Anybody have any idea how many people are suing the city of Chico these days? How about just the cops?

9 Jun

I don’t know if anybody would be able to tell us – how many lawsuits is the city of Chico involved in right now? That information is not available on the Butte County Court Case Index, and if you want an answer from staff you have to submit a formal request for information and wait until the cows come home (and yeah, I mean that literally) to get an answer.

I actually did submit a request regarding the negative figure I found for the “city recreation fund” but nine days later I’m still sitting on my three legged stool waiting for Bossy to get me an answer.

But a reader sent me a tip regarding a recently filed lawsuit naming the city of Chico, three specific Chico PD officers, and id’d other involved police officers as “Does 1-50” Here’s what I found online.

https://dockets.justia.com/docket/california/caedce/2:2023at00526/429158

The names are included but you have to “log in” to read the complaint. This is public information but see how hard they make for you to read it. I got a copy of the complaint from my reader. Apparently, officers pulled over a car that did not match the description of the car they were looking for and, according to the filed complaint, proceeded to go beyond reason in their treatment of three minors. One girl’s arm was literally twisted until she cried. A minor boy was removed from the car – I can imagine how scared he was that he would receive the same treatment as the girl he was with.

This reminded me of the story we all read about a college student who was attacked by Chico PD in 2016 after they’d seen her video taping the arrest of another person. This video, which I found on youtube, is really disturbing. I’ll tell you what really disturbs me – the officer involved, Steve Dyke, has been involved in numerous questionable actions, and he’s still a member of Chico PD. Google his name, it’s shocking that a man like that is still carrying a gun.

CAUTION: This is a video of what amounts to a sexual assault by members of Chico Police Department

Similar behavior to that you see in the video above was described in the report in the filing for the recent lawsuit. The girl involved was a minor, a teenager who made the mistake of going out without her mother after dark. Her arm was twisted until she cried, and much like what you see in the video above, the officers showed no mercy or pity. If you have teenagers, think about that next time they want to go anywhere in Chico without you.

If you have a child that’s considering enrolling at Chico State, I’d try to convince them to look at other colleges. I recommend University of Nevada, Reno, my kid had a great experience there, and they have a much better reputation than Chico State. Check out this link.

https://www.collegesimply.com/colleges/compare/university-of-nevada-reno-vs-california-state-university-chico

As the reader who sent me the information observes, “The city manager and chief will try to hush this up…probably a quick settlement at taxpayer expense the public will never hear about.” Yes, that’s true, they won’t talk about it publicly, they’ll hide behind “privacy”. And they’ll roll over and we’ll pay.

This is public information, you’re paying for it. This is your city, own it.

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Fire department given 10% more to pay 5% more of the city’s share of the cost – how does this affect the pension deficit? I think any moron could figure it out but council approved it so what does that say?

7 Jun
https://chico-ca.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=788&meta_id=86253
At last night’s council meeting the fire department was awarded a 10% raise to pay 5% more of their pension costs.

Pay Range Increases. 1) Effective the first pay period after ratification and approval, the City shall
provide a five percent (5%) General Salary Increase (GSI) to IAFF members as specified in
Exhibit B, retroactive to September 11, 2022. 2) Effective July +l, 2023, the City shall provide a five percent (5%) GS! as specified in Exhibit B.

3.10 RETIREMENT PLAN… Effective July 42, 2023, each bargaining unit member shall pay, through payroll deduction, an additional one percent (I%) of PERSable compensation in addition to previously agreed cost sharing amounts above, with employee cost share totaling five percent (5%) for Classic members and two percent (2%) for PEPRA members.

City Manager and former city council member Mark Sorensen claims, “There is no additional fiscal impact beyond what has already been budgeted.” He doesn’t want us to know how this will affect the pension deficit, and no member of council bothered to ask.

They just gave the police 20% raises, but I didn’t see any mention of higher shares. The police have already agreed to pay the additional 3%.

Here’s how these deals raise our pension debt – raising their salaries raises their pension cost, far beyond the tiny shares they are being asked to take on. Furthermore, they are not paying more, they’re only paying a portion of the city share. These agreements raise the cost without raising the payment, that’s just gas on the fire.

Sorensen knows what he’s doing, but he doesn’t care about the consequences. When he took his public salary, he drank the Kool Aid. No matter what happens to the city of Chico, no matter what happens to our “quality of life,” our property values, our kids – Sorensen still gets his money.

On a side note, I asked Staff about the ($113,000) I saw in the “city recreation” budget, and I was told I would have to fill out a public information request. We’ll see what we get there. When I did that, I saw that a lot of people have requested information about the parking kiosks, the cost, who was the consultant, etc. I’ll keep an eye on that.

