Mayor Sorensen, I never said you got any money from the cops, I said they spent money electing you, and all it takes is one look at the reports to see the truth

20 Apr

 

Letter: ‘Police department money’ not a factor in election
POSTED: 04/18/15, 9:23 PM PDT |0 COMMENTS
Juanita Sumner’s reference to thousands of dollars of “police department money” influencing the 2014 Chico City Council campaign is simply false.In truth the Chico Police Officers Association (CPOA) spent a whopping $100.50 in the 2014 election to pay to rent the Council Chambers for a candidate forum which was open to the public.

In my 2014 campaign I received exactly $0 from the CPOA; $0 from Chico police officers, past or present; $0 from labor unions; and received $0 “police department money.”As for the independent expenditure committee (which had a former police chief as a figurehead and the issues of rising crime and dwindling police staffing among its concerns), it received exactly $0 from the CPOA; $0 from Chico police officers, past or present; $0 from labor unions; and $0 “police department money.” As always, all of the documentation is public record and is posted on the city website.

— Mark Sorensen, Chico

Here’s my letter Mark, read it again, LIAR!

 I was shocked by Chico councilwoman Reanette Fillmer’s ill-conceived and insensitive remark about approving another $1.46 million to Chico PD. She said, “you get what you pay for.”

Fillmer is mistaken – she gets what the taxpayers pay for.   Fillmer’s 2014 campaign was the run with 10’s of thousands in police department money. Now she, Sorensen and Coolidge, also the beneficiaries of generous donations from the police, have approved a new contract that allows more pay increases over the coming years. 
This is a clear conflict of interest, as pointed out by former city council candidate and one-time administrative law judge Joe Montes.  Montes dropped out of the 2014 campaign under mysterious circumstances, something about some other, unnamed people convincing him not to run. His charges of conflict of interest were never taken seriously. 
Fillmer is rude and insensitive to the taxpayers, obviously  knowing who  butters her bread. Will we get any accountability out of a council beholden to  public employee unions? I don’t think so.

Juanita Sumner, Chico CA

Here’s the link to the clerk’s campaign reports:

http://www.chico.ca.us/city_clerk/campaign_disclosure_files/currentyearcds.asp

Here’s the link to ex police chief Mike Maloney’s PAC reports:

http://www.chico.ca.us/city_clerk/campaign_disclosure_files/documents/ChicoCitizensCampaignDisclosureForms_Redacted.pdf

Here’s what it says right at the top of Form 496:

Chico Citizens for Accountable Government, supporting the election of Fillmer, Sorensen and Coolidge for Chico City council 2014

Mike Maloney is a retired cop who sits on a pension of over $100,000/year, plus health insurance and COLA. He ran the PAC that spent the most money electing Sorensen, more than Sorensen spent on himself! And Sorensen, our Mayor, who is supposed to be a beacon of morality, like Scott Gruendl and Mary Flynn before him, plays it exactly right! It’s true, he received no money from these PACs. What he forgets to mention, is that they spent money on him. 

Kinda reminiscent of Donald Sterling and his whore, isn’t it?  Well, get used to it, cause this is what you can expect from your “leaders” over the next four or so years.

I’m not going back to the newspaper to argue with Sorensen – judging from remarks posted on my letter, there are other people who’ve been watching local government for a long time who agree with me. Rick Clements disagrees with me, so that should prove I’m right 🙂

Meanwhile, I received a note recently saying the Nature Center hasn’t made one payment on their loan since the meeting where Sorensen told me  “That’s enough!” when I asked them for their books. Not to mention, the city just wrote off a few hundred thousand in bad loans given to home buyers through the low-income loan program. 

Ain’t it great to have Fiscal Conservative Mark Sorensen watching the cookie jar!

Tags:

CARD will run a phone campaign to talk public into paying for $10-18 million aquatic center

17 Apr

Last night the Chico Area Recreation District Board of Directors voted (Sneed, Malowney, and Ellis, Lando and Worley absent) to spend $25-30,000 on a consultant to run a phone campaign to get support for their proposed aquatic  center. 

