Nakamura is dumping the fire department – in 2017!

14 Apr

Tomorrow night city council will discuss serving a three-year notice to the fire department that they will be considering a contract with Cal Fire. You may be asking the same question I am – why did they just approve new contracts with the fire department, with a proviso that says we have to give them three years’ notice before we dump them? This is not a sincere move on the part of Scott Gruendl or Mark Sorensen, it’s election year pandering.

Look there it says, “recently completed negotiations…” meaning, weeks ago. Why did they go through with the contracts at all?

REPORT IN BRIEF: The City of Chico recently completed negotiations with its nine (9) bargaining groups. One
outstanding issue, pertaining specifically to the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), Local 2734, that
essentially binds the City, is Section 5.7, a contracting out provision. The City Manager believes this section
adversely affects the City’s ability to consider alternative service delivery options in order to evaluate the costs related
to salaries and benefits. Thus, in light of the City Council’s desire to treat all bargaining units respectfully and equitably
in future negotiations, the City Manager recommends that the City provide the attached notice of intent, which
becomes effective April 16, 2017.

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Experience is what counts in the Assessor’s office

13 Apr

Today’s session with Butte County assessor candidate Diane Brown answered all my questions about the assessor’s race – including, why would such a highly skilled non-partisan position be filled by the fickle public?

Brown’s opponent Al Petersen had already led us into this conversation, telling us how important it is to have an assessor who has an eye for detail and a good relationship with the public to keep the rolls accurate and up to  date.  Diane Brown took it further, driving in the need for experience in this leadership role. 

Petersen and Brown are former co-workers at Butte County assessor’s office, Petersen having left a  few years back to take a position with the Sutter County assessor. Al is a very polite guy, I didn’t want to get into it with him about why he left Butte County as an employee to drive all the way to Sutter for a job, I figure, there are a million personal reasons. But he and Diane still have a very good rapport, and that made for one heck of an informative conversation.  I’ll say, they both know their job and are really serious about this position. 

Diane led right off telling us about the function the office, picking up where we left off with Al. With a staff of about 38 people, the office is responsible for identifying taxable properties and their owners, assessing taxable value of everything from bare land to new construction, commercial properties, residential remodels and rebuilds. The maps must be updated to reflect changes in parcel boundaries and subdivisions. 

Assessments, she says, are based on recorded documents, inspections, and objective market values. Of course, market values have been falling over the past years, there are plenty of houses currently over-assessed. Brown explained that these homes can be enrolled in the Proposition 8 program. Prop 8 allows the assessor to adjust the base value of a house when it becomes “upside down”. The home remains in this program until either the market recovers and the home becomes worth more, or the house adjusts down to true market value. There are currently about 22,000 houses enrolled in the Prop 8 program.  Brown says anyone who thinks their house is over-assessed should certainly contact the assessor’s office.

Properties can also qualify for a variety of exemptions. For example, if your home is damaged by some accident – even if it was your own fault – you can get exempted from paying taxes on all or part of the house until it has been repaired. Also, home improvements that are made to accommodate a handicapped individual are exempt from re-assessment. In fact, a handicapped person may sell their home to move to a more accommodating home, and keep the tax base from their previous home. I’m sorry if my explanation is simplistic – if you want all the details, contact the assessor’s office.

I’ll tell you what, the conversation was flying fast and over my head alot of the time. There’s a lot to this job, that’s for sure. Complicating matters, Brown says the manual by which assessments are made is woefully out of date and hasn’t been updated because the position of Standards Officer has been vacant since 2005. The county has made cuts to stay on budget, but there is a position Brown says she would very much like to see filled. 

She is left to rely on her experience both in assessing and in training new assessors. There are a myriad of complicated rules and regulations – she used the exemptions as an example – something as simple as noticing a handicapped sticker on a car at a house getting a remodel would tell an experienced assessor that this household may be eligible for an exemption. 

“My training and experience make me the best candidate for this job,” Brown asserted.  Sue asked, how long would it take to bring a person who is not experienced up to speed in this job. I immediately thought of the Wilmar 8 – a group of female bank employees who went on strike back in the 80’s, one of their complaints being, they were regularly made to train outside male workers promoted over them. 

Diane explained that the state will grant such a person a temporary assessor’s certificate, which is good for one year. During that time this person must receive 24 hours of training regarding  all the stuff Diane told us about at this meeting. This would make them qualified to be hired as an assessor, but Diane says, a new hire would still require at least a couple more years of intensive training to be qualified as an “advanced assessor,” able to go out on their own and make their own calls. But, at the will of the capricious mob, they’re qualified to head the office? Weird, so very, very weird.