Another APP on your phone? Just to park? A credit card fee? Council is hammering the last nails into the Downtown coffin.

2 Jun

The parking kiosks are another nail in the coffin for Downtown Chico. The city held a meeting with Downtown business owners the other day, even invited customers. Not only are people disgruntled, one attendee got a parking ticket during the meeting, even after he’d paid for his parking space.

Here’s something that was mentioned at the meeting that is not mentioned anywhere on the city website – if you use your credit card for these machines, you pay a credit card fee every time you park or add time to your meter. Wow. I remember when ATM’s came out, they were great! My husband used his card to buy lunch almost daily – the first month, he racked up over $30 in fees – at that time, that was about six lunches. That was the end of our ATM days. That’s one reason we are really careful how we use our debit and credit cards as well.

Thing is, if you want to use coin, aside from having a bag of coins stashed in your car, you need to drive to the kiosk, find “available parking”, get out of your car and feed the machine. Then you drive back to your space – what, and hope nobody took it? What?

Here’s something that was not mentioned at the recent meeting, but has been discussed in those day meetings – the meter has your app, and from that point on, it tracks your phone. You know you can be tracked with your phone right? You get those creepy reports from Google telling you where you’ve been the last 30 days? Former City Ass Mangler Chris Constantin reported that staff was using cell phones to track people during COVID, driving out to wherever they spotted “congregations” so they could threaten those businesses with sanctions.

Well, now the city is using your phone to watch your shopping habits. They want to know certain details, such as how far you have to walk to spend money after you park your car, they discussed that. They call it “marketing research“, I call it, “Big Brother is watching you…” And now Big Brother can send you advertising based on your shopping habits – don’t you just love those ads that slow down your mailbox? If you don’t think that’s creepy, you might want to watch Batman Forever, we have achieved Edward Nigma’s “box”.

Councilman Tom Van Overbeek has admitted as much, saying in his letter to the editor that this app will track you and make sure you are either out of that parking space or get a ticket. I wonder what they intend to do about the Downtown business owner who walked into that meeting waving a paid receipt and a parking ticket.

People have accused me at times of just complaining without offering any solutions. Various businesses offered their solutions at the meeting – most want free parking days or hours, such as free parking until 11am. They are willing to accept the kiosks, as long as there’s a way to wheedle out of it.

Here’s what my husband thinks, and I’ll agree: Downtown just shot itself in the foot again. For us it doesn’t matter – not personally – we don’t own a business there, and we haven’t patronized any business Downtown for years. But, I’ve watched one council after another pour out money for a “viable Downtown” – just throwing good money after bad. Whenever the government gets too involved in the private sector, you get problems. A viable retail sector runs itself. The city has thrown it’s dick in, and that’s where the problems are coming from. All they want out of those meters, is revenues, let’s face it. That’s what Van Overbeek seemed to be concerned with – how fast the ticketing process works. And then he blames college students – that would be funny, if it weren’t so insulting.

Van Overbeek and his cronies on council refuse to listen to the survey they ran a few years ago – people want a “clean, safe” Downtown. They meant, they don’t want bums breaking into their cars, looking over their shoulders at their ATM’s, or putting their hand on their car door to ask for a handout. They don’t want to have to lead their children down a sidewalk with filthy people sprawled out over it, or encounter human feces in front of a business entry. Use a public bathroom? Forget it. And that’s daytime. Add darkness and drunks, and Downtown becomes completely family UN-friendly at night.

Actions this council has taken very recently have just been more nails in the coffin – $1 an hour to park? Wow, there’s acres of free parking and more retail options at malls and retail centers all over town. Yeah, Raw Bar is nice, but Big Tuna and Izakaya Ichiban are just as good, less expensive, and – here’s the thing – have free parking and other retail options in the same center. And no bum tents or sprawling drunks or feces in the doorway. There are streets all over town like Nord and East that feed major retail centers, that haven’t been maintained properly for many years. But they’re putting a quarter of a million in American Rescue Money into parklets for bars Downtown?

One bail-out after another, and Downtown is still in trouble. Want to know why? While they play around with the candy toppings, they don’t provide any substance. The sewer hasn’t been maintained for 100 years. That’s what’s really going to tank Downtown – they will have to shut it down for a couple of years to tear out the streets to fix the sewer. Where will they get the money for that?

Next time, on This Old Lady…

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Harvey Holland: “Undergirding the homeless movement is an entitlement mentality, one that avails itself to the benefits of a free society, yet does not obey the laws that safeguard those rights.”

28 May

I don’t subscribe to the Enterprise Record but every now and then I read the letters section online – I find that the most interesting section of the paper, which has gone to mostly ads and propaganda. Most times I am able to read it before the wall comes up, today all I got was the following, with a quick glimpse at the name of the author – Harvey Holland. I didn’t get to read the whole letter, but I liked the opening quote.

