CARD Aquatic Center Advisory Committee meeting to discuss bids from contractors – Monday, May 11, CARD center, 6:30 to 7:30 pm

8 May

I FINALLY got a notice from CARD staff that there will be an Aquatic Center Advisory Committee meeting, and gosh-golly-gee they will let me attend. Aw shucks – should I get a shave and a haircut? I feel like a debutante!

These meetings are open to the public, it’s just that, well, they don’t tell the public about them, when they are, who’s there, what they discuss. That is so legal, it’s sickening. So I’m telling you – CARD center, 545 Vallombrosa Ave, Monday May 11, from 6:30 to 7:30. They will be discussing the “Draft RFP”. I had to look this up online – ” The Draft RFP (DRFP) is not a formal solicitation tool, rather it is used to gather comments and suggestions from potential offerors.”

I’m going to guess – they’re taking bids? From design contractors? They’ve seen some design proposals, but those were informal. Now they want to take actual bids. It would be a very  good meeting to attend. They’ve put a time limit on it, so try to show up a few minutes before 6:30 so you don’t miss anything.

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PG&E to remove 70 trees along Comanche Creek; Neal Road dump expanding

8 May

Wednesday afternoon I attended the Local Government Committee meeting.  I’ve told you about the garbage franchise discussion, but there was a lot of interesting stuff at that meeting.

About the hottest topic around town right now is PG&E removing 70 trees from the area between Estes Road and the Midway, along Comanche Creek. I only know what I heard – Chico City Manager Mark Orme reported he’d just met with PG&E at the site when he arrived at Wednesday’s meeting. This will be interesting to watch – the same people that just sat there while PG&E jacked our rates to cover their pensions are going to war over the removal of trees. It’s amazing to me what it takes to get people off their dead asses.

That conversation I overheard because Orme felt it necessary to update the various members of council as they arrived for the meeting, including Mayor Mark Sorensen.

Once the meeting was up and running, minutes had been approved, and we heard reports on the garbage franchises from county and city staff, we got a report on a dump expansion. The county will expand the dump at Neal Road to include an “aerobic” composting set-up. They’re negotiating on the property right now, I have no idea how much they are going to spend on this. Paul Hahn was very enthusiastic about revamping and modernizing the dump to collect electricity from methane gas and other wonders, but it all depends on rate increases for customers, that’s the bottom line. And it will depend heavily on Chico – the county is lobbying Chico to force haulers to take Chico trash to Neal Road, this is a huge point. The dump can’t make it without Chico’s trash. According to Mark Orme, everything about the city trash deal is “still in negotiation.” He’s like a cat watching a gopher hole.

What this new expansion will mean, as far as I can tell, is we will be able to dump our food scraps in with our yard waste.  The state is pushing us always to reduce the amount  that  goes into the actual dump. Up until now, the haulers have asked us not to put food scraps in our yard waste bins, for good reason. Food scraps, especially if they include MEAT scraps, don’t compost the same as yard waste, they draw flies and rats and other pests, etc. It has to be sorted, by somebody. It stinks. So, we’ve been asked to put our plate scrapings in the trash, and it’s added to the mountain that was once a canyon. 

Now Mannel says, they will ask customers to put their food scraps in the yard waste bin, and hire people to sort it out by hand.  Mark Sorensen seemed to have a problem with this – he was hung up on the “manual” aspect of this job. See, Mark doesn’t get his hands dirty. He might talk alot about “farm boys,” but he’s never been one. When this topic of sorting out food waste came up at a morning meeting last year, he wouldn’t even discuss it. He said, “those aren’t the kind of jobs we want…” He wouldn’t even hear the woman who came forward with the proposal.

At a time like this, we’ve got Mark Sorensen picking and choosing what kind of jobs we want around here? 

