Council, CARD board up to no good – Lie Cheat and Steal!

14 Dec

Tomorrow night Chico city council will discuss applying for “Intervenor” status in the Cal Water rate increase application filed last July (CPUC rate case A.15-07-015). I’ve already let them know how I feel, time for you all to do same. 

You can reach them via the clerk, debbie.presson@chicoca.gov

You probably read, the city is under fire in a few directions. According to a study, our employees are among the highest paid in the state. Our desk clerk’s salary compares with cop salaries in the Bay Area, which is an item of concern to more people than just me. If I were a cop in Oakland, and I knew some ditzy bitch who sat on her ass in an office all day was making more in salary than I got paid in total compensation, that would piss me off.

Not to say, cops don’t get paid plenty nice. This whole salary thing is completely WHACKED.

Council is denying Jessica Allen’s claims that they violated the Brown Act, which I think stems mostly from behind doors contract talks. Allen complains the agendas aren’t clear, and she’s right. I get so tired of asking these self-satisfying $taffers to explain stuff – the explanation is usually even more confusing. Like the time Chris Constantin came to one of my Sunday CTA meetings at the library, brought the wife and everything. I thought it was cute the way they got into their rag bag trying to dress down for the common folks. Constantin was very uncomfortable. He was trying to tell me that they needed to wave the two-week sunshine period for the new police contract, saying they needed to get that signed asap to start saving all this money! It was a total load of bullshit, the police budget is bigger than ever now. Of course you might not be able to check on that, because they don’t save the old budgets or contracts on the website. Good luck finding those anywhere. 

We are dealing with liars and cheats,  who steal. Reminds me of the great days of WWE!  I miss Eddie Gurerrero.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lPA050q-GY

Lie Cheat and Steal! Like CPOA!

Tomorrow they will be putting the screw to landlords and tenants when they pass two ordinances that throw out landlord rights and curtail renters’ rights. They will be tweaking the Disorderly Events and Noise ordinances to cut the notice time for property owners. Meaning, by the time you get your mailed notice – and that’s if the county has your correct mailing address on their tax rolls – your tenants could have had a second “event” and you will be summarily charged with any “costs” the police and fire departments decide to rack up in trashing your house. 

You don’t think that happens to good landlords and tenants? How about the time my tenant had less than a dozen friends over to watch a sporting event on tv. When they went back to their cars out on the street at about 11 pm, talking and joshing I’d imagine, the neighbors called the police. Chico PD came over and broke it up, then told the neighbors it was a “gang bang.” Yeah, my tenant was Mexican, and I imagine so were some of his friends. The cops told him his friends couldn’t mill around on the street like that. Well, okay, they’d said. And the following weekend he invited them back over to watch  tv again – you should have seen this tv, it was HUGE. When you put out the bucks for a tv like that, you want to be able to invite your friends.

My asshole neighbor, Pat Brown, who had better have his left on the ready if he ever shows his face to me again, called the cops a second  time. At this time, a week later, neither Mr. Asshole Brown, who had our phone number, nor the cops had bothered to notify us of the first incident. The party was broken up again – again, a bunch of guys yakking at their cars on a public street at 10:30 or 11 pm. This time we got an angry phone call at 7am that next day, from Asshole Brown. He was so loud at the other end of the phone I could hear him in the next room. Then he backed down, he actually apologized, cause you know, he’s the kind of neighbor who acts in anger, because he’s an asshole,  and then wakes up the next day grovelling for forgiveness. 

Maybe he realized, if we went asshole on him, he would be at the asshole end of a lawsuit. So would Chico PD, they already have enough claims of racism against them. 

My husband tells me, don’t worry about this ordinance, we have so restricted our tenants’  in our leases – in fact, today I’m writing up a new addendum. According to this new party ordinance, a “gathering” is 20 or more people. I will have to add a legal addendum restricting my tenants from having gatherings of more than 15 people. Hey, if the cops can do it, I  can do it and will.

Right now I got an Avon Lady. Wow, you know those Avon parties can get swinging out of control.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RcXH4nq2PY

This is an attack on renters’ rights, but I’m with my husband – let the renters come out and fight it for a change. Old Juanita has other irons on the fire right now. 

Wednesday (Dec 16 7pm) brings another public meeting at the CARD center to discuss plans for the aquatic center. CARD director Ann Willmann tells me they will not be including any discussion of Shapiro Pool or the cost estimates to fix it, which are not posted anywhere on their website either. I’ve had it with Willmann, she needs to goooooo. 