Early estimates for a trio of designs ranged from $10 – 18 million. As former board member Ed Seagle said, these facilities never pay for themselves, the whole wad will have to come from the taxpayers in the form of a bond or assessment on our homes.  

I don’t know the exact boundaries of the district, but it includes Forest Ranch.

The task ahead will be to inform the voters about CARD’s sketchy history, their budget, their excessive salaries and benefits, the revolving door they seem to have on their directors, and pattern of poor spending decisions. Most recently they voted to spend over $150,000 on a rose garden instead of fixing the two existing swimming pools, scheduled to be closed in 2016 after years of neglect.

 

 

Tags: ,

CARD board meeting tonight, Lakeside Pavilion, 7 pm – there will be a report from the Aquatic Facility Advisory Committee

16 Apr

Again, a meeting is taking my day. I say, it takes my whole day because I have to plan and rearrange to make room for it. And, it’s not the meeting I’ve been trying to get into – that’s the Aquatic Facility Advisory Committee, and you’ve read here the runaround I’ve got from CARD staffers Steve Visconti, Jennifer Marciales and now, Robert Hinderer, about being notified of those committee meetings so I could attend. Just last week they blew me off for a meeting, Hinderer making some bullshit excuse about my name not being on the right mailing list. 

Rob, this is why you don’t have any friends.

I’ll try to attend, because if you don’t play the game they try to say you’re not serious and dump you out of the loop. Even though this meeting is warmed over hash compared to what goes on in the committee meetings and the private conversations, I will try to attend, just to show face. There’s a lot of ridiculous face-showing in this business, it’s worse than a game of No Limit Holdem.

I have finally got some other people watching, and I want them to know I wasn’t just yanking their chain.

I wish more people would attend these board meetings though. I’ll say, they’re prompt, start at 7 pm, and usually over by 8:30, even 8:00. For me, the drive out to Lakeside Pavilion is onerous, but after seeing Maureen Kirk running all over the county, night meetings in Forest Ranch, then another night meeting in Chico, I feel lame for complaining about driving to a meeting. Hope to see a few new faces, the board seems to be malleable to public scrutiny. 

I would like somebody to stand up during the public comment period and ask about plans to salvage Shapiro and Pleasant Valley pools- as far as I know, they plan to shutter these pools and hand them back to  the school district after the 2015 swim season. They’ve neglected those pools for years, it’s in the books. Now, instead of bringing those much used facilities back up to par,  they throw over $150,000 at a rose garden?

CARD is a recreation district, but they have gutted their funds with exorbitant salaries and benefits and pensions for which the employees pay NOTHING. You might have noticed, city and county workers pay a percentage, the cops have raised their share to 12 percent.  But CARD employees still enjoy 70 percent of their highest year’s salary at 55 for NOTHING.  Director Steve Visconti retired last year at about $112,000/year – do the math – that’s about $77,000 a year, with COLA, to do NOTHNG. CARD hired a new manager at about $117,000, but he left within six months because of a disagreement over the aquatic facility discussion – I think he wanted to put that to bed, tried to tell them it was crazy given their budget – and there he went. Now Visconti is back in – does he get an interim salary in addition to retirement pay? Now there’s another question you could ask during the public comment period! Get in there! 

A year or so ago they bottomed out their general fund making a $400,000 “side fund payoff” to CalPERS. Their general fund is still pretty tanked, they’ve had to let off most of their part time staff.  Now they try desperately to raise funds to keep the doors open – and the CalPERS payments made – with a rose garden wedding chapel? That’s why they said they were spending over $1 million on Lakeside Pavilion. They’re trying to compete with private industry, when they’re supposed to be providing low-cost recreation activities. All for the salaries, benefits and pensions of about 33 management employees, who are quickly running out of underlings to do the actual work. 