When I asked Mannel about having customers sort their food scraps into an extra bin – alot of people, like me, compost their own food scraps anyway. He indicated this was not an option – he said, “People treat all cans as garbage cans.”  Meaning, the customer cannot be trusted to do the right thing? I couldn’t argue with him, I’m not privvy to what other people put in their cans. I had a conversation years ago with a woman who ran the campus food recycling program – she said she didn’t take table scraps because they included stuff like meat and cigarettes, and she felt uncomfortable asking minimum wage college kitchen staffers to pick through people’s leavings. Mannel has no problem with dump employees sorting through a mish-mash of yard waste and food scraps as it streams by on a conveyor belt. I’m sure they’d be equipped with safety gear. As a housewife it’s no biggee to me, it’s every day life. Sorensen seemed genuinely disgusted with the idea. I see it as “green jobs.” 

So, we’ll keep an eye on the dump, it should be interesting.

The next item of interest was the new Behavioral Health Center, I’ll  pick that up when I get a chance.

 

 

 

Talking heads discuss garbage tax

7 May

Yesterday I attended the Local Governments Committee meeting Downtown. I wasn’t able to stay for the whole meeting but stayed long enough to satisfy my curiosity about some issues I’ve been trying to follow. 

In attendance were county supervisors Maureen Kirk and Larry Wahl, Chico council members Mayor Mark Sorensen, Mayor of Vice Sean Morgan and better-never-than-late Reanette Fillmer. There were staffers from the city and the county, including county administrator Paul Hahn and city manager Mark Orme.

These meetings are for staffers to provide updates to representatives of various county and city entities of ongoing issues like the nitrate compliance plan and the garbage franchise.  They are open to the public and the public should try to attend – a good overview of what’s going on, shorter and more to the point than council meetings.  I’m sorry, I mistakenly said they are held monthly – it’s every three months, which is a good schedule, not too often, not too seldom. They include minutes from previous meetings so you can stay up on the conversation.

Yesterday Hahn and Orme both gave reports on their respective garbage franchise efforts. At the county, Hahn made it clear that the main concern is getting enough trash to keep the dump operating, so the franchise includes a provision that trash must go to the Neal Road Landfill. This was a question because Recology owns and operates a dump in Wheatland where they are currently taking Chico’s trash. Trash  from the county now goes exclusively to Neal Road. 

Hahn went on enthusiastically about how they need that money to modernize the dump. I’ve seen improvements at the dump the last few years so I’m willing to believe him. I also appreciate his frankness – he complained, and other county staffers like Bill Mannel complained about Waste Management. They said  their phones “rang off the hook” for about two weeks with complaints about the new trash service, “mostly Waste Management.” Waste Management has no call center in  California – you WM customers knew that already – it’s in PHOENIX! If you’ve had that problem with WM for years, maybe it’s a comfort for you to know they treated your $200,000/year County Administrative Officer like shit too.

And frankly, for an overpaid pencil pusher, Hahn is a very nice and approachable man, that kind of pisses me off. 

The county had  all  kinds of problems with WM, but the one that got people really upset was the change  from weekly recycling and yard waste pick-up to bi-monthly pick-up. After all these years they’ve been telling us we need to recycle and sort our yard waste, they cut service? I can’t believe they thought that would be okay – this whole thing is a Repo-Man grab between the county, the haulers, and the customers, fighting over nickels and dimes because the county is so desperate to keep the salaries paid. That’s why the dump has no money, the are management heavy out there. 

Another problem was private roads. Garbage trucks shred even  paved roads, so a lot of people in Forest Ranch and other rural communities don’t want them on their private roads. The haulers won’t go on a private road anymore without a signed release, they don’t want to be responsible for what their oversized trucks do  to private roads. Bill Mannel says there’s a conundrum here – if the county forces the haulers onto private roads without the release of liability, they will be legally responsible for the roads. But, county money cannot be used to fix private roads. This is also a problem in Chico – I have two private driveways shared with neighbors who bring trucks right up to my gate. I asked Orme about this and he pretended ignorance – there’s private driveways all  over Chico, do people know their rights regarding the damage these trucks are doing to their private property? 

It was refreshing to hear these people talk straight about the problems the average person has every day.  And we have no clout, we have to depend on these happy wanderers to protect us.  Talk about “up Shit Creek without a paddle.”  At least the county is not making service mandatory, they just want whatever trash is picked up to go  to their dump. I don’t think that’s unreasonable – ever follow a garbage truck for 60 miles up Hwy 70? That’s unreasonable. 