Aquatic center proponent Jan Sneed was re-elected to the CARD board with 9,000 votes.  If every one of those voters wrote a check for $1,000, we’d have almost enough money to build the least expensive design that’s been discussed so far. Those estimates go up to $28 million, but wow, wouldn’t $9 million be a start? 

 Willmann has a son on Aquajets, maybe she should open her purse. She could easily spare some money out of her $120,000/year salary, especially since she pays nothing toward her benefits or pension. CARD currently sits under a pension deficit of more than $1.2 million. None of their management pay anything toward their pensions, but expect to receive 70 percent of their salary in retirement. 

And they bitch about the street people with their hands out! 

Hold your purse strings tight, there are scum bags on every corner here.

 

 

 

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City of Chico and County of Butte have applied for “party” status in Cal Water rate increase case – doesn’t “being a party” to something imply you helped pull it off?

9 Dec

I finally got around to writing a letter about the city and the county filing for “Party” status in the Cal Water rate hike. I don’t want to be mean, but you probably feel same – when somebody is a “party” to something, that usually means they helped pull it off. If Chico city council and Butte board of supervisors want any respect out of me (especially after that juvenile remark Doug Teeter made about the protests of his raising his own salary), they need to get off the pot and fight this rate increase.

Here’s what Kern County supervisors were up to while Butte County supes were mulling over their own pay raises:

https://chicotaxpayers.com/2015/09/23/kern-county-supervisors-vote-to-formally-oppose-cal-water-rate-hike-what-are-our-local-elected-officials-doing-about-it/

I post my letters to the editor here in hopes some of you will do same:

Cal Water has applied for another rate increase, as well as consolidation of Chico District with Oroville, Willows and Marysville (CPUC Rate Case A.15-07-015). This consolidation means Chicoans will pay for long-needed repairs in those other districts because the CPUC determined that previous rate hikes proposed for those districts were too onerous. 

These rate hikes are really related to Cal Water’s pension liability, which they will not discuss without a court order.  Cal Water management employees receive “defined benefits” plans for which they pay nothing out of salaries exceeding $100,000/year. 

Both the city of Chico and county of Butte have applied for “Party” status in this proceeding.  “Party” means, they will receive e-mail updates on this case. “Intervenor” status means a formal protest. 

When I looked into applying for Intervenor status, I found this is an onerous process that requires legal counseling.  You have to write your application in legal format, and the smallest error will send it to the round file.  They even expect you to appear at hearings in San Francisco, at your own expense. 

 I’m not a lawyer and don’t have money for the expense related to this process. City and county staff are qualified and more than adequately compensated for this kind of work. 

If you think your water bills are already high, wait til this rate increase kicks in. Write to your city council and board of supervisors now and ask them to stand up to this rip-off.

Enterprise Record trying to push a new aquatic center on us? Get some real reporters down there, will ya Dave?

8 Dec

I wrote a note to Chico Area Rec District Director Ann Willmann complaining she doesn’t notice the “public” meetings far enough ahead – wow, lookee see – here’s the notice for a December 16 public meeting:

Second comment meeting over proposed aquatic center planned

Enterprise Record, Staff Reports

CHICO >> A second public meeting about a proposed aquatic center will be hosted by the Chico Area Recreation and Park District.

The meeting will be at 7 p.m. Dec. 16 at the Chico Community Center, 545 Vallombrosa Ave.

Members of the public who would like to speak about an aquatic center in Chico are invited.

The first meeting was conducted in October by the consultants hired by CARD. Comments were made about the physical layout, possible programs and uses, as well as other CARD programs.

T he t wo me e t i n g s are part of the feasibility study process for the proposed aquatic center. CARD has hired Aquatics Design Group of Carlsbad to perform the feasibility study for about $50,000.

After this second meeting, the consultant will make a presentation to the CARD board about the feasibility of the project, although the issues of cost or how the district will pay for the facility have not been broached.

CARD’s master plan has included the suggestion of an aquatic center for years. Last year, the recreation district determined it would close its swim program at Shapiro Pool, next to Chico Junior High School, because of the poor shape of the pool, which is owned by Chico Unified School District but operated by CARD. CARD owns the other public pool, Pleasant Valley by Bidwell Junior High.

In September, CARD decided to explore how much it would cost to continue operating Shapiro, and hired a pool expert to examine the property. Basically the expert told CARD that the way the facility stands now, it would be a very expensive repair or remodeling project.

