Council video feed still not available – $taff seems to have taken the Summer off!

10 Jul

I know, there’s probably  a perfectly legitimate explanation for this. Debbie Presson isn’t sure why the feed is off, but she’s got somebody working on it. Not yesterday though, cause she was out of her office.

I’ll tell you what else is interesting – there haven’t been any of those morning meetings lately – in fact, it looks like all the committee meetings for July are CANCELLED. In fact, there hasn’t been an “Economic Development” committee meeting for months that I’m aware. For all intents and purposes, the city of Chico seems to be on Summer Vacation! How nice for them!

But, as you see, the town runs along without them. In fact, I’m wishing the public works department would also take a hike – they’re TOO BUSY right now, tearing up the streets Downtown. Oh well, the college students have “gone home” – what do we need Downtown for when the college students have gone home?

That seems to be the gist of if – the city of Chico is here to serve the college students. The rest of us can just get along – as long as we keep paying our taxes, nobody will bother us! 

I just have to wonder, what are these $85,000, $95,000, $134,000 $taffers doing right now, and why do we need to keep paying them? 

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New police chief’s contract signed last Tuesday, made available to the public Friday – gotta love that “sunshine”!

9 Jul

Last Tuesday night we got a new police chief – Kirk Trostle. Only a month ago city manager Dave Burkland issued a statement – “police chief candidates not knockouts” according to the Enterprise Record. Trostle is a refugee from the Oroville police department, where, as chief, he certainly had his critics. He came to Chico only about a year and a half ago, from a department that was not without it’s problems. The council made their appointment without any elaboration – he was essentially the best thing they could come up with on short notice.

But shouldn’t we be able to negotiate a better contract with this man? Retiring Chief Porky Mike Maloney is getting over $165,000 a year, just in salary. He will be getting over $100,000 to retire, for the rest of his life, plus medical benefits.  Frankly, I predict he’s carrying a colostomy bag within five years. 

Have you seen Trostle’s contract? They signed it at council last Tuesday. But when we asked for it, they said we wouldn’t be able to look at it until Friday. I was invited to go down to the clerk’s office, at her convenience, 9 – 5, during MY WORK DAY, to look at a contract that had already been signed. Why in the hell would I want to do that? They don’t even offer you a decent cup of coffee. 

So no, I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m guessing, it’s worse than Maloney’s contract.  A fellow taxpayer went down Friday and reports he has the contracts, but has not given me any details. I don’t know if he had to pay for paper copies or what, but you can view it for free if you want to go down there. I’ll get back to you when I got something. 

 

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Mary Goloff and Jim Walker gang jump Mark Sorensen on the dais – just another lovely Chico city council meeting!

3 Jul

I’m sitting here in disbelief of the attack I just watched Mary Goloff and Jim Walker wage on Mark Sorensen at city council tonight. I couldn’t make the meeting, so I have been watching it via computer. 

Sorensen had been challenged by a smarmy Jim Walker to list what changes he would make to balance the budget. Sorensen carefully began to explain that city funds had been depleted by millions over the last few years, with escalating costs leaving revenues in the dirt. He also explained that the lion’s share of our expenses are “operating costs,” meaning, salaries. He also carefully explained that there were programs we simply could not afford anymore, meaning, salaries. 

Mary Goloff could be heard heckling him off microphone. If you or I did what she was doing we’d be asked to leave the room, possibly with police escort. But Mayor Schwab just sat there looking at Goloff, saying nothing.  Goloff  finally got on mike, interrupted Sorensen, and asked him to be specific. So, Sorensen offered housing, saying it had been a mistake to undertake so many housing projects, and he also specified the arts programs – such as the requirement that any capital project include one percent of the total cost of that project be added for art. 

At this point Goloff began to interrupt Sorensen. She started heckling him about how “we all agree” that the arts are important, yadda, yadda. She just kept at Sorensen, not allowing him to answer any of her out-there questions, until Sorensen asked her to stop interrupting him. 

After a quick exchange Walker butted in to attack Sorensen. Out of nowhere, Walker bashed Sorensen about wanting to spend more money on the police department, asking Sorensen where he would get the money to hire more police. This question was off base, Sorensen hadn’t even gotten that far before Goloff had completely derailed him.

 Jim  Walker is just sitting out his time, he seems to be enjoying himself at all of our expense. He, like so many “public servants,” seems to think he is elected to do what he wants, what seems like “the right thing” in his fairy tale mind,  instead of carry out the law. 