Chico City Mangler Mark Orme made it clear that the city’s franchise agreement is about money for the city of Chico. When I asked him if service would  be mandatory for city residents, he wormed  around (I’m going to call that, “Orming”), saying this was still in negotiation with the haulers. But he added, many municipalities require trash service, and the way he said it leads me to believe that’s what he wants. When I asked him about a subsidy for low-income, he said that was in negotiation too.

I wish  I were a lawyer, but I do know, if they try to shove mandatory service on us, they have to have the low-income subsidy,  just like Obamacare. 

I don’t like Mark Orme. He’s out for his own gain, he doesn’t give a crap about this town. 

After the garbage franchise report they went on to discuss a few other interesting topics – I’ll get back to you on those, time to get to work. 

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Local Government Committee – a good meeting for an overview of local government activities – today, 3:30, City Hall Conference Room 2

6 May

Today I will try to make a 3:30 meeting of the “Local Government Committee” – made up of representatives from the various local agencies, city council,  county board of supervisors, CARD, etc. Staff presents reports on issues like the solid waste franchise agreements and other activities of these taxing entities. I’ve realized, if you can’t attend every meeting, this is a good way to keep an eye on county and city business.

At the last meeting in February, for example, they talked about the lack of any kind of mental health facility – like I’ve said, the cops pick up these people around Chico, and have no place to take them but Enloe Hospital. As far as I know, Enloe does not receive compensation for these people.  Enloe constantly complains about uncompensated patients – well, there you have it. Chico PD won’t arrest these people because they don’t want to be responsible for the hospital bill, so they are free to wander out as they please. 

The county has been discussing a new location for a 24 hour facility since the old facility on Rio Lindo was shut down (don’t know when that was). The law says the building has to be in a residential area? Zoning? Not sure, but so far, neighbors have harpooned an attempt to place it on Pillsbury.  Now staff has a location at Cohasset and Rio Lindo “that meets the residential requirements and is in better location surrounded by various facilities and business that serve the public. The County is negotiating with Enloe Hospital for a parcel split. There will be an approximate 120-day escrow period prior to the County obtaining State licensing for the facility which is expected to accommodate 10 residents and have 24 hour staffing.”

So, they are buying land from Enloe? How much will they pay? I’ll have to ask, they will be giving another update today. 

Mark Orme will talk about the city waste hauler franchise – he says they will be ready with that in July. When I sat in on the consultant’s report, he said the deal would have to include mandatory service for all city residents to make it practical for the hauler, but when I asked Chris Constantin about a low-income subsidy he said he couldn’t answer yet. I’ll see if they have that answer today.

Here’s the link to today’s agenda, and a link for the minutes from the February meeting.

https://blu170.mail.live.com/mail/ViewOfficePreview.aspx?messageid=mgg66Fp4Tv5BGb-AAhWthXUA2&folderid=flinbox&attindex=0&cp=-1&attdepth=0&n=22839873

https://blu170.mail.live.com/mail/ViewOfficePreview.aspx?messageid=mgg66Fp4Tv5BGb-AAhWthXUA2&folderid=flinbox&attindex=1&cp=-1&attdepth=1&n=70729173

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Manhattan Institute: California Crowd-out – How rising retirement benefits costs threaten municipal services

3 May

http://www.foxandhoundsdaily.com/2015/05/pensions-leaving-cities-in-holes/

International Workers Day: take a minute to tell your overlords how you feel about their salaries

1 May

If you work for a living, today is your day – Happy May Day.

Traditionally a celebration of Spring and fertility, this day has come to be known as International Workers Day.

Today is a good day to note, most of the wealth in this country is owned by people who never turn a finger.  I’m not a socialist, but I do feel, a small proportion of the people in this country have used criminal means to confiscate public money for their own gain.

Did you know, according to statistics released by the Social Security Administration, 52 percent of all Americans make less than $30,000/year? And, among those who have a job, 40 percent make less than $20,000/ year. 

Who makes over $100,000 in Chico? Public employees. Most of the management at the city of Chico and the county of Butte make well over $150,000/year, some over $200,000 – PLUS BENEFITS.