Comments regarding the aquatic idea can also be made to CARD General Manager Ann Willmann at annw@chicorec. com or dropped off at the CARD office, 545 Vallombrosa Ave. in Chico

Here’s the problem:

  1. the issue of cost and the issue of how the district will pay for the facility have so been broached. Tom Lando has come right out and mentioned a sales tax increase, and a past consultant raised the issue of placing a bond on district homeowners. Lando ran a survey regarding the sales tax increase and claims people support it, but the survey CARD ran regarding an aquatic center tax came back negative.
  2. the reporter opines that “ that the way the facility stands now, it would be a very expensive repair or remodeling project.” That’s not journalism, and that’s not what the consultant said – he put a price tag of less than $600,000 on the Shapiro remodel. How would you compare that to $10 – 28 million for an aquatic center?  

Who wrote this crap story? I think Laura Urseny wrote it, I’ve been in the ladies room after her, and I know what her crap smells like.  Urseny can’t take criticism, cause she knows it’s true. I’ve criticized her efforts at foisting this pool on the taxpayers, and she can’t take it, so she won’t sign her name to another crap story. As far as I’m concerned, Urseny has become entirely too friendly with agencies like CARD, city of Chico, Chico Chamber – she is so bedded down with these people, she has no objectivity anymore, and has no business calling herself a news reporter.

This is the kind of “campaign” CARD puts up for their aquatic center – nobody really wants to get behind this puppy, cause they know it’s all a bunch of lies. They don’t really intend to build anything folks – they can’t even afford to do the rot work on the Cal Park Pavilion. They need this money to pay the CalPERS deficit, and they need it now. Jerry Hughes isn’t going anywhere, and he still gets a check. Ann Willmann will need a big check to cover her bottom line – $120,000/year in salary, her package costs about $25,000/year, toward which she pays nothing. None of these people have paid anything toward their own pensions, but expect to collect 70 percent of their highest year’s salary, regardless of the shape the economy is in.

I hope you will send your comments to Willmann, and furthermore – ask her how you can view comments made by other members of the public – this is public information and she is supposed to show it to anybody who asks. 

Please write letters to the papers as well. This conversation has been held from the public too long, we need to get it out into the light so people can see what a booger CARD is trying to smear us with. 

Willmann has still not got back to me with the notes from the last public meeting. That is also public information, but see how she drags her feet like a 10 year old when she doesn’t want to do something. 

 

 

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If the city is sincere in helping us fight this Cal Water rate hike (A.15-07-015) , they need to apply for “Intervenor” status

7 Dec

I didn’t watch the last council meeting on tv, but the newspaper mentioned they’d voted to apply for “party” status on the Cal Water Rate increase case (Rate Case A.15-07-015). That’s really not much effort on their part, I’m very disappointed. A “party” can very well be supporting the rate increase. In order to formally protest, you have to get “Intervenor” status. The news story said they might be considering that, but it was pretty lackluster. We need to put a shine on their behinds with some letters/e-mails, get on that will you People.

It’s like watching your child learn to walk. You don’t want to praise or criticize too freely, but it’s hard not to be impatient with these people who expect to get the kind of salaries they get.

http://publicpay.ca.gov/Reports/Cities/City.aspx?fiscalyear=2013&entityid=79

Would you look at those salaries and comp packages – Mark Orme gets an $82,000 package, in addition to his $225,000/year salary? How can a person who takes that kind of compensation be sincere in helping us out of our financial problems? Mark Orme doesn’t care about our water bill. 

But, according to the $taff report for last week’s meeting, he does care about this bill

 

DSC08174

 

 

 

 

 

This is a summary of the city's Cal Water charges for July 2014 - yeah, that's $29,000 for a month of Cal Water.

This is a summary of the city’s Cal Water charges for July 2014 – yeah, that’s $29,080 and some odd cents for a month of Cal Water. The total check was almost $35,000.

This bill is what I'd call a "pant loader".

This bill is what I’d call a “pant loader”.  There’s Chris Constantin, spending our money.

How does the city use so much water?

 

Each address where the city uses water has separate billing. Here's a $440 bill for irrigating medians out at Cal Park. For one month!

Each address where the city uses water has separate billing. Here’s a $440 bill for irrigating medians out at Cal Park. For one month!

 

Here's the bill for the lawns along one side of Lower Bidwell Park.

Here’s the bill for the lawns along one side of Lower Bidwell Park.