Mary Goloff seems to think she has been anointed Queen in some farcical aquatic ceremony to lead us all in the light of her cough syrup-induced wisdom.  She seems to love the sound of her own voice, while here at my house, it sets off the hounds for blocks. 

My computer started failing at this point, and I was unable to watch the rest of the meeting. I am going on vacation tomorrow, I’ll see you folks on the flip flop.  

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Turn that S*** UP!

2 Jul

We had a lively discussion down at the library yesterday about how we are going to fight the phone tax increase in November. 

 The key here is to inform the public. $taff has already done their best to make this measure confusing and deceptive, actually writing into the measure that it will lower taxes. They mean, they are lowering the rate half a cent, but of course, this half-cent will be an ice cube in hell when they apply the tax to all the new stuff this measure allows – starting with cell phones, texting, paging,  and adding whatever new technology comes along.  All the voter needs to know is, this measure will  raise his/her taxes, noticeably.  

Even people on welfare will pay  this tax, even though they qualify for the rate-assistance plans offered by the phone companies – utility tax is based on the total bill, before the adjustment for the rate assistance. And, this tax includes those prepaid phone cards. 

The hardest hit will be commercial customers. A friend of mine who owns a little manufacturing business in town tells me the city of Chico thinks all business owners are “rich sugar daddies”. 

My friend always tells me, that while I am in these meetings Downtown, he is in Oroville or Redding or Modesto or some other town, dealing with his business. He says these towns have better, more workable $taff. He is among the business owners who have used the word “hostile” to describe Dave Burkland, and the city business climate in general.  

We have to get the word out to people like my friend that NOW IS THE TIME to get involved. I like that  band, Rage Against the Machine – they say, “it has to start somewhere, it has to start sometime. What better place than here, what better time than NOW!”  

We’re fighting the city, which will use public money to fund this tax increase initiative. For example, they have already used $taff time to research and write the measure, and now council members and $taff will create the “for” argument to be placed on the ballot. Our city attorney makes over $190,000 a year in salary alone – Mark Sorensen figured the cost of an hour of her time, but I forget the figure. More than most people make in a day, is all I remember.

The city will turn over their arguments in favor in August – at that point we can take this dog and pony show on the road. Until then, let’s keep working.  Thanks all! 

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They’re in the catbird seat now – but the “paycheck protection” initiative may throw public employee unions out on their ears

30 Jun

I was glad to see Wisconsin throw out collective bargaining – a system that specifically denies public participation in the bargaining process – and I’ll be equally thrilled when Californians pass the “Paycheck Protection” Initative. This initiative would prohibit – prohibit! – the government, including the city of Chico, from deducting union dues from government employee paychecks that will be used for political purposes. It will also ban contributions to “candidate controlled” committees by corporations and labor unions. Furthermore – and this seems like a no brainer – it will ban contractors who receive government contracts from donating to the officeholder who awarded the contract. Now, that last one is interesting – remind me to get back to that.

Currently, both Chico Police and Chico Fire employees have union dues collected from their paychecks by the city of Chico paymaster, whether they are union members or not. These fees go to the Chico Police Officers Association and the Chico Firefighters Legislative Action Group, both registered with the city of Chico as Political Action Committees. These fees have, in past elections, been the biggest donations to any candidates. But the romance seemed to fizzle as the council  started to balk at these groups’ salary and pension demands in the face of a deepening deficit.  In the last couple of elections, neither PAC has solidly endorsed any candidate. The CPOA instead produced a slick video portraying Chico as an urban style crime area that was not properly funding it’s “public safety” organizations and released it at election time over youtube and through an e-mail campaign.

I don’t know if these tactics have any effect on the voters, but they sure made their mark on council, who has yet to take a firm stance with either Chico PD or Fire, giving in to wage increase demands and allowing structured overtime to run average salaries over $100,000 a person, with retirement at 50 years of age,  90 percent of their highest year’s pay, including overtime, and paying less than 25 percent of their benefits package. 

I believe large PAC’s have ruined our elections, and the idea that our “public servants” would use forcibly conscripted money to mount campaigns to enrich themselves with public funds is unacceptable.  The other employee unions have also played heavily in the disenfranchisement of the Chico voter – the SEIU and the nurses union were the biggest donors to the “No on Measure A” campaign back in June 2011. They all get conscripted union dues from non-union employees. These employees are NOT considered members and are NOT allowed to vote on these matters. 

