Somebody burns a federal building full of people’s mail and there’s nothing in the newspaper about it?

8 Mar

I sent the following note to Enterprise Record Editor Mike Wolcott this morning. I know it’s Sunday, I really didn’t expect a response until tomorrow.

Hi, I wonder if you are aware – the post office annex on Vallombrosa – known as the A H Barber Unit – was torched some time last week and I find nothing about it at any media source. A woman I spoke to at Ch 12 was aware of it and said they’d run a story but she could not find it for me on their website.

The details are sketchy, but the one detail I’ve heard repeated is that the fire was started in the garbage can that’s usually full of junk mail discarded by box holders.

So now we have to claim our mail at the main office next door – when my husband and I approached the building on Friday afternoon the line was into the parking lot. 

FYI – we got a box there because the mail delivery at our house is sketchy at best, and the box is on the street, out of sight of the house. So we took the advice of local law enforcement and pay about $100/year for the box at the post office. 

I’ve already heard from people I know all over town who have boxes at that annex and are affected by this incident. Why no story in the paper? 

I would write a letter about it, but I plan to cover the “budget workshop” Downtown this week, and you know that editor, he only allows me so much ink.  😊

Within minutes I received the following response:

I will be on vacation until Monday, March 16, and will have sporadic access to my emails.
In my absence:
For news items, please contact City Editor Dan Reidel at dreidel@chicoer.com
For matters concerning the NorCal Design Center, please contact Deputy Director Samantha O’Reilly at soreilly@norcaldesigncenter.com or News Team Leader Jovanna Garcia at jgarcia@norcaldesigncenter.com

When I had donuts and coffee with Wolcott as a condition of my free newspaper subscription, he said he’s “editing” like 9 papers all told. He promised that he spends the lion’s share of his time on the ER. I call BULLSHIT on you Mike. I wondered why there are suddenly no new letters to the editor, and I was looking at week old stories. There’s nobody at the wheel!

This is why the ER is such a piece of shit.  We need a real journalist in that position, Wolcott admitted he was an ad salesman before he took the job. That’s exactly what’s wrong with the paper. 

A local wag said the N&R is “the Progressive rag of a paper that has to be given away to be read.” Well, what would you call Wolcott’s inviting a different group of letter writers to his office about once a month to offer them a  free subscription? 

UPDATE: Editor responded:

Hi Juanita, first, you’re welcome to write letter about both. I personally wasn’t aware of that fire but it does sound like something we should look into it, and I’m sure Dan will follow up Monday. Thanks for the heads-up.

Thanks for the heads up? I responded:

Frankly, I would have expected a front page story the day after the fire. A federal building, a post office full of people’s mail, arson, and the fact that transients regularly break into that building after hours – that’s news, especially to those of us whose important mail was in that building. And, at this point, we have no idea what the post office intends to do about it. 

Maybe we should call Underdog? 

I understand you’re on vacation Mike, let Dan handle it.

I had read Wolcott’s completely insulting editorial, “IF you don’t like Chico, you don’t know Jack…” See, I like Chico, it’s what’s happening to Chico that is causing my concern. Wolcott insinuates that if you complain about what’s going on, you don’t like Chico.

Wolcott is from Flournoy, where men are men, and sheep are afraid… What would he know about Chico? Nothing, is what. 

What occurred to me has been accused in past – is Wolcott playing down bad news about Chico? 

We need to change the guard on our transient friendly city council

7 Mar

This is the sight that greeted me when I went to pick up my mail yesterday.

My husband and I went out of town for a couple of days this past week and when we came back to Chico on Friday we immediately went to check our Post Office box. Our home box is on the street, and in this day and age, that’s just not secure. So we pay a little over $100/year for what’s supposed to be secure – a locking box within a building that is supposed to be locked up tight from 7pm to 7am.

We drove up to the front of the annex – named after Chico’s first postmaster, A.H. Barber. No relation to the man after whom the Barber neighborhood was named. I just sat there staring at it, my mind was on grocery shopping and the day’s chores, I couldn’t process what I saw. The windows were covered with plywood, the door was chained, and there was a notice sending us next door to the main building. I knew it would be bad, it was lunch time. Yes, the conga line stretched across the office and into the main post box annex and out onto the sidewalk, twisting around the building into the parking lot.