I wonder if the public is up to hiring somebody for this job, most of us having a slim to nothing hold on the qualifications. But, Diane reminded me, this person needs to be accountable to the public. “An assessor has to be able to work under a lot of pressure,” she said. County officials might want the assessor to over-assess, bring in more revenues for the county. These people could put an obscene amount of pressure on an individual who was beholden to them for a job. That’s why the assessor has to be accountable to the voters. 

Why me? she asked rhetorically.  She went on to detail her 30 year relationship with Butte County. Starting in the assessor’s office in 1983 as a clerk typist, she educated and worked her way up to appraiser in 1989 (slightly different than assessor, an appraiser only fixes value, assessor figures in all the exemptions and rules that go into setting the tax), was one of the first office staffers to be sent out to do field work, and one of the first women to work in the mountains. She has worked at all the local offices, trained new employees, and, as an advanced assessor, has assessed all sorts of properties – residential, commercial, ag, etc. 

What would Diane do as head of the County Assessor’s office? Again she mentioned the out-of-date manual. She would like that to be updated, asap. This would require the hiring of a new Standards Officer. The assessor’s office has been run very frugally under Fred Holland, who actually returned money to the General Fund the last few years. That’s like putting your children on diets to save money – not a good idea if they’re not actually fat. Maybe we need to ask our county supervisors to fill that position. 

There is quite a little gaggle running against Diane and Al for this job. Diane said it – “Let’s face it, this position pays a lot of money.” Al told us, the assessor is only required to be in the office, physically, two days a year! Those are the days he has to deal personally with the auditor. Bill Connelly and Virgle Gage have absolutely no qualifications, Connelly has already made statements indicating he will be completely dependent on staff. Rudy Rindelsbach is a realtor.  His knowledge of realty may come in handy for him, but he, like Connelly and Gage, will still have to be “brought up to speed” on all those laws and exemptions.  Again, leaving staffers who are hired instead of elected to run the shop.  Don’t get me wrong – I’m not accusing county staff or CAO Paul Hahn of anything, but like Diane said, a boss can put undue pressure on employees, it’s better to keep the safeguards in place. 

Diane Brown seemed firm in her conviction that “the taxpayers deserve somebody who can step in there the first day of work without any training…the taxpayers deserve better.”

So, there it stands – of a field of five candidates in which we have two that are qualified and three that may just be in it for the $123,000 a year paycheck. You decide. 

Thanks to Diane Brown for coming in on a Sunday and thanks Al Petersen for coming in to round out the conversation. I think it is very much to both of their credit that they come out to engage the voters.

And thanks to everybody who came down to enjoy sandwiches with me for Taxpayer Appreciation Day!

 

 

 

 

 

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Dogpile on Mary!

11 Apr

Do you remember childhood? Remember being on the playground and hearing somebody scream at the top of their lungs, “DOGPILE!”  And a mob would form out of nothing and jump on some poor kid – usually, a real annoying kid.  Seen it. Done it. Gonna do it now.  It’s highly uncivil, but let me ask you – has Mary Flynn Goloff been civil?  

I’ve actually been holding back lately, but you know I’ve said it before – Mary needs to go. She needed to go from the get-go. She’s never contributed anything worthwhile to a conversation. I remember when she chaired the Economic Development Committee (yeah, it’s all coming back to you now…), I sat in on a meeting where a former Chamber CEO was making his farewell speech as he headed to another town, carpet bag in hand. Jim Goodwin told us that Chico wasn’t going to get any new jobs because our housing was too expensive. Perspective employers know they can’t pay the kind of wages it takes to own a $400,000 house, so they go elsewhere. One manufacturer, of a cool, space age, high tech jet, pulled up stakes and headed for Texas.

Why are houses so expensive here? Well, first there was Tom Lando’s attaching of salaries to “increases in revenues but not decreases.”  Staff and council started handing out building permits to raise their own salaries. By the time that hayride was over, houses had gone from less than $100,000 to $600 – 800,000, in the span of a couple of years. Tom Lando’s salary had gone up about $100,000. 

Then staff, with the blessing of council, started giving the cookie jar to their friends who helped them raise revenues. They’ve allowed developers to come in and get all kinds of cheap to free service – streets, sidewalks, sewer hook-ups. They’ve handed money to developers – the $7 million used to purchase the low-income section of Merriam Park went right into New Urban developer Tom DiGiovanni’s pocket, out of the RDA fund, meaning we’ll pay for it three times. Scott Gruendl arranged for  DiGiovanni to write a “parallel code,” so he wouldn’t have to get variances for the sub-code stuff he does. They just let him write his own code, with narrower streets, smaller setbacks, and stuff like, the wall of one house acts as the fence to the neighbor’s property – your neighbor’s kid can play basketball off the wall of your house, and you have to sue his parents to make him stop. Go look at Doe Mill – you think that’s standard code? But those yardless crappers will still run you over $250,000 each. What?