They expect volunteers to run the Junior Giants program, while they all get salaries in excess of $50,000 a year, plus fully-paid benefits and pension. The Giants, by the way, foot all the expenses for Junior Giants, they even train the volunteer coaches. They just need somebody to advertise the program locally, so CARD steps in like a wolf in the sheep pen.

Have you ever seen a sheep get pissed off? Here’s a guy we could all learn a lesson from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdX4JobRCUc

 

 

 

 

Tags: , , ,

Clean and Safe starting a sales tax increase campaign?

15 Apr

Happy April 15 Taxpayers!

Do you know that you are paying for the use of City Plaza every Tuesday from 11 am to 1 pm? Have you been down there to enjoy your tax dollars at work?

Clean and Safe, an organization spawned out of the Downtown Business Association and the Chico Chamber, holds a “picnic in the plaza” every Tuesday from 11 – 1. They bring in various local food trucks and commercial vendors for “some fundraising and educational elements for the Downtown Chico Clean & Safe Campaign as well as the City of Chico Parks Division.”

I guess a lot of people would say that’s okay, but I’m saying, this is the beginning of a sales tax increase campaign.

This morning I looked at the city website to see if “Clean and Safe” has registered as a PAC – nothing yet. I’m guessing the clerk would not put it up right away, she’s woefully behind in her job. When I checked the county website, the page was down – the county website is unreliable, poorly run. As usual, I had to send a note to Elections and cc Candace Grubbs and Maureen Kirk, I’ll see what I get back.

I have heard from friends that Clean and Safe is advocating a sales tax increase “for public safety.” We’ll see how long they run it under the radar. Right now they are enjoying free use of City Plaza – here’s the rate schedule:

http://www.chico.ca.us/government/documents/Schedule80-All.pdf

First you pay the reservation fee – based on expected attendance – $11 per 100 people – minimum $150. If you are going to have more than 100 attendees, you also have to purchase liability insurance. There are two damage deposits  – $180 for an “intensive  use area” – I’m guessing the Plaza is considered “intensive use”. For more than 200 people attending a Plaza event, there is a $95 restroom fee.

Only $100 of that damage deposit is refundable, and that’s up to the Parks Division. So, for a “partial day” event of 4 hours or less, with folks allowed to roam freely within the perimeter whether or not they attend or contribute to your event, would cost you a minimum of $345.

A park employee told me this was decided at a Bidwell Parks and Playground commission meeting. Let me remind all of us – we don’t elect the park commissioners, these are spoils positions.

Tags: ,

California Water Commission meeting – the water discussion is loaded, watch your step, or you will be left high and dry

14 Apr
I would have been comforted by this room full of people but I found out most of them were there under false pretenses.

I would have been comforted by this room full of people but I found out most of them were there under false pretenses.

Busy little bees – my husband and I went out last night to the California Water Commission hearing on their “Water Storage Investment Program” – or, more suitably, “How should we divvy up the Prop 1 pie?“

Dammit, I told you  guys to vote NO! on Prop 1 – who got us into this $7.5 billion hornswaggle?  Well, I do remember District 4 Senator Jim Nielsen and Assembly District 3 representative James Gallagher being strong proponents of this tax grab, as well as strong proponents of the Sites Reservoir. When I read the proposition, I didn’t see any guarantees how the money would be spent, even directly on water. As was driven home by board representatives last night, “before bond dollars from Proposition 1 can be disbursed for actual projects, each state agency tasked with administering a competitive grant or loan process must develop and finalize guidelines for soliciting and evaluating project proposals.”

So, they haven’t even ironed out the guidelines by which they will divvy up the money, much less made any promises. Nielsen and Gallagher said they’d asked all of us down there last night, as Gallagher put it, “to ensure we have water for our future…”  Nielsen insisted that “This bond was clearly represented to be  about water storage…” Well, while that’s what he and Gallagher said when they were selling it to the voters, I never saw that in the text of the proposition. 