I couldn’t find anything on any local media website, so I contacted Chico First and was told that there was a fire in the annex, assumed to have been started by a transient camping inside the building. That is not official, I don’t know where Rob Berry got that information, but it is consistent with what I know about that building.

This is the worst yet in a long history of problems with the Barber Unit.  I haven’t kept track of how many times the front door has been broken since the postmaster cut annex hours from 24/day to 7am – 7pm. Before that we would regularly come in to find a person camped out under the table in front of the windows. We’d see them going through the garbage so we stopped using those bins for “sensitive” junk mail, afraid they’d take one or another of the constant credit card offers and use it to fraud us.

We have lived within walking distance of that annex for about 20 years, but I wouldn’t be caught walking in my neighborhood after dark these days. In fact, attacks have happened in broad daylight along that stretch of Vallombrosa between One Mile and Rite Aid, including a recent very savage attack on an elderly gentleman right in front of the post office building.

One thing that would help would  be the post office (Federal Government) hiring a 24 hour security detail to patrol that whole property between the main post office and the annex, including the parking lot behind the building. The US postmaster general, Megan J. Brennan, can be reached at Megan.J.Brennan@usps.gov  I’ve had success with contacting her office before, when a friend of mine had a problem with Chico Post Office. It was solved within a week.

But I think Chico PD has the authority to arrest people found in that building after it closes – the arsonist had to break a door to get in, that’s breaking and entering. To think a guy could set up his bedding and a fire and nobody notices? The local cops know that annex is a hotspot for transients, they know there’s people’s personal mail in those crappy little boxes, and they don’t roust bums from that annex?

I hear local citizens “declaring” a need for more cops, but I don’t know how that would help when the cops don’t do anything to stop this type of crime. They just wait until it happens and then write a report about it. That’s not because they don’t have enough personnel – the chief boasts 140 sworn officers and over 100 volunteers. The VIPs will bring in your mail while you’re on vacation – hey, think they might patrol the post office annex?

I’m just getting so sick of cries for more tax money – money is not going to make this problem go away. We need to find some candidates for city council that is not transient friendly. Randall Stone has got to go in 2020, and Alex Brown needs to follow him out the door in 2022.

No more transient friendly city council.

 

 

 

 

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I had a great time with Chico Republican Women Federated – their next speaker, Tamika Hamilton, challenging John Garamendi in November

6 Mar

Join us for our
March 19, 2020
General Membership
Meeting & Luncheon
11:30am – 1:30pm
Chico Elks’ Lodge
1705 Manzanita Ave, Chico
RSVP REQUIRED TO:
bpdudman@pacbell.net

Our March Speaker:
TAMIKA HAMILTON

Tamika Hamilton — a Dixon resident, Air Force veteran and Republican — is challenging Rep. John Garamendi in the 2020 election. 

City Budget Workshop scheduled for March 12, 10 – 11:30 am, Old Muni Building on Main Street

6 Mar

I saw a blurb this morning in the Enterprise Record about a budget workshop hosted by city of Chico staff. That’s March 12, 10 am to 11:30 at the old Municipal Building on Main, right across the street from City Hall. 

The article said something about “transparency”.  Yes, the city has been pursuing “transparency”, but that only works if the public asks questions. I don’t really know who they expect to attend a weekday meeting at 10am, but I’ll try to attend. Frankly, I’m predicting, by March 12, I will be looking forward to getting my work done early and sitting in the air conditioning listening to these blowfaces try to foist their argument for a sales tax increase, cause that’s undoubtedly what is going on here. 

I have asked the city clerk if the meeting will be video taped, but I expect her to say no. I don’t think the old muni building was set up for video taping. If that is the case I will lobby for this meeting to be held in the recently remodeled city council chambers – the city spent almost $400,000 of our Comcast fees on that remodel, with the excuse that they needed to upgrade the technology by which they televised the meetings. So there’s no excuse for any more un-recorded meetings, that bullshit has to end. ALL the meetings need to be videotaped, that’s something we need to push for. 

 

 

Lookin’ like a Taxpayer Revolution – let’s keep it up!

5 Mar

Done and done! I think we can check Measure A off our To-Do list, for now. Which will be weird, cause as you  see, Measure A has taken a lot of my attention lately.  But, like one of my friends said yesterday – we can’t let our guard down, CARD will undoubtedly bring another measure to a near-future ballot. 

This 2020 ballot was loaded full of tax measures. But it looks like we maybe had a little taxpayer revolution. 