“Undergirding the homeless movement is an entitlement mentality, one that avails itself to the benefits of a free society, yet does not obey the laws that safeguard those rights.”

That really nails it for me – I can’t stand people who scream for their rights without accepting any responsibility for their actions. I’ve dealt with friends and family members who’ve adopted that philosophy – I call it, “The Me, Myself and Irene” syndrome. “Irene” representing methamphetamine, heroin, and/or waaaaay too much alcohol.

Yep, that’s the reality of Chico these days, entitled drug addicts and criminals. They know they won’t be held responsible for taking stuff out of your yard, taking your daughter’s bike or your 11 year old’s BMX from the garage. That used to be called “stealing”, but these days it’s just a fact of life – if you don’t lock your stuff up – even that curious looking doodad hanging from your porch eaves – they will take it and nobody’s going to do anything about it.

Even locking stuff up isn’t always the answer. Car thefts are just a fact of life, and if your car is older and worth less than $10,000 they’re not even going to attempt to find it, much less get it back. My friend Dave’s locked car was stolen from the parking lot at his apartment complex. When he finally got it back, there was over 1,000 new miles on it, it had been stripped of valuable parts like the catalytic converter, was full of garbage including chits from casinos and used syringes, and was in the possession of a woman with warrants on her. That’s the only reason he got it back – she had to abandon it when the cops arrested her, and the tow truck got it before the transients got ahold of it again. I don’t believe anyone was ever charged, they acted as though Dave should be lucky to get his car back at all, completely destroyed and nothing but trash.

The cops and Mike Ramsey saw Dave’s car as an old junker, but Dave knew it as a car he had copiously maintained for years and his only source of transportation. This is life in Chico – watch your ass.

Or, demand more from your local police force. The police department gets over half the budget to tell us they can’t do anything about crime – tell your city rep the cops need to pay more of their own pensions, that’s getting down to their bottom line. Demand more from your DA – write a letter to the editor asking who will run against Ramsey and offer your support. And demand more from your city representative – my rep, Kasey Reynolds, tells me they need to offer these crazy $100,000+ salaries to “attract good people”. Let your rep know, that’s now working for us, and tell them you’re ready to fund and vote for anybody wo runs against them. I supported Morgan Kennedy in the last race, and you know what – she made a pretty good showing, and if she ran again she’d probably do better. I know she had Kasey worried – Reynolds’ PAC, “Citizens for Safe Chico” set a new funding record for the city council race.

The real problem is, it’s not just the transients and criminals who have a stake here – our ruling class is really entitled, they don’t care about our experience, they’re looking out for the One Percent. Look at Mark Sorensen’s little stucco compound over on Manzanita – you think he’s really worried about what you’re experiencing? Stand up and say something, or YOU have become the problem.

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The rich will play while the taxpayers pay – the skating rink lost $113,835?

27 May

As I was looking over the budget report from this past week’s Finance Committee meeting, a few things caught my eye – figures that just seem to appear out of nowhere. It’s called the Hokey Allocation Pokey – they just take money from one fund to another, like peas under walnut shells. The hand is quicker than the eye!

https://chico.ca.us/sites/main/files/file-attachments/5.24.23_fc_agenda_packet.pdf?1684428185

Yes, as they promised, they have a special fund for Measure H revenues, but here’s the thing that caught my eye – there’s already $4 million in there, and it’s in parentheses. That means, deficit. They haven’t collected $4 million in revenues, cause they only started collecting the tax April 1. So they just took the money – allocated it – from somewhere else. It’s in parentheses because they will have to pay it back, I would hope. I’m going to guess I missed the meeting where they said where that money came from, and it’s not in the report. It just materialized.

That is exactly the figure that Mark Sorensen pledged to “fix” our streets, with slobbers patches and slurry. That was a mini-drama – at first the city announced they would be applying new slurry (a coating made from old asphalt and oil) on streets in newer neighborhoods, some of them less than 10 years old. That riled people in older neighborhoods who hadn’t seen service in 20 or more years – how about the Guynn Avenue bridge, closed years ago because it’s falling off it’s mounts, restricting the residents’ egress and ingress from their homes. Tijuana quality service in a town with a budget over $200 million a year. Our City Manager’s salary of $211,000.year (+benefits) is more than they spent on the streets last year, you figure it out.

So our idiot mayor, Andrew Coolidge, quickly called the press to declare that was a mistake, and they changed the schedule to include neighborhoods with streets so badly damaged and neglected that the slurry won’t last 6 months. Mark my words, Folks, mark ’em down. I been right so far.