Goloff sat through that Economic Development meeting listening to Goodwin’s report, and whenever there was a break in the conversation she’d kind of look around the room and flutter her hands and say, “Well I just think Chico is a wonderful place to live.” She just kept repeating that, over and over. 

Yeah, nice if you’re a public worker, and make three, four, five, six times the median income. It’s real nice to live in a town like Chico, where people are desperate, on a big salary. You can have a maid, nanny,  landscaper, all these willing slaves to do your shit work for you.  But it sucks if you’re living on the median income or less, because the high salary assholes drive up the cost of everything from gas to hair cuts to daycare to eggs. I got my hair cut at Dimensions once. I went in and told them, Annie August sent me, so they knew she’d told me how much to pay. I used to get a nice ‘do, a little color, made me feel pretty when I was changing diapers and scrubbing rental toilets. As I sat in the chair getting my color and cut, a lady came in, announced she was visiting from “The City,” and sarcastically asked if she could she get a cut for less than $150? Oh sure! they told her. They did exactly what they did to me and charged her twice as much. I remember how those gals looked at me, “Shut Up!” I never went back. After having a woman like Annie August fussing over you, there’s just nobody else. But I saw what they did, and I never forgot it. That’s the way this town is – take advantage creeps.

And that’s what Mary Flynn Goloff is, a take-advantage creep. She never even understood what she was getting herself into with the job of councilor, she just wanted attention.  I don’t know which ones are worse – the ones who come in with agendas in place, or the ones who come in to be fawned over like some sort of Evita, and end up being used like a Fist Puppet by the ones who do have agendas. That would be little Miss Mary. 

She’s been to rehab at least twice for alcohol and prescription drug problems. She’s already had problems attending meetings – we found out later, she’d been in rehab at that time.  Nobody is going to forget her unannounced entrance at Harvest Bakery while on prescription medication. How can we help but be suspicious that she’s fallen off the wagon again? In an attempt to be civil, I will ask Goloff to buck up and finish her term, but to announce NOW that she does not intend to run again. Thank you Mary for your anticipated cooperation.

 

 

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Butte Supers write another protest letter over Cal Water rate hike – the leaders are leading, now the people need to follow

7 Apr

I’m sorry I haven’t posted this sooner – the Butte County Board of Supervisors has sent another protest letter over Cal Water’s proposed rate hike. 

March 25, 2014 

Ms. Karen Miller
Public Advisor, California Public Utilities Commission
505 Van Ness Avenue, Room 2103
San Francisco, California 94102
RE: California Water Service Company General Rate Case
Dear Ms. Miller:
On behalf of the Butte County Board of Supervisors, I am writing to express concern over the proposed increase
filed by California Water Service Company (Cal Water). Butte County is served by two Cal Water service districts,
Chico and Oroville, with customers of each facing proposed increases of more than 26%. The Office of Ratepayer
Advocates proposed alternate rate increases of 7.2% for Chico and 16.1% for Oroville in March of last year, but
those rates are not reflected in the proposed rate case settlement.
The unemployment rate in Butte County at the end of January, 2014 was 10.0%. Although that rate has improved in
the past year, it continues to exceed that of the State of California and the United States as a whole. New home
construction may be on the rise throughout the rest of the State but that trend has not extended to Butte County.
While our local economy is finally showing some signs of improvement, it remains extremely vulnerable to events
affecting local spending and consumer prices. Our community can ill afford the negative long-term impacts of the
proposed Cal Water rate increases.
It is our hope that the Public Utilities Commission will assist the thousands of Butte County citizens and businesses
facing economic hardship by adopting more reasonable and affordable rates in the Chico and Oroville Water Service
Districts served by Cal Water.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Doug Teeter, Chair
Butte County Board of Supervisors
cc: Members, Butte County Board of Supervisors
The Honorable Brian Dahle, Member of California State Assembly
The Honorable Dan Logue, Member of California State Assembly
The Honorable Jim Nielsen, Member of California State Senate
Paul Yoder, Strategic Local Government Services, LLC
Joe Como, Office of Ratepayer Advocates

The other good news is, while the decision was supposed to be made in January and we might already be paying that 38 percent proposed increase, the commission is still out. I’m guessing, the various protests have been getting through, and these commissioners and their hangers-on have realized they are suddenly under scrutiny. Reading up at Marysville for Reasonable Water Rates’ Facebook page

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

I understand the proposal has so far been whittled down to 10 percent – WOW! – but the source, a spokesman from Cal Water, warns that the commission “ can raise it to whatever amount they determine that Cal Water needs/and or deserves. ”  We have it in cyber ink –  the CPUC does what’s good for Cal Water! “needs and/or deserves“? We need to keep up the pressure.

