2016 – the Year of the Tax

4 May

The other day I read a pretty comical article in the Enterprise Record – “Caper Acres Users Mention Tax.”

Excuse me – what the hell kind of a headline is that? “Mention Tax“? Was this overheard in casual conversation? Was it just  whimsy?

To me this word play typifies the verbal gymnastics people will indulge in to get around talking directly about raising taxes, just trying to put the notion out there so we think we came up with it ourselves. I’m wondering how long it took the editorial staff to decide to call this a ‘tax‘ at all.  I don’t trust the ER anymore.

This “mention” of tax is actually part of former City of Chico manager Tom Lando’s slow and grinding efforts at getting us to foist a tax(es) on ourselves to cover his and other grandiose pensions. Here, read up on it:

https://chicotaxpayers.com/2013/07/13/heres-whats-really-behind-the-park-closures-more-than-21-retirees-get-over-100000year-in-pension-ex-fire-chief-gets-over-200000/

A pension that’s not mentioned in that list is Pam Figge’s pension. Figge is the Chico State instructor who brought her class into a Park Commission meeting to “mention” a sales tax increase.  Pam Figge was also a city of Chico $taffer under Lando. She’s one of those perpetual revolving door trough dwellers, like Lando, who also teaches at Chico State. I don’t know how many pies old Figgy has her finger in, but Lando sits on various boards around the county, including Chico Area Recreation District. 

A few years back, Lando undertook a campaign to get a sales tax increase on the ballot. He and business associate Jim Stevens hired a company from out of town to run a survey testing the waters for a sales tax:

https://chicotaxpayers.com/2012/03/05/lando-releases-survey/

These companies always boast their ability to get voters to approve tax measures on themselves, so of course, it was leading, using scare tactics, leaving out the reasons the city got into this mess. I was also contacted by people, including Larry Wahl, who said Lando used their names as though they supported the tax, without even asking them. Read it yourself.

Back when he was still city mangler, Lando was behind the MOU that nailed us into our coffin – the one that linked city salaries “to increases in revenue increases but not decreases...”  His salary rocketed up about $100,000 over a few years, going from about $69,000 to over $160,000. When  we found out about that MOU, they dumped it, but wrote the “Employer Paid Member Contribution” into the employee contracts – the clause by which we pay their share of pensions and benefits.  I know I’m not the only one that bitched about that too, and now look, they’re pretending to dump it – but only for new hires.  Brian Nakamura, Mark Orme, Chris Constantin and their over-priced management friends only just agreed to pay 9 percent of their own pension – please join me in a solid chorus of “Big Fucking Whoopie, Fellas!”   

Sorensen and Nakamura expect us to eat lint out of their buttcracks, because they are making NEW HIRES pay their own benefits. Again, BFW Boys! What they don’t like to say is, that won’t happen until our existing workforce retires on 70 percent of their fat salaries and walks on down the hall. Mother…

And then, the new hires only pay if they come from outside the retirement system. For the entire United States. Most of our new hires are picked up from within the system, we hire very few newbies.

And then, the new hires only pay  50 percent. Imagine yourself sitting at the city picnic, over on the railroad tracks, eating your slice of community pie, and some cop comes over and takes half your pie and puts it on his plate next to his big fat piece, and walks away. Then a fireman comes over and takes half of what’s left, walking over to the opposite side of the room to glare at the cop while they eat your pie.  

Actually, this analogy isn’t right – Brian Nakamura got your pie while you were standing in line, sorry about that. 

These people just don’t get how big of pigs they are being – the pig is always the last one to know, right? Who, me?  Then most of them have the nerve to put on the “I’m just (sniffle) outraged!‘ act, like little Beth Vice over at Butte County Mosquito and Vector Control.  I hope she is able to pull her panties out of her ass, cause I’m the one who gets to be outraged this time. I’m sick of paying for people like her to sit in air conditioning waiting for the phone to ring, making $60,000+ but contributing NOTHING toward a pension that will pay them at least $50,000 a year (plus COLA) for the rest of their bloated life.

This is the common core behind all these little tax bombs that are headed our way over the next couple of years.  Gee, isn’t it just coinky-dinkal, that BCMVCD just lost the same amount in RDA money that they were splattering out on their own benefits? They say the cost of pesticides has increased – well that’s funny cause their budget shows they’ve spent $150,000 less on pesticides this year than they did three years ago. At the same time,  they’ve laid off employees, but wow, their pensions and benefits costs kept climbing anyway? What gives Beth?

Don’t forget the garbage tax. When I sat in on that conversation, the consultant said repeatedly (and I have this on tape) that the main reason for doing a franchise agreement was to “help the city with it’s financial condition…”  He even admitted, there will be a period during which there is no restriction over how many companies can operate, due to legalities in noticing the companies of the new regulations (5 years). He also admitted, that in order to get Recology and Waste Management to agree to go along with this deal, some of which is on shaky legal ground, the city must agree to close the bidding process to just those two haulers. This whole thing smells worse than Garbage Day.