Hey Becca, I’m going to guess, you’re still waiting for sewer service down your street – remember, Becca was telling us the city has run sewer lines within a block of her house but she’s still sitting on a dysfunctional septic tank waiting for that last section of trunk line.

Where the hell does the money go? Well, drive Downtown, you see everybody who wanted them got their parklets – that was paid for out of the American Rescue Plan money that was intended to help businesses get over the effects of the pandemic, a shutdown ordered by the city. But was it really intended to help businesses expand onto public property to make more profits than ever before? I don’t believe it was, I think our council members are just listening to the squeaky wheels.

Right now, Downtown is tanking, so the Downtown merchants are squeaking like an old wagon. They were the principal proponents of the skating rink, claiming their receipts went up during the season – really? But who paid for it? The city budget, on page 115, shows that the city manager recommended budget projections of $115,000 in sponsorships and $250,000 in admissions? But I see they allocated $300,000 from the General Fund anyway. Does that money get paid back or what? We never know.

Of course, those figures are all speculated, “adopted” by council at the city manager’s recommendation. At this past week’s Finance Committee meeting (5/24), the report showed the “actuals”. For one thing, staff reported for April, “Description: Salaries & Employee Benefits Analysis: This category is tracking behind due to additional staff working on ice rink. Action Plan: Finance is taking a supplemental to Council to adjust budget to align with actual costs.” Followed by a second note – “Description: Non-Recurring Operating Analysis: Additional costs for operating the Chico Ice Rink. Action Plan: Finance is taking a supplemental to Council to adjust budget to align with actual costs.“

That was the report for April. As of May, two more supplemental allocation requests: “Item #3 Description: Non-Recurring Operating Analysis: Additional costs for operating the Chico Ice Rink. Action Plan: Finance is taking a supplemental to Council to adjust budget to align with actual costs.”

“Item #6 Location: City Recreation Expenditure Category: 876-610-4000 Description: Salaries & Employee Benefits Analysis: This category is tracking behind due to additional staff working on ice rink. Action Plan: Finance is taking a supplemental to Council to adjust budget to align with actual costs.“

Yes, they went over budget, they’re asking more money be appropriated for the skating rink costs. Obviously, staff time for the rink cost more than they predicted. Staff out of public works – those employees that are supposed to fix our streets, all Downtown working overtime on the skating rink.

On page 111 of the report for April, the word “Over” is written in red ink eight times, including “professional services” (contractor for the rink), “non-recurring/operating” and “advertising” – the rink. This sounds trite but it’s true – only the government is allowed to go “over” budget without an intervention.

And then there’s a page that I can’t get an image of, and it didn’t turn up under my F-Search, I don’t know how they load this stuff, but you’ll have to look for it yourself. On page “2 of 316” of the March report, staff lists the “actuals”. Under Fund 876, “City Recreation”, they’ve got a negative fund balance of ($113,835) for 22/23. As of March 31 2023, only $6500 in sponsorships has come in against Sorensen’s projected $115,000.

Let’s just admit it – the skating rink is a wash. When staff gave the Finance Committee that news at the April meeting, Mayor Idiot slumped in his chair like a second grader being called out for bad behavior, mumbling into his own chest, “well…it’s good will…”

Good will for whom? Delivered at whose expense? As usual, the taxpayers pick up the bill for the excesses of the elite.

Joe Azzarito on Measure H: How can they continue to push this obvious lie?

24 May

Well, you know what I love about my friend Joe Azzarito – he can’t just watch a pile of bullshit get up and walk down the street, he has to say, “Hey, that’s BULLSHIT!” So here’s what he has to say about Measure H. Thanks Joe and keep it coming.

Read this week’s articles and the supposed  $24,000,000 in Chico’s budget proposals, as a result of Proposition H. How in hell can they continue to push this obvious lie? Can the Merlins in city hall staffing/and or council members explain their math? Maybe the espoused dyed in the wool Trump hater, Scott Paulo can help them. $24,000,000 in new receipts based on an added 1% comes from $2.4 billion (8 zeros) in taxable sales. That works out to $80,000 in taxable sales for every 4 person family or $20,000 from every man, women and child in Chico. With a total median family income at less than $80,000 and much of what they buy as non-taxable, how do they arrive at these ginormous tax receipts?

And don’t get me started on road repair – full repaving not just slurry and oil on nearly three-quarters of our streets are needed. I just incurred major tire replacements on our cars. Would Chico like to repay me for my automobile destruction due to their roadways being in third world condition?

Fraud, misinformation, disinformation is not limited to our federal government. It is rampant throughout our country. “Deep states” are real! They exist everywhere and are cancers that must be eradicated, if we are to survive as a country.