I wish I’d spent more time discussing Prop 13, I was glad the voters didn’t need any help with that one. But, this effort is not going away, almost every ballot has an attack on the original Proposition 13. And the legislature is working to undermine the original law as well. We’ll have to watch that.

In Tehama County, the vigilant voters not only overturned a one cent sales tax, Measure G, they whopped the tar out of it, with 84% saying NO!  And that measure had a 10 year sunset date, but, according to Ch 7 news,  “people felt uncomfortable not knowing exactly how funds will be used.”  Like the city of Chico, Tehama County was attempting a simple majority measure (51% voter approval) because that would mean the fund would have been unrestricted. The measure was horribly written to allow the board of supervisors to spend the money however they wanted. No wonder the voters rejected it. 

Click to access countymeasureG.pdf

 But in Shasta County, voters similarly rejected another one cent sales tax measure, despite assurances that the measure would be dedicated to public safety and required a 2/3’s vote. 52% voted NO.  I wondered if there were weird provisions in the text of the measure – like in CARD Measure A, where they included the words “intend” and “unless”. So I read it. 

Click to access executed.CoCo_.Sales_.Tax_.Res_.030320.Ballot.Ord_.2019-05.100119.pdf

First of all, the legal language in this measure is very onerous – that’s why they put a very simplified and usually insufficient “ballot statement” on the actual ballot. ALERT: You should ALWAYS  read an entire measure before you vote on it. Read the “full text of the measure”, because that is what you are agreeing to, voting yes is like signing a contract.  And don’t skip the Arguments For and Against, because you will hear things about the measure that the proponents didn’t want to tell you.

I’m going to guess Shasta County residents are very scrupulous voters and they read stuff like the following:

“Provide an exemption from this tax with respect to certain sales, storage, use, or other consumption, of tangible goods which would not otherwise be exempt, from this tax while such sales, storage, use or consumption remain subject to tax by the state under the provisions of Part 1 Division 2 of the Revenue and Taxation Code; or…

“Impose this tax with respect to certain sales, storage, use or other consumption, of tangible personal property, which would not be subject to tax by the state under the said provision of that code.”

What I’m seeing is, Shasta County wants to be able to pick and choose what is taxable under their measure. If I were a Shasta County voter, I would have asked them to explain that. I’m guessing some people did, and they didn’t like the answer. 

So, kudos to those groups in Tehama County and Shasta County who worked hard to overturn those bad measures. The Tehama County folks worked hard, there’s my friend Liz Merry over to the left, and long-time Tehama County activist Rob Halpin at right. This is the kind of determination it will take to tell people about the upcoming Chico sales  tax increase measure. 

Tehama County residents protest Measure G

Don’t blame the ballots – the candidates have screwed up this election

3 Mar

I am really disappointed with reports that voters are lagging in turning in their ballots. Clerk Candace Grubbs reported the other day that only about 30,000 of over 100,000 ballots distributed in Butte County had been returned. Today I read in Cal Matters that less than a quarter of ballots distributed statewide have been returned.

https://calmatters.org/blogs/california-election-2020/2020/03/voting-california-dropped-out-candidates-super-tuesday/

But some voters may have been wise to hold on to their ballots and see how the Democratic primaries went. As of yesterday, two more major candidates, Buttigieg and Klobuchar, have dropped out.  Steyer already hit the door days earlier. Analysts believe that votes already made for these people on early ballots may actually screw up the California primaries – “zombie” candidates suck up votes and prevent other candidates from reaching the necessary thresholds to secure delegates.  

I couldn’t care less about the Democrats – I already made a bold move and voted for Trump. No, I am not crazy about Trump, he’s an ass. If I could speak to him personally I’d tell him to  grow the fuck up. But, let’s face it, he’s done okay at the President job so far. I like seeing tariffs on foreign trade, I like to see the healthcare mandate dropped, and I like the fact that the economy – right up until the Democrats drummed up a total hysteria over coronavirus – had been doing well. In fact, after a drop last week, the market seems to be recovering pretty fast. Think it’s those GM masks flying off the shelves? 

No, I’m not belittling coronavirus, but, according to the CDC, over 80,000 people died of the flu in 2018, and that hardly made a blip on the media radar. Wash your hands. 