 

DSC08186

Here's the bill for irrigating the medians at Forrest and Springfield. A few months earlier I had called in to report those sprinklers were running all over Forrest Avenue and $taff acted like they didn't even know they had sprinklers on Springfield Drive.

Here are two bills for irrigating the medians near Forrest Ave and  Springfield Drive. A few months earlier I had called in to report those sprinklers were running all over Forrest Avenue and $taff acted like they didn’t even know they had sprinklers there.

 

Hutchinson Greenway?

Hutchinson Greenway?

 

Here's the water bill for all those showers at the Taj Majal fire station on Manzanita. One year the gas bill from showers at the cop shop put the police overbudget.

Here’s the water bill for all those showers at the Taj Majal fire station on Manzanita. I once listened to ex-finance manager Jennifer Hennessy report that the gas bill from showers at the cop shop put the police over budget. 

 

Wait a minute - here's the other half of that bill - over $1200/month to shower a bunch of guys who might put out a fire once a week?

Wait a minute – here’s the other half of that bill – over $1200/month to shower a bunch of guys who might put out a fire once a week?

 

I have other bills for this period. Last year I asked to view the city’s PG&E and Cal Water bills for this period, and took pictures with my little digi-cam. They would have charged me per page to have copies – don’t go for that, they include stuff you don’t need, blank pages, and charge you for it. This digi-cam was one of the best investments I’ve ever made. 

These bills are for 2014, when we already knew we were in a drought and Cal Water was making dire warnings of rate increases, water rationing, punitive fines, etc.  I’ve seen the city waste water on landscaping for years – look at the beds at City hall on a dry day, you will see water run-off. I saw stains from water run-off all around the flower beds when I went to a meeting last week. I’ve turned off my sprinklers over a month ago, the city is still running sprinklers on their flower beds, what, every day? 

To see this kind of waste on the part of our city leaders  when Cal Water is threatening and fining homeowners for watering a postage stamp lawn is very discouraging.

I would like to go down and get the bills for the same period this past July/August, but I don’t know when I will have time. I’ll try to do it soon, before they throw them out. They’re throwing stuff out hand-over-fist down there these days, nothing like a paper trail to get you in the rear end later.

 

 

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Sewer fund in trouble because of developer fee deferrals, transfers to salaries/benefits/pensions – Constantin says we have to raise fees now to avoid big fee increase in future?

3 Dec

Chico Assistant City Manager Chris Constantin assured a group of $taff, council members, and a few members of the public that our sewer treatment plant is in great shape – in the same breath he mentioned a sewage spill at Chico airport. What?  

Constantin was walking a fine line at yesterday’s Finance Committee meeting, trying to assure us that there was no imminent danger, but we better make a plan anyway, so we don’t have any more situations like the above (very quickly mentioned) spill. Not only do we need to maintain our sewer plant, but we need to plan for future hook-ups. He says 20 percent of incorporated Chico is not on sewer, and we need to plan to accommodate those households. I don’t know whether he expects people to hook up voluntarily, or if he is urging some sort of mandate, but he does not seem to think our gazillion dollar poopy ponds will be able to handle it.

He says we need some sort of regular fee increase schedule to avoid big increases in future. 

Yeah, I know – he says this was a concern before we even discussed hooking Paradise to our system. But the council went ahead and told Paradise to “look into it.”  “Look into it” meaning tens of thousands in consulting fees, but whatever, it’s not their money.

Constantin mentioned “nitrates”, as if that is the main concern in getting people to hook up to Chico sewer.

My mom gave me these. She used to go to a lot of these meeting too.

My mom gave me these. She used to go to a lot of these meetings too.

Constantin’s daddy must have been a glass maker, cause I can see right through that guy. It is NOT about the nitrates. That’s the excuse they used to get that grant to run all those lines into certain neighborhoods in town, higher density neighborhoods where they SPECULATE nitrates would be high. They have no proof, no report, nothing that says nitrates are polluting our drinking water. They do have plenty of paperwork involving the old dry cleaning establishments and gas stations around town, but those lawsuits ended up in the turnip patch.

Again people, it’s the Pension Deficit.

I have a stack of financial reports next to me – I’m not an accountant, these spread sheets look like something you’d find in the bathroom after a KISS! concert. I’ll tell you one thing I know – parentheses around numbers mean “shortfall”, “deficit”, – FUND EMPTY and still being used. There are parentheses all over our budget reports, enclosing figures in the hundred thousands and even millions. Millions of dollar of deficit in these funds, and where did it go?