Don’t forget CARD, who has  committee of  “shareholders” scheming behind closed doors to put an assessment or a bond on our homes to pay for Aquajets new Taj Majal swim facility. Oh yeah, don’t worry, you’ll be allowed to pay to get in, when Aquajets aren’t using it for one of their legendary swim meets. 

Let’s talk about assessments. For lack of a better adjective, I’ll say, assessments suck. This is a way by which these rent seeking agencies (  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking  ) like BCMVCD and CARD stick it to us through our homes. Each property owner gets ONE vote. Did I say, each property owner? Well they count couples or families or groups of investment partners as an each, and they only get one vote among them. And, it doesn’t matter how many properties you own, how many assessments you will pay, what your total assessment would be – you and your spouse or partner(s) get ONE vote. Period. 

When I read into the text of the Caper Acres “users” story, I found the opposite was true – Figge’s class only polled people who came into Caper Acres with their kids.  I had to laugh – these college kids that Pam Figge rounded up and brought down to the playground (were they accompanied by a child under 13?) only “surveyed” people who use Caper Acres. They asked them, essentially, “would you like other people to pay more to secure your whimsy?”  Well, duh, 80 percent of them said “Yes!”  

And the demands – keep the Bunker Hill tunnels? Yeeeccchhh! My boys never wanted to go into those tunnels, and I was relieved. They have always stunk of pee, and I’ve long questioned the safety of tunnels in the dirt, come on.  Alot of Caper Acres should just be removed. Those structures were somebody’s silly fancy, nobody ever thought to ask – “how will we maintain these? How will we keep transients from camping out inside them, using drugs, leaving filth, etc?”  Time after time the city has faced liability issues over those crazy fixtures at Caper Acres. I once watched a woman and her kid fly off the end of that crooked slide and land in a heap on the dirt. They landed hard, the child bouncing off the woman’s lap and landing SMACK on the hard ground.Playgrounds are hazardous, fixtures fall apart. Structures have been cordoned off, the place has been closed due to either trees falling or vandalism a number of times – it’s a big liability to the city. 

We didn’t see the survey, we don’t know whether the respondents were informed off all the issues revolving around the park. I’m pretty sure they weren’t told about the salaries, the benefits, the pensions, the EPMC, etc. Just like the pamphlet from BCMVCD didn’t give any real information, and Lando’s survey didn’t give any real information. These people are ready to roll out a propaganda machine to get these bonds or assessments. 

Laura Urseny is part of the propaganda machine. She’s been writing articles about how bad of shape Shapiro and Pleasant Valley pools are in – where has she been for the last 20 years that they’ve been left to rot? We can’t trust the Enterprise Record for the straight story, I’m sorry, Dave Little is a businessman, not a journalist. I have yet to see any comprehensive coverage of the garbage tax or the sales tax conversations that have been going on Downtown between the Chamber and other entities. I have this from people I know in the chamber and other organizations. They say it’s all being kept from the public, waiting for state laws to change regarding voting percentages for tax proposals. Our legislature is busy shifting the percentage from 2/3’s to 55 percent.  

And, a highly placed city staffer told me that Tom Lando is behind a lot of stuff, that he’s really pushing to annex Chapmantown because he wants the property tax revenues. The city has a 45/55 deal with the county over property tax revenues –  just think how much money that would mean to the city.  Mark Sorensen and city staff all scream that Chico can’t afford to annex Chapmantown because of all the issues over there, it would cost too much to repair their sagging infrastructure. Well, are they stupid, or just playing stupid? Lando knows like I know that Chapmantown would not get any more service than they currently enjoy, but Chico will get half of their property taxes to pay off their pension obligation. That’s a big conversation behind closed doors, I’d like to see the public get involved in that. 

So, I will try to keep on the ball, but to tell the truth, I could use a little help down here.  I feel like I’m standing in a shit storm with a tennis racket.  

 

 

Caper Acres users mention tax

By Laura Urseny lurseny@chicoer.com (mailto:lurseny@chicoer.com) @LauraUrseny on Twitter

POSTED: 04/29/2014 06:40:23 PM PDT

Chico >> Parents and other users of Caper Acres in Bidwell Park might be willing to consider a fee or tax to help out the playground which is destined for a renovation. A group of Chico State University students assigned to look at the play area as a class project uncovered that sentiment and shared it with the Bidwell Park and Playground Commission Monday night, along with other observations. More than 150 surveys were taken over a six-day period. According to the information presented to the commission, 85 percent of the respondents who identified themselves as city residents “were in favor of paying a local tax to fund the maintenance and renovation of Caper Acres. Forty-seven percent of all respondents would be willing to pay some sort of parking fee,” according to the survey results..The survey results indicated that users were willing to pay one or the other, but not both. Users said the funds must be earmarked for Caper Acres. Other financial suggestions included creating a maintenance district, user fee or crowdsourcing. The survey discovered other stances. Users wanted to keep the story book theme. “Must keep” features included the Bunker Hill Mine (also known as the tunnels), the Crooked House, Big Cheese and Locksley’s Castle. The tunnels are marked for removal in a proposal from Melton Design Group, hired by the city for the redesign. The city has problems with overnight campers inside the tunnel, as well as drainage of the area. Part of former city planner Pam Figge’s geography class, the students looked at the area from soil types and American Indian use to vegetation types, users and play equipment. Commissioners said the information was valuable, and referred later in the evening to the idea of a tax-supported areas in Bidwell Park. City officials have said there is no budgeted money available for the renovation, and is looking to the community for help. The Park Commission’s Natural Resources Committee is overseeing the Caper Acres renovation. The next meeting is planned for 6 p.m. May 8 in Conference Room 2 of the Chico City Council Chambers, 421 Main St. Chairwoman Mary Brentwood said there is plenty of time for more public comments. Contact reporter Laura Urseny at 896-7756.