I wish people would write to the supervisors and thank them for joining the protest. You can find their e-mail addresses here

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

A friend of mine who lives here in Chico reports that her homeowner’s association has raised dues because of the pending increase. “People had no clue,” she said. Yes, it takes time to get the information out. If you’re reading this and you care, write a letter to the Enterprise Record, News and Review, Oroville Mercury Register, or some other local newspaper. Remind your neighbors, this increase is mainly for pensions and benefits. Only $165,000 for infrastructure, over three years, but almost a million for pensions and benefits. Do the math on your bills, tell people how much your bill will go up. Tell people how much you’ve spent fixing your plumbing, buying water-conserving fixtures and appliances,  how you’ve changed your lifestyle to conserve, and  been rewarded with rate increase after rate increase. Remind them, we don’t have a water shortage, we have too many developers in Southern California demanding our water. 

My friend’s comment, and the inaction of the commission on the rate case have convinced me that people need to know, and we still have time to tell them. 

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Only two months left til primary – Butte County assessor candidate Diane Brown coming in to library next Sunday, more speakers lined up

6 Apr

NOTE  10/24/14 – I notice Diane Brown has included this old post on her website – let me be clear – Chico Taxpayers Association does NOT endorse Brown for Assessor. I’m not endorsing Connelly either, but I voted for him because Brown came off as tax happy. She seems to look at the taxpayer/property owner as her adversary. She also seems to think she has the authority to go into people’s homes and use their personal decor in assessing the value of a property – no, it’s square feet Folks, and that’s something she can figure from the curb.  Brown thinks it’s her job to raise revenues to pay salaries and  benefits down at the county, not to protect the homeowner. 

I’m not thrilled with Bill, but knowing Brown’s philosophy I’m willing to give him a whack.

 

Next Sunday Chico Taxpayers Association will host Butte County assessor candidate Diane Brown at Chico Library, the usual time, noon to one pm.

There are six people running for the office of assessor. This may seem weird until you see the salary – over $120,000/year. Bill Connelly, who has yet to offer an qualification for the job or even any understanding of the duties,  has already stated the salary was a major consideration in his decision to run. 

The candidates filed:

  • Rudy Rindlisbacher, who lists himself as a real estate broker
  • Diane Brown, currently principal appraiser for the Butte County assessor’s office
  • Blake T. Bailey, undescribed
  • Bill Connelly, who describes himself as a contractor and county supervisor (District 1)
  • Al Petersen, currently chief appraiser for Sutter County, a former employee of the Butte County assessor
  • Virgle N. Gage,  “retired business executive”

Al Petersen was the first to announce, so I googled him and found him at Sutter County, contacted him and he got back to me right away. Al has supported our speaker series since the beginning. What I feel about Al is, he’s gone to a lot of trouble to contact the voters, it’s a logical stretch that he might be more accessible once he is in office. 

When I contacted Diane Brown, she actually told me she’d been trying to figure out how to get ahold of Chico Taxpayers, she’d read my letters in the paper and thought this forum was a good idea. We both wanted to get April 15, but that day was booked, so we settled for the usual Sunday date – I like consistency when I can have it. I’m hoping Al with come in, not for a debate, but both of these people as as well-informed as you can get about the function of the Butte County assessor’s office, between them, we should have a very interesting, educational and enlightening conversation. This isn’t just about the election for me, it’s about understanding the function of these highly paid employees who have a very direct impact on our lives.

I tried to get Bill Connelly to name a date, but he wouldn’t. Instead he came into Maureen Kirk’s date and  muscled himself into the conversation. But, he didn’t discuss the assessor’s job, just gave his take on issues before the Board of Supervisors. Which is where he belongs if you ask me. I can’t stand a jumper – somebody who runs for an office and then shags it halfway through. And Connelly is making no bones about the salary being twice as much! He’s got no qualifications for this office. And, Al told us – there are only two days of the year when an assessor is required to be in the office.   Is that how Connelly intends to run the assessor’s office? Show up the two days that he is required, then go home and collect that fat salary? And let’s not forget – pension and benefits, based on that $120,000 + salary.  

As for the others,  I will work on contacting them, at the very least, to tell them about Diane Brown coming in. I’m worried that this race will go to Connelly because he’s got name recognition (Sheesh Bill – think you put up enough signs?)  and because people don’t know what the assessor’s job is. And, he’s been raising money since way before he announced. It was pretty clear he wouldn’t commit to a date with us because he knew there was no money in it. Bill, could you wipe that slobber off your chin, you’re freaking me out.

Good questions to ask the assessor candidates are, how do you evaluate a property, where do you collect comps, do you actually physically view the property or use maps, etc. How do these folks feel about prop 13? Al has mentioned he’d like to see some analysis of how much money we’re losing to prop 13 – does that kind of talk turn you on or off? We need to talk about this stuff, come on down and bring your questions. 