Joe Azzarito, Chico CA

According to Oxford, “Deep State is a body of people, typically influential members of government agencies or the military, believed to be involved in the secret manipulation or control of government policy.“

There has always been talk of a group of manipulators running the country – a real story was the Bank of Crooks and Criminals, with members like Jimmy Carter. “Also known as, ‘The Bank of Credit and Commerce’… Police and intelligence experts nicknamed BCCI the “Bank of Crooks and Criminals International” for its penchant for catering to customers who dealt in arms, drugs, and hot money.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2011/09/28/fast-and-furious-just-might-be-president-obamas-watergate/?sh=10244e1f752a

Were these people involved in Barack Obama’s “Fast and Furious” operation? Ask Sonny Bono. The government operates secretly, we find out years later from some reporter trying to make a name for themself, but there’s never any accountability. In Chico, the “Deep State” is made up of local businessmen and developers – Marc Francis, Bill Brouhard and others have manipulated every council as long as I can remember. Franklin Construction is one of the biggest donors at election time. Then there’s the employee unions – CPOA, IFFA and SEIU contributing thousands of dollars in every election.

Here’s a little anecdote for you – when Chico Area Rec Dist was discussing putting an aquatic center on Bill Brouhard’s friend’s south Chico property, former county supe Jane Dolan and her “activist” husband Bob Mulhullond appeared before the board to discuss environmental restrictions. Mulhullond was visibly upset about the project, and Dolan said it needed a full EIR. Bill Brouhard immediately invited Jane out into the hallway for a private discussion, and out she went. They sat in the hallway through the rest of the meeting, and since then, neither Dolan nor Mulhullond have mentioned that project again – now known as Valley’s Edge.

Yes, we have a “Deep State” – in Chico and throughout the country, it’s not just some “fringe” theory. Thanks for that letter Joe.

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Chico: The squeaky wheel gets the grease – start squeakin’!

20 May

My husband and I were running errands the other day that took us past Depot Park. Wow. What a fucking mess. I know a lot of college students are forced to live in that neighborhood – it’s cheap and they don’t know any better. There are also plenty of families that live in there, single moms and little kids all over the place.

Depot Park is also the train station. No, the train doesn’t stop, but you can catch a bus there at about 4:30 am to connect with trains elsewhere. I’m guessing the train won’t stop there anymore because Chico is well-known as a transient town, Amtrak has complained about people blocking the tracks with garbage, fires, and their own bodies. A friend of ours was on her way to Portland when bums burned the trestle at Edgar Slough and the train was delayed for hours waiting for busses.

Wow – when I realized all our friend sees of Chico when she blast through town is Depot Park, it made me embarrassed. Why is this happening? Yesterday they reported 43 beds at Torres Shelter and 15 pallets open. But they need to build a new site on Cohasset? For folks that just won’t agree to the rules at the established shelters?

Welcome to the State of Lawlessness, brought to you by Chico City Council. These idiots probably can’t balance their own check books, and here they are fucking with our lives. Drug overdoses, car thefts and general mayhem in every direction, and Chico PD has the balls to declare crime is down in Chico? I’m going to guess – they’ve just stopped arresting people. Car thefts are not down, but it depends on the age and perceived value of the car as to whether or not it’s a “crime”. Drug arrests are still a regular event, and there have been three fatal overdoses reported in Chico just this week, but “crime” is down?

And again, town looks like shit for Chico State graduation ceremonies – ever wonder why enrollment has gone down 22% in the last five years? From over 16,000 students to about 12,000. That might help explain so many empty store fronts Downtown?

Not enough housing? You’ve got to be kidding. They build and they build, but rent keeps going up! New and refurbished apartment complexes all over town, but rent per person averages about $600/month. And the city has almost eliminated parking requirements for new housing, meaning, you have nowhere to securely park your car. They are requiring half a parking space per unit, even units with more than one bedroom.

Looking at rentals online, I see there are usually neighborhood ratings as to “connectivity”. Most neighborhoods in Chico receive a low rating here, because there’s nowhere residents can walk out and shop. But Chico continues to sprawl up and out, into areas of town with no services. They think a bike bridge over the freeway is going to correct this situation – how about fixing sidewalks and bringing commercial areas up to grade? Chico is still 30 years behind the Americans with Disabilities Act – many neighborhoods HAVE NO SIDEWALKS. Businesses families need are leaving Chico, the small shopping centers are dilapidated and neglected. Who’s moving here? Smoke shops and liquor stores. What’s “family friendly” about extending liquor service to parks and sidewalks Downtown?