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Talk about blood sucking PESTS! Please vote NO on mosquito tax.

1 May

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I found a packet for an upcoming election in my mailbox over the weekend, and I was shocked I hadn’t heard anything about it in the print or broadcast media. Again, a local government agency is trying to stick us for their pensions and health benefits.

Like CARD, Butte County Mosquito and Vector Control District is management top heavy with employees paying as little as 1% of their own benefits out of salaries in excess of $100,000.

I found some budget information on the BCMVCD website, and e-mailed District Manager Matt Ball with some questions. He’s a real cooperative nice guy, answered immediately. According to Ball, “District employees are 100% covered and District employee family members are 80% covered under a Blue Shield high deductible plan. District employees hired on or before December 31, 2012, pay 1% of their CalPERS retirement plan.  District employees hired on or after January 1, 2013, pay 6.25% of their CalPERS retirement plan.”

We pay workman’s comp and social security for public employees,  in addition to the health insurance and pensions, I always forget to bring that up. In fact, according to annual budgets available on their website, BCMVCD laid out over $150,000 for FICA and workman’s comp last year, throwing out another $500,000+ for health insurance and pensions, just for their top 18 employees. Only 18 employees, costing the taxpayers over $2 million in salaries, then almost three quarters of a million more on health coverage and pensions.

I did not get any of this information out of the pamphlet sent to me by the district. The pamphlet, printed at our expense, is just propaganda aimed at passing the assessment. It starts out, “Why Did You Receive This Assessment Ballot?” and goes on to describe the “purpose of the Mosquito Control District” – yeah, to prevent the diseases transmitted by mosquitoes and other “vectors” or “disease bearing pests.” I’m all over that, that’s why we have a Mosquito Control District. But why are we receiving this ballot?

The next paragraph talks about funding – “The Mosquito Control District is primarily funded by a small portion of property taxes.”   Then, “significant increased cost of controlling West Nile Virus…declining property values…transfer of District revenues  by the State and County to other agencies.” Finally, “Without this additional funding, the district will have to reduce mosquito, vector and disease control services.“

Ah, the repetition – these agencies always use the same tired  tactics. First they drum up fear, then they tell us how they can protect us, then finally, threaten to withdraw all protection if we don’t pay. That sounds like the plot line from some old cop show like Streets of San Francisco. Let’s call Mike Stone! Kojak!

Here’s the reason they want  this bond – they have lost over $350,000/year in RDA funding.  I could not find revenue information on the website, so I asked Matt Ball and he  obliged. The district still gets about $2 million from property and other taxes, as well as interest (on what I don’t know), and service fees. But, that $350,000 covered their health benefits, which, according to Mr. Ball, are provided to employees 100% free of cost and to their families at only 20% of cost.

And then there’s another $224,000 (figure for 2013-14) in PERS premiums, of which the employees pay less than 7 percent, most as little as 1 percent.

Let’s all remember – one RDA dollar borrowed equals three RDA dollars owed. BCMVCD has enjoyed a hefty portion of RDA fixins – about $3.5 million a year. In 2011/12, they got more than twice as much – $733,404.09. Good Grief Charley Brown – since 2007, they’ve received over $2.5 million in RDA dollars – get out the calculator Pa – that’s almost $8 million dollars, gone to their pensions and benefits, for 18  employees over six years. Eight million dollars. 

Throughout this period, property tax and related revenues have continued to climb steadily, despite BCMVCD’s complaint that property values have gone down. 

Like every other agency around here, BCMVCD had become overly comfortable with spending borrowed money on themselves.  I don’t think it’s uncivil in any way to say “feathering their own nests”  – what else would you call these pensions, for which they contribute less than 10 percent, but a sweet feathered nest?

Worst of all, they not only line their nest with borrowed money, they do it at the expense of services and staff. Acording to Mr. Ball, “Last July the District laid off two full-time permanent employees and has cut its seasonal workforce from 14-10.”  He also mentioned that district employees have not received a pay raise for three years, and their current Memo of Understanding with the county leaves them without a raise this year. But, in the budgets I see on the website, the health benefits and pensions payments continued to increase, even as the salary total went down. 