You got to follow those walnut shells People, you’re getting kinda slack. $taff has learned to spin the wheel on us, move money from one pile to another so fast we can’t keep track. In fact, I think council can barely hold on themselves.

Yes, we’re in trouble. Chico is going to become a very expensive town to live in – I know, that’s already happened with the price of homes, which carries up the price of everything else with it. We need to start thinking, not only about all the tax campaigns that are rolling at us, but who we will support for council in 2016. We’ve got a mess on that dais. We have four spend-thrift “fiscal conservatives“, and then we have three liberals who don’t seem to have a clue either. They all spend other people’s money like it grows on trees.

Sheesh! 

The other thing we need to think about is, do we want to go all the way and make Chico Taxpayers a PAC? Right now it’s a registered  website, a discussion  site, but we can go all the way and  register it a PAC – that is what we need to get any respect out of the county recorder so she’ll give us the registered  voters’ list. She says only PAC’s can have the list, that’s her rule. This whole thing is pretty stacked against “grass roots” involvement. If we want to make an impact in 2016, we might want to think about it.

 

 

 

 

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No Kidding – our city is headed for deep doo-doo

29 Nov

I sent the letter below last Saturday, I had to resend, although Dave Little excused himself – “just a lot of letters in the queue”  Sure, okay, at least he printed it before this item goes to council.

There’s another Finance Committee meeting scheduled this coming week. They will pick up the conversation they left in the “workshop” I’m speaking of below. This time they will talk about how developers have got off without paying sewer fees, and how the sewer fund has been in arrears for years. From the staff report, available here:

http://www.chico.ca.us/document_library/minutes_agendas/finance_committee/12-2-15FCAgendaPacket.pdf

“For over a year, City staff have highlighted the impact of reduced revenues received from development for sewer capacity fees. As a result, the City’s general sewer operating account has picked up the significant annual loan obligations required to pay the state for the capacity expansion made to the sewer treatment plant.”

Yeah, I’ve been following this conversation – what they don’t mention is, like the Private Development Fund, the Sewer Fund has been dipped into to pay salaries, benefits and pensions for people who have never even been in the neighborhood (where property owners complain they are being eaten by flies from the poorly managed plant, staff admitting they dump raw sewage in the Sac River during heavy rainstorms…)  They don’t mention the constant tug-o-war going on between the sewer operation and M&T Ranch – both suck water out of the river for operations, which has left City of Chico leach lines “on the rocks” on several occasions, leading to millions in repairs paid by taxpayers.

Our sewer plant is a disaster, but city of Chico keeps trying to hook more people up, cause they want those fees to pay – you got it – the Pension Liability.  Now they are holding a carrot out to Paradise? Wow, this is just getting surreal. 

So, I’m just glad Little finally decided to run my last letter, I already feel another one forming in the old Brain Pan.  I wish you folks would write too. Our biggest question being – all these years you been letting the developers off, you been charging private homeowners by frontage – meaning, the length of your property that meets the street. Developers pay a flat rate – why not homeowners? Here we been subsidizing development for years, and the fund is still RED.  

$taff has been embezzling. I realize, the developers have been getting a better deal than we have, but we all been taking a screwing from $taff. 

My letter, run this morning:

A consultant’s report given to the city Finance Committee says homeowners pay about 130 percent of the true cost of building permits while for-profit developers pay less than the cost of services they receive  from the city. But this is not the entire reason for a $9 million deficit in the private development fund. 

Consultant Chad Wolford explained, while we cut our workforce heavily, we failed to cut “overhead” – that is, the management positions that take most of our budget. 

Next door, the Internal Affairs committee tackled the subject of civility as I watched our mayor attack a local developer who came to the podium to question the allocation of a $6 million pension deficit on the private development fund. Mayor Mark Sorensen listed two other options – “keep moving in your direction…racking up a million dollars a year in debt…” he told Pete Giampoli.  Sorensen’s other option was to take the money out of the General Fund, already empty because of such transfers. 

The unspoken option is  cut management positions. One recently hired finance department employee, salary over $100,000, attended the meeting for no apparent reason.  He gave no report, sat in the audience, and left the building several times during the meeting. 

This is why we’re in trouble – we have too many redundant positions, getting over $100,000 in salary and paying little toward their benefits. Most of our management employees are longtime CalPERS participants who pay less than 10 percent of their pension premiums. 

