City Council Tuesday night: Nakamura requests supplemental budget appropriation to cover the increased salaries for the positions he gave to his cronies

4 May

This Tuesday city manager Brian Nakamura will ask for a supplemental budget appropriation to cover the new department reorganization approved by council a few meetings ago.

This might be confusing to those of you who were paying attention when Nakamura told us this reorganization would SAVE the city money, unless you happened to notice the part where the reorganization, again, approved by council, raised the salaries of the remaining department heads by about $30,000, each. Not only did the salary increases eat any saving made by consolidating departments under single leadership and laying people off, but, along with the resulting increase in benefits and pension, they took us over budget. So, we have this request for a supplemental appropriation.

Here’s the link to the report:

http://chico-ca.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=388

2.3.

APPROVAL OF SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATION NO. 12-13 04 FOR NEW DEPARTMENT POSITIONS ADOPTED AS PART OF THE NEW CITY DEPARTMENTAL STRUCTURE – Both the City Council and Successor Agency will be convened for approval of Supplemental Appropriation No. 12-13 04  Approve – The Council is being asked to approve supplemental appropriations related to new department positions adopted as part of new City departmental structure. The Finance Director recommends approval.

Take a good look – for one thing, please note, this appropriation will come out of the RDA, every dollar of which will cost us three, “in the long run”.  Look really good. See where the development fund is in parentheses – that means, IN THE HOLE. The development fund is $9 million IN THE HOLE.  City staff took that money – collected off new housing, and paid, not by their developer friends, but by new home buyers -to pay their salaries and make their side fund pay off to CalPERS.

People, we have a huge problem. City staff is ripping us blind to enrich themselves while our idiot city council – afraid to rock their own pension boats – stand by with the fingers in their noses. Mark Sorensen has told me repeatedly, he has faith in Nakamura’s leadership. Oh yeah, he admits, “it will get ugly,” whatever the hell that means, and he predicts things will come to a boil either later this month or early in June. Whatever that means – as usual, Sorensen is being very close mouthed, just handing out enough titillating details to keep us glued to our seats.

The legal definition of “appropriation”, from Wikipedia,   “from Latin appropriare, ‘to make one’s own’ (later ‘to set aside‘), is the act of setting apart something for its application to a particular usage, to the exclusion of all other uses.”  In other words, to take somebody else’s stuff for yourself –  I think that’s pretty clear here.

It seems outrageously clear that Nakamura is enriching himself and his friends.

UPDATE:   I had to fix the link on this report because it wasn’t working – please try it again, and read the reports!

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Chico Taxpayers Association meets tomorrow, Sunday May 5, Chico Library on Sherman Ave, 9am

4 May

I hope we can get a good discussion going on the local efforts to raise taxes, all inspired by CalPERS recent demands for “side fund payoffs” of pension premiums.

What CalPERS is after, is money to keep their pension payments flowing, so people like Tom Lando don’t sue them. And then there’s the CalPERS salaries – about a dozen top execs, making between $350 – 500,000 a year, plus, yeah, FULL BENEFITS!

How stupid are we? Let’s talk about that – tomorrow, Chico branch library, 9am.  The public is welcome.

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Chula Vistans win cell phone tax lawsuit – $8 million in rebates and refunds, plus legal fees

3 May

I’m sure as hell glad we didn’t have to go this route, but three cheers for the 100 or so Chula Vistans who had the gagnas to take on their corrupt city council. Yes, corrupt. The city knew what they were doing. And our city was smart enough to go with the tide – the city of Chula Vista fought it out til the end, totaling up who knows how much in their own legal fees in addition to the settlement they’ve been ordered to pay. 

Are the Chula Vistans the winners, or the losers? You tell me.  Maybe they should go forward with a lawsuit against the city council members and  city staff management for mismanagement of city finances. 

Here’s the article from the Voice of San Diego, thank you very much reporter Will Carless!

Posted: Thursday, May 2, 2013 3:46 pm | Updated: 4:33 pm, Thu May 2, 2013.

at http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/government/article_0f3d0c2c-b37a-11e2-b34a-001a4bcf887a.html

The city of Chula Vista just settled a class action lawsuit brought by cell phone users who said they were illegally taxed by the city for years.

Under the settlement, which was approved by a San Diego court, the city must pay $8 million in rebates and refunds to cell phone users who were taxed, plus legal fees.

The city of Chula Vista maintains that the tax is legal.

“We disagree that certain aspects of the tax are unlawful, but, because the issues are complex and continued litigation would be expensive, the city believes it is in the best interest of its citizens to settle the case,” said Anne Steinberger, a spokeswoman for the city.

Residents of Chula Vista have been mailed notifications this week that will tell them how to claim a cash refund from the settlement, said Jeremy Robinson, one of the lawyers who sued the city.

Recipients will have to fill out a claim form to prove they’re eligible for a repayment. If so, they have the choice of a $35 flat rebate; a $50 payment for every year they paid the tax, up to $150, (if they can prove they paid it) or an estimated full refund from the period April 2010 to April 2013.

Claims must be made in the next 90 days. More information about making a claim can be found here.

We’ve been following this issue ever since we wrote a series of stories on Chula Vista back in early 2011. Last year we checked up on the tax after a group of cell phone users brought a suit. Here’s a snippet from that post describing the charges in dispute:

The tax, introduced in 1970, charges a small fee on users of telephones, electricity and other utilities within the South Bay city. As cell phones came into popular use, Chula Vista started allowing phone companies to tax cell phone calls too, and for years it collected and spent that tax money.

The tax on cell phone calls was always on rather shaky ground. It was loosely based on Internal Revenue Service rules governing what can and can’t be taxed. But in the mid-2000s, the IRS lost a number of court cases over whether it could tax cell phone calls and, in 2006, a cell phone carrier wrote to the city of Chula Vista saying it didn’t think it still needed to collect the taxes.

But Chula Vista didn’t stop taking the tax money. The city argues that the tax is legal, though in recent years it’s been carefully stashing away the proceeds from the cell phone taxes in case it loses in court one day.

Steinberger said the city has enough money stashed away to pay the full $8 million if necessary.

Robinson said the amount the city has to pay will depend on the number of claimants.

“Right now, our goal is to get as many people as possible to make claims,” he said.

On top of whatever it has to pay out in claims, the city will also have to pay the attorney’s fees for the case. The full payout won’t be known until after the 90-day claim period has expired.

Will Carless is an investigative reporter at Voice of San Diego currently focused on local education. You can reach him at will.carless@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.550.5670.

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CARD and the income gap: How public agencies perpetuate poverty and disparity in the pay scale

3 May

For a long time now I’ve complained about the disparity in the salaries Downtown and at Oroville. The management make 10’s of thousands more in salary and pay less than half their “share” of benefits and pensions premiums, while the lower paid staffers pay the whole share. You must realize, living in the same town on a $35,000 salary with people making over $100,000 is difficult, and I think that’s an understatement. They drive up the price of everything from housing to daycare to gas to a dozen eggs. 

And then there’s the problems the medical benefits packages cause. Our mayor receives a package valued at about $21,000 a year. That’s more than $1500/month. How much does your health care package cost? My family can’t afford $1500/month, that’s for sure. So, when we go to the doctor, we are competing with these benefits packages we pay for – isn’t that ironic?  You can pay your premiums for years, and then when you need help, you find the ER does not accept your insurance. 

Believe it or not, a lot of public employees are in almost the same boat as their private industry counterparts. Sure, they get a nice package, but they don’t get the same packages their bosses get, and they pay more. 

I know I’ve bitched alot about city salaries and benies, but recently I started taking a hard look at other agencies, “special districts,” “quasi-public” – like the Chico Recreation and Parks District, who is fishing around for a property tax bond or assessment to pay off their CalPERS “side fund payoff”. 

The first thing that gripes me about CARD is how they tried to insinuate they would use the bond proceeds to build a new aquatic center, when they’d just bottomed out their capital projects fund to make that CalPERS payoff. They LIED  to get people to go along with this bond crap.  They knew damned good and well, as board president Ed Seagle admitted at last month’s meeting, an aquatic center is unrealistic at this time. They have ZERO money in their capital projects fund, having spent the $350,000 or so they had on their side fund payoff.  But they went ahead and printed those surveys and sent them out, and Ed didn’t say anything until after the fact. Thanks for nothing, Ed.

Ed Seagle needs to get his story straight. He also told me and my husband, when he accosted us at that CARD meeting, that CARD employees pay their full share. Either he’s an ignoramus or a big stinking liar. Which is it Ed? 

Because when I asked Finance Director Scott Dowell about salaries and employee shares, all I got was a notice that he’s out of his office until May 6. When I asked General Manager Steve Visconti for the information he sent me to the State Controller’s website – no link, no notes, just “go to the State Controller’s website…” So, I did. Here’s the link to the “special district” page for Chico Area Recreation and Parks District:

http://publicpay.ca.gov/Reports/SpecialDistricts/SpecialDistrict.aspx?fiscalyear=2011&entityid=1875

You’ll note that General Manager Steve Visconti does not pay his own share.  We pay not only a $12,704 “employer share”, but another $7,462 of his “employee share.” That’s the “EPMC”, or “employer paid member contribution”. That they even bother to call it the “employee share” is insulting to me.   Then another $10,000 plus for vision and dental!  Add that to his $115,000+ salary, and this man is getting over $150,000 a year to run a parks district into the ground. Not only did they tap their capital projects fund making  benefits and pension payments, they went so far over budget they can’t afford to hire enough part timers to do the actual work.  

And let’s talk about the workers. CARD employs about 33 people full time, including Visconti. These people all make over $40,000 a year, with 15 of them making over $50,000/year, four of those making over $70,000/year. Just in salary. These folks all get the same deal as Visconti – we pay the lion’s share of their benefits and pension premiums. Their packages range from Visconti’s $30,000+ down to about a $16,000 package for a maintenance super.

Meanwhile, check out the salaries of the people who actually work in the afterschool programs, supervising our kids, that’s on page 2.  $38,000 for an instructor, $29,000 for a recreation supervisor. Steve Visconti makes over $150,000 a year to sit in meetings, but the people who are in charge of the kids are paid less than $50,000 a year. That’s why I quit taking my kid to CARD programs, it was pretty clear they don’t spend the big bucks to attract talent to hang out all day with your kids. 

That’s the excuse Seagle gave us when we asked him about the pensions and benefits – he said they were trying to attract “quality employees.” Oh sure – $38,000 is enough to pay somebody to spend all day with your kids, but we need the big bucks to get the right kind of stuffed shirt to pilfer and embezzle.

 And don’t forget the lowest paid, non-benefitted, non-pensioned employees – the guys who go out in whatever weather to mow, pick up garbage, clean up vandalism, stripe the ballfields, etc. I see these guys when I go out in the wee morning with my dogs. We like to go out along that levee next to the ball fields, roust some quail, see if we can spot a big rattler in the morning sun. We see young men in their 20’s, wearing poor clothing, looking poorly coiffed and underfed – they do all the real work. They get the ballfields ready for the fee-paying leagues. See, we pay for those ballfields, but we aren’t allowed to use them – I’ve been kicked off with my kids, when there wasn’t a game scheduled THAT DAY. “Field reserved,” we’re told. But we’re still expected to pay those bonds and assessments. 

For what? These salaries? 

$8,592
—
—
—
—
$8,584
—
—
—
—
$8,573

Yes, that is a year’s salary there. Please note, those columns to the right – that’s where the benefits and pension contributions would be, but these people don’t get benefits or pension.

I wonder if these people can even afford to live in Chico. They’re not high school kids who live at home with mom and dad – I’ve seen them, they’re well over 21. They’re part of our economy.  Like a ball is part of a ball and chain.

CARD and other public agencies create this disparity, and we pay for it, in more ways than you are thinking. 

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Why sales tax on internet sales will not save local retail

30 Apr

Remember that Yahoo! commercial about the family living in the Alaskan bush, all sitting around their igloo, depressed? And then Dad gets on the computer and buys them a hot tub? Ya-HOOOOO! Etc.

I thought that was a cute commercial, but I never dreamed I’d be buying anything online. The first thing I considered was shipping charges, the second thing, what if it doesn’t fit/doesn’t work/just plain doesn’t show up? 

Well, whattya know, fast forward to the year 2013, and I am buying just about everything but groceries on the computer. Even shoes, and they FIT!

The main reason? Chico doesn’t have what I want, at a price I can afford. I can afford WalMart, but Walmart shoes suck, okay? I buy shoes that would sell for probably $60, online for about $40. Frankly, Chico doesn’t have a decent shoe store. Big 5 is okay, but it’s very limited, especially for women.  That’s the main reason I shop online – the retail scene in Chico is very poor. 

While I have found some online vendors who don’t charge sales tax, I shop alot through Amazon.com and also through various California vendors that do take the tax. And if not, it’s a really simple matter to pay the rest on my California Franchise tax form. I think the grand whopping total this year was $49 – that’s seven orders from Lucky Vitamin, where I get most of my household goods.  That’s nothing compared to what I saved by buying through Lucky Vitamin – for example, I get a 21 ounce bottle of my fave mouthwash for the same price I’d pay for the 14 ounce bottle at Raley’s here in town.  A bar of soap that costs almost $5 at Raley’s goes for $2.41. And, like I’ve raved before – they have bigger sizes, more “flavors”, and more choices all the way around. It’s BETTER shopping online.

The local stores and vendors are screwing themselves by gouging. They have too much overhead, and that’s not my fault.  It’s not just the “brick and mortar” that costs them money – again, it’s the salaries, pensions and benefits. I know a guy who works at Raley’s, and I’m tired of paying for his medical and dental when I can’t afford my own. I shop at WalMart because I know those people aren’t living any better or worse than I am.

Last night on MacNeil News Hour, Judy interviewed a guy from e-bay and a lady from the retailers’ association. When Judy asked the lady if she knew how much retail goes over the internet, the lady flustered and blustered and said, “I don’t have that figure, but I know it’s going to double…” Well, e-bay guy had the figure – 6 percent. Big fucking deal, my fine Aztec warriors! Oh no! It might double to 12 percent! Call out the Marines! 

In a story on the network news, they equated shopping online out of state with TAX EVASION!

Of course, these people just assume we don’t pay. Like they assume we cheat on our taxes all the way around. 

Well, one thing I know, the states can go after sales tax, but the city of Chico hasn’t got the wherewithall to pay their own bills, much less, hire a (real) lawyer and go after every online vendor in the greater 48. I will pay my California sales tax, but I will be cutting the city of Chico out of the deal. That, and the ridiculous savings I get online, are good enough for me.

 

 

 

 

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Get your Utility Tax Rebate form here!

27 Apr

It’s time again to get those utility bills out and apply for your Utility User’s Tax rebate. The city finance department will start accepting those applications on May 1, so I looked at the city website to see if the applications are available – no luck.

I wrote a quick e-mail to the finance department and city manager Brian Nakamura, asking about the application.  As if they had anticipated my need, I checked my snail mail box just a couple of hours later,  and found a little surprise – a letter from the city informing me that rebates would soon be available. Enclosed was the 2012-13 rebate application.

Ask and ye shall receive.

We may have received this letter because my family has applied for and received the UUT rebate for a good five or more years now, can’t remember how long. We’re on The List. I might be wrong though – this may be a new effort on the part of our staffers to get people in there for their rebates!

Yeah, stop it.

At any rate, it’s a questionable use of staff time and postage. Wouldn’t you think, if I had applied so many times before, I’d be a little more likely to be onto it?  In fact, I just posted a blog about it a couple of weeks ago.  Unless they are mailing these notices out to each and every city resident and utility customer, it’s just wasteful.

How should they publicize this rebate? In your phone, PG&E and water bills, wouldn’t you think?  In fact, the cell phone carriers who were taking UUT out of your phone bill should also have been asked to notify their customers they  can get that refunded as well. It is a simple matter to put notices in utility bills, all the city has to do is ask these providers for some help in notifying customers they may be eligible for these programs.

At any rate, they should have that application available on the website by next week, probably by May 1.

I hate to be an ingrate and a nag, but, they could also make it possible for folks to apply electronically, via e-mail.  That just seems like a no-brainer to me, given all their posturing of “Sustainability”.  My friend Jim said he gets his utility bills electronically in an effort to, if not save the Earth, at least lessen his personal impact on our great planet.  Why would he want to print those out, on dead tree flesh! and drag them Downtown? Or worse, shove them into an envelope, glue on a gob of half-dollar stamps,  and add them to the mail stream?!

He should be able to keep them in a folder on his computer, and when the time comes for rebates, attach said folder to an e-mail, along with an application that he was able to fill out on his computer as well, and send it directly to the Finance Department. No trees harmed in the application for this rebate!

I’ve asked for this a few times, but they haven’t even responded. I just asked again yesterday, as if I have some predilection for banging my head on the backs of people’s soft and manicured hands. I realize now, I have to make a formal request of the Internal Affairs Committee. I’ll do that, and I’ll let you know how that goes.

Below I have posted the eligibility requirements and the application. Click on them and you can print them out on your dead tree flesh and take them in for your rebate. 

img003

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UPDATE:  Frank Fields over in the Finance Department tells me that application form should be available on the city website today (Monday, April 29), but I still haven’t heard back on my request to make this rebate available via e-mail. 

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Watch your step Downtown!

26 Apr
Wow, I better take one or two of these before I head out to another city committee meeting.

Wow, I better take one or two of these before I head out to another city committee meeting.

The most exciting thing I have to report about Wednesday’s Economic Development meeting is, I made it! Early! Sat for 10 minutes.

This is big news to me cause lately I been so busy I have had to leave post it notes here and there to tell me what to do and where to do it, what time, and who’s going to be there. All day I reminded myself – don’t forget that 4:00 meeting!  

I got there to find Laura Urseny and CARD recreation supervisor Ann Willman chatting away like two old school chums. This is why Laura Urseny does not write hard news, she’s too friendly with everybody. Her stories always tell you whatever the subject of the story wanted you to know. She covered the CARD meeting the other night, and all she wrote about was the dog park memorial plaque. CARD is broke, they spent all their reserve funding on their own pensions, they’re trying to attach a bond to our property taxes like some kind of nit,  and all this “reporter” has to talk about is a memorial plaque?  Tsk, tsk.

They finally got everybody in there and the meeting started about 4:04 with a quick introduction of the man from Wizard Manufacturing. I didn’t catch his name, but $taffer Shawn Tillman introduced him as “a significant employer,” and “one of our top 25 sales tax providers!”

Let’s talk about that right there. An “employer” is something for us, the citizens. An employer provides jobs! But sales taxes are for the suits Downtown, to pay their salaries, and especially, their pensions. Tillman makes over $120,000 a year to pound his own phlegmatic chest. He takes his salary out of the supposedly dismantled RDA. All he thinks about around the clock is how to get more money in here for salaries and pensions.

Mr. Wizard told us he’d bought the business, which fabricates machinery like hullers for farm operations,  only 6 years ago, intending to move it to Woodland, lock, stock and barrel. He and his family are from Woodland, many generations in Yolo County.  But, then he went on about how friendly this area is. Oh oh,  I thought, and my Bullshit Detecter started to go off like a fire alarm.

He wanted to impress the c0mmittee with how much sales tax he hauls into Butte County and Chico.  He said that while he does most of his business out of the country (60 percent of his machines are sold in Chile and Mexico) he “writes up” his sales so that the sales tax goes to Butte County/Chico. Wow, is that legal?

He showed us an aerial photo of his factory and described the property – adding that part of the property is still on septic and needs sewer – OH, THERE IT IS! He’s milking the city for a cheap or even free sewer hook-up, and who knows what other fees he wants to get around. He also mentioned, part of his property is zoned residential and he wants to develop it. Now, I get it, Mr. Wizard. 

He said he employs “40 plus” people here, so  I had to ask him, “where do your workers live?”   He said, without missing a beat, “10 percent Durham, 30 percent Paradise, the rest in Chico proper.”  I don’t know what he means by “Chico proper” – do they live within the city limits, or halfway to Durham? Just this side of the Oroville city limits? Maybe just this side of Dairyville? But I was not allowed to question any further – Mr. Wizard looked at the crowd – a bigger audience than usual because of the grant funding discussion – and admitted he was not expecting to “be written about in the paper.” He started to act real rabitty, which offended me, frankly. I don’t like people who are offended at  being asked a few simple questions. This guy tried to act like it wasn’t public business. 

Furthermore, he warned the committee to keep wages down here. Yeah, we see – that’s why he really located here, the wages are lower than the Sacramento/Woodland area. Woodland is a booming little town, you stop at a gas station, you can tell – the people around you are EMPLOYED. Chico is a sleepy little unemployed town, and the kids coming out of the high school are pretty desperate for jobs alright. There aren’t any! So, this man has hooked up with the high schools to train his employees. That’s just great, but he can only provide 40 jobs? 

I asked him where his workers live because a few years ago, in that same room, I listened to outgoing Chamber of Commerce CEO Jim Goodwin tell the committee that manufacturing isn’t coming to Chico because our housing is too expensive. I didn’t get a chance to bring this up at the meeting – we need either better wages, or cheaper housing, that’s the bottom line. We’ve already tried to develop “cheap starter housing for families,” but somehow, that just raised the price of housing in town, along with everything else.  Chico is an expensive town.  If manufacturing comes to Chico, those jobs will just fill up with people from Gridley, Live Oak, Palermo, Tehama and other cheaper places to live within commuting distance. We who have to live and eat in Chico can’t afford to take Mr. Wizard’s wages. 

All I did was ask a simple question and busily scribble down his answer, but Mr. Wizard got really uncomfortable at this point, gathered up his stuff, thanked the committee, and left. I couldn’t help but notice – he has what we used to call in Princeton/Butte  City, ‘truck butt”.  That’s what a white farmer gets from driving his truck around all day supervising his Mexicans.  I thanked him for sponsoring the hockey rink, but he still looked at me like a snake. Well, snakes have some rights too, buddy, especially in their own dooryard.

I wish he had stayed for the rest of the meeting. He would have heard what the arts crowd thinks of real jobs – for gawdsake Man! It’s the arts that bring people here to spend money in our restaurants! Boy, Debra Lucero gets NASTY when you cut her salary – that’s where all the money goes, to pay HER. For Artoberfest? Look at the picture in today’s paper – look at that “crowd.” Come on!   And then Ann Willman, from CARD, making her pathetic ploy for $2,000 for 4th of July – Ann, take a hat around the CARD office, ask Steve Visconti to pitch in! You people suck up all the money with your salaries and perks, come up with that $2,000 from among yourselves! 

I love 4th of July too, but I wouldn’t go near One Mile because it’s a cluster jam of the kind of people who go to the park like twice a year. The next day there’s still garbage to pick up, and the place looks like it’s been had over by a herd of buffalo.  It’s just a “be seen” event where you can’t even have a decent conversation for the mayhem all around your ears. 

Nakamura cut these two entities off cold but still handed the Chamber /DCBA over $100,000.  Katy Simmons from the Chamber offered to help both Lucero and Willman but Lucero went bitch on her. Lucero is a bitch, she whines long and loud about “working” – look Debra, sitting in meetings and carping about how hard you work is not “working.” A

Ann Willman, who admitted she is leaving CARD shortly for a job with Feather River Parks and Rec, seemed to be receptive to Simmon’s offer. But again, she’s leaving soon for another job and we’ll see what they get in her place.  As Urseny reported in the paper, there was a lot of kidding around about putting Nakamura in a dunk tank to raise money for CARD. I offered to go in the tank, but when I got home and thought it over, there’s no way I’m going to help CARD. They need to come clean about their salaries and pensions, and pay their own benefits, before they’re going to get anything more out of me or my family. I’d also like to know Willman’s real reason for switching jobs – she’ll have to commute to Oroville, so I’m guessing, there’s more pay being offered. 

The whole idea that these entities bring tourists to town is a fantasy. The events and marketing campaigns they undertake are attended by them and their friends and hangers on. These entities are formed to suck up grants and other public funding to pay their own salaries. That’s all they do, pander for money for themselves. They don’t serve anybody. Look at Downtown, and ask yourself, what is the Chamber/DCBA doing with that $100,000?

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John Moorlach for Governor?

24 Apr

I should get a good book, but instead I find myself sitting on the computer in the early morning, reading about public pensions and how they are destroying the economy.

You might have seen my letter in this morning’s Enterprise Record:

Letter: CARD pensions a drain on funding

Chico Enterprise-Record
Posted:   04/24/2013 12:00:00 AM PDT

At Thursday’s Chico Area Recreation and Park District board meeting, General Manager Steve Visconti said the results from the recent survey should be available at the May 16 meeting.

Regarding the survey, board chair Ed Seagle wondered, “Do we really want to push an aquatic center? Sounds like too much …”

The conversation turned to the “side fund payoff” recently made to CalPERS to cover employee pensions — $400,000. This payment, they said, had saved them a 7 percent interest penalty on their pension premiums. But it completely drained their capital projects fund and put them over budget.

Earlier in the meeting, a staffer had requested a supplemental budget allocation for more “coverage” for neighborhood parks. Apparently parks are being vandalized during broad daylight, and they need more supervision. They’ve closed the skateboard park repeatedly. These workers are part-time, and receive no benefits for cleaning up the parks and repairing damage from vandals. Subject to rules from CalPERS, they are not allowed to work over 30 hours.

The board did not approve this request.

CARD is management top-heavy. The administrators receive full benefits and pension for supervising the part-timers who do the actual work. They pay less than 10 percent of their premiums, and want us to pay the rest. They keep using “aquatic center” as a carrot, but here the board chair admits this is unrealistic and the real purpose of a bond or assessment is to pay pension premiums.

— Juanita Sumner, Chico

I signed that letter “Chico Taxpayers Association,” but editor David Little always drops that reference from my name. I don’t know what his problem is with our group – oh yeah, we opposed a tax measure that he supported, how could I forget Measure J!

I don’t have a subscription to the ER, so I look through the green screen at the titles of the letters, and then I google them. They pop up for free in the O-ville Mercury Register, what’s with that? Why do we have to pay to read a rag like the Enterprise Record when it’s all for free in the O-ville paper, right online? They don’t seem to be thinking too straight down at the ER these days.

This morning, when I saw that headline, I forgot I’d written a letter, and I thought, “oh boy! Somebody else is writing about the CARD bullshit!” So I googled it.

Wow, did I ever get a google-full.   All these articles from all over the United States about how public pensions are ruining our economy.

http://www.op-f.org/Information/ViewNews.aspx?Id=545

In Ohio, the cops and fire only pay 10 percent, their contribution is being raised to twelve percent, but the city’s contribution is being raised to 24 percent. 

http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/government-and-politics/quinn-pension-mess-may-drain-higher-education-funding/article_a6ca8e5a-e5af-11e1-a430-0019bb2963f4.html

In Illinois, they’re cutting education funding by a few hundred million to meet their pension payments.

http://sunshinereview.org/index.php/Florida_public_pensions

Florida has the third largest retirement fund in the US, with NO EMPLOYEE CONTRIBUTIONS.

http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_23071123/calpers-5-7-million-end-san-jose-council

In San Jose, CalPERS demands $5.7 million to dump city council pensions. What? 

We need to dump the collective bargaining laws.  Instead, Jerry Brown signed legislation in 2011 putting more onerous burdens on local governments in bargaining salaries and benefits, giving public employee unions more advantage in the contract talks.  

http://www.littler.com/publication-press/publication/california-governor-signs-new-collective-bargaining-law-requiring-fact

Meanwhile, the California Republicans fight among themselves – the Republican party is split in California – Jack Lee and his friends have formed a “Conservative Republican Party,” or something like that. They don’t like “RINO’s”, so they all filed along and voted for Mitt Romney in 2012. That doesn’t make sense to me.  It’s a  pissing match, and we’re all the losers. 

We can elect a new governor in 2014. I’m looking at John Moorlach, a Republican who currently serves on the Orange County Board of Supervisors. I’ve read about Moorlach before – he correctly predicted bankruptcy for Orange County, one of the first government entities to go bankrupt in the US and the largest bankruptcy in US history, back in 1994. Moorlach then took the job as Treasurer/Tax Collector and presided over the next 12 years of returning economic health for Orange County.  After that he  got over 70 percent of the vote for supervisor.  We need a guy like Moorlach to fix what Jerry Brown and his friends have done to our state. Apparently he’s thinking about running. At 58, he’s prime, and he’s got a lot of fiscal experience under his belt. 

But, it would be good to find out more about this guy, by digging into the records in Orange County. I’ll start working on that. 

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Time for some economic development – Wednesday 4/24, City Chambers, 4pm, Conf. Rm 1

23 Apr

Tomorrow I am planning to attend the monthly Economic Development meeting, if for no other reason than I can. I been busy lately, and all these meetings seem to hit at once, like some kind of blitzkrieg. The ED committee meets at 4pm on a Wednesday, usually a good day and time for me. 

And I’d say, right now, this committee should be doing something!

The agenda says there will be a presentation from Wizard Manufacturing – I know them! They sponsor my kids’ hockey rink out in Ham City, where the rice is green and the girls are pretty. I know from the big ad they have rinkside, they make agricultural equipment – that’s all good with me too, my grandpa was a rice and nut farmer. Furthermore, they are located in Chico, and provide jobs – I will have to ask how many. Here’s their website:

http://www.wizardmanufacturing.com/

An informative video on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeF8KDYX7VA

Then we will hear about silly manager Brian Nakamura’s recommendations for hand-outs to organizations that supposedly promote economic development and tourism. The biggest snout here is the Chico Chamber, which, through it’s various octopus arms, will get almost $100,000 of the total $113,000 allocation. 

The really “excuse me – what?!?” news here is, he’s not recommending any funding for Artoberfest.  That sounds crazy, maybe I’m wrong, I’ll have to find out and get back to you on that. 

Then we’re going to get an update from Shawn Tillman about our Economic Development Plan. We have one, you know. Stop that, I’m trying to keep a straight face!

Here’s the agenda, see for yourself:

http://www.chico.ca.us/government/minutes_agendas/documents/4-24-13EDAgenda-Full.pdf

I’ll give you my perspective when I get back.

 

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Still paying that phone tax? Here’s the info you need to get your refund, and contact addresses to complain about the taking

22 Apr

It’s only been a couple of weeks since I last rattled chains down at  the Finance Department to see how many  cell phone tax refunds they been giving out – at that time, there had been 147 refunds given out, an average of “$50.81,” according to employee Frank Fields. 

Mr. Fields wanted to point out, and I’ll let him, that six of those refunds were for businesses. Since businesses have bigger phone bills and bigger refunds, he felt that skewed the results somehow. I don’t think so. What about families with many members, kids in colleges around and about, relatives overseas? It doesn’t matter to me how you ran that bill up, a refund is a refund. Plus, only six businesses out of 157 refunds, and he says that skewers the numbers?  The Measure J proponents can rationalize all they want – they were stealing money from people’s phone bills, and people want their money back. And the average isn’t the paltry $25 Scott Gruendl still mentions whenever he gets a microphone in his face, but at least twice that much. 

I don’t want to bother the Finance Department again right away, but this last week or so, this blog and my worldofjuanita blog have been hammered with searches for the phone tax refund information. Here’s the link to the application:

http://www.chico.ca.us/documents/CellPhoneRefundApplication_011713.pdf

As far as I know, there is at least one cell phone company – AT&T – that is still collecting the tax. Check your bills. If you still see that tax collected out of your April bill, I’d let somebody know, maybe our new city manager, Brian Nakamura, at  bnakamura@ci.chico.ca.us

I don’t have contact information for our new Finance Misdirector, but you could reach him through the clerk’s office at dpresson@ci.chico.ca.us

Write to the council too – including Gruendl – through Presson, again, that’s dpresson@ci.chico.ca.us

When your cow gets out of the barn, whether you left the door open or somebody else pried it open, you aren’t going to get your cow back until you go get it for yourself. Ask Joe Mondragon.

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