Our March Speaker:
TAMIKA HAMILTON
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
https://www.csuchico.edu/swrk/resources/employment-opportunities.shtml
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.
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.
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.
I find the letters written by the NO crowd to be a lot more interesting. Here’s one I like – short, sweet, and to the point.
Back in 1998 the voters of Chico approved Measure A, which at that time was to build a new high school. Well 22 years later we are still paying for that and the new high school was never built.
That is the problem with these things, once we give them the money they don’t have to fulfill the promises they made. CARD has a history of irresponsibility spending our money. Why trust them with more money? No on Measure A.
— Jim Matthews, Chico
Yeah, thanks for bringing up School Bond Measure A Jim, people should still be pissed about that. That was a classic bait-and-switch. I hope the voters remember that when the district brings their next bond around – I’m predicting they will put a measure on the 2022 ballot, we’ll see.
Now here’s another short one, but not so sweet – this guy thinks we should all have to pay for his pickle ball courts.
We need more recreational facilities and more pickleball courts.
— Ted Bryson, Chico
Pay for your own pickle ball courts Ted! The following letter-writer brings up a point I have not had time to address – CARD is subsidized by the taxpayers to keep their fees down. I think it’s way past time they update their user fees to be more in line with local businesses who don’t get bailed out by the taxpayers for making poor business decisions. Read what this next writer has to say.
There’s a lot of talk about Measure A. I have heard statements such as “this is a unique opportunity,” “we need to pay it forward for future generations,” “it costs less than $10 a month.” I challenge every voter, parent and grandparent to think about these statements.
Measure A is a continuous parcel tax on your property that has no end date. It continuously increases every year, billed on your property tax bill, tied to the Consumer Price Index. This is a tax, folks, that has no oversight or auditing mechanism. There is no budgeting for a tax increase that you have no control over, but are required to pay.
This tax will leave a huge debt and burden to our children and grandchildren. If they are lucky enough to buy a piece of property, how much do you think your $85 tax will be for them? Do you think they will thank you for leaving them a huge tax liability?
If CARD needs more money, let people that use the facilities pay for it. Isn’t that reasonable. Pay for what you use.
Please join me in voting no on measure A, so our future generations will not be burdened.
— Lorna Andreatta, Chico
Lastly, here’s a kick-ass letter from Ray Schimmel. I’ll never forget Ray Schimmel, because he spoke at a CPUC water rate increase hearing back in 2013, and told us all about “defined benefits”, which are the basis of our problem. He also grew up in Chico, raised his kids in Chico and Durham, and supported our kids’ rec teams when CARD would not include our league in plans for DeGarmo Park. We had to rent an old warehouse and build our own facility with our own money. It was a great experience, but I have never forgot how CARD turned us away, while giving special favors to their friends who wanted pickle ball and bocce courts.
Here Ray takes them on for closing Shapiro Pool – I know he speaks for a lot of people.
I was 11 years old in 1956 when, a hundred yards from my home, the new neighborhood Shapiro Pool opened its doors to me and a huge crowed of ecstatic kids. It was a wonderful facility with changing rooms, showers, two diving boards and organized programs. It’s where I learned that water polo was the name of an activity which allowed your opponents to drown you.
My home was in our family for 60 years and is still in great condition because it was always well maintained but Shapiro pool was closed in 2016. Why? CARD’s consultant, in 2015, said it had been long neglected. What?
From a young age I had reasons to appreciate our parks and places like Shapiro Pool, but I am dead set against Measure A, the parcel tax CARD is trying to cram down our throats. Why? In part because it has no sunset provision (never ends) and it is tied to the CPI (probable yearly cost increases). In addition CARD has not been honest with us about why they really want this measure to pass. That beautiful mailer they recently sent out promoting the parcel tax said nothing about existing unfunded and unsustainable pension obligations. And yet they continue to promote a grandiose “aquatics center” while history shows they stood by and allowed Shapiro Pool to die.
Simply put CARD does not to deserve to see this parcel tax approved. Please vote no on Measure A, it stinks,stinks, stinks!
Raymond Lee Schimmel, Chico
Before we hand CARD $3 million a year with Measure A, here’s why we’re smarter not to. First, we have a massive pension debt and no solution yet. I’m willing to vote higher city taxes this fall to help with that, but not to launch CARD on a spending spree for new toys – the main one being an aquatic center we didn’t all want. But about $3 million a year in new money should get that done in a few years, so why a permanent parcel tax? And why is CARD putting the money into a $36 million bond? Bonds mean one hell of a spending spree ahead, and losing a third or more of the money on interest payments. It’s kind of like how we’re funding pensions, except CalPERS and the unions never mentioned how much we’re about to lose by the state and them not paying it up front like we were told. Tricky thing dissembling.
There’s one more problem. The reason we don’t already have an aquatic center is that the city council wouldn’t buy CARD one. Council members have to think when it comes to what city agencies want and what our taxes can cover. If Measure A fails that will keep happening. I like that. We don’t even know what all the toys are CARD will start throwing money at once nobody can get in its way anymore. CARD will be a pretty hefty sow by the time it shows up at city council overextended again.
— David P. Smith, Chico
A line that I find very disturbing is, “I’m willing to vote higher city taxes this fall…”
Why the hell would you do that, Dave?
And then he says, “It’s kind of like how we’re funding pensions, except CalPERS and the unions never mentioned how much we’re about to lose by the state and them not paying it up front like we were told.” He assumes we all know how the pensions are funded, and what he means by “how much we’re about to lose by the state…” I don’t think very many people really understand how we fund the pensions. Nor do I believe the average voter/taxpayers is aware how much CalPERS has lost in the stock market through bad investments. But the part that really interests me is “them not paying it up front like we were told.”