Who sets their salaries and benefits? Well, they do.  In Chico, city manager Mark Orme negotiates all the contracts, including his own. Council goes with Orme’s recommendation on everything, that way they don’t have to think or be responsible. There’s a city clause that says we can’t hold councilors liable for anything they do. Anything.

It was a previous city manager who set us up for this – Tom Lando engineered that long-ago “Memo of Understanding” that attached city salaries to revenue increases “but not decreases…”  It was a “conservative” led council that signed it. That memo resulted in 14, 19, 22 percent raises for staff over the next couple of years, taking Lando’s salary from about $65,000 a year to over $150,000. Orme is making over $200,000, just in salary.

Dear departed Fred Davis had his finger in it too – ever wonder how that old bird got one of the biggest pensions this city has ever paid out?

Name Employer Warrant Amount Annual
ALEXANDER, THOMAS E CHICO $8,947.23 $107,366.76
BAPTISTE, ANTOINE G CHICO $10,409.65 $124,915.80
BEARDSLEY, DENNIS D CHICO $8,510.23 $102,122.76
BROWN, JOHN S CHICO $17,210.38 $206,524.56
CARRILLO, JOHN A CHICO $10,398.98 $124,787.76
DAVIS, FRED CHICO $12,467.78 $149,613.36
DUNLAP, PATRICIA CHICO $10,632.10 $127,585.20
FELL, JOHN G CHICO $9,209.35 $110,512.20
FRANK, DAVID R CHICO $14,830.05 $177,960.60
GARRISON, FRANK W CHICO $8,933.56 $107,202.72
JACK, JAMES F CHICO $9,095.09 $109,141.08
KOCH, ROBERT E CHICO $9,983.23 $119,798.76
LANDO, THOMAS J CHICO $11,236.48 $134,837.76
MCENESPY, BARBARA L CHICO $12,573.40 $150,880.80
PIERCE, CYNTHIA CHICO $9,390.30 $112,683.60
ROSS, EARNEST C CHICO $9,496.60 $113,959.20
SCHOLAR, GARY P CHICO $8,755.69 $105,068.28
SELLERS, CLIFFORD R CHICO $9,511.11 $114,133.32
VONDERHAAR, JOHN F CHICO $8,488.07 $101,856.84
VORIS, TIMOTHY M CHICO $8,433.90 $101,206.80
WEBER, MICHAEL C CHICO $11,321.93 $135,863.16

When they dumped that MOU, they started paying the “employee’s share” of benefits – the cops have only recently agreed to pay anything, for years they paid nothing toward their own pensions. Only in the last two years have they agreed to pay at all, and now only 12 percent. Come on – 12 percent toward pensions of 90 percent of $100,000+ salaries, starting at age 50?

Management and other employees pay only 9 percent, even Constantin and Orme, who make over $200,000 in salary. We pay the other 91 percent. Wow, that’s like  taking your boss to lunch! Every day! At Johnny’s! 

So, if you bend and sweat for a living, take orders, do stuff that is beneath your dignity just to put a roof over your head, take a minute to turn toward Downtown and extend your middle finger. I’ll be doing that at NOON, let’s try to coordinate, maybe we can levitate City Hall. 

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Utility tax rebates available May 1 through June 30

28 Apr

Starting Friday May 1, the City of  Chico – bless their black little hearts – will be offering the annual “rebate” of  money they’ve been dipping out of your utility bills  all year. You have until June 30 to gather all your bills and your tax return together, and mail or deliver them to the city finance office. Here’s the application with the income requirements:

http://www.chico.ca.us/documents/UUTREFNDApplicationPageupdated.pdf

Remember, the taxpayers were never asked about a Utility Tax – it was mandated by city council back in the 70’s. Scott Gruendl led the charge about 10 years ago to raise it to the maximum 5 percent. If we barnstormed Sorensen and the council now we might be able to get them to lower it back to 3 percent, now that they’ve found all this money ($4.8 million) in the couch cushions. We’ll put that on our wish list under, “Overturn the stupid bag ban.”

Last year Chris Constantin instituted a new policy – you have to leave all your paperwork, and they will review it for a couple of months, then send you a check. They used to give you cash on the spot if your rebate was under a hundred dollars – this is Constantin’s way of belittling people out of reclaiming their stolen money. You can ask for your billing back – last year they actually paid the postage to resend me twelve months of PG&E bills, I can’t remember what it cost them. It also took them about two or three months to get it back to me. 