Juanita Sumner, Chico

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Cal Water being generous with ratepayers’ money

29 Nov

From today’s Enterprise Record:

Water provider brings blessings to families

On behalf of the families who are living and changing their lives at our Esplanade House Program, the Community Action Agency would like to express its appreciation to California Water Service for its generous donation of $3,000. Because of their commitment to community, our families get the opportunity to receive holiday food baskets.

Many of our families have been separated from their extended families during the holiday season. The joy brought by simply providing a holiday meal is immense. Our families are amazing as they work to overcome poverty, addiction and mental health issues while increasing their self- sufficiency and bonding with their children.

Thanks again to Cal Water for blessing our families over the holidays.

— Thomas Tenorio, Chico

Tom Tenorio is with Esplanade House. As much as I feel we need Esplanade House, I have not liked the management for a long time. I think they squander money on salaries that could get more families in, but that’s difficult to assess since they don’t post their salaries and they get very defensive when you ask.

I’ve seen Tenorio at meetings. At the Local Governments Committee meeting he made a little speech that didn’t say anything, just made the meeting longer, about what a great community we live in.

Does he have any idea what he’s talking about? Does he realize, that $3,000 came out of our bills? Does he pay his own water bill? Does he have any idea what the Esplanade House pays for water?  Does he think for 30 seconds what water rates are doing to families right now? The utility companies are impoverishing whole communities to pay pensions for people who make salaries in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

Having met Tenorio on various occasions, I’d say, he’s carrying a bowl of jello between his ears.  He’s another one of those snout-nosed trough dwellers who gets a salary for “caring” about the poor, but doesn’t have any concern for the people who pay for all this generosity until they end up on the street. 

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28 Nov
Here's a good tip for a Winter cold - throw some lemon sections in a cup, add a teaspoon of honey and some hot water.

Here’s a good tip for a Winter cold – throw some lemon sections in a cup, add a teaspoon of honey and some hot water.

 I am stuck inside with a cold today so thought I might go over this “Fair Healthcare Pricing Act of 2016.” 

http://www.oag.ca.gov/system/files/initiatives/pdfs/15-0101%20%28Affordable%20Healthcare%29.pdf

I’m not a lawyer, but this is mostly plain English. A little repetitive – gotta cover all the bases. I see a limit of 25 percent profit over “costs” and a demand for refunds to patients who are found to pay more than 25 percent over “costs”. The operative word here being, “costs.”  We have to trust the hospital to tell us the true cost of their services?

What I like about this bill is “Public Availability of Charge Setting Methodology.” 

“Public Availability of Charge Setting Methodology. (a) Within 210 days of the end of a hospital’s fiscal year ending on or after January 1, 2018, a hospital shall report the following information to the department: (1) Total patient care expenses; (2) Total private payer patient care expenses: (3) Actual qualifying losses: (4) Qualifying expenses: (5) Reasonable and allowable costs in each of the categories set forth in paragraphs (1) and (2) of subdivision (k) of Section 1339.616; (6) Qualifying reimbursements; (7) Revenues received in each of the categories reflected n paragraphs (1), (2), and (3) of subdivision (l) of Section 1339.616; (8) Total charges; and (9) Any refund made pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 1339.611. (b) The department shall make the information provided pursuant to subdivision (a) available to the public upon request.”

Now we already have the Patient’s Bill of Rights, which is supposed to be posted in plain sight of any patient who is brought into the hospital. It says, among other things, you can ask what the services are going to cost you – their price – and they have to tell you. That’s how I found out a room at Enloe was about $7,500/day when my husband was sick. I wondered, at what they pay nurses these days, how they could justify that.

 

I found out, prices are already available on the State of California website:

http://www.oshpd.ca.gov/Chargemaster/default.aspx

The Chargemaster is a list of services and prices charged at a hospital. Just type in “Enloe” and you will find information dating back to 2005. Don’t be intimidated – I was confused as to the descriptions given the various services. I just had to look until I saw something I understood. “Boarder” or “Room” obviously refers to a room charge, with different charges for different levels of care.  A “CCU” or “Critical Care Unit” – is listed at $12,883. That’s per day. And that does not include a lot of stuff – read on – some of these charges are per minute.

I did see an item I recognized – a special kind of baby bottle called a Haberman Feeder. The nipple is made to mimic the function of the human nipple, and is supposed to be easier for new babies, particularly those born with any kind of mouth issues or general weakness, to get their nourishment. They also claim to keep babies from swallowing too much air and suffering colic.  I found these bottles on line, priced between $27 and $36. Playtex has similar bottles and sells “starter kits” with five bottles each for about $22.