A good title for Chico City Council would be “The Blind Leading the Morons”. They chase the bums from camp site to camp site like Keystone Cops. They refuse to admit we have a major crime problem. They refuse to admit businesses are leaving town because they have to follow their customers. You really think those parking kiosks are there to make the customer happy?

https://www.actionnewsnow.com/news/downtown-chico-business-owners-frustrated-over-parking-kiosks/article_56e4fb4c-f5e7-11ed-94af-737d9bb5a4e4.html#:~:text=CHICO%2C%20Calif.,since%20these%20kiosks%20went%20in.

“According to Van Overbeek, the parking kiosks went into place to increase parking in downtown Chico and that the kiosks are more cost effective than building a new parking structure. He says the kiosks help create more parking enforcement with the time limits when it comes to people inputting their license plate number.”

No, they’re there because humans can’t issue parking tickets fast enough, the machines make a parking ticket automatic. They’re also equipped to track your car as you move around town, along with the license plate readers we just bought for Chico PD, they will be able to track your movements and send you advertising based on your habits, via that app you have to load on your cell phone. I didn’t guess that, or make it up – they talked about it in meetings, even in the newspaper.

So no Leann, I’m not coming Downtown to buy your overpriced slave labor crap, and not just because of the kiosks. Hey, Kalen, you’re charging twice as much for a deli sandwich as Spiteri’s and The Locker, just because you’re located in Downtown Chico – don’t try to pass that off on me. There are no businesses Downtown that carry stuff I need for prices I can afford. It was funny to read the owners of North Rim Adventures Sports complain that Downtown landlords are the problem – who can afford to shop at North Rim? Chico Chamber CEO Katy Thoma asked me recently if I ever shopped at Colliers – no, they charge too much for stuff I can get at the box stores south of town, or even online, for much cheaper. Really silly stuff, like a drain stop for my tenant’s bath tub, or a new shower head, or maybe some screws to fix whatever. Those nickels and dimes add up to a rent increase, Landlady ain’t a charity operation.

We quit Northern Star Mills after we found our brand of dog food online for about half the price. I shopped in those stores since I was too small to see over the counter, but I won’t be gouged by somebody who’s being gouged by the City of Chico to pay their salaries and benefits.

So yes, I can see why Downtown, why all of Chico, is in trouble. With a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for Pensions. That’s all they think about when they make decisions, like the recent decision to halt work on the Bruce Road widening – because they can’t find a contractor to do the work for $23 million? No, I’m going to guess they’ve already “allocated” (dipped into) that funding and there’s not even $23 million left. They promised us new streets when they marketed Measure H, now we get pothole patches and slurry. What next? Parcel tax for the widening of one stretch of road that should have come out of developer fees? According to Mark Sorensen, the developers who gave us the Fogarty and Doe Mill/Merriam Park subdivisions have never paid street/road fees.

Think about that next time you’re sitting in your car trying to get to work or the store. Then write a letter to council about it. The squeaky wheel seems to get the grease around here.

This Tuesday Council will ponder taking more taxpayer money from various road projects to complete the Bum Bridge to Nowhere – ponder that while you’re sitting in gridlock trying to get to your job

14 May

So many big issues before council these days, people are missing the important stuff. Tuesday night, Chico Council is being advised by Staff to appropriate over $4 million from other road projects, to fill “an approximately $5 million funding gap” for the proposed 20th Street bum bridge. That allocation includes $400,000 from the unfinished Eaton Road southbound freeway onramp.

https://chico-ca.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=787&meta_id=86046
“We are requesting the transfer of $400,000.00 from CIP #50488- SR99 / Eaton Rd Southbound ramp
improvements, using TOA funding (Fund 212). “

“The project will construct a Class I path, completing the final gap of Bikeway 99, including a bicycle/pedestrian bridge over 20th Street.” Yep, complete with “art treatments” that are supposed to “to incorporate the history, culture and overall atmosphere of Chico.” Here is the “artist’s rendering“

Rendering of the proposed bridge design.

How exactly does this generic crap represent the history or culture of Chico? What it represents to me are similar “pedestrian” pathways established all around Sacramento during the 60’s and 70’s. One immediate problem was rocks being thrown or dropped off these overpasses onto moving cars. This story was common when I was living in Sacramento. Here’s a recent incident, and I’m guessing it’s just the one I found with a quick search.

https://www.kcra.com/article/chp-car-hit-by-rock-thrown-from-hwy-50-overpass-in-sacramento/22145940

A disturbing incident near Denver CO resulted in at least one death.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/teens-accused-deadly-rock-throwing-spree-formally-charged/story?id=99053570

The other, more obvious issue here, is the blatant lie – “The current lack of a safe and direct pedestrian/bike path discourages residents from walking or biking to local schools, job centers, commercial areas, and public services.”

