Chico Taxpayers Association

I saw this story from KHSL Chico Action News on the Google News Chico site. Google is a better source than the ER lately. But, these don’t stay up forever, eventually the website refreshes, and I have never found any archives. So, I cut and paste the transcript, but if you want to see the entire interview you can see it at the link below for a few more days maybe. I also included most of the comments I found posted below.

I would like to remind everybody, Mayor Coolidge seems to have forgot – in 2018, this ninny went along with the council’s liberal minority and signed the Shelter Crisis Designation. That is why he lost reelection in November 2018. In 2020 the council went with districts, I don’t believe Coolidge would have got reelected in an at-large election. The “conservative backlash” also helped – I was shocked when Coolidge got the endorsement of the Republican Women Federated and other groups that had been pretty pissed at him a couple of years earlier. One local pundit even mentioned Coolidge’s support of the SCD, but opined he was the only choice in that district. As if, “just hold your nose and vote for him”. And here we are.

Here’s another question Haley should have asked – how much has this lawsuit cost the city so far? Maybe next time.

https://www.actionnewsnow.com/content/news/Chico-Mayor-talks-plan-to-clean-up-parks-get-homeless-into-shelters-575166171.html?videoKey=d0f281ad61760d93e99327ae18a98d69318aefd6

CHICO, Calif. – Action News Now spoke with Chico Mayor Andrew Coolidge about the state of the local homeless crisis and the ongoing lawsuit between the city and a group of eight homeless people.

For the time being, the city cannot enforce park rules that ban overnight camping until the judge approves a homeless shelter compromise.

Below is this transcription of our conversation with Mayor Coolidge:

Q: Mayor Coolidge, the first thing I think we should address here is, where are we at in the process of finding some sort of compromise when it comes to finding a shelter solution?

A: I think the community really wants to know that, where are we in the trial process, where are we in terms of actually getting some resolution? Because I think we all want to move forward and I’m among those folks. So if you look at it today actually they’ll be submitting briefs to the magistrate in terms of the settlement conference, that will be proceeding on the 30th, so there will actually be a settlement conference at that time. Hopefully, there will be.. some sort of resolution. That’s really the issue we’re dealing with. The two parties coming together. I believe the other side wants the moon. We’re really just dealing with providing a solution that will work within the city’s budget, so we can end this and get back to enforcing the in the parks and waterways, so it’s complicated.

Q: One of the things the judge brought up was at the airport shelter site, we’re not seeing beds, a roof, walls, all of the things that might entail what a shelter is. Is there a plan in the works to make that site more of a shelter? Or is there some other solution you’re cooking up?

A: A lot of people like to talk about the airport site and say, a lot of things were missing. But at the same token, a lot of things weren’t in place yet. We actually had a request for a proposal out for that site to have organizational management. And to have them manage it in a way that would provide some of those things. But the county backed out of that site, we had other difficulties and that never came to fruition. So we have the site out there, it has the spaces and we are actually providing additional shelter above the tents, but that site, even though a lot of people have said that’s not a great site, not a great location – it has about 29 people out there. They’re staying. So it’s grown on its own. Whether the city continues to do it because we have gotten some push back because the judge did not like it – that’s something that we have to look at and see whether we tailor that back and look into something else, I think that’s where the settlement conference comes into play.

Q: It feels like this all seems so far down the line. Everyone wants some sort of compromise reached, and yet we’re still not even sure if we make (the airport site) work go a completely different direction at this point?

A: Certainly the city has an idea of what we can do. There are some sites being considered, some sites being offered. We want to put that together, we want to make this problem a problem of the past. We want to move forward. Whether the plaintiffs are on board with that? Some folks would say they’re just trying to delay, trying to keep this process going as long as possible because it works in their favor? The city’s of course pushing for the judge to make a decision quicker to get to a settlement sooner. So we’ve offered some pretty big things that I never thought we’d put on the table and the response we’re getting is just not even…

Q: Can you tell me what some of those things are?