Furthermore we have the following candidates lined up:

  • April 27 – Andrew Coolidge, city council, noon
  • May 11 – DOUBLE BILL – James Gallagher, 3rd dist assy, noon; Andrew Merkel, 2nd dist supe, 1 pm
  • May 25 – Joe Montes, city council, noon

And, I realize these things are at noon. Food is allowed in the library, so I’m going to try to bring sandwiches and bottled water, maybe a pot of coffee.

 

 

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No more water storage for get-rich-quick developer scams in SoCal

3 Apr

I’ll say now, I am really disappointed in Ryan Schohr’s response to my concerns about water rate increases, but let’s face it, nobody’s perfect.

Schohr responded, essentially, that Cal Water is under onerous state regulations that cause the  rate increases – they are forced by us to provide those pensions and benefits free of cost to their employees? He also feels that our population is growing, growing, growing, and we need to provide a safe water supply.

In my opinion, water company employees, along with other public service employees, need to drop their “I deserve a meal ticket!” attitude and pay their own benefits.  As for population growth – let’s face it, too many of these people are being lured here by developers hoping to make a quick buck. Look at this stuff they’re building in San Diego, a city that does not even have it’s own fresh drinking water supply. These developments are intended specifically to BRING PEOPLE HERE, people for whom they expect us to supply water.

new-condo-san-diego-bayside-the-mark

With views to Mexico to the south, the local mountains to the east and one of the most stunningnatural harbors in the world, downtown San Diego’s delightful cityscape is a testament to the last decade of redevelopment and urban revitalization.

New condos Downtown San Diego have had a tremendous impact on the redevelopment of theeight distinct downtown neighborhoods. The construction of downtown San Diego new condos have brought residents to the area who have created a new culture of the downtown neighborhoods.

New Condos Downtown San Diego

Many of the new condos downtown San Diego are being purchased by young professionals, empty nesters looking for a vacation getaway, and people looking for an ideal climate to enjoy life. The multitude of residents purchasing these downtown San Diego new condos enjoy being located perfectly between the San Diego bay and San Diego’s Jewel, Balboa Park.

I am very disappointed in Schohr’s response to this problem. He says we need more water storage. I say, restrict waterless development. Schohr had a conversation with Cal Water manager Mike Pembroke, who gave him a big glass of chlorine smelling Kool Aid. He went on to describe the limits on our water table, but says Cal Water is sinking a couple of new wells a year anyway! To keep up with all the poorly-planned, new urban crap that our council is permitting to keep the revenues coming in to float these ridiculous employee contracts they just signed. Same thing is going on all over the state – in Sacramento, it’s on steroids. 

So, we’ll see what Gallagher has to say in May, but I’m guessing, more of the same fruit punch. 

Assembly Candidate Ryan Schohr wants more accountability from boards/commissions, direct oversight of legislators, sunset dates on regulations, and more sunshine for the voters

2 Apr

In my last post I reported that third assembly district candidate Ryan Schohr feels boards and commissions are keeping the state of California from serving it’s citizens.  Alot of these appointments are pure spoils positions with little or no practical worth.

For example, when Jane Dolan was ousted from her Butte County supervisor position by the voters four years ago, she was given a seat on the Flood Board by Jerry Brown, well connected to Dolan and husband Bob Mulhullond, former head of the California Democratic party. This position pays over $40,000/year, with overtime and benefits, and only requires her attendance at one meeting a month.

Robert Speer over at the Ads and Review tried to defend Dolan by saying, “And each of those monthly meetings will take many hours, if not days, of preparation. It’s hard to say how much Dolan will earn per hour, but even if it’s $200, your average lawyer’s rate, she’s well worth it.  Oh sure Bob, right, yeah, sure.  That’s like Laura Urseny saying Jan Sneed’s a real nice lady!

Casey asked, how can we get rid of some or all of these boards/commissions, and Ryan Schohr said there is currently a movement to include a sunset date on some of the regulations that create these boards/commissions. But, how do we get that? 

It starts with accountability – most legislators, Schohr laments, want to “keep an arm’s length” from these regulations, they don’t want  to be directly responsible, certainly not at election time. They insulate themselves with these boards/commissions.

Like the California Public Utilities Commission. The CPUC is a spoils board appointed by the governor. What governor can we trust – Republican or Democrat – they’ve loaded this commission with people from the utility companies. For example, the current president of the CPUC, Michael Peevey,  is the past president of Edison International and Southern California Edison – just in case you don’t know, that’s Southern California’s version of PG&E. The others are all connected to utility companies, one woman was a lawyer for the utility companies, etc. What are we thinking!