This initiative seeks not only to ban conscripted dues but to ban contributions to candidate controlled committees  by these union PACs. Of course, this doesn’t seem to matter, given that these PACs, as illustrated above, are free to mount their own campaign on behalf of or against a candidate. But, it’s a nice thought. 

Now, at the end, it says, “ban contractors who receive government contracts from donating to the officeholder”. Like I said, this seems like a no-brainer. But look – we have the police and fire department and the other employee unions  in our town, who fill the definition of “contractors.” They “contract” with us, don’t they? But they are allowed to donate to officeholders, both as  PACs and as individuals.   I don’t imagine this is what the authors of this initiative have in mind, but I think there could be a good argument made in court that no public employee should be allowed to donate to the campaign of politicians who hire them. 

I’ve been reading some interesting buzz on this issue. According to tax-happy Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Morain, the state’s public employee unions are finding themselves “torn between donations to support the (Jerry Brown) tax hike, and donations to defeat another measure…the “Paycheck Protection” initiative…”  Apparently, they are short of funds to fight both, or at least, that’s what they want us to believe. I  think these unions are LOADED – they’ll pour gazillions into both measures, they’re absolutely DESPERATE to hang on to their position in the catbird seat – and fund their pensions.

Morain believes this initiative would “strip them (the unions) of their ability to raise and spend money on campaigns.”  Strip them? You mean,  force the unions to get their money by asking for it instead of stealing it from people’s paychecks?  You mean, they’d have to support candidates who actually share their views instead of buying them off?

You mean they’d have to compete with the rest of the voters, who’ve lately been shoved out of these elections by the ridiculous price tag? 

I hope Morain is right, I hope the employee unions are going bust, in a handbasket. But I’ll believe it when I see it.  Already, the California Teacher’s Union has put $1.5 million, the SEIU $1 million, the federal and state federation of teachers almost $2 million into the campaign to raise the sales/income tax. According to “ballotpedia”, the “No” campaign for the Paycheck Protection initiative has already raised over $6 million – this mainly from the the California School Employees Association, with only $500,000 coming from the California Labor Federation,  made up of private sector employees.

Let’s talk about this more tomorrow (Sunday July 1) at the library, 11:30 am.

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Chico Taxpayer’s Meeting Sunday, 11:30, Chico library. And don’t forget – Friday’s the last day to get your Utility Tax rebate.

25 Jun

Fourth of July is coming up, next Wednesday! I hope to see some of you in the conga line over to Hamilton City to pick up your Independence Day paraphernalia – don’t forget to hit El Patio for some chips and salsa.

The Fourth is my favorite holiday, and I like to celebrate. This Sunday I will be over at the library at 11:30 am for a meeting of the Chico Taxpayers Association. I’d like to compare notes about the November ballot sales tax hike initiative.  Jerry Brown’s original proposal has been toned down and merged with the so-called “Millionaire’s Tax.”  This hybrid would raise California’s sales tax from 7.25% to 7.5%,  while also raising income tax rates on individuals earning over $250,000 –  creating three new high-income tax brackets for taxpayers with taxable incomes exceeding $250,000, $300,000, and $500,000. I think the rhetoric in this campaign will be interesting. 

We’ll also compare any notes we have on the telephone tax, but we probably won’t have much to chew on  until the proponents – led by Mayor Ann Schwab – hand over their ballot arguments. 

REMEMBER! This Friday will be your last opportunity to get your Utility Tax rebate for 2012, those of you who qualify might want to hustle on down there. I heard from Dave, who said he went in and got his exemption – GO DAVE! I think anybody who has qualified two or more years in a row should be eligible for an exemption, to be renewed with documentation every three to five years, like the low-income rate assistance programs offered by PG&E, Cal Water and the phone companies. But, if wishes were horses, we’d all be hip-deep in horse crap, wouldn’t we? 

I realize, if you work 8 – 5 you can’t get your rebate in person. But, I’d also say, if you have more than two people in your household, you will probably find it’s worth the trouble to copy your bills – especially PG&E – and mail them in. You’d only need the first page, and you can do two-sided copies. It shouldn’t take more than two stamps to mail the whole mess. Remember to blot out your SSN’s on the copy of the first page of your tax return. 

And remember, it’s not about the money, it’s about the message.