A: I can’t tell you specifically what they are, but I can tell you that we’re considering things that are more similar to Comanche Creek. Sites that have some shade and trees, that have access to water. So we’ve put some pretty hefty items on the table but I don’t ever see us moving to an indoor shelter, because that would be really difficult. it would be difficult for the entire ninth district to actually comply with that. You’re talking about San Francisco and L.A., if they had to do that, even those cities would be on the brink of bankruptcy. So to require cities to provide indoor housing when some of our residents don’t even have that? To provide air conditioning when some of our residents don’t even have that? I don’t think that’s a very realistic outcome. I don’t think the judge is going to burden the city with that and every city in the ninth district with that.

Q: While we’re tied up, while the city can’t do anything when it comes to enforcing (some) park rules, what are the key public safety issue that you’re worried about?

A: You’ll start to see some movement on those issues. When it comes to extreme drug use, when it comes to the fires, obviously anything with criminal activity, that’s something that we’re looking at and working on to stop that kind of activity. So we are rolling out a program to do that. We know and realize that these areas are high-crime areas as well. So there’s a lot of folks in the community pushing for enforcement in that area, but according to the city attorney in how we move forward, it has to be in a way that isn’t targeted. We don’t want to target that community or seem like we’re targeting that community. So for example we can’t go in there and say we’re going to fine everyone for smoking and cite them. We really have to look at doing something more complete and inclusive in terms of the entire city and just enforcing laws on the books.

COMMENTS FROM ACTION NEWS WEBSITE (I didn’t get all the comments, some were snarky.)

William 1 day ago I think the airport was meant to be a temporary solution. That’s why it was named a resting spot, not intended to be a shelter, which is why it probably didn’t help with satisfying whatever the judge wanted. I mean isn’t homelessness supposed to be temporary? Unfortunately, when the airport spot was put up in June, multiple news websites including the Chico ER posted an article that said Chico offered sanctioned camping for homeless. Two months later, here we are with even more homeless than before because of this news. Only an estimated 29 spots used for camping at the airport. You can see where the rest are now. I have no clue what the solution is, but if we go all Oprah with homeless saying “You get a house” and “You get a house”, no doubt it will attract a lot more homeless people. We have hard working people struggling to pay rent and then they see their taxes go to what seems like wasted resources. $45K/month for 29 homeless spots used? You could rent 29 houses for a month with that money. I’m all for giving a hand up to the homeless of this area, but let’s not make Chico the homeless destination capital of the world. Honestly, if I had a warrant for my arrest, I would hide out in the parks and homeless areas. I know Shasta county does homeless sweeps for people with warrants. You bet I’d be coming to Chico if I lived up north.Lastly, I think the City Council doesn’t want to go too far with resources as to attract out of area homeless.

Regina Erekson 1 day ago Replying to William Homelessness should be temporary. It took 2 years at Torres and assistance from Behavioral Health to receive rehousing help There is apparently no Continuum of Care for that, as it seems I will need to repeat the process after having a HAP defunded, couldn’t afford to use Section 8 lease in place and then moved to TBRA somehow. It’s been 3 yrs processing my disability claim through Social Security so TBRA refused me any further assistance. So do I go back to Torres to start over again? Also, now that I’ve been here 5 years, I constantly bump into former Torres roommates that are back on the street. If you don’t have the ability to maintain housing one way or another… Inadequate finance, substance abuse or infirmities it’s a merry go round of uselessness that seems to primarily rely on billing Medicaid/Medi-Cal and to qualify for grants that apparently go to administrative costs or eventually gets rolled to other budget lines. For example, when Coolidge said YOU would pay the $350k for the 29 capers on the Tarmac and then magically the COVID funds that were going to be applied to widening Bruce Road for the unaffordable housing developments. I really think there should be more transparency on how the city uses residents money. BTW if you want every homeless person to be self-sufficient take inventory of the things you require to get to work and function. .. that’s what is needed. Without addressing the cause of homelessness, it will never go away.

Regina Erekson1 day agoReplying to William Also, fires add to the local homeless population annually. Chico isn’t an attractive place to be homeless FYI. For example meth and heroin are far more available and cheaper in port cities. Maybe city council can make up those flyers so you can divert the crowds down to L.A., S.F. NY, FL … heck, China, India, Africa…trade for refugees, euthanasia, rural development, Soylent Green…

Unknown1 1 day ago Replying to Regina Erekson If housing is so expensive I would suggest you get together with other homeless people and use your joint resources to rent a place. College kids do it all the time.