Yeah, I save all my bills, that’s how I know what kind of screwing we’ve been taking from PG&E. I know, a lot of people prefer to be ostriches – put their heads in the sand. Well, you know where that leaves your ass…

I even have copies of a month’s worth of the city’s PG&E bills, from last year. I’m waiting to go down and get the billing for the same month 2015. I’ll let you know what I find.

People who aren’t curious about this kind of stuff might as well paint a bull’s-eye on their rear end, as far as I’m concerned. 

We only have about $50 coming, so my husband had to ask, “Why bother?”  I reminded him, they just take it from our utility bills. I’m sick and tired of the taking.  I’d go in for that rebate if it was 5 cents, just to tell Chris Constantin, “you’re a thief, little man, you steal from the poor to line your nest!” 

I hope that gets in his guts, I hope it eats a hole the size of an SUV. 

 

 

Do your research on CARD budget, come to some meetings – we need to shut down their tax grab before it gets out of the gate

26 Apr

Chico Area Rec District (CARD) is going to be mounting a phone campaign, I’d say within the next couple of months, maybe sooner, to get the public to support a tax measure. They say the money will go toward a new aquatic center, but we’ll have to wait for the details. If they put the money in the General Fund it can be used for anything, including their pensions.

At the last board meeting I attended, the board approved the hiring of a consultant to conduct the phone campaign, we’ll see how long that takes. I will try to keep an eye on these meetings – regular board meetings are held once a month, on a Thursday around the 15th of the month. Board agendas are posted  on the website, in advance, so it’s easy to keep an eye on them.

http://www.chicorec.com/About-Card/CARD-Resources/Board-of-Directors/index.html

They are supposed to notice me if they have an Aquatic Facility Advisory Committee meeting, but there’s all kinds of ways to get around the notice list, as I’ve seen over the last couple of years. Who cares about me anyway – the entire community needs to be in on this conversation, and  they need to do a little research to avoid being hood-winked. Here’s a letter I wrote about it to the Enterprise Record:

Last year Chico Area Recreation District announced that Shapiro and Pleasant Valley pools had fallen so badly into disrepair they would be closed in 2016.

They’ve talked for over a decade about a new aquatic facility but excessive management salaries and fully paid benefits and pension have caused financial problems. In 2013 they cut staff hours to make a $400,000 “side fund pay-off” to CalPERS for management pensions.   At an “emergency” meeting April 2, interim director Steve Visconti told the board, “with day-to-day operations, and all these projects, it’s really hard for staff…they are spread so thin…”  

CARD spent $25,000 surveying property owners in 2013 but the bond consultant reported “no support” in the community for an aquatic center, suggesting they mount a campaign to change public sentiment. CARD formed a committee that met without public scrutiny for over a year, contacting designers and other consultants. At the April 16 board meeting, former CARD director Jerry Hughes and Aqua Jets president Brad Geise recommended  a $30,000 phone campaign to convince taxpayers they need to pay for this project. The board approved. 

I’d like to caution the public – do some research on your own before you answer any questions.  CARD budgets, reports, and minutes of their past meetings are available on their website, under “Resources”. The State Controller website shows the salaries and compensation packages:  http://preview.tinyurl.com/nzn3n8c

Juanita Sumner, Chico CA

I don’t know if that link for the State Controller worked, here’s a regular link to that website:

http://publicpay.ca.gov/Reports/SpecialDistricts/SpecialDistrict.aspx?fiscalyear=2013&entityid=1875

CARD management pay nothing toward their benefits or pensions.

When I talk to my friends who have grown up in Chico they are floored to find out CARD is closing Shapiro and Pleasant Valley pools.  I took my kids to those pools for five or six years, and they were packed full for both the CARD swimming lessons and the “rec swim” every afternoon. I remember when people had to line up at 7am on Saturday mornings to sign their kids up for swim lessons, and they would, bringing drive-thru coffee and lawn chairs, staking out the line at 6:30 am three or four Saturdays every  summer.