Of course, as you’d expect, the biggest single expense after employee compensation is for pesticides. A lot of people are against the use of pesticides in mosquito abatement, many would simply like to see more responsible use.  I think reasonable people would agree that some use of poisons is necessary to protect the human population in cases of gross infestation. But, there are plenty of alternatives, including, getting rid of their breeding areas through public clean-up campaigns. I wonder, has the department been utilizing more alternative measures to fight this claimed increase in the West Nile threat? Or, has the cost of pesticides like pyrethrin been going down lately? I wonder because, over the past three years, BCMVCD has been spending less and less money on pesticides. 

You can see the budget information here:

http://www.bcmvcd.com/current_fiscal_budgets/14%20Final%20Budget.pdf

And here’s John Chiang’s website with salary information:

http://www.publicpay.ca.gov/Reports/SpecialDistricts/SpecialDistrict.aspx?entityid=1663&fiscalyear=2012

I’m sorry to sprout such a blob on you, but I like to think you are intelligent people who need all the facts to make your decisions. Yes, I know mosquitoes carry disease, that’s why I clean my rain gutters and look around my yard at this time of year for anything that holds a little skanky water. In the pamphlet and on their website, BCMVCD urge you to turn in your neighbor with the green swimming pool – why don’t they tell you to clean your rain gutters? Why don’t they warn you, don’t leave your recycling can, open, outside behind the garage? Maybe they should tell people how much rainwater can get into an upright soda or beer or water bottle left next to a patio chair or a recycling bin, or how many mosquito larvae/pupae can live in that much water, and how quickly they go from egg to fully capable blood sucker.

I really don’t think they are interested in educating people, their pamphlet is clearly biased toward  getting money to pay their benefits and pensions.

Here’s the nutshell version: VOTE NO!

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Conversation with city council candidate Andrew Coolidge was too short, need to get him into the library again sometime

28 Apr

Yesterday’s chat with Andrew Coolidge was one of our messiest conversations, but you know, I ain’t in this for doilies or decorum.  Form went out the window and we just blew face for over an hour, staying pretty close to home but covering (or barely covering) every topic from the Humboldt Road Burn Dump to “Bum Park.” Unfortunately, we weren’t able to nail Coolidge down on salaries, benefits, or how he would pay to fill vacancies at the cop shop.

We probably talked too long about our problems, sat and wallowed in it. That’s good sometimes – rub that salt in good! Make it sting! Our candidate summed up what he saw as the three big problems that led Chico to it’s current situation – the Humboldt Road Burn Dump lawsuit, the Downtown Plaza makeover, and then the Downtown remodel (roundabouts, bulbing sidewalks, switching parking to horizontal, etc).

Coolidge took us down Memory Lane – although, one woman admitted, she’d only lived in Chico a year, and this was all news she could use. The Humboldt Road Burn Dump lawsuit fiasco will continue to cost this city millions for the next couple of generations.  I agree with Coolidge – that whole lawsuit came out of Scott Gruendl’s first successful campaign for city council.  I liked Scott’s promises to “sweep developer influence from the city council.” I also thought it was nuts to put family housing on an old dump without cleaning it up properly. The city had permitted subdivisions, Gruendl  convinced a bunch of dummies like me he just wanted to be sure the soil was safe and any clean-up was done properly, that’s all!

I really hate being taken – I believed and agreed with him. I didn’t understand, what he was really doing, was trying to get the land cleaned up on the taxpayers’ dime so his friend Tom DiGiovanni could build in the same area. He also wanted to protect DiGiovanni’s proposed subdivision, Meriam Park. Tom Fogarty’s subdivision blocks the “viewshed” from Meriam Park, so Gruendl tried to stop Fogarty from building. By the time I realized this, Gruendl was in office, and had the collective weight of the Friends of Bidwell Park, the Esplanade League and others in his pocket. The die was cast. A “liberal” majority voted to place a  stop on the subdivision and Fogarty charged us into court, and boy, did he kick our ass.

At about the same time, council moved to adopt the Plaza makeover plan. This was also forwarded by DiGiovanni and friends – their offices overlooked the plaza, and they didn’t like it, so they wangled a deal by which they not only got a new plaza, but got paid to design it!  Initially the budget was $1.something million, but, once all these people like the Hands artist got their dick into the pie – $30,000 to this artist, and $35,000 to this landscape design guy, yadda, yadda – ka-CHING! $4 million.

Here Coolidge took it kind of personal, harkening some of us back to the days when the giant elm trees stood in the plaza. I remember being in a fourth floor office in the Breslauer Building one night, watching owls flit back and forth between those trees, as a bunch of happy people enjoyed one of DNA’s Ball’s Edge concerts. The trees were not cared for properly over the years, and were dying. The old bandstand/gazebo had been taken over by churlish teens and street types. The unmaintained sidewalks were riddled by old roots, and the lawns had deteriorated into some sort of mossy turf. It wasn’t very pleasant, but, out of respect for past traditions, the appropriate thing to do would have been, plant new elms alongside each old dying tree, and slowly remove the old trees. the sidewalks could have been torn out and  replaced, that couldn’t have cost more than a few thousand dollars. The gazebo should have been given a good going over with a hammer and nails and paint brush, and then put on a regular maintenance schedule along with the sidewalks. The only major change I would have made were the bathrooms, which, of course, the city had to turn into some sort of Taj Majal project.