Fred Spenger 2 days ago The Homeless are asking for the the moon? The Homeless are delaying the process? Some citizens don’t have a roof over their heads or air conditioning? Aren’t the homeless citizens also?

A Citizen 1 day ago Replying to Fred Spenger Coolidge not only doesn’t consider the homeless citizens. He doesn’t even consider them human. The city is bringing in a snake oil salesman for “advice” on how to “fix” our homeless “problem”. Coolidge is whining about money. While tossing $50k to this “expert” aka conman aka snake oil salesman. What an absolute joke!

Flaunts 2 days ago Replying to Fred Spenger>>> the homeless need to accept a hand up instead of expecting a hand out

Unknown1 1 day ago Replying to Fred Spenger Unproductive citizens.

Regina Erekson 1 day ago Replying to Unknown1How did you get that demographic information?

Unknown1 1 day ago Replying to Regina Erekson Probably from the same source that you got yours that says they could lead productive lives and if enough money and freebies are given to them they will become what they should have become without all of the money and freebies. They wasted their chance by burning their bridges and refusing to be a part of their own life.

eholohan 2 days ago The judge should have to give us a plan. In stead, he wants Chico to come up with a plan and he will say IF it is OK or not. Unacceptable!

Alley Oop 2 days ago Agreed. We shouldn’t be hostages to this judge and the Transient Invaders.

Wow, three days of sweet oxygen, and then the winds shifted – back to breathing cancer! Thank you, Cal Fire. The Dixie Fire, for one, has now been masturbated for over a month, plenty of overtime for management, who file in and out every day in convoys of immaculate white trucks. What do these people do? They don’t get dirty, that’s for sure. You see them on the news, you see them in videos released to the badge bunnies like Karla K. Larsen. A phalanx of management pencil pushers, racking up overtime as much as three times their contractual salary.

If you’re okay with that, go ahead and ignore the recall. Get yourself a good gas mask.

Are you sick of reading about drug overdoses and crime? Yeah, Dave got his car back, two weeks and 2,000 miles later, beat up, parts stripped off, full of trash including hypodermic needles, driven all over the county by junkies. At one point, Chico PD had the car and the driver, but let them get away while they flustered over whether or not to pursue a stolen car. Chico PD is indeed, overwhelmed. The statewide policy of “transferring” criminals and drug addicts from one locality to another for money is driving Chico off the cliff. The AB109 money isn’t spent to improve prisons or jails, it’s dumped into the county pension deficit. Read the county agendas for yourself – Debra Lucero said I was spreading “falsehoods” – but the transfers, the money received and paid, and the payments toward the burgeoning county pension deficit are all in there. Then our Sheriff Kory Honea complains he doesn’t have enough room at the jail to hold car thieves, drug dealers or human traffickers, and they’re released onto the streets of Oroville and Chico. Another dealer just arrested recently, with methamphetamine, cocaine, and fentanyl. There’s a warning circulating right now to watch out for meth and coke laced with fentanyl.

If you’re okay with that, go ahead and ignore the recall. Maybe you should move to one of the towns that’s transferring them out instead of transferring them in!

Are you tired of higher taxes and deteriorating infrastructure? Right now Chico City Council, led by an idiot, is working on putting at least two different tax measures on the 2022 ballot. They are also working on a business and rent tax, which I have read will need to go before the voters, but wow, they sure aren’t talking about it in front of the voters. Meanwhile, the city of Chico only does projects that come with state grants, like roundabouts that have to be driven over by big trucks, and bike lanes to nowhere.

If that’s okay with you, go ahead and ignore the recall.

I’m sick of having my summers stolen by wildfire, I’m sick of drug dealers and junkies running my town, and I’m sick of overpaid administrators ripping me off to feather their retirement nests. It’s time for a change in leadership.

A recent letter to the ER from union operative, Tom Reed, seems to be saying that we don’t have the right to recall our elected officials. I think Kevin Kiley answers that pretty well with this comment from his Facebook page:

This election is happening because many, many, Californians have demanded it, people of all political affiliations, all background , who have looked around and seen we have the highest poverty, the most homelessness, greatest level of inequality, failing schools, crumbling infrastructure – how did our beautiful state become the last in everything?