How soon we forget – about four years ago we were all screaming for FLOOD CONTROL. There’s roads in Glenn County that are never paved because they routinely wash out, truckloads of gravel being brought in once the water goes down to connect rural families back to civilization. In Tehama County last year, a whole subdivision was turned into a chain of islands and children were stranded on a school bus when their driver rightfully balked at the flooded roads. Now Nielsen and Gallagher say the words “flood control” as though it’s some plot to steal our money. They also act as though the Sites Reservoir will directly benefit the residents of our area, of Chico even. Nielsen said such a reservoir at Sites would “take pressure off Folsom Lake…” for water transfers. What does that have to do with Chico? And yeah, as Nielsen said, it will take pressure off Folsom Lake – with our Sacramento River water.

The discussion was loaded in the wrong direction. Nielsen and Gallagher got a huge crowd, dozens and dozens of farmers from towns like Gerber and Orland and Arbuckle, all over the region, riled them up to believe they were being ripped off, and Sites was the way to secure “our” water. The exact opposite is true – Sites is the very mechanism by which they steal “our” water, and we’ll pay, as Prop 1 specified, 50 percent of the cost of rounding it up and transporting it south.  Here’s the map showing how they will use the existing Glenn/Tehama canal to take water from Red Bluff diversion dam to the proposed  Sites reservoir, cutting out farmers and other users all the way down the Sac River. 

http://www.water.ca.gov/storage/docs/NODOS%20Project%20Docs/Project%20Map&Features.pdf

One user is City of Chico. We use the river to discharge our sewer water. Several times in past, changes in the river flow, particularly M&T Ranch taking huge volumes of water for irrigation, have left the Chico sewer pipes high and dry, dumping “treated” sewer water right on the beach. They are supposed to be located, like leach lines, on the bottom of the river.  It’s cost Chico millions each time to fix, and there’s no permanent solution, it happens every time there’s a change in the flow of the river.   How will Sites Reservoir, with it’s emphasis on “securing municipal water supplies”, affect the Chico Sewer plant operations? 

The whole  hearing was a real disappointment – they were not prepared for any kind of turnout, didn’t put out enough chairs, big snafu getting the crowd of 300 or so into the huge and perfectly capable building. They set this thing up as though they didn’t want us to come. 

This board, by the way, is made up, essentially, of developers, legal insiders, a water district shill, and a couple of corporate farmers from the Fresno area. There are no representatives from North of Sacramento. 

I’m sorry I don’t have a better report, we left when we realized the presentation covered stuff I’d already read about on their website, and the public would not be allowed to comment until the last 45 minutes of a three hour presentation. We had already realized, by attending, we gave the impression that we support Jim Nielsen, James Gallagher, and the Sites Reservoir. 

Of course I was really happy to see my county supervisor Maureen Kirk present, as well as Dist 4 super Larry Wahl, Mayor Mark Sorensen, Vice Mayor Sean Morgan, planning commissioner Bob Evans, and others. I will also say, Maureen stood in line with everybody else to get in and she sat in the audience talking to people while waiting for the start of the program. 

 

Up to my neck in meetings

14 Apr

I get up in the morning, sometimes as early as 5:30, even 5:00, just to be able to deal with my correspondence and blog. I attend these meetings, which are a giant pain in the ass, and I feel if I don’t write something in my blog the time was stolen from me with no good purpose. 

As I whined in my last post, I’ve been trying to get into Chico Area Recreation District’s secretive little Aquatic Facility Advisory Committee meetings. CARD staff has held me off by the forehead because I’ve been critical of their activities – no surprise there – the public sector seems to be full of petty, vicious little people trying to protect their snatch, what else is new?

It’s been frustrating – at one point I had board member Jan Sneed yell at me and stick her finger in my face, charging me down a hallway because I had asked for a copy of the monthly finance report. In another instance, I sat in the audience while former and currently interim director Steve Visconti told the board they needed to get people to write letters in response to letters I’d been writing about their activities. That was weird,  I was sitting right there, he knows who I am, but wouldn’t address me or even  look at me. 