 I know this late election will be a mess for Grubbs and her staff (shake that money-maker Candy!). And, we won’t get the usual instant gratification of knowing on Election Night who/what won/lost. But, what remains to be seen is whether or not mailed ballots will bring up the total number of votes cast. 

Of course, some will say it messed up the primaries. I don’t know about that. I think those people wanted to vote for Steyer, Buttigieg and Klobuchar, and in past, plenty of people have voted knowingly for candidates who have dropped out. In Nevada a dead guy won an assembly seat, people are that stubborn. 

Also, I think it’s weird that Buttigieg and Klobuchar decided to drop out at this time. I want to know why they dropped out. At this point, I’d say they’d made a commitment to the voters, and owe us all a big explanation. And I should think the Democrats would want an explanation too – by dropping out at this point, they’ve undermined both Biden and Sanders, who may not be able to make the threshold to get any delegates.

So, The Donald seems to be the big winner here.

Regardless of problems with this election, I hope we should try at least two more mailed ballot elections before we decide that this mess was the ballots’ fault. 

 

 

 

Measure A omissions, half-truths and falsehoods

29 Feb

Here’s a post from Chico Taxes

https://chicotaxeshome.wordpress.com/2020/02/29/measure-a-omissions-half-truths-and-falsehoods/

Measure A Omissions, Half-Truths and Falsehoods

If Measure A passes CARD will take on $36 million in new debt and two of
every three dollars of the new tax will be spent on debt service. CARD
failed to mention this in the ballot measure. Don’t voters have a right
to know this before they vote themselves a permanent tax that increases
every year?

In his pro-Measure A argument in the Chico ER police officer Jim Parrott
tells us the state, not CARD, created the unfunded liabilities. This is
not only untrue, it’s absurd and it’s particularly disturbing coming
from someone sworn to uphold the law and tell the truth. It wasn’t the
State of California or CalPERS that approved the contracts that resulted
in the unfunded liabilities. It was CARD’s board. And to this day the
Chico ER has not set the record straight on Parrott’s untrue statement.

Moreover, one of CARD’s board members who put up $6,000 to pass Measure
A receives a six figure pension from CalPERS and has every incentive to
insure money that CARD should spend on maintenance, programs and new
facilities continues to get diverted to CalPERS so CalPERS stays afloat.
There ought to be a law that prevents such a conflict of interest.

Despite what CARD and its supporters state there is no guarantee how the
money is spent. In the ballot measure no amount is dedicated to any
project and CARD uses conditional words such as unless and intends.

It would be foolish for voters to approve a measure backed by over
$60,0000 from special interests that would result in a regressive,
permanent, perpetually increasing new tax and tens of millions in new
debt from a governmental agency whose leaders and supporters do not tell
voters the truth. And it’s shameful the local media does not set the
record straight.

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The Big Lie: none of the A advocates will talk about the $36 million bond

29 Feb

Here’s an interesting “yes on A” letter. This letter was written by one of the people behind “Yes on A”, local realtor and investor Bill Brouhard. 

For me and my family, Measure A boils down to some very simple truths.

If Measure A passes, Chico’s parks and recreation get way better.

If Measure A fails, Chico’s parks and recreation deteriorate.

If Measure A passes, I’ll be paying $85 a year, that’s less than 25 cents a day.

A gumball costs 25 cents.

If Measure A passes, all those gumballs add up to roughly $3 million per year, 100% of which by law must be spent on local parks and recreational facilities.  CARD has a list of those projects on their website.

When a gumball a day can make and help keep Chico a better place, seems like a thing we all can and should support.  Let’s do the right thing this time. YES on Measure A.

— Bill Brouhard, Chico

First of all, I find this argument insulting – he’s calling our concerns cheap and petty. A gumball a  day? No mention of the $36 million dollar bond, or the $2 million a year in debt service.

He’s also threatening us.

“If Measure A passes, Chico’s parks and recreation get way better.

If Measure A fails, Chico’s parks and recreation deteriorate.”

Sounds like a bully – give us the money or the parks die!

But you know the most interesting thing about Bill Brouhard is, he’s a realtor.

A Chico State graduate and resident since 1979, Bill Brouhard has been involved in the planning, entitlement and development of many of Butte County’s largest mixed use residential, office and industrial real estate projects.

Brouhard is also with Every Body Healthy Body. They are the folks who pitched CARD and the city for a gi-NOR-mous sports facility to be located south of town.