As I’ve seen as a member of the legislature for five years, we have a broken state government. If you are someone who is frustrated with the direction of our state, you want to stay here, raise your children here, retire here, but you are afraid to cross party lines – take a chance on change, the recall is for you.

My administration will be about “Back to Basics”. Pave our roads, manage our forests, store our water, maintain our grid, fund our police, things government is supposed to do.

I’ve voted for Kiley, but I will have to ask him exactly what he means by funding our police. I’ll get back with any response I get.

This morning I saw an interview with Gavin Newsom on Fox News “The Issue Is”. He declared, “We’re going to win overwhelmingly, we just need to remind people to turn out and vote.” It sounded more like an order than an observation.

And then the threats of “profound consequences” – Republicans, he says, will eliminate masking and vax orders, forcing the rest of us to “walk off the COVID cliff.” They will tank our economy. They will get rid of Nancy Pelosi. Asked what he thought of each of the front runner candidates, Newsom opined, “they all align with Trump, they are much more similar than they seem.”

That’s not what I saw in the debates – Cox was the only one who announced he would vote for Trump, and only if there were not other way to beat Biden. Both Faulconer and Kiley failed to bite on the question of supporting Trump, saying they wanted to stick to California issues. I think the question was off base. A more appropriate question would have been who they’d pick to replace Dianne Feinstein in the event that her slipping mental abilities lead to early retirement.

So much for a rational conversation with the governor. Asked if he thought his current advice to “just vote NO and skip the second question” was “political suicide”, Newsome ignored the reporter, leaned toward the camera, and rasped, “You don’t have to worry about the second question, just vote NO.” The reporter continued to ask Newsom why he thought there were other Democrats running on the ballot, “do you understand why Democrats are frustrated?” Again, Newsom ignored the question, writing off any Democratic dissatisfaction saying, “Everybody is frustrated, it’s the difficulties we’ve seen as a state.”

I don’t know who he means by “we”, I don’t believe he knows anything about the difficulties the rest of us have been dealing with. For one thing, when asked what he thought is the biggest issue facing Californians right now, he said, without hesitation, “What’s on everybody’s minds – we need a comprehensive strategy for homelessness.”

Well, if he means the instant homelessness that occurs when you burn down an entire town, he’s got something there. Right at this moment, I’d say the biggest thing on anybody’s mind in California is, will we ever have another summer when we can open our windows at night? About two-thirds of the state is wondering if they will always live under the threat of man-made wildfires. And canny taxpayers are wondering how an agency that racks up as much overtime as Cal Fire can’t seem to put out a fire. A lot of us are asking, “if they say it’s ‘contained,’ how come it keeps getting bigger?“

I’ll add, what’s going to happen to our PG&E rates as they burn down one town after another? Earlier this year, Newsom hastily passed legislation that supposedly “stabilized” utilities by protecting them from the consequences of their own mistakes. Does that mean our rates won’t go up? Who exactly is he protecting?

Every time I see Newsom in the news, he just reinforces my feelings about the recall.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/joegarofoli/article/What-s-behind-Gavin-Newsom-s-advice-to-not-16393947.php

I got my recall ballot yesterday, it was most certainly a high point. I already knew what to do, but I’ve been hearing and reading a lot of confusing information about this recall.

My husband and I noticed right away – Gavin Newsom is not on this ballot. That is confusing, as we heard stories that he was indeed running, and that he had a little set-to with the Secretary of State over his party designation.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-07-12/newsom-wont-get-democrat-beside-his-name-on-recall-ballot-says-judge

Apparently you will have to write him in at the bottom of the ballot if you want to vote for him (in the event that the recall is successful). And the right-in rules are weird.

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2021-08-16/will-your-write-in-vote-in-californias-recall-election-count

Here’s something I didn’t know – only candidates who have applied for write-in status will be counted in this election. This article says that candidates have until August 31 to apply for write-in status. That means the full list of eligible write-in candidates will not appear until early September.