These people should also be elected by us. Why not just staff these commissions with legislators? I’ve seen it, Bernie Richter complained about it – our lawmakers spend way too much time yakking and partying while their spoils appointees are left to hand out all the cookies to their friends. They need to drop these spoils appointments. 

Schohr agrees, “we need to bring back control to the legislature,” suggesting these commissions be required to report on their activities (and expenses) every five years, and the legislature at that time can decide to dissolve them.  

He also pointed out, we need to “incentivize efficiency” by getting rid of the “spend it or lose it” budgeting system. I can’t believe this is still common – remember that episode of The Office?  Oscar explains to Michael there is a budget surplus and  if they don’t spend it, the main office will cut that much from their budget next year. A dilemma ensues – there is a true need for both new chairs and a copy machine, staff divided directly down the middle over which way to spend the money.  Michael calls the main office for advice, and David tells him the third alternative – keep it yourself as a bonus, keeps staff from fighting among themselves. So, Michael takes the money and buys a pimp coat at Burlington Coat Factory, problem solved. Wow, I can actually see people thinking that’s okay, especially when their thinking doesn’t extend beyond their proboscis. 

Actually, I still laugh out loud at the image of Steve Carell in that fur coat. But it’s true, in the public as well as private sector. Years ago Tim Bousquet told the story of a Chico State employee and her boss’  teak desk. A gal I met at a meeting Downtown told me of being chastised by co-workers for not using up the budget allotted her to wine and dine clients – “take your friends out to lunch, just use it!”  At our meeting, a retired teacher complained about being told to use her surplus classroom budget on “junk”, while her suggestions the unused portion go back toward capital debts was ignored.

“Let’s change the dynamic,” Schohr proposed. “If you save money from your budget, you can use it for something else, cut some of the spending restrictions that don’t make sense...” This would require, again, bringing folks to the table, bringing decisions back to the local level. Right now these decisions are made miles away, by people who have never been in the classroom or the patrol car or the fire truck, or the farmer’s field, or the factory floor, or your home. These people put onerous burdens on us, people who have never been north of Sacramento. 

We need local control over our law enforcement, for example, says Schohr. The board of supervisors, city council, sheriff and police chief should be able to decide where to allocate funding in their district, without the disconnected meddling of the suits in Sacramento and Los Angeles, just as teachers and parents should be able to decide where to spend money in  their children’s schools. The voters should have more sunshine into these activities, he continues, suggesting that bond measures put up before the voters should have to show the true cost of paying them off, with all that interest,  right on the ballot. 

I’d like to talk more about water issues we discussed at Sunday’s meeting in my next installment, right now, it’s looking good to put a load out on the clothesline and torch/pull some weeds! Frohes Frühling meine Fruende!

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Third District Assembly candidate Ryan Schohr greets voters at Chico Library with his take on state issues

1 Apr

Sunday’s meeting with Ryan Schohr was fun, a little more intimate than usual, and  gave me a chance to get to know the guy a little better.  While we still disagree on one key issue – water storage – I think I could learn to live with this guy. Especially if he lives up to his words – Schohr believes that a citizen should serve these offices, not become a lifelong professional trough dweller.

Schohr hit a chord with me when he began to discuss the myriad of state agencies that bind our government like some sort of flour paste. 

So Sue, who works part time for District 2 supervisor Larry Wahl, gave us an example –  Wahl recently asked for a list of Butte County boards and commissions, and was handed over 169 pages of listings. I thought she said, there’s 169 boards and commissions – no, 169 pages of them. She went on to say, Wahl was taken aback by the pile of paper, and said he’d actually only wanted those commissions and boards overseeing agriculture. No luck – that’s most of them, he was told. Bob Evans pointed out to us when he came in to chat – agriculture and small business in our county are completely overrun with regulations. 

These agencies often contradict each other – Schohr gave one simple concrete example that I knew about – our local fish and game agencies and mosquito control folks are at each other’s throats over their practices – mosquito spray kills wildlife. Years back, the Chico News and Review did a story about a local biologist who had gone to work for vector control, and when she complained that she was finding big dead mammals, like deer, along with skads of little animals and birds, around recently sprayed ponds and waterways, she was fired. We found out, that spray has a shelf life, and it gets “dumped,” into whatever little body of water comes up convenient, apparently. Here we have laws about private citizens dumping chemicals into public waterways, or even on the ground in your back yard, but the vector control people can literally spray poison all over everybody. That is a classic case of the silly contradictions and mismanagement that comes from turning every half-baked idea into a commission or a board.

“…all those boards we pay for,” Schohr reminds us. “That’s cost our economy,”  reminding us of pensions and benefits. “Government does this to itself, we pay to regulate all these agencies.” 