When I noticed reports from the AFAC on the board agenda and asked why I had not been noticed, temporary director Jerry Haynes raised his voice to me on the phone, telling me there was no committee, no meetings, and no intentions of getting an assessment or bond. Shortly thereafter he announced his departure, citing differences with the board? Sure. And Visconti was back, but he passed me off to staffer Jennifer Marciales. Marciales told me repeatedly I was on the notice list, that there hadn’t been any meetings, and seemed annoyed when I asked her why there were still reports on the board agenda if there weren’t any committee meetings? I found out, Jerry Hughes and Aqua Jets president Brad Geise had formed an ad hoc committee to get around reporting and noticing rules. Then I noticed my inquiries were being handed to the Recreation Superintendent Robert Hinderer. 

Hinderer’s the poor dummass who was made to apologize to me. What a stupe – I would feel sorry for this person but he’s making twice my family’s annual income in salary, and paying NOTHING toward his own benefits.  A shill deserves no pity. 

I’ve tried to get the editor of the News and Review to send  a reporter or cover these meetings – Laura Urseny from the Enterprise Record has been at almost every meeting I’ve attended but her stories never say anything about plans for an assessment or bond, she won’t use the name Aqua Jets. She sat through that first meeting, where Jerry Hughes detailed the workings of the legislature, telling the 30 or so folks from Aqua Jets and the school district that they needed to wait until the legislature had lowered the threshold for tax  measures from 2/3’s to about 50 percent.  He talked about that for about an hour, but there was NOTHING about it in Urseny’s subsequent story. She is also a shill, and deserves nobody’s pity. 

The Good News! I got a note from Third District Supervisor Maureen Kirk. I had been haphazardly trying to remember to include Maureen  in the conversation the last couple of years, and when she realized they’re giving me the business, she wrote to CARD and asked to be put on the notification list too. I really  appreciate her oversight here, this is an entity that needs a lot of scrutiny.  

Although, it remains to be seen if either Supervisor Kirk or I will actually get a notice, or just the usual lame apology.  I’ll keep you posted.

 

 

Tags: ,

League of Women Voters provides needed oversight of local agencies – come out to support their work at wine/beer/olive oil tasting April 19, Manzanita Place

12 Apr

When I was sitting in that CARD special meeting by myself a week or so ago, wondering if anybody even gave a doodle about these taxing agencies, imagine how happy I was to see a woman walk in wearing the League of Women Voters banner. I found out, the league sends representatives to various public meetings to make sure these agencies are following the Brown Act and other rules. 

I wasn’t the only one who noticed her entrance – CARD board chair Jan Sneed expressed surprise – surprise that anybody would attend a CARD meeting, maybe, but I think she noticed the banner across the woman’s shirt too.  She seemed a little startled.  Sneed has acted in past as if I have no business poking my nose into CARD’s business. It’s nice for her to see, this is everybody’s business.

League of Women Voters does a lot of good work in the community. They run voter forums at election time, give the voters a chance to listen to the candidates and the proponents and opponents of various measures, even  ask a few questions. These forums haven’t always been run to my liking, but they’re there, and that’s something.  If I really didn’t like the way things were run at the league, I could join, and add my voice, but I think they’re doing a good enough job as it is.

The workshop they held at the Women’s Center, Brown Bag the Brown Act, was unique, an opportunity for the public, FREE OF CHARGE, to hear about their rights regarding access to public information. It was much more extensive than a presentation I attended with the Chico City Clerk.  A gold mine of information, offered to the public, FREE OF CHARGE. They had to pay rent on the Women’s Center, just one of their expenses.  In order to cover expenses, to continue to offer these services to the public, FREE OF CHARGE, they do fundraisers every year. This year they have a wine, beer and olive oil tasting party, with tasty snacks, at Manzanita Place, next Sunday, 4 – 7 pm. Tickets are $35 – late-comers will pay $40 at the door, so get your tickets now. You’ll find them at Made in Chico, Tannins, and Zucchini and Vine, or contact the league at (530) 895-8683.