Here’s an August 4 article from CalMatters that adds more confusion:

https://calmatters.org/politics/2021/08/newsom-recall-how-to-vote/

“You can write in any name you want. But for your vote to count, it must be someone from the certified list. Write-in candidates have until Aug. 31 to file. Any write-in votes for Newsom also won’t be counted.“

So, I assume Newsom has not applied to be a certified write-in candidate. In fact, Newsom apparently is telling his supporters just to vote No on the first question and IGNORE the second question. Here’s a blurb from the Democrats’ Twitter page.

The weirdest thing I’ve seen so far are signs distributed by the local Chico Democrats. They are associating this recall with something called Q’Anon – devil worshipping child molesters. This reminds me of the totally weird door hangers they were distributing in the last election. I’m floored – what the hell is happening to Chico Democrats?

The disarray in the Democratic party is one more reason to vote YES on this recall. Newsom and his party are tanking our state with their very, very strange agenda.

I can’t guess what will happen, I just know I’m voting YES for the RECALL and Kevin Kiley for Governor.

How soon we forget – did you really expect the state or the governor to really do anything about PG&E mismanagement when Newsom took over $200,000 from PG&E in the wake of the Camp Fire? And then proceeded to personally broker a deal to mitigate PG&E bankruptcy? Here’s that story from November 2019.

https://www.abc10.com/article/news/politics/newsom-pge-broker-bankruptcy-deal/103-eab02ef6-d2c2-4977-b335-10461b0beea7

“‘If the suggestion is somehow I’m influenced by that, you’re wrong,’ Newsom said of the $208,400 PG&E donated to help him win office.”

“In announcing that his office would seek to “broker” a deal to end PG&E’s bankruptcy, Newsom has inserted himself into a massively complex fight that pits fire victims, governments, shareholders, and bondholders against each other. Tens of billions of dollars are at stake.”

“Some critics of PG&E believe the governor has given the company a gift in the form of this year’s hastily-passed legislation AB 1054, which is aimed at protecting power monopolies from financial trouble when they start future wildfires.“

Two years later, PG&E has started more fires, burned more towns, killed more people, but still continues business as usual with no consequences for bad behavior. They have even been allowed to raise rates substantially to cover their losses. Look at your damned bill! And now “flex time” – in the middle of a PG&E caused wildfire that forces us to shut our windows?

Oh well, geeshy sakes, what ya gonna do? Call Ghostbusters? Well, I’m voting to recall the asshole that has brought one of the most prosperous states in the union to a state of total dysfunction.

One concern I have about this recall is the number of candidates running in this circus. Most of them are completely unqualified, like Elder has admitted of himself, and some of them proven disasters, like Kevin Faulconer. Do we want the state of San Diego?

Cox is an obvious outsider who is not familiar with California’s economy or politics. He keeps citing the “train to nowhere” – the real issue right now is corruption. Here’s a recent article from ABC news about what was really going on at the French Laundry – it was a lot more than a bunch of elitist pigs having a high-end meal.

https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/abc10-originals/pge-gavin-newsom-lobbiest/103-2fc7d4f4-a0e0-492d-ac1d-ec674e58a67b

“It was an unforced political error that immediately put Newsom on defense from the appearance of hypocrisy for going against his own COVID safety advice to Californians… Newsom apologized profusely for the dinner. He was only human, he said. And it was a birthday party for ‘a friend that I’ve known for almost 20 years’.”

People, including myself, were outraged over the hypocrisy, while we had no idea it was really about brokering a deal for PG&E. Boy do I feel dumb now!

“Newsom had inserted himself as ‘broker‘ of PG&E’s plan to exit bankruptcy. Bankruptcy documents show the company offered to support the plan only if its terms were ‘acceptable to the Governor’s Office.'”

After accepting campaign donations totaling $208,400 for his 2018 election. But he denies any influence? Why didn’t he just reject the money?

Here is candidate Kevin Kiley responded in 2020:

https://calmatters.org/commentary/2020/02/newsom-california-legislature-must-ban-pge-from-giving-campaign-contributions/

“For decades, Pacific Gas and Electric has methodically executed what the New York Times called its “political playbook”: giving millions and getting its way.