I hate what they did to it, but the biggest insult is how they passed it off on us. Coolidge reminded us, they said they needed to do it to get rid of bad people who were hanging around there. Boy, we all got a good laugh out of that – you know, not a “ha ha” laugh, but one of those, “Yeah, screw me…” kind of laughs.

This led us into the Downtown remodel undertaken over the last few years. I sat in on meetings in which they planned that remodel, not really to fix the perceived Downtown “parking problem,” but to get state grant money to cover city salaries. This was when Scott Gruendl and the others were first letting on that we had a money problem. But not really. To hear Gruendl claim now that city staff led him on – oh, pish-posh Scott, you dirty stinking liar. I was there the day you used the marker pens to try and explain the city’s fiscal difficulties on the big tablet. “Let’s not use the red pen,” you giggled nervously, “we don’t want to scare people...”

Into kicking your lousy doughy butt out of office, Scott, is that what you didn’t want to scare us into doing?

Chico Chamber and DCBA were also hip-deep in the plans, because their staff depend on city money to pay their salaries. They came up with the propaganda about the “parking problem” to try and drum up support for this mess. They developed this campaign – “Make Downtown a Destination, Not a Drive-thru!” What they didn’t consider is, people use cars to get to their destination. What they also didn’t realize is, Downtown is a major intersection for getting across Chico. That used to be considered good for retail – why in the hell would they divert that traffic, and create a ghost town?

What kills me is now, none of them realize how much they screwed their own pooch by going along with that remodel – the really poorly engineered traffic circles, the diagonal parking, the raised meter fees – these are insults to shoppers, who have headed in droves to the malls and the websites. The Chamber and DCBA got just what they asked for – a destination, for street freaks and criminals. Again, the liberal council and their handlers accomplished exactly the opposite of what they told us they would do – they actually made a perceived problem even worse!

At this point we fell into chatter. We talked about blame, and I tried to steer the conversation toward solutions. The biggest concern among the group was how street people seem to have taken over the Downtown area, and somewhat in other areas of town. Some agreed that the “R-Town” security force that was hired over the holidays was successful in cleaning up the undesirables, but, the result was, they moved into the areas directly around Downtown, and then as soon as the private security was gone, new ones moved into their place. I would agree, we’ve got more now, and I’ll predict, more moving in over Summer. News spreads, people find out, our law enforcement doesn’t do it’s job here, it’s alot easier to move in and set up your little scam.

I tried to stay silent, as a couple of others haggled with Coolidge about the role of Chico PD, their contracts, etc. Coolidge would not make any statement regarding the contracts, and when Michael Jones asked him whether or not he’d take campaign contributions from CPOA, he waved his hands as if to say, “I’m not touching that one!”

I was relieved when Coolidge brought up what I feel is the root of this problem – the county Behavioral Health Department is underfunded and understaffed, with a revolving door director position that has been mostly vacant over the last few years. When I checked the salary last year, it was about $58,000 – about half the usual management salary down at the county. Now, they’ve raised it to just over $100,000, more on par with other management, and last time I checked they were  advertising for a new director.

So what? Well, when the police get ahold of a person in any sort of mental “state” not considered normal, they are supposed to turn them over to County Behavioral Health Department over on Rio Lindo. Unfortunately, this facility is only open Monday through Friday 9 – 5?

Now, Coolidge agreed with me that this is the problem, but there it ended. The conversation flew off again before I could talk to him about what I had learned over the last couple of months. We talked about why the plastic bag ban is stupid, but not what to do about it. We talked about improprieties in the voting process, unfair treatment of conservative candidates on campus, and flits and bits of other issues, but nothing about solutions.

Coolidge wants to hire more police but did not elaborate on how he would pay for that. He wants to encourage and help small businesses through “a mired and slow” permits process, but we were not able to follow that subject all the way either. I don’t think an hour was enough, I think we need to pick this conversation up again sometime in the next six months!

Next up we have James Gallagher, District 3 assembly candidate, and Andrew Merkel, Butte Co. Dist. 2 supervisor candidate, on May 11, at noon and one, respectively. Hope to see you there!

 

Nakamura alludes to some mysterious consequences in not forgiving Nature Center loan, but won’t elaborate

22 Apr

Well, I sure as hell called that one! Yes, Brian Nakamura recommended the $206,000 (and counting) owed by Chico Creek Nature Center be WRITTEN OFF!

Like Mark Sorensen added sarcastically, “Yeah, what’s another $200,000?”  Sorensen, for the record, said he was against writing the loan off, the committee giving a split recommendation to council. Our boy Randy Stone wants to FORGIVE AND FORGET!

A loan taken in 2008, on which there have been no payments since 2010.  For a daycare center that can’t make money in this town? You have got to be kidding. 

Oh yeah, the Nature Center, they’re just such an asset to the community. Brian Nakamura knows this, he says, because he attended their nature camp! Huh? I thought that was just for kids? And, by the way, camp hasn’t even started sign-ups for this year, so when did he attend camp? 