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Yes we can and should rewrite current contracts to rein in pensions

15 Jun

I’ve heard a lot of lame talk lately –  our local newspaper editors, local politicians and wannabes saying we can’t correct the insane contracts that were made behind our backs with our public employees, state and local.

Well, they lie.  The voters of San Jose and San Diego just voted to cut pensions of their retired workers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/07/us/politics/san-diego-and-san-jose-pass-pension-cuts.html?pagewanted=all

All the contracts are up this year – they’re discussing the “public safety” contracts right now. They’ve agreed to change the way they calculate overtime,  to the benefit of Chico PD and Fire, not the taxpayers.

Before you DARE to use the word “renege,” let me remind you, these contracts were written behind closed  doors, before the city introduced the current “sunshine” clause that forces them to show the contracts to us, the public, before they agree to them. Read that again – they just have to show them to us, we don’t get any choice. We can write them letters til we’re blue in the face – Jim Walker and Andy Holcombe have both admitted at least umpteem million times that they give the public an audience and then vote however they were going to vote in the first place. Mary Goloff says if you want to be in on the contract discussions, you can just get yourself elected to city council. Those were almost her exact words to me at a meeting one night.

Around 2003, the sitting council signed a contract that tied city employees pay to INCREASES IN REVENUE BUT NOT DECREASES. We the taxpayers were not even shown that agreement, and by the time we found out about it, Jennifer Hennessy had already struck up the Titanic band for her rendition of “We’re sinking but I still get a $14,000 raise…”

I never made these promises, I never even saw them, but I am expected to foot the bill.

Excuse me, TO HELL WITH THAT!

The contracts need to be rewritten. They need to CUT STRUCTURED OVERTIME FROM THE COPS AND FIRE. They need to make ALL EMPLOYEES PAY 90 PERCENT OF THEIR PENSION AND BENEFITS, with a larger city portion for those who choose to be loyal and stay more than 10 years. They need to show us the contracts, we need to have some of those “workshops.” We need to get our financial house in order around these EMBEZZLERS. 

We the taxpayers need to write letters and DEMAND THIS. Schwab and Evans want to get re-elected. Tell them you won’t pay more taxes to foist these contracts. The police contracts are available for viewing right now – they are saying they are cutting costs, but their contract shows a definite pay raise.

Wake up people, these leeches are sucking off the public tit, and it’s time to do like the momma pig – GET UP AND MAKE A RUN FOR IT, THOSE WHO DON’T LET GO GET TRAMPLED.

Chula Vistans still suing their city leaders over illegal phone tax takings

14 Jun

Thanks Casey Aplanalp for keeping the cell phone tax in the news with letters to the ER – he reminds us, the city has been “siphoning off an additional $900,000 every year from taxes not levied, mainly from mobile devices, illegally.”

“They got caught, so now this “phone tax” proposition has been written to legalize this plunder and include what they already take, and then some.”

Yes, this is the city of Chico’s motive behind the cell phone tax that will appear on November’s ballot – like a child, caught with her hand in the cookie jar, Ann Schwab immediately asks to change the rules.

A similar proposition was brought before the citizens of Chula Vista California,  seeking to extend their UUT to include “Skype, prepaid cellphones, teleconferencing apps for tablets 
and smartphones…” according to attorneys for the city.    The voters not only resoundingly defeated the measure, but turned around to sue the city for the money that had been taken illegally. Unfortunately, that suit, filed in 2010, will not be heard in court until January 2013.  Here’s a link to the latest story I could find on that, from March. I will follow this and keep you posted.

http://www.cglaw.com/viewdoc599.html

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Thanks Mark Sorensen for speaking to Chico Taxpayers Association

4 Jun

Yesterday Mark Sorensen was good enough to come down to the Chico library to fill in a group of interested citizens on some of the facts regarding the November phone tax increase measure. But, we probably won’t get alot out of the council or the city attorney’s office until August 7, when they are due to turn their “impartial analysis” and ballot arguments in to the city clerk’s office. 

Until then, we are left with a lot of speculation. But the important fact remains – this measure will raise the taxes of every city resident who owns “mobile messaging devices” – specifically , for now, cell phones. 

Councilor Sorensen explained to us that the city is very desperate to pass this measure because they have already been receiving this tax and are heavily dependent on the revenue – some $900,000 a year, in fact. Some cell phone providers, AT&T the most prominent, have already been collecting the tax for an undisclosed number of years, without any legal grounds to back them up aside from the fact that they make up your bill and you don’t ask any questions. The city has been receiving this ill-gotten gain, knowingly,  for years, in violation of our own code, which only allows for the taxing of land lines.  