This continued after PG&E’s first bankruptcy in 2004. It persisted after six felony convictions in 2016. And now, even after catastrophic wildfires and devastating blackouts, the playbook is bound to remain the utility’s most valuable asset—unless we make them throw out that book.”

“I have introduced Assembly Bill 2079 to prohibit investor-owned utilities from donating to the campaigns of state politicians.”

Newsom, meanwhile, uses his position to influence California Public Utility Commission in favor of PG&E. From Kevin Kiley’s website,

Newsom’s Catastrophic Corruption

“Now, a whistleblower has come forward at the PUC. Former Executive Director Alice Stebbins says Newsom took ‘complete control’ over the agency’s oversight of PG&E and she was ordered to sign a safety certificate against her will. “

Here’s a week-old story from ABC News:

“SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Three days after Gov. Gavin Newsom celebrated his 2018 election victory, one of his major corporate campaign donors caused a mass killing.“

“The Pacific Gas and Electric Company pleaded guilty in June 2020 to felony involuntary manslaughter for killing 84 Californians in the 2018 Camp Fire.”

“PG&E’s officials walked out of court to go back to work on turning a profit, aided by state policies Newsom crafted to help the company.”

“In the months after the crime, Newsom not only signed new financial protections for PG&E into law, his office hired private lawyers in New York who wrote the legislative language.”

Please read that article further, you can read the actual court documents.

“The documents were obtained as part of ABC10’s news series FIRE – POWER – MONEY: How Governor Gavin Newsom Protected PG&E, which investigated how California gave financial protections to PG&E by the state government in the wake of crimes.  

“AB 1054 resulted in PG&E obtaining official state safety certificates for two fire seasons since the Camp Fire.

“The law was written by the lawyers under a contract to represent Newsom’s office in PG&E’s bankruptcy, state records show.”

And here we are, living with the consequences of corrupt government – after murdering 85 people in their homes, PG&E has been allowed to start a new fire at the same location, burning down more towns, 4 people missing as of now, and how many cancer victims to come in the future? We’re breathing wood smoke. People who never touched a cigarette in their lives will die from lung cancer because of a corrupt governor.

So, I signed the petition, and I’m going to vote for Kiley, who is the only candidate bringing real issues to the conversation.

Reader Stephen Jackson submitted the following comment, and I wanted to make sure people see this information.

Juanita, I visited the Butte County Board of Supervisors this last Tuesday to present them with their own county death statistics from 2014-2021. Interesting to note that for the years 2014-2019, there were an average of 61 diabetes, 29 hypertension, 52 liver disease, 26 nephritis, 32 Parkinson’s, 54 flu/pneumonia, and 44 suicide deaths each year. When we arrived at 2020, we no longer reported these deaths….now we simply have a pandemic that’s claimed 204 people over 20 months. COVID arrived and miraculously, all other diseases “went away”? In reality, we know what happened in 2020, all these deaths from all these previously mentioned causes were reported under the primary cause of morbidity as “Covid” instead of reporting that these were deaths from Parkinson’s disease, liver disease, or hypertension, with COVID listed as the “co-morbidity” or secondary cause of death. Why did our county do this? Because of the money the medical industry was paid to categorize them this way! If this doesn’t feel criminal, it should. County leadership is allowing the numbers to be played like this, because they like the ability to control a man-made epidemic and operate with the people “locked down” and “locked out” of the workings of local government, this must end!

This is something my husband and friends noticed immediately. Early in the pandemic, we had checked statistics that showed influenza killed as many as 150,000 people a year. Now all we can find are charts from the American Medical Association or the Center for Disease Control, and those are showing far lower numbers, all the way back to 2015. Look at this chart from the AMA.

This chart shows only about 50,000 deaths a year from influenze, while they have over 345,000 deaths from COVID in one year. Stephen Jackson has provided statistics from Butte County for the same period and asserts the numbers were fudged to get money. If you’ve kept up on the numbers, as I have, you might think so too.

The county board of supervisors just took $20 million in PG&E settlement money to pay down their pension deficit. I believe the board and their staffers in the Health Department are out of touch with their sense of morality, and yeah, I believe they would fudge numbers to get money.