He also represents a property owner who is having trouble selling his land because it has all these environmental restrictions on it. When Brouhard came to a CARD meeting a couple of years ago, he was trying to get CARD to buy that land to build the facility. 

Dolan accuses CARD of Brown Act violation; Aquatics group wants Nance Canyon taken off protection list so they can locate their “mega-center” there

Folks,  Brouhard doesn’t care about Chico or our future, he just wants to sell his client’s doomed property. 

A gumball a day, my ass. I’m sure Blowhard is expecting to get a lot more out of it than a gumball a day. 

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Craigslist: “Chico Area Recreation and Park District is working towards getting Measure A passed”

26 Feb

I found this ad on Chico craigslist, and then I found it on the CSU Chico School of Social Work website. See where it says, “Chico Area Recreation and Park District is working towards getting Measure A passed.” 

.

https://www.csuchico.edu/swrk/resources/employment-opportunities.shtml

PHONE BANK OPERATOR

Posting Date: January 21, 2020

Job Title: Telephone Bank Operator

Job Description:

YES FOR SAFE CHICO PARKS & RECREATION is looking for students to work phone banks immediately. Chico Area Recreation and Park District is working towards getting Measure A passed, Measure A is a parcel tax on the March ballot which will build a competitive pool, a large gymnasium, turf fields, restrooms and more. Three hours a night, minimum wage.

For more information at Yes on A for Chico Parks(opens in new window)

To Apply: Visit website above and submit contact form with contact information to be reached back

 

As I’ve said before, it’s illegal for a public agency to spend money or use any public resources (including people, equipment, websites, etc) to work toward passage of a tax measure. 

Maybe it’s just a typo. 

Read beyond where it says, “Measure A is a parcel tax on the March ballot which will build a competitive pool, a large gymnasium, turf fields, restrooms and more.”  You think they can build all that with just $3 million a year? Did you read the article in the ER – Laura Urseny reported that CARD will use the proceeds from the parcel tax to secure a $36 million bond. $2 million of the $3 million they mention in this ad will go to pay the interest or “debt service” on the bond.  So, I guess what they didn’t mention in the text below is that these projects will not be built in either yours or your childrens’ life time. 

This Measure A campaign has been dirty and deceptive. The ballot text was purposefully misleading.  Don’t reward that with a Yes vote, put them back in their place with a solid NO ON A. 

Gee, all the sudden the ER can’t squeeze in more than 3 or 4 letters a day? What’s the matter Mike – too many NO on A letters?

24 Feb

I think it’s weird that a few weeks ago the ER was running as many as 10 letters a day, but now that’s dropped off to three or four. I happen to know there are letters in the queue – a few of my friends have told me they sent “no on A” letters before the February 21 cut-off, and they just haven’t appeared. 

Of course you know – ER front man Mike Wolcott has endorsed Measure A. 

Of course, Wolcott recruited our friend Dave Howell to write a “con” piece so he could give Jim Parrott another shot at a “pro” piece. I don’t know how many of you noticed – Wolcott listed Dave as “Dave Smith”, Dave had to correct him. By the time Wolcott put the right name on the piece it was buried. That might not sound like more than an innocent mistake (like Karl Ory putting his hand in Nichole Nava’s face?), but it means anybody who googled the name would not find any of Dave Howell’s previous letters or his new “Chico Taxes” website.

https://chicotaxes.home.blog/

Excuse me  for thinking Mr. Wolcott would ever do anything like that on purpose, I’ll just go on thinking he’s an incompetent ass.

Frankly, this measure was written deceptively, and presented falsely by the ER. The proponents aren’t telling us that CARD intends to invest the proceeds in a $36 million bond, and that the funds can be spent at the poor discretion of the CARD board. This election has been dirty.

But Saturday I attended a gathering of Chico Republican Women Federated. Many indicated to me that they had already voted NO on A. Others indicated to me that they had friends who were waffling. I told them to look at CARD’s budget, it’s all there – millions of dollars going to CalPERS on their unfunded pension liability, while district facilities sank into disrepair. I think the group was just as shocked as I am about how little public employees pay toward very generous benefits.  

I wish more people were as involved as this group. We listened to local candidates, had a great chat with GOP Vice Chair Peter Kuo, and I  got to meet new, young, dedicated members. It’s good to see a group that’s on top of local issues and engaging new people all the time.

It’s encouraging to see young people who are willing to work hard to make a difference.  The future looks brighter today. 

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