Thanks Dave, cause this is the conversation that needs to be had.
First of all, the pensions are funded through payments made by the public agency and supplemented with stock market investments. Unfortunately, CalPERS made big, stupid promises, saying they could fund more than 50% of the pensions through investments. They amassed a lot of assets – a high rise building in NYC? – and began building a portfolio, promising a 7% return.
But, CalPERS investments have never held up to their promises because they continue to make bad investments. They have been lucky to get 3%. So, their investments end up costing money. Some of these investments have been made inappropriately. In fact, in 2015, “a federal grand jury indicted two former top officials on fraud, conspiracy and obstruction charges.”
https://www.cnetscandal.com/2015/11/ex-calpers-official-villalobos-commits.html
A CalPERS executive and a board member were found to have been taking bribes to buy poorly performing stocks.
“Villalobos, collected tens of millions of dollars from Wall Street firms for steering CalPERS business their way.”
“At the center of the investigation was the role of placement agents, the middlemen or intermediaries hired by private equity firms and other financial institutions to win CalPERS business. The investigation came during a rough financial stretch for CalPERS. Its investment portfolio value had plummeted nearly $100 billion, to $169 billion, during the recession.”
Guilty as hell, Villalobos committed suicide before he could be sentenced. His partner was convicted and went to prison. Since then, CalPERS claims to have cleaned up their act, but their portfolio continues to do badly. So they hired an “assassin” – a guy who comes in and cleans up the mess.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/nothing-is-sacred-for-new-calpers-pension-leader-2019-12-11
In his first week, Mr. Meng surprised staffers by introducing himself to employees from the most junior to senior level. Over the next few months, he was taken aback by how little some staffers knew about the fund’s investments, a person familiar with the matter said. Mr. Meng concluded some lacked information he thought needed to be routinely monitored.
So there’s corruption and incompetence here, not surprising. What would surprise me is to hear that some management was fired, possibly even investigated. What would surprise me even more would be CalPERS actually making money instead of pouring it down the toilet.
Unfortunately, CalPERS corruption and incompetence only add up to half the conversation.
Here’s the conversation that still needs to be had. Who should pay the deficit?
Right now, the taxpayers are picking up not only the monthly payroll amounts, but the semi-annual deficit payments as well. Here’s how that pencils out – I’ll use CARD as an example.
The agency pays 14% of the cost of it’s management pensions. The employees pay 5.5 to 8% of the 14%. It works like this: for a $100,000/year salary, the agency pays (100,000 x .14) $14,000/year, total. This is a management salary, management pays 8%, so that employee would pay (14,000 x .08) $1,120/year. For a pension of 70%, or $70,000/year. That base figure goes up with cost of living increases, based on the Consumer Price Index.
The agency only pays 14%, the other 86% is the deficit. As their stock market returns continue to disappoint, CalPERS demands more money. That money has been taken from CARD’s General Fund, by way of a “Pension Stabilization Trust”. Money that would have been better spent maintaining district facilities.
Meanwhile, CARD employees continue to receive above market salaries and pay pennies on the dollar for very generous pension packages.
CARD General Manager Ann Willmann told us at her “informational meetings” that she has personally met with CalPERS officials and “begged” them to change the employee shares. Really? She should be talking to the board, because that’s who negotiates the salaries and the shares. City of Chico pays different shares than CARD, so these contracts are obviously negotiated in house.
What can we do? The problem we need to solve is, the public is left out of the negotiations. We have no real representation – not in Chico, where too many pensioneers are on our council and various boards. For example, of the five members of the CARD board, two are public pensioneers – Tom Lando, former city of Chico manager, and Tom Nickell, former CHP officer.
I believe these people have a conflict of interest between their own benefit and the public benefit. I think it behooves them to keep approving the salary increases, because that means the agency pays more into the pension fund. It is obviously in their best interest to keep making the deficit or “side fund” payments, or CalPERS would have gone bankrupt by now and they would be out their nice pensions. In fact, Lando is one of the top five pensioneers in Butte County, having retired at about $134,000/year, with COLA, he’s now getting over $155,000 in annual pension payments. I’m not sure about Nickell, but I sincerely believe Lando is pressing this tax measure not for CARD, but for CalPERS. He has put $6,000 of his own money into Measure A – you have to spend money to make money, folks.
I also think Lando has been on the CARD board long enough, and needs to step down when his term is up in November. That’s not likely.
Here’s my solution. I am hoping some competent and honest candidates come forward for CARD board in November. I think a good candidate would be a local business person who has experience with CARD. Somebody who doesn’t have financial gain to be made. Somebody who understands finance on a basic level. Somebody who has a long stake in the community, whether business or family. And, somebody who has the support of their family, because there are some minor inconveniences involved, like monthly meetings, “special” meetings, and excursions to various district facilities.
I don’t think that’s a complete list, and I didn’t mean to leave anybody out. I would say, if you are interested in filling a position like this, the first thing you’d want to do is attend meetings. Familiarize yourself with the website, and be sure to contact staff with any questions. Read agendas and reports. Read the minutes of past meetings. Read the budgets, not just the most recent, but past budgets to compare. That’s all on the website. I can also give you information I’ve got from staff that’s not on the website, feel free to ask.
CARD board is doable. It’s not an expensive election, the meetings are short. And, if you are interested in getting involved, CARD is a good start. THINK ABOUT IT!
Chico Taxpayers Association 