The hospital charges $66 for one Haberman Feeder.  That’s almost 100 percent mark-up – more if you get the sale price, or say, buy them by gross, like Enloe does. And why not Playtex? Playtex has been making these specialty bottles since before I was born, and offers all kinds of choices ranging in price. Why the spendier bottle, and why nearly 100 percent mark-up? 

This is why we need some legislation to control the prices hospitals are charging. I’ll have to finish reading the whole measure, but so far I like what I’m seeing. 

 

 

 

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Can we save Enloe Hospital? Interesting new measure, “Fair Hospital Pricing Act,” heads for 2016 ballot

28 Nov

I know it’s not even Christmas yet but Election 2016 is coming around fast.  Because of low turnout in the last couple  of elections, fewer signatures are required on petitions, and we might expect a record number of measures up for our approval or disapproval.

Reading Dan Walther’s column recently I found this measure posted – “The Fair Healthcare Pricing Act of 2016.” 

http://www.oag.ca.gov/system/files/initiatives/pdfs/15-0101%20%28Affordable%20Healthcare%29.pdf?

What a mind-blower – “State data reflect that private hospitals operating in this State, on average, charge patients 325 percent above the actual cost of providing health care, and some private hospitals charge more than 800 percent above the actual cost of the care provided.” 

Furthermore, “patients who are uninsured and underinsured often pay far more than insurers and health care service plans. The result is that unreasonably high hospital charges disproportionately affect uninsured and underinsured individuals and families.”   Yes, contrary to many liberal claims, the uninsured are not leeches, but end up paying more than the insured. 

The first question that enters my mind is, where does Enloe stand here? Closer to the 325 or the 800? 

What I know about Enloe is that 10 years ago they were charging $7,000/hour for ER treatment, and charging for entire hours instead of real time – meaning, if you came in at 11:30 and left at 12:15 you paid for two hours. Rooms were $7500/day, and that’s for half the room, private rooms were more.  I have that ER charge on paper, a total of $15,000 in charges for about a 55 minute visit to the ER.  I got the room charge from a woman in the billing department – I remember how she had a hard time spitting it out, I could tell she was shocked by the price herself. 

That was 10 years ago, I can’t find that information now. You have to go down there, they don’t have a phone number you can call and you won’t find anything on their website. They are very evasive about their pricing, that is, until you wake up from surgery and there’s a hospital rep sitting next to your bed, telling you he or she is there to “help you” figure out how you will pay your bill. A friend of mine is hooked for life – told he had cancer, what could he do? They attached his house, now he will pay that half-million dollar hospital bill on his mortgage for the rest of his life, after having paid his mortgage down to less than $30,000 before the incident. I don’t want to ask him if he feels lucky to be alive as he hauls it out to go to work at 6am, 8 – 10  hours on ladders, pushing 60 years old, knowing he has nothing to leave his kids but bills.

Another friend of mine got a call at work out of town that his father was ill and being taken to Enloe. He was at the hospital within four hours – his dad already owed $17,000 and had not even got a diagnosis of any kind.  The old man wanted to go home, the doctors told my friend they couldn’t tell him anything unless the old man  stayed the night. Whammo – $35,000 by noon the next day.

My husband racked up almost $80,000 in charges over a weekend.

Yeah, I know – anecdotes. Well, I bet you could get similar “anecdotes” from just about anybody who has two dimes to rub together to pay for a doctor. Thanks to Obamacare, my family is no longer welcome at the hospital, we don’t have insurance. There is no more “deal” – in past, if you could pay 10 percent within 30 days, that was it. That’s what the insurance companies pay, but they get a lot longer than 30 days. Now you must have insurance or you can be refused service. You  can’t even get into Immediate Care without your SSN, I don’t care if you’re waving a fistful of hundred dollar bills.  Obamacare is a disaster for the working class.

Here we call it “Covered California,” which is a crack-up after the report I read recently that says nobody is signing up, so California is hardly “covered.” My family was hit for $800/month, with a $12,000 deductible – who would buy that?  We could actually have taken a subsidized plan – The Bronze Plan, which I like to call “The Mr. Shit Plan.” That plan will not even get a person into Enloe, I’d say, you better head for O-ville, stat!