Something I’ve learned about Brian Nakamura, is when he talks, you need a tape recorder, cause he goes all over the place, saying all kinds of stuff, starting to insinuate dire consequences, but mumbling unfinished sentences into his shirt collar. This morning, he started to say something about some kind of bad legal situation we would be in if we didn’t forgive this loan – I’m just  guessing – it has something to do with auditing books, and stuff not looking quite right. Funds out of balance.  Like, “hey, where did you put that $206,000?” “Me?! I thought YOU had it!” 

I didn’t press him on it, because Mark Sorensen had already yelled at me and cut me off before my three minutes was up because I suggested we wanted to see the financial records for the center. I also suggested that the city get an organization on that city-owned property that was accountable for their finances. Later Sorensen asked the center director if they had an audit firm or if they did their books internally. Wow – that’s what I suspected – Sorensen, who voted a year ago to defer the loan payments, has not only never seen the books, he doesn’t know anything about them. A man who not only owns his own lucrative business but manages another entire town.  What a fucking idiot.  Sorensen is way too quick to hold up his hands and deny any responsibility for this mess.

Director Caitlin Reilly responded that they have a CPA file a form 990, which she says is available to the public. I told her I’d be contacting her for that, and she said it would take her a  couple of days to scan and send it. Oh yeah, she has sooooo much to do down there!  That must be a regular whopper of a file. Full of bigger whoppers, I’m guessing!

This on the heels of Nakamura’s Garbage Tax. That’s another post folks. 

 

Robin Hood Nakamura wants to raise our garbage rates so he can forgive a $206,000 debt for Chico Creek Nature Center

21 Apr

At tomorrow’s Finance Committee meeting they will discuss raising your garbage rates so they can “forgive” over $200,000 in loan, interest, and late fees to the Chico Creek Nature Center.

A quick read of the consultant’s report regarding the new garbage tax will tell you, the city is adding a pimp charge to your garbage bill – but no, you won’t get anything more in return. The “additional services” they are talking about are all services the city is supposed to perform already. They will turn these duties, like street sweeping and leaf pick-up, over to the haulers, in return for an exclusive contract for Waste Management and Recology to split down the middle.

This is a sweet deal for both haulers – we will all be forced to “subscribe” to service, even if we don’t need it.  You know there are single people and childless couples all over town who bust a gut to produce a shopping sack full of trash per week, who do not have garbage service at their home.  They throw their trash away at work, in that big dumpster out back, or they take it to the grocery store when they shop – why not, that’s where most of it came from. When they eat out, they leave their trash at the restaurant. 

There are also neighbors who share trash service, which seems like the answer to those whiners who complain about too many trucks on the street.  Why not talk to your neighbors? Agree between yourselves on a common carrier, share cans whenever possible.  Unfortunately, that will be doable under this new franchise agreement. 

As for those “additional services,” street sweeping sounds great, but leaf pick-up is something we all pay for that disproportionately benefits landscape businesses. Every week my neighbors’ landscape providers come around, mow, and then blow everything right into the street. In Fall it’s absolutely impossible not to notice, there are mounds of leaves in front of houses that do not have one tree in the front yard. The program has very simple rules, one  of which is, no back yard leaves. But who supervises any of this? People should be cited for depositing their yard waste in the street, but here we ALL pay to have it picked up, free of charge. To hell with the leaf pick-up program. 

Read the list yourselves – they’re talking “X-mas tree pick-up.” I’m sorry, I don’t use “X-mas trees,” and I certainly don’t leave them laying in front of my house in the street. Why should I pay for those other jackasses? 

But we will, we will pay and pay. The consultant says our rates are “artificially cheap,” compared to nearby towns. Well, that’s because, they’ve all instituted the same scam already. Get ready for your bill to go up, $15, $20, maybe as much as $30 a month. 

One thing I see in looking at this report, our rates are artificially low not because we don’t have all these rainbow services, but because we have a current agreement that forces the haulers to use Neal Road Landfill. I am soooo conflicted here. Neal Road Landfill is a dinosaur, I don’t care what Mike Crump says. Recology owns a much more modern landfill in Wheatland – but get this – people in Wheatland and the surrounding area pay Rocology $52/month for a 96 gal tote, compared to our $24/month. Well, excuuuuuse me! Sustainability, my  friends, is for the rich.

I’d like to see our service remain same, keep the provision that the trash be kept here in Butte County, and a fund be set up immediately for the modernization of Neal Road Landfill. They talked about that somewhat at Sustainability Task Force meetings, but they’re really not serious about it. That’s because Neal Road is run by the county now, public workers are just not as motivated as private industry workers, let’s face it. They turn everything into a salary trough, where service becomes the last priority after paying their unfunded pension liability. 