This is Bureaucracy folks, absolutely nothing new about slick types creating positions by which they can funnel the public’s hard-earned dollars into their own pocket. Schohr lamented that the decision making that used to be done directly by our elected legislators has largely been passed off to these boards and commissions, where, you know, it swirls around for years, doing nothing but generating salaries and benefits and pensions.  Bernie Richter told us, and I saw it as a young college student in Sacramento – alot of these legislators see their position as some sort of hayride, and that’s what it too often turns into. Richter complained about the suits and the way they treated outsiders who didn’t know how to dress for the constant luncheons in fancy hotels.  

When I lived in Sacramento, I had a friend who put up and took down tables and chairs in banquet rooms at the Holiday Inn. He said, about two thirds of the banquets he worked were made up of legislators and lobbyists . My sister was in the accounting department at the old Senator Hotel – that hotel also catered largely to politicos and their hangers on. If you rode the transit buses late enough at night, you’d see faces you recognized from news stories wandering along the sidewalk in pairs or small groups, snockered half out of their gourds. I once watched my own assemblyman load a completely wasted friend onto the bus I was riding, to take him to a parking garage, where I almost wanted to get out and watch him load the guy into a car, just for the entertainments’ sake. The stuff I used to see in Downtown Sacramento, sheesh. Remind me to tell you my Willy Brown story sometime.

So, Ryan believes we need to cut through all the duct tape that has gobbed our government up and prevents us from getting our money’s worth in public service. He says he wants to be the kind of legislator that deals directly with the people. He told us a story to illustrate this point. Schohr’s family has farmed near Gridley for several generations, and when Schohr was younger, they came up against a regulation that required an expensive one-day permit to haul farm equipment on or across a state highway. A farmer might own rice fields or orchards that are spread out and separated, and they need to drive big equipment a few times a year from one site to another. Some farmers are intersected, their property divided, by state highways.  So every time a farmer might need to use a particular piece of equipment, they would have to apply and pay for a permit that was only good for one day, a day to be specified by the paper shufflers. Furthermore, iff for whatever reason they couldn’t move the equipment that day – be it weather, mechanical failure or people problems – they would have to re-apply, re-pay, and take another shot at a permitted haul. 

That story set off our crowd. Why in the heck, several asked, would you need a permit to move your farm equipment. Well, it’s not just farm equipment, but farm equipment can also be quite large, endanger other drivers, utility poles, over passes and other edifices – my gramma’s mail box! Some need a CHP escort. When my brother was working in the gas fields, I once saw a derrick being moved. Wow, talk about other worldly. They usually move that stuff at night, and the route has to be mapped out and approved. So, yeah, there’s a need for some regulation here, but what Schohr saw was just a milking of the public trough that caused onerous hurdles for small business.

So, he went to Dick Dickerson, then Second District Assemblyman out of Redding. Dickerson he said, “brought people to the table,” worked for a solution, and was able to get the permit extended to a week.  This might not sound like much but of course it gives the equipment operator a lot bigger window without leaving the public in danger of being run off the road by trailer houses or giant sections of oil derricks or towering combines. 

“That is the style I think is important, bring people to the table for a common sense solution,” says Schohr. “We need to change the culture in Sacramento.”

 I’ll finish this tomorrow – thanks!

 

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Oh no, nobody ever believes Juanita!

27 Mar

I saw this report on KRCR Ch 7 news the other night – “Chico Housing Market One of Nation’s Least Affordable”.

http://www.krcrtv.com/news/local/survey-chico-housing-market-1-of-nations-least-affordable/25144536

The survey mentioned was done by a conservative “think tank” (my description) owned and run by a guy named Wendell Cox. Looking into Cox’s background, what I see is, this guy was an early proponent of the stuff we now know as “new urban” and “smart growth,” where you shove all the people into densely packed inner cities, served by public transportation. Now, he has turned 180 degrees, saying that none of this stuff has helped, our cities and roadways are still a giant mess. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendell_Cox

Well, duh. I tried to tell people that a long time ago. Why do you have to have a bunch of money and some initials after your name to get people to listen? Back in the early 2000’s, I saw this happening in Chico. A building boom that necessitated the import of labor! We must provide starter housing for new families!, they said. “They” being our city council and staff.  They spoke in panic – painting a picture of whole families sitting on their suitcases out on the curb, unable to find a house to live in. I knew it was bullshit then, and I tried to say as much. 

http://www.newsreview.com/chico/housing-crisis-fueled-by-greed/content?oid=25836

Of course New Urban Builder Tom DiGiovanni, father of some of the biggest jokes in town (Doe Mill, Westside Green), said I made the whole thing up.

http://www.newsreview.com/chico/greed-screed-response/content?oid=25879

Wow, the laugh was on me – little did I know, at just about that time, city council was approving that MOU that linked city salaries “to revenue increases but not decreases“.  Wow, if you don’t get that, unscrew your head and put it in a bucket of pine tar.  That’s how they simultaneously drove up the cost of living and their salaries. By the time we figured that one out, City Manager Tom Lando’s salary had gone from around $65,000/year to about $190,000 a year. Just salary. At that time we didn’t know about the pensions scam.  And, when they dumped the MOU that tied salaries to revenue increases, they agreed to pay the lion’s share of pension premiums, and here we are today, well, you read the story in the paper.