There are pedestrian walkways on both sides of the existing bridge that traverse the freeway at 20th Street. There are pedestrian walkways over the freeway at Skyway, and along every city street that goes under the freeway. There’s a pedestrian/bike only tunnel on Humboldt that connects two bike paths. At present, pedestrians have more access around the freeway than do car drivers.

This project was undertaken to get state and federal grants to pay salaries and benefits Downtown. You really think it costs $45 million (it started at $30 million) to build a bridge over the freeway? That’s roughly the figure that Chris Constantin said it would cost to resurface/rebuild unmaintained and badly neglected streets and bridges all over Chico.

Speaking of which, don’t worry folks – your slurry is on the way! Here’s another item from this Tuesday night’s council agenda:

CONSIDERATION OF APPROVAL OF A SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATION/BUDGET MODIFICATION NO. 2023-PWE-008 

The Public Works Engineering Director requests consideration and approval of a Supplemental Appropriation/Budget Modification to the FY 2022-23 Budget reallocating unused transportation funding from capital project Lower Park Road Rehab to the newly established Upper Park Road Treatment to better align with City needs as well as request to allocate $4,000,000 in Measure H funds to FY 22/23 paving projects.  (Report – Brendan Ottoboni, Public Works Director-Engineering)

“Based on the timing of this allocation, a slurry seal treatment is the best use of funding to make an immediate impact. [meaning, it’s just for looks] Slurry seal treatments can be done with minimal design work, so that staff can get a project out to bid and complete the improvements in calendar year 2023, barring any unforeseen changes.” In other words, it’s just a hack job to get the public off their back.

Minimal design? How much “design” is required to spray ” a mixture of water, asphalt emulsion, aggregate (very small crushed rock), and additives to an existing asphalt pavement surface“? A quarter inch of coating over your broken street surface? Of course they’ll throw some slobbers on your pot holes and pound them in by hand before they apply the slurry. But let’s face it – that’s like putting a sheet over a bed of nails.

Judging from the work they did on Vallombrosa a few years ago, it won’t last six months. So there goes $4 million in Measure H money, on a bullshit hack job.

So that’s how your council determines your future by the spending of your money. The criminals will move freely in your town while you sit in gridlock trying to get to your job.

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Utility User Tax Rebate time – a good opportunity to let the city know you’re tired of subsidizing bad decisions

10 May

I notice people are reading the old posts I made about Measure J – the cell phone tax attempted by the city of Chico back in 2012. That reminded me of the city’s annual “Utility Users Tax Refund Program”, available starting May 1. Here’s a link to print a copy of this year’s form. due anytime between now and June 30.

https://chico.ca.us/post/utility-users-tax-uut-refund-program

What catches me by the short hairs right away is the title – see that? The city, which has absolutely nothing to do with providing our water, power, or landline, taxes us for using utilities! What a shakedown!

Okay, that outburst aside – they don’t just hand you back the money. There are income qualifications, and you have to have paper copies of all your utility bills attached to your application. No, they won’t allow electronic transfer, even though the utility companies have been encouraging customers to “go paperless” for the last 15 or 20 years. You can either take time from your work day to deliver them at the Finance window at City Hall, or you can pay the postage to mail a year’s worth of utility bills. What, you think they’re going to make it easy for you? As I explain below, it’s one of the city’s top revenue sources.

Okay, another outburst – you realize, they also add “Franchise Fees” to our PG&E and landline bills, right? As well as your Comcast bill, if you get cable tv. Those are not refundable.

I don’t know if people really look at their bills – the franchise fees are not listed. The Utility Tax is listed under “Local Taxes” on Cal Water and PG&E bills. It’s not penny-anny – 5 percent of the total bill.

In the 2021-22 fiscal year, City of Chico added $8,119,022 in UUT to our utility bills. That was over half million more than their projection of $7,485,219. Of course it goes up with utility rate increases and development, neither of which the city of Chico has ever protested. The UUT falls behind only Property Tax and Sales Tax as the city’s third largest source of revenue.

Right now, the tax rate is at 5%, which is the highest allowed by city charter. Back in the 90’s it was 3%, but council, always desperate for more revenues, voted unanimously to raise it to the full 5. I think they could be persuaded to cut the tax, but it might take a legal petition.

In the meantime, why not get your rebate? If you’re a young single person or the average working head of household, you probably qualify. Especially single parents. At least look over your bills and add up your total UUT – I would guess you’ll get a good trip to the grocery store out of it at the very least.

And there’s another thing – I’m a landlady, I save napkins with figures on them, I save every bill, every scrappy receipt, so of course I have my utility bills. Apparently not everybody does that, so here’s the thing – get ready for next year, start saving your PG&E, Cal Water, and landline bills right now.