Aftr they talk about putting the screw to us simply because they can, City Mangler Brian Nakamura will recommend further deferral, possibly even forgiveness (excuse me while I enjoy a solid chorus, in four part harmony, of “I TOLD YOU SO!”) of the Chico Creek Nature Center’s loan. This loan was originally $185,000 in 2008 but has metastasized into about $205,000 due to unpaid interest and late fees. And, the money was originally stolen  from the development fund, now over $9 million in deficit. Nakamura is recommending that the city forget about the extra $20,000-something in interest and fees and switch to an interest-only payment plan, until such time as this shaky little organization can pull it’s head out of it’s ass and start paying it’s bills. He also has the city attorney look into forgiving the loan!

Which provokes an interesting question: can the forgiven Nature Center loan be written off by the city as bad debt, or will the city have to repay the Development fund out of the General Fund? 

This on the heels of over $500,000 in losses through the home loan program, “written off” at last week’s council meeting. They’re just handing our money out like candy down at City Hall!  This is why they want to triple our garbage rates? 

Tune in next time, for another exciting installment of “Runaway City!” starring Jon Voight as Brian Nakamura, and Eric Roberts as Mark Orme. 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hemet Taxpayers Association eliminated health benefits for council members and instituted term limits

19 Apr

Back in 2010, the Hemet Taxpayers Association asserted themselves and actually got two ballot measures passed – at more than 75 % approval.  It cost them about $7,000. I know, I’d rather buy my own ice cream truck for that kind of money, but it might be worth it to pass the hat around for something like this: (from  City of Hemet Ca,    http://www.cityofhemet.org/      under Municipal Code )

(See Sec. 2-36. Salary of members)

Initiative measure limiting health benefits for elected officials. The city shall not pay for, fund, or otherwise contribute to, the premiums, charges, fees or other costs of health benefits made available by the city to elected city officials either during their term or after their term of office. This measure shall only affect city officials elected to office after October 1994. Nothing in this measure shall prohibit the city from making health benefits that are generally available to other city employees also available to elected city officials during or after his/her term of office, provided that such health benefits are provided at the sole cost of the elected city official. City ordinances, resolutions, or policies, or portions thereof, in effect as of the date referenced below, that are inconsistent or in conflict with this measure shall be deemed repealed and no longer of any effect to the extent necessary to harmonize such documents with this measure. This measure shall take effect at the conclusion of the general election held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012, and shall continue thereafter.

(Ord. No. 142; Code 1984, § 2005; Ord. No. 1521, § 1, 6-13-95; Ord. No. 1576, § 2, 1-23-98; Ord. No. 1618, § 1, 6-27-00; Ord. No. 1672, § 1, 8-13-02; Ord. No. 1715, §§ 1, 2, 5-11-04; Ord. No. 1764, § 1, 7-11-06; Res. No. 4369, § 2, 7-27-10 (passed by voters 11-2-10))

(Sec. 2-37. Initiative measure establishing term limits for elected officials.)

During their lifetime no person shall serve, whether by means of election or appointment, more than three terms of office as a city councilmember, as the treasurer, or as any other elected city official. This term limit shall be applied separately to each different type of elected office held. A partial term of office shall be considered to be a full term where more than one-half of the regular term of office has been served. This measure shall apply prospectively, taking effect as to terms commencing in 2012 and thereafter.

(Res. No. 4368, § 2, 7-27-10 (passed by voters 11-2-10))

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Chico City Council race kicks off next Sunday, April 27, with Andrew Coolidge, Chico library, noon to one pm

19 Apr

Next Friday we have our first city council candidate coming in to the library for a chit-chat – Andrew Coolidge. You may remember Coolidge from 2012.

As I scan over my drafts file, I see plenty of city of Chico  issues I haven’t had time to talk about – a back page story about California’s looming pension liability, a letter from a Chico man suggesting we set another tax on ourselves to fund more cops, a chart showing that Cal Water gives public agencies like cities a flat water rate while the rest of us are on meters, an article about a pile of bad home loans recently written off by the city, BK Brook’s letter about the problems at Chico’s long neglected sewer plant, an editorial from a man who has never attended an airport commission saying we need to “get better commercial service at the airport…” , and then an interesting report about how claims against the city – for stuff like falling tree limbs and injuries/tire damage due to broken sidewalks and potholes – are UP.  Have you looked at Bidwell Park lately? You are taking your life in your hands walking into Bidwell Park – the trees need to be trimmed along the driveway, or somebody is going to be seriously injured.

We need to make sure these candidates are not riding on a cloud of air. What do they know about the real issues? Has Coolidge read the employee contracts? What does he think about paying benefits and pensions on people that make three, four, five times the median income? Months ago Coolidge made a public statement about the water rate increase – what has he done since?  Has he contacted the Ratepayer Advocate or the CPUC, does he have any news of our rate case, has he written a letter of protest? Has he attended an airport commission meeting – how many? Has he attended any meetings Downtown, which ones? Does he know how much money has been taken from the sewer fund to pay pensions and benefits? Does he understand that our sewer has reached capacity, and there are concerns about our water table falling, but our city keeps handing out building permits?