Mark Sorensen went on his little swing about how it’s not his fault, he wasn’t on council when they did that stuff. Well, he sure as hell hired Brian Nakamura at $212,000/year plus 96 percent paid retirement and benefits, and tried to tell us it was for our own good. Yeah, that’s what they tell the victim – lay back and think of Mother England. 

Our housing market, after a boom that increased the size of our town by roughly a quarter, actually raised the price of housing. How does that happen? 

Read here, read it good. And then come back so I can say, “I told you so!”

http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf

I told you so! 

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CARD has allowed our public swimming pools to sink into disgrace while they paid their own benefits, now propose a fantabulous gazillion dollar aquatic center

24 Mar

CARD is still promoting the idea of a gazillion dollar aquatic center, and they’ve got “news” reporter Laura Urseny running their propaganda.

I get a kick out of Urseny – when I don’t attend the meetings, it takes her a couple of days to get the story in the paper, but when she sees me there, she posts that story the night of! If I accomplish nothing more that putting a match to the seat of her oversize drawers, that’s enough for me.

Too bad I can’t make a real news reporter out of her. She’s a propaganda hag, at best. The story she popped into the paper might as well have been dictated to her by aquatic center committee chair Jan Sneed.  Urseny posted two stories last week about what rotten shape Shapiro Pool is in, without once  telling us why. As if, rust just happens, things just fall apart, there’s no stopping expensive equipment from deteriorating. For at least 20 years the staff at CARD has neglected the equipment at the two public swimming pools in town, and now it’s rusted and falling apart, leaking like a sieve. In fact, the pool at Pleasant Valley (next to Bidwell Junior High) has been leaking for about 20 years. I sat listening to a pool company rep telling a life guard it would cost about $2500 to fix it, but the CARD board rejected his bid and watched Aqua Jets go to In Motion Fitness as a result. 

For the last 20 years CARD has been nothing more than a salary trough. The Board of Directors is nothing but a “look at me!” position, these people don’t really run the agency. The director runs the agency, along with the Finance Director, and they’ve both managed to shovel themselves some pretty good bling – salaries in excess of $90,000 and $110,000 plus fully paid benefits packages. CARD employees do not pay ANYTHING toward their own pensions, but still collect 70 percent at age 55 like other public employees. Steve Visconti will retire soon, on 70 percent of $112,000/year, having paid NOTHING toward his own retirement or benefits. 

Urseny saw me at the meeting, so she tells her readers “[Maintenance Director Jake] Preston added that CARD doesn’t have the money to fix Shapiro or build an aquatics facility, although it looked at a tax measure but backed off the idea.”  Preston whined a lot about the Americans with Disabilities act, but it became clear, they’ve used that as an excuse not to update the pools at all.  The showers at Shapiro are not only not ADA compliant, they’re disgusting, get in there with some Comet and a scrub brush Jake.  The bathroom at PV only had one toilet stall for all those kids, and they’d use it to change their clothes. The line would back up to the front gate. 

CARD gets over $2.5 million a year, just from the county, our property taxes. Where does that money go? Well, last year they took $400,000 out of their General Fund and made a back-payment on their own pensions because CalPERS was threatening them with higher fees. That’s where the money has gone. 

And let’s not forget – both pools are owned by the school district, which has allowed CARD to run them into the ground. Here they’ve built all kinds of junk on the campuses with that Measure A money (promised to build a third high school), but not one word about the swimming pools they’ve allowed to rot. 

Laura Urseny is not interested in the truth, she’s just interested in keeping her byline. According to the aquatic center committee spokesman, they have not got any sponsors yet, all these months and they’re still “identifying partners.”   And, according to Preston, Shapiro Pool has been operating at a loss for years. It’s been a mess since my kids were little, we went once and never went back. 20 years ago it looked like they’d abandoned it. It was a popular target for vandalism. Most of the kids in both pools were there as participants in CARD daycare programs.  Maybe they should realize – the public doesn’t support the pools we have now, CARD does not maintain them – what will change if we invest millions into a fancy new aquatic center that will be dedicated to the use of a private club? 

I’ll try to keep an eye on this, I  can’t believe they’ve given up on floating a bond or assessment. The survey they floated last year should prove they are willing to lie and distort to get our money. 

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