The constitution guarantees us the right to redress our grievances to our government, but first you have to get their attention. Sometimes it takes a while, a slow build-up, with no retreat. I remember asking Mark Orme years ago for the total rebate figure, and I think it was just about $111. So I looked at the most current city budget and I see the city refunded $2499. That’s $101 more than the previous year’s figure of $2398. Given my family of three’s average annual rebate of $90, that’s at least one more household added to the dogpile.

So make your voice be heard – attach a note to Council detailing your concerns – and take back some of your hard-earned dough at the same time.

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Despite the jubilant headlines, the city’s ice rink lost $29,000 in 2021 – how much did it lose in 2022?

30 Apr

I haven’t had much time to think politics lately, because I been pulling weeds. It’s just amazing what a little rain at the right time of year will do. This year we got a bumper crop, all the best stickers, so we’re out there a few times a week. My husband gets behind the mower and the weed whip, then I move in on the flower beds and trees to pull the remainder by hand. I always tell my husband – you can’t mow everything, true weeds love a mower, makes them grow bigger and spread out flatter. Worse, if you hit them after they head up, you got weeds everywhere next spring.

Somebody has to keep the order in Dodge City, or at least in my yard, which is my retreat from what’s happening to the rest of Chico.

Meanwhile, council moves along in their weed bed – Downtown – trying to decide what to do, what to do. One trendy fad after another – ice rink, lateral parking, parklets, allow booze outside, and now “signage” to declare Downtown a “historic district”. As if Downtown is the only “historic” part of town?

The ice rink, by the way, continues to lose money. Last year, the first year in operation, they spent $376,000 building and operating the rink, and only took in $347,000 – $116,000 of which was from “sponsors”. That’s a $29,000 LOSS, a tab that had to be picked up out of the General Fund, or as Staff likes to call it, “The Cookie Jar”.

https://www.actionnewsnow.com/news/local/city-of-chico-takes-in-more-than-347-000-for-first-ever-ice-rink/article_85392e0a-9f08-11ec-b986-5762b9c9e083.html

As usual the local media tried to put a positive spin on things – “takes in more than $347,000” Wow!

Frankly, I believe these are not news stories but press releases with a headline. You have to read the entire article to see there was a loss. Just think, $29,000 a year is what some people live on.

This year the media didn’t say anything, because the city didn’t send them a press release? Nothing to brag about, is what. At the recent Finance Committee meeting, an employee reported that the city’s “Recreation Fund” is not “on track” – meaning short. If you look at the report you see they spent over $250,000 of that fund, on what? Yeah, the ice rink, there’s no other Chico recreation – that’s CARD’s gig.

Revenues? They don’t say where the funding for the “Recreation Fund” comes from. There are no matching revenues anywhere in the report, no figures on sponsors, or the volunteer time from local contractors like Slater Construction. The staffer said she had not completed the analysis. I assume she’ll bring it back at next month’s meeting. But from what I could hear of the discussion (they all seemed to be reluctant to talk in front of me), the staffer is telling council they need to “make a decision.” To which committee member, Mayor Andrew Coolidge responded, in a very low voice, while squirming in his chair, “well, it’s Good Will …” You could hear a question mark in his voice, as if he was pleading.

A lot of people in town – the well-heeled anyway – live in a rose-colored fish bowl. They want the rink to work out, it’s part of their fantasy picture of Chico. They want Downtown to look prosperous again, because Downtown is in serious trouble. What they fail to realize – that means, you have to make it attractive to almost everybody in town, not just those who can afford $15 for a ticket and a pair of rented ice skates. These people live in their own mind, you can’t expect them to understand – or care about – the trials and tribulations of the average working family. They just want us to shut our pie holes and keep paying a higher cost of living – the cost of their lifestyle. Here we have a pack of Robin Hoods who steal from the poor and working class to feather the nests of the elite.

The Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act will be on the ballot in 2024, that’s a long time to wait, but plenty of time to tell your friends. This measure will raise the voter approval requirement for tax measures back to 2/3’s, and overturn Measure H, the city of Chico’s 50%+1 tax measure. If a government agency can’t get at least 2/3’s support for a tax measure, it shouldn’t be on the ballot. People like city manager and former councilman Mark Sorensen, along with Coolidge, Kasey Reynolds, and Sean Morgan, knew not only that this measure would never achieve 2/3’s approval, but that a simple 50%+1 measure could be spent on any whim of council, like a skating rink, and parklets for bars, subdivisions built “for the right people”, and signs that designate some parts of town as better than others.

I worked hard to tell people about Measure H, but I was out-gunned about 50-1 by people who stood to gain from that measure. This time I’m going to up my game a little, I want the TPGAA to pass, and this time there will be statewide supporters with money to back it up. If you want to join in the fun, contact me here, I won’t post your comment.

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