The pools declined before our eyes. They  had needed to enlarge and update the restrooms at both pools for years, but nothing was done. I watched the same maintenance man lumber between both pools, cursing the equipment as he mended this and monkey-rigged that, trying to keep things running. I remember him admonishing the pool staff – “if you hear  that pump making that noise again, you shut it down!”

One day I listened to a contractor tell the manager at PV pool that the  pool had a crack, that’s why it wouldn’t heat, it was leaking too fast. He said it could be fixed for $2500. The manager responded he didn’t think CARD would pay for it, they wanted to build a new pool. I thought he meant, a new pool at that site, I didn’t know about the proposed aquatic center. Aqua Jets ended up leaving over that crack, taking their business to In Motion Fitness. I believe that loss of revenue really hurt CARD.

Sure, CARD management wants a new pool, but they know it won’t happen for years. Kids whose parents support this thing will not use it. They know most of the revenue will be eaten by administrative costs – their salaries, benefits and pensions. They also know the cost will climb steadily, probably double or triple the $10 – 18 million estimate range  consultant Greg Melton put on it. They know, it may never even happen.

I’ll keep you posted on the phone campaign.

 

 

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Huntington Beach has overturned their bag ban – “the citizens of Huntington Beach are adults and deserve to be treated like adults who can make their own choice”

22 Apr

I think people in Huntington Beach California hit on an important point here – we are adults, and deserve to be treated like adults who can think for ourselves. The bag ban was “heavy handed government,” and not based on hard science, but on the hysteria of a few environmental zealots. Here’s an article from last January, when Huntington Beach council began the process of overturning their ban. Like Chico, they’d had a turnover in their November election, the councilors who’d strong-armed the ban onto the public were ousted. 

http://fighttheplasticbagban.com/2015/01/22/huntington-beach-city-council-votes-to-repeal-plastic-bag-ban/

The bag ban was clearly behavioral modification, and that’s not what we need out of our government. When God scratches, “thou shalt not use plastic film bags…” on a rock, and throws it through the windshield of my car, I’ll pay attention.

Yeah, now I’m wondering about Sorensen and his posse. We’ll have to see what happens in 2016 when the state bag ban ban goes up to the people. For a change.

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No wonder the county behavioral health department can’t recruit people

22 Apr

I noticed this ad in the online Chico Enterprise Record. Butte County is looking for Behavioral Health workers. The Behavioral Health department is responsible for collecting “people who are a danger to themselves or the public” from Enloe Hospital when they are brought there by Chico PD, and transporting them to the mental health facility on Rio Lindo.   The county has three open positions:

Supervisor, Behavioral health clinician – $51,981 – $69,660 annually

Behavioral Health Clinician III – $49,476 – 66,304 annually

Behavioral health clinician II – $47,092 – 63,108 annually

You’ll find descriptions of duties here:

http://agency.governmentjobs.com/ventura/default.cfm?action=specbulletin&ClassSpecID=731127

http://www.mindspringshealth.org/careers/clinician-iii/

Please note – hirees are expected to deal, hands on, with “people who are a danger to themselves or the public.” Are they serious with these salaries – our city clerk makes over $135,000/year, plus benefits and pension, but they expect these employees to deal with “people who are a danger to themselves or the public” for less than $70,000 a year?

I did some investigating online – look what I found – an ad posted two years ago! same position!

http://www.counties.org/job-opportunity/behavioral-health-clinician-iii

Is it really surprising the county can’t fill these positions? A couple of years back they received a million dollar grant, most of which went to two salaries, one of them for a guy who doesn’t even set foot in Butte County – he supervises the other employees online? I think the supervisors need to pull their heads out of their frackasses on this one.

Chico PD has long complained about having to deal with “crazy” people. They are trained for a week at Butte College, that’s it. With that training they are expected to be able to tell the difference between the mentally ill and the consummate bullshitter. Would they know if they had a case of diabetes shock or multiple sclerosis on their hands? Not sure.  I know they’ve used this ill-placed responsibility to demand more money every time the contracts come around the pike. 

Let me point out – Chico PD officers are required very little college, paid average salaries over $100,000, plus overtime, benefits and pension at 90 percent of their highest year’s pay, at age 50. Oh yeah, and then there’s the gun.

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