 

Tags: , ,

CARD plays fast and loose with the Brown Act

11 Apr

I’ve been trying to follow the Chico Area Recreation Districts’ plans for a new aquatic center for a couple of years now, and yesterday I got an e-mail from CARD employee Robert Hinderer that really pissed me off.  Here’s the conversation, starting with employee Jennifer Marciales reassurances that I was on the notice list for the aquatic center committee and that I would be noticed for any upcoming meetings.

Subject: Aquatic Facility Advisory Committee
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2015 01:07:42 +0000

Hi Juanita,

 

I just wanted to let you know that based upon your conversation with our General Manager last week, you have already been placed on the notification list for upcoming Aquatic Facility Advisory Committee meetings.  At this time, there are no meetings scheduled.

 

If you have any questions, please let me know.

 

Thank you,

 

Jennifer Marciales
Executive Assistant
(530) 895-4711
Chico Area Recreation and Park District
545 Vallombrosa Avenue
Chico, CA 95926

 
My response:
 

Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2015 6:13 AM
To: Jennifer Marciales
Cc: dlittle@chicoer.com; melissad@newsreview.com
Subject: RE: Aquatic Facility Advisory Committee

 

Thank You,

 

I didn’t give Mr. Haynes my e-mail, thanks for the follow-up.  I’ve been asking to be on this committee notification list since it was formed, and reports have been given of meetings but I never received notices of those meetings. Now you’re saying, despite designs having been made for this proposed center and talk of an assessment on property owners, there are no more meetings scheduled? I’ll be looking forward to notification of any future meetings, but I’ll be watching the board agenda too.

One question I have right now is, I would like to ask you for an exact figure on the designs presented for the aquatic center by Melton Design Group – the newspaper gave a ballpark figure of “$30,000 to $60,000”, but I’m sure you can give me a more specific figure. 

 

I had originally called to ask Mr. Haynes about the assessment process, which he refused to discuss with me. Since that call I have found a copy of the engineers report dated fiscal year 2013-14, in which SCI Consultant Group give a detailed report regarding assessment of property owners. If I have any questions about that I’ll be sure to get back to you. 

 

I’ve cc-d the news editors because I have either spoken to them about this issue or sent letters to the papers about it.

 

Thanks again for your anticipated cooperation, Juanita Sumner

Response from Marciales:

Subject: RE: Aquatic Facility Advisory Committee
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2015 23:16:13 +0000

Hi Juanita,

 

Attached are the preliminary cost estimates that were presented to the Board with regard to three designs options for an Aquatic Center.

 

As I previously mentioned, I have added you to the notification list for upcoming Aquatic Facility Advisory Committee Meetings.  At this time, there are no scheduled meetings for the Committee. 

 

Would you like me to also add you to our mailing list to receive copies of the Agenda for CARD’s Regular Board Meetings?  If so, please provide me with your mailing address.

 

Thank you,

 

Jennifer Marciales
Executive Assistant
(530) 895-4711
Chico Area Recreation and Park District
545 Vallombrosa Avenue
Chico, CA 95926

So, there I have it twice, she says I’m on the list. That’s just recently – I have a string of e-mails from director Steve Visconti, assuring me I am on the list and will be notified for the next aquatic center committee meeting. So, when I looked at this months’ board meeting agenda and saw another report from the committee, I realized I’d been burned again!  But I wrote a nice note to be sure:

Date: April 10, 2015 at 6:28:04 AM PDT
To: Jennifer Marciales <jmarciales@chicorec.com>
Cc: “svisconti@chicorec.com” <svisconti@chicorec.com>, “Kirk, Maureen” <mkirk@buttecounty.net>
Subject: RE: Aquatic Facility Advisory Committee

Hi,

 

At the last CARD  board meeting and again at the special meeting held last week, there were plans made to schedule an Aquatic Facility Advisory Committee meeting.  I see a report from the committee is on the upcoming agenda. I have been waiting for a notice of the committee meeting, as I was promised below. Jan Sneed also said the public would be noticed.  When and where will that meeting take place? 

