to go on paying 9 – 12 percent.

The police recently agreed to pay 12 percent, up from ZERO percent, only if they were given generous pay raises. Right now they are pushing for a “step system” with automatic salary increases, salary minimums, and “compaction” increases – whenever a subordinate’s salary comes within a certain distance of their supervisor’s salary, the super’s salary automatically increases. Salary increases raise their pension and benefits expenses – for employees who have been “in the system,”  over 30 percent of that expense is shouldered by the taxpayers, the rest still rides on a bucking bronc of a stock market. Cal Pers is demanding more be paid by the employer/employee every year. So far our “fiscally conservative“council majority is allowing the employee to ride pretty cheap, while the taxpayer is expected  to pay more to run along behind the truck. 

Or, in this case, the Cadillac Escalade. 

The other day I finally heard about the “Cadillac Plan Tax.” Wow, how did I miss this? I know, I usually am skeptical of taxes, but this one might just pass the mustard for me. It seems, health care plans worth more than $10,200 for an individual and more than about $27,000 for a family will be subject to a (sit down) 40 percent tax.

Am I hearing, tax the public workers?

That’s what the unions heard way back in 2010. They went to Obama, who gave them a reprieve til 2018. So, that’s why we’ve been hearing about it again – they’re reprieve is about to expire, and the unions are beating the drums to get it dumped. Here’s an interesting article on that, from 2010:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/details-emerge-on-white-house-labor-health-care-agreement

But, here’s the thing. It’s not a tax on public workers, it’s a tax on their employers. Oh, shit – that’s US! Here’s an article I found from about a year ago – the state of Vermont was predicting it would cost them $9 million a year.

http://vtdigger.org/2014/11/24/cadillac-health-plan-tax-expected-cost-state-9-million-start/

And here’s Obama, trying to modify our behavior again:

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20150302/NEWS/150309985

But the tax also was viewed as a way to reduce the number of health plans that have little cost-sharing and premium contributions, which some argue contribute to the overuse of healthcare. President Barack Obama has been quoted as saying the excise tax will discourage “these really fancy plans that end up driving up costs.” Lavish executive-level health plans and collegiate benefit packages, like Harvard University’s, have been oft-cited targets.

But oh oh, he might have got his pants caught on his own pitchfork – 

“However, many collectively bargained policies fall into the Cadillac bracket as well.”

And here’s the truth – public employees pay less and get more than the taxpayers.

The Health Affairs study, published Monday, sought specifics about what kind of health benefit packages unions provide for employees. People with union plans have lesser out-of-pocket obligations and don’t pay as much per month toward their premium as others with employer-based insurance, but the surprise was “the magnitude of the differences for certain things,” said Jon Gabel, a healthcare fellow at NORC at the University of Chicago and one of the study’s authors.

For instance, families in collectively bargained plans paid about $828 per year toward their premium, or about $69 per month, according to the study’s surveyed data. That compared to $4,565 for the average employer-sponsored family plan, or about $380 per month, according to 2013 data from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

I don’t know if this pending doom scenario has caught on yet with our city council. The last time I looked, council members were getting packages in excess of $10,000. They choose the package they want, and only pay 2 percent of their salaries – the mayor only makes about $9,000, so he pays about $180 a year for a policy worth about $21,000.  Other councilors get similar policies but pay less because they make smaller salaries. Who wrote that? Will they pare packages down? Or will we pay more? 

I’ll try to keep an eye on this. 

 

 

Marysville City Council votes unanimously to formally oppose Cal Water rate case – let’s try to get the city of Chico to do same

20 Aug

From our friends at Marysville for Reasonable Water Rates

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Marysville-For-Reasonable-Water-Rates/176321489194208?fref=nf

MARYSVILLE IS LOOKING AT AN EXTRA $846 CAL WATER CHARGE PER HOUSEHOLD/BUSINESS

PLEASE SHARE!!!!!!

First the good news: The Marysville City Council voted 5-0 for Intervener Status in this General Rate Case for Cal Water. That means the City will formally oppose the rate increase. FINALLY the Marysville City Council is taking a strong stand. 

The numbers just didn’t add up in Cal Water’s presentation before the council. They never do. (Like they constantly say the average water bill in Marysville is $39.) The audience and the Council questioned it.

Mayor Samayoa asked some very pointed questions. The Mayor called them on the numbers not adding up. Power Point slides were not matching the words coming out of their mouths. Let’s just say….coming to Marysville does not mean that you are in PO-DUNK, USA. We are not as stupid as they would like us to be.
During the Cal Water presentation they explained that every ratepayer in Marysville will be looking at an extra $846 charge for infrastructure. They tout that they have been serving Marysville for over 80 years. Where has the money gone? To those huge million dollar salaries for their executives? To support the San Jose Corp building? To the Cal Water Shareholders? Obviously not into our pipes and infrastructure.

This $846 charge will be per household/business. It will not pay for a drop of water. It is to pay for repairs and upgrades that should have been done over the past 80 years.

Councilman Simmons asked a very good question. He asked if the other cities that Cal Water is proposing to “combine” with Marysville (as one unit to establish rates) do not meet their conservation quota, does that mean that all of the cities in that unit will be penalized (WRAM etc)? Cal Water did not answer with words. Councilman Simmons’ question was met with silence. So, the answer would be YES!! If another city has major repairs or updates, that would impact the rates in Marysville.

Marysville needs to fight back. We cannot leave that fight up to the City Council. The people have to finally get lathered-up and speak-up. A Formal Complaint to CPUC will take the signatures of 40 plus ratepayers. Are ya ready to sign?

We will begin gathering information for the steps to take back our water system. Stay tuned here for updates.

Wouldn’t it be great if Mayor Mark Sorensen and the Chico City Council would take a stand too? 

Write to Mayor Sorensen at mark.sorensen@chicoca.gov and ask him to agendize this discussion. 

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