So far we have two city council candidates lined up, Coolidge and Joe Montes.  I don’t know who else is running because Debbie Presson won’t post the filings – she’s waiting until after the June primary, because she’s just plain lazy and incompetent. I’m curious about measures or initiatives that might be on the city ballot, so if I get a chance I’ll go down to her office and ask to look at them. In the meantime, let’s give Coolidge a good vetting, that’s next Sunday, April 27, from noon to one pm, Chico Library at First and Sherman Aves.

 

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We pay for Goloff’s rehab, like we paid for the surgery that supposedly hooked her on the meds. We need to dump health care benefits for city councillors

18 Apr

Chico Taxpayers Association would like to thank former mayor Mary Flynn Goloff for finally acknowledging that she has a substance abuse problem. But, I’d like to temper that with a good kick in the pants for having the nerve to sit up there for eight years high as a kite. 

Furthermore, I’d like to ask the other six council members and various close members of $taff how they could let this go on for almost eight years. In fact, when Goloff gave indications last year that she was unfit to serve, her cohorts on council voted to “forgive” the meetings she’d missed without any question as to why she’d missed them. Now we find out, as I suspected, she was in re-hab that time too. 

The last time I checked, Mary was receiving $21,000+ worth of health insurance from the city, for which she paid two percent of her salary as city councilor. Her salary is about $8,000, so she is paying less than $200 out of her own  pocket for a very nice policy. That policy not only paid for the rehab visits, but for the hip surgery she claims put her onto the meds. 

Yeah, I have a bad hip, wow. It started when I was carrying my first child, it got so bad, I could hardly walk.  It’s turned into “osteo arthritis”, which, as described by the doctor, means to me, “rotten bones.” I have taken  calcium supplements all my adult life, starting when I was working out at a gym. I’ve stayed physically active, toting my kids on a bike, making my errands by bike, swimming, hiking, biking, and snowboarding. See, it’s that Catch 22 thing – exercise helps the pain of arthritis, but it heaps it on too. The doctor recommended that I stay active, and he gave me some pain pills that would take the paint off Old Ironsides. I took one dose and laid awake all night cradling my gut like a screaming newborn.

Surgery? I’m sorry, I don’t have an insurance policy paid by the taxpayers – I have the bronze plan, or I have Medi-Cal.  No surgeon would return my calls, EVEN IF I were stoooooopid enough to think surgery would fix it. Right now they’re playing a commercial on tv – call a lawyer if you received a certain hip implant. And then there’s that episode of Rockford Files, where Abe Vigoda plays this old mobster who is having his hit men knock off every person who was involved in his botched hip replacement surgery, from the pharmaceutical salesman to the nurses to the doctors who did the surgery. I had to laugh at that episode, but it’s not really funny – this stuff really happens. And Mary just dragged us into that scam – we paid for her surgery, now we have to pay to get her off the painkillers “necessitated” by the surgery?

The only comfort I get out of  Mary’s statement is that she “has no plans to run again.” If only that was a promise.  

What we should do is form a PAC and put an initiative or measure on the 2016 ballot, ending health insurance for city councilors. We should also institute term limits – that would probably also take a ballot initiative or measure. I mean, do you really think any of the people currently sitting up there would voluntarily institute either provision? You think Mark Sorensen is so squeaky clean? Ask him why he takes the most expensive insurance policy offered and pays about $100 for it. I’ve asked him point blank, and he won’t answer. 

 

 

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Chico Tea Party to host councillors Sorensen and Morgan, ass city manager Orme – “Chico’s role in economic development and how Chico can grow it’s way out of debt.”

17 Apr

Chico Tea Party meeting Tuesday 4/22/14 @ 7pm.

The Chico Tea Party Patriots will be holding a symposium. The topic will be the city of Chico’s role in economic development and how Chico can grow its way out of debt.  Mark Orme assistant city manager along with Sean Morgan and Mark Sorensen will be guest speakers.

 
The meeting starts at 7PM– at Marie Callenders 1910 East  20th Street, Chico. Doors open at 5:45 for those who want to order Dinner and visit before the meeting.

chicoteaparty.ning.com/events/chico-tea-party-patriots-meeting-3

LIMITED GOVERNMENT, FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY, FREE MARKETS

Check us out on Facebook at “Official Chico Tea Party”

Check out www.chicoteaparty.com for more details on what tea party patriots are doing today.

Chico Tea Party Patriots
chicoteapartypatriots@gmail.com

236 East Ave., Ste. A
PMB 112
Chico, CA 95926-7239

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Utility Tax Refund forms now available on city website

17 Apr

Wow, I am surprised this year to find the finance department has already posted the Utility Tax Refund application. In years past, I’ve had to remind them, but this year they got it up at least two weeks early. 

http://www.chico.ca.us/documents/UUTRefundApplication2014.pdf

I hope you have all saved your bills – PG&E, and water for most people I assume, and if you still have a “land line” phone, they’ll get you there too. So, I save all my bills, and I march Downtown one day in June to collect. I usually get at least $50, even as low as we keep our bills here.

We’ve finally turned off our heater, so we can enjoy a few months of low bills before it gets hot enough to tip the air conditioner thermostat. But I’ve already heard air conditioners around our neighborhood. Save those bills!

 

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