 

Thanks, at your convenience, for your anticipated cooperation – Juanita Sumner
Marciales seems to know they’ve blown it, she won’t respond to me, hands me off to her boss, rec supe Bob Hinderer – her note to Hinderer:

From: Jennifer Marciales
Sent: Friday, April 10, 2015 7:48 AM
To: Robert Hinderer
Subject: Fwd: Aquatic Facility Advisory Committee

 

See below…call me when you can to discuss. 

Sent from my iPhone

Then I got this note from Hinderer:

From: rhinderer@chicorec.com
CC: mkirk@buttecounty.net; rhinderer@chicorec.com
Subject: RE: Aquatic Facility Advisory Committee
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 2015 18:42:13 +0000

Ms. Sumner,

 

Happy Friday. Jennifer Marciales forwarded your email. I want to first and foremost apologize for the error of the utilization of an older AFAC email list. The meeting was last night (04/09/15). You have been placed on the newer AFAC email list. Attach are the documents that were presented at the meeting.

Secondly, I invite you to a sit down meeting to discuss the AFAC actions. If you are open to the idea, please let me know days, times, and locations which best meet your schedule. I will invite Steve Visconti to attend.

 

Thank you, and again I apologize for the utilization of an older AFAC email list. I will ensure to the utilization of the newer AFAC email list for future correspondence.

 

Thank you,

 

–          Rob

 

Robert Hinderer, CPRE

Superintendent of Recreation & Community Services

CARD | Chico Area Recreation and Park District

545 Vallombrosa Ave. Chico, CA 95926

(P) 530 895­­ 4711    (F) 530 895 4721

www.chicorec.com

Happy Friday? To say the least I was stunned by this note. I answered back:

I just don’t know how  to respond to your apology Mr. Hinderer. My husband and I both put our names and e-mails on a list that was passed around at a meeting hosted by Jerry Hughes at the CARD office over a year ago. I’m confused what you mean about an “older” list. Since that early committee meeting,  I’ve made repeated requests to be notified of subsequent meetings, and been told I’d be notified, but meetings have come and gone, reports have been made of committee actions, and again and again I’ve gotten apologies and assurances that I would be on the notice list in future. I just don’t know what to think.  

Did you happen to notify the public? I may have missed the public notice.  Jan Sneed made several remarks to Jerry Hughes and staff about the public  being notified, and there was agreement among the board members and staff that the public needed to be notified. 
Again, I would like to be noticed of any future meetings of the AFAC.  I included my county supervisor and the news editors because I thought they might be interested in this issue.
Juanita Sumner
As I said there, I’d included my county supervisor Maureen Kirk and both news editors in much of this  conversation. I have yet to get any response out of Maureen Kirk or David Little, but here’s what Melissa Daugherty had to say:

Hi Juanita,

You should do a FOIA for that “older AFAC email list” and evidence of them actually alerting the folks on it.

-Melissa

I have been trying to get Daugherty to send a reporter to these meetings, but she keeps crying poormouth. I will remind her and everybody – I don’t get paid for this crap. She gets a salary to sit on her ass at a desk and she can’t cover a fucking CARD meeting? Sorry if I was a little testy with her suggestion, but I really wanted to tell her to fold it into an oregami chicken and shove it up her ass:
Why should I go to the trouble to do that? I have a string of e-mails over the past couple of years, asking them to put me on that list, answered with their assurances that  I am on the list and will be noticed, and now this.  Are you saying, you don’t believe me? You don’t have to take my word for it Melissa, go to or send a reporter to those meetings. 
I have to know, and be honest – what do you think I do all day?  
Juanita
The Snooze and Review and the Wretched are what passes for journalism in this town, Lord have mercy.
Well, here’s the news folks – you are a bunch of cash cows, waiting to be squeezed! Nobody is going to stick up for you, you have to stick up for yourself. Moooo-OOOOO!