A friend of mine who worked at Enloe Hospital in a higher level position told me CEO Mike Wiltermood, whom he knew personally,  “makes about a million dollars.” He wasn’t exaggerating, that’s the normal compensation package for these people who do nothing to serve the patient. For years I tried to get Wiltermood to tell us his salary – he would not answer, instead attacking my credibility, telling people, “consider the source…“, meaning, me.  Consider the source? Of a question? Why can’t he answer? Cause  he does make “about a million dollars,” that’s not uncommon in a business where the customer is typically charged 325 to 800 percent of the cost of service. That gross overcharge pays Wiltermood’s salary, benefits and pension.  

I have not finished reading “The Fair Pricing Act,” but I will study it. These measures are tricky, it’s essential to read this stuff. It’s also a good idea to check out the people behind it. 

All I could find on Roberta B. Johansen, the woman who sent the initiative to the Attorney General for review, is that she backed “The Economic Recovery Tax Relief Act” in 2005, which, among other things, sought to eliminate tax loop holes for wealthy people and lower state sales tax. I have no idea whether this measure made the ballot, or,  if so, how it did, but that’s something we know about Roberta B. Johansen. She’s also a generous donor to UCSF hospital. 

This will take more snooping, but I think it’s worth it. Like the measure says, “Excessive hospital charges are a leading cause of bankruptcy and financial distress among uninsured and underinsured individuals and families. “

The poor management of Enloe Hospital undermines the health of our community, physically, financially, and spiritually.  We need to take our hospital back, maybe this is one way to do it. 

In loving memory of Dr. and Mrs. Joseph Chiapella.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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City of Chico discusses filing for ‘Party’ status in Cal Water rate increase case; let’s encourage them to go all the way and file for ‘Intervenor’ status

25 Nov

The agenda for next week’s city council meeting (Dec. 1) includes a proposal for the city to file for “Party Status” in the rate increase case filed by Cal Water last July.  Here is an excerpt from the report:

California Water Service Company (Application No. 15-07-015) California Water Service Company (“Cal Water”) filed an application with the California Public Utilities Commission to increase rates and consolidate the Chico district into a proposed “Northern Region.” This memorandum seeks City Council authority to become a party in the pending application.

Cal Water provides water service to the City and its residents. Cal Water is requesting water rate increases for years 2017, 2018 and 2019. The proposed increases are 19.1%, 1.6%, and 2.8% respectively.

The proposed rate increases would impose a significant burden on the City, as a customer of Cal Water. The rate increases would also impose an undue hardship on City residents. As a Cal Water customer and on behalf of its residents residing in the Chico district, the City has an interest in minimizing the proposed rate increases.

In addition, Cal Water is seeking to consolidate its Chico, Oroville, Marysville and Willows districts as the proposed “Northern Region.” The proposed consolidation affects City and its residents because the City is one of the districts to be consolidated. If consolidation is granted, Cal Water requests rate increases of 20.3%, 1.7% and 2.4% for years 2017,2018 and 2019 respectively, for the combined Chico and Oroville districts within the Northern Region. lf consolidation is granted, the City, as well as Oroville residents, will shoulder an even higher burden than that which is requested in Cal Water’s general rate increase.

Although Butte County has joined as a party, the City’s specific interests are not adequately represented. The City’s participation will be relevant and beneficial to the proceeding.

CONCLUSION / RECOMMENDATION It is recommended the City Council direct staff to file a Motion of City of Chico to Become a Party

“Party Status,” unfortunately, just means the city, along with the county, are on the notice list of events in the eventual raising of our rates. In order to make a formal protest, they must file as “Intervenors,” but I can’t seem to convince them of that.

Please write to council and the supervisors and ask them to take that further step. Be nice – you get more flies with honey than vinegar. 

Chico City council can be reached by way of the clerk’s website – 

http://www.chico.ca.us/city_council/home_page.asp

Third District Supervisor Maureen Kirk was the first one to respond to my request, she went through a really onerous and ridiculous filing system to get on the Party List right away. Then she asked the board to do so.  She even went to a Chico city council meeting and sat there waiting through a long agenda to make a case for the city to do something.  I sat at home in my snuggies that night, yelling “Go Maureen! Yeeeee-haw!” into my computer screen.  

The CPUC rep that contacted Supervisor Kirk even admitted it would be good to have a lawyer’s assistance in filing the paperwork. I don’t even know if an individual can file for Intervenor status, that’s really a job for the entire board of supervisors. 

Reach them here: 

http://www.buttecounty.net/boardofsupervisors/Home.aspx

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