I can hear the question forming in your mind Joseph – how the HELL do they get away with this shit!?!  It’s the psychic connection -oh oh – think they’ll find a way tax that? 

Well, we’re not the only ones. This is happening in cities around California. Because of a man named Donald Sipple, it’s been brought to the attention of the courts, if not the media. Mr. Sipple has sued AT&T, and won, and in turn, AT&T has had to sue the cities over which Mr. Sipple sued them. The case is still a big mess in the courts, because, despite two rulings to the effect that the money was taken from those city residents illegally, those cities will simply not return the money. 

Anyhoo, this is why the city is so desperate and so dishonest in handling this phone tax increase – they actually do stand to lose $900,000, in General Fund money, no less – the unrestricted kind! And yeah, if this measure doesn’t pass, they are left red-handed.

My-oh-my, how embarrassing for Ann Schwab and Dave Burkland. They know this, but they have made no attempt to tell the voters. Instead they try to tell us they are lowering our taxes and making everything fair for everyone. 

Tsk tsk! If they told the truth on this ballot measure, it would never get off the launch pad.  How can a  tax that is collected off of one very specific portion of the population – those folks whose cell phones are billed to a city address – but goes to pay for infrastructure and services that are enjoyed by everybody who uses our town – whether college students with a phone billed to their parents in LA or folks who work here with phones billed to a mansion in Forest Ranch – be  “fair for everyone” ?

We’ll have to see how they explain this when they come out with their “impartial analysis” in August. Until then, we need to study this issue among ourselves and try to get ready for the debate in the fall.  If you want to keep up on the agendas be sure to subscribe to Mark’s feed:

http://chicoagenda.wordpress.com/

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Learn the truth about the city’s proposed phone tax hike – it’s a G-snatch!

3 Jun

Well, best meeting EVER. It just keeps getting better, Folks. A wonderful group who was there to work, that’s what it takes.

Mark Sorensen answered some questions this morning, but raised others.  There is so much about the phone tax increase measure that does not make sense. And where can we get the answers? Our city attorney seems to be making the whole thing as convoluted as possible, I don’t think we can count on her for any help. She’s not our attorney anyway, she’s there to protect $taff and council from  us. “$taff” would include herself.

The first and foremost thing everybody needs to know about this measure is that it will INCREASE our taxes. While the text of the ballot proposition, in the first sentence, claims to be lowering our tax, it is also broadening the definition of what  can be taxed, therefore, increasing our  taxes.

City Attorney Lori Barker’s first measure was so deceptive she was asked to rewrite it. The newer version is more truthful, but still pretty vague:

“Shall an ordinance be adopted to amend the City’s Telephone User’s Tax in order to: 1) reduce the tax rate from 5% to 4.5%; 2) modernize the definition of telephone communication services subject to the tax to include new technologies such as wireless and voice over internet services; 3) apply the tax to all telephone communications regardless of the type of technology used; and 4) reflect changes to federal and state law? 

Yes, the new rate will be half a percent lower – Big  Flopping Whoopie.  And, there you see it, this tax will “include new technologies such as…” Such as, when you read along in the report Barker made, includes whatever the Finance Director wants it to.

No, you can’t read the report unless you got a copy from the city clerk  before she took it off the website. I don’t know why it’s not on the website. In fact, I don’t know why there’s no records on the website right now for any meeting between December 2009 and the agenda that is posted for this coming Tuesday’s meeting. You can see the agendas on the viewer, where you watch the videos of the meetings, but no reports.  The reports are all taken off the website after the meeting, you have to ask the clerk if you want to see the reports. I just happen to have the copy she sent me before the meeting – I signed up to receive this stuff, or I wouldn’t have it.  I’d have to go Downtown and PAY to get a copy from the clerk.

They are being deceptive on this tax increase measure because they know if the voters get all the facts it will fail. They might even have to pay back the money they’ve been collecting illegally through AT&T for years.

http://semichorus.wordpress.com/2011/08/27/burbank-owes-its-cellphone-users-1001766-in-tax-refunds-that-they-refuse-to-pay/

They stand to lose big, so get ready for some pretty desperate measures and some cheap and dirty fighting.

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