Tags: , , , ,

Water rates on the rise – James Hunter, fighting the good fight in San Jose; energetic groups in Marysville, Lucerne keeping the issue on the surface

9 Apr

I got a nice e-mail from a man in the San Jose area, James Hunter, about his efforts to fight undue water rate increases. He has kept a journal of his adventures with CPUC and San Jose Water Company in his blog, here:

http://sjwc-rate-increase.blogspot.com/

Wow, look at the work it takes to deal with these people.  Mr. Hunter has the kind of perseverance and intelligence it takes to hold a candle to the water company. I do not have the patience or expertise to go through the bureaucratic runaround, it’s just maddening. Hunter does not get discouraged. His blog is a good read for anybody who wants to take on the flak catchers. 

And you might want to check in with the Marysville folks, they are a motivated group:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Marysville-For-Reasonable-Water-Rates/176321489194208

And here’s a group from the Clear Lake town of Lucerne

https://www.facebook.com/LucerneFLOW

 

Tags: , , , , ,

Embedded reporters – maybe the ER should ask it’s readers what’s going on

6 Apr

I had a glitch in that last post – wouldn’t accept comments – so I’ve brought Bob’s comments over to a new post. I’ve heard other stories like Bob’s, I think his experience is all too common. 

I have been the victim of crime several times and the police were absolutely useless.

It’s not that they were rude or anything like that, just useless.

The last time I had some valuable property stolen on two separate occasions about a month apart. The police made no effort to recover the property or even apprehend the criminal. Assuming they would have arrested the criminal but not recovered the property (assuming it had been destroyed, lost or was long gone, probably sold to someone else) the criminal justice system would have done nothing to make me whole again, i.e. restitution. I would have had to go to civil court on my dime and of course most of these criminals haven’t a penny to their name so lots of luck with that.

Instead I would be a victim twice: first my property is stolen and then I have to pay taxes to incarcerate the criminal where he/she just becomes more hardened to a life of crime. Is that insane or what? The criminal should be required to make the victim whole again as much as possible while being rehabilitated assuming he/she is not too far gone.

But consider this and the fact that police are under no obligation to protect you from crime according to the Supreme Court. (Like I said before the function of the police is to protect the state, NOT you. Just look at Ferguson where the police were protecting the government buildings and letting private sector buildings and homes get looted and destroyed.) Can you imagine a business in the private sector lasting a month like this if this was how it treated its customers? Yet we are expected to continue paying ever more for police “protection.” We are expected to make police officers multi-millionaires when you factor in their lifetime pensions, other benefits and earnings. The entire system is immoral and should be called the criminal injustice system and we are its victims.

I have a friend who owned a retail and service shop in town for over 20 years, very popular business. Shoplifters would walk in while he was with a customer and walk out with merchandise. It was a small shop, so most times he’d see them run off with the goods, and call the cops immediately. He never got any satisfaction from Chico PD, and one time they were especially annoying – they didn’t come for hours – a quick response very well could have nailed the perps – but by the time these fatasses showed up, forget that. They were just making the rounds, filling out useless reports. These two fat, plain clothes guys came in carrying their fast food – burgers and sodas – and just slopped them right down on my friend’s glass counter top. The one guy kept taking bites as he was asking my friend questions, as if they cared, and left grease all over my friend’s counter. He never heard another word out of them.

Another time it was his bike – they did nothing but take a report. A friend told him, I saw your bike at Mike’s (an old used bike shop where the cops were always finding stolen bikes but did nothing about it), so my friend called the cops and asked them to meet him at Mikes. There was the bike, serial number and everything, and right in front of the cops Mike tried to tell my friend he had to buy the bike back. The cops talked Mike into giving my friend his bike, but they did nothing to Mike for having a stolen bike. My friend’s only proof was that serial number that he had a copy of. They told him they couldn’t have done anything without that serial number – make note of that folks.

Before that it was Del’s Bike Barn – that went on for years, until Del finally folded up his legs and left.

It is obvious we can’t depend on the cops to take care of us. I’ve just about convinced my husband to put up security cameras – hey, I’ve had some weird experiences with Chico PD, I want that on tape too. 

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →