Chico Taxpayers Association

Last year we talked about a shigella outbreak that had been confirmed by Butte County Health Dept.

A friend of ours had reported his own illness, and then we started hearing about other cases. The city admitted an outbreak at a “sanctioned” camp, but denied it was a public health problem. The county reported 44 cases by August, and it became apparent that this illness was making it’s way up the state by way of “unhoused individuals”. But the city of Chico still denied any problem and refused to do anything about it.

From the Safe Drinking Water Foundation –

Shigellae may be more prevalent in surface waters, such as rivers, lakes and shallow wells, than in groundwater sources. Surface waters can be easily contaminated by sewage. Water treatment plants can remove Shigellae with the use of chlorine, so the bacteria are more prevalent in raw, untreated water. Shigellosis occurs more in the summer than in the winter. Communities that effectively treat sewage and keep water supplies safe drastically reduce the number of cases of shigellosis.

One Mile Pool should have been closed. As you read above, “shigellae” are hard to detect in surface water like creeks, and how would they treat the creek?

By October the city was still assuring the public that One Mile was being tested and cleaned regularly.

https://www.actionnewsnow.com/news/shigella-concerns-grow-at-sycamore-pool/article_a24b6442-56a6-11ef-b747-4300126e02a8.html

This year the city finally had to admit there’s a problem and close the pool after several children ended up at UC Davis hospital in Sacramento.

https://www.actionnewsnow.com/news/community-concerns-growing-over-safety-of-the-water-at-sycamore-pool-in-chico-due-to/article_1a41bc0c-7a81-43a0-ae14-6ec647f3a482.html

Now it’s e coli. These kids are in serious condition, with what could very well amount to life-long problems, for a swim in the park? But the city was still denying the situation could be linked to a bacteria problem at One Mile as of a week ago. Now they’ve posted a “no swimming advisory”, which I believe is all they need to do legally to keep from being sued any further. But I think it’s too late, I think these kids will have a conga-line of lawyers at their door.

https://marlerclark.com/news_events/chico-advises-no-swimming-at-sycamore-pool-high-bacteria-levels-reported

The city won’t admit that their laissez-faire camping policies have turned One Mile into a cesspool – ” container for the temporary storage of liquid waste and sewage.” It’s against the law, and always has been, to defecate or urinate within proximity of a stream or waterway. I remember when the police used to hand out tickets to Chico State students for public urination – now this?

Folks, you get what you’ll accept.

I wonder what’s been happening in Los Angeles, because the media seems to have dropped that story. The Dude sent me this interesting piece a couple of days ago –

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/cost-restoring-order-los-angeles

“The Overtime Epidemic – The City of Los Angeles is no stranger to excessive overtime pay. Open the Books reported last year that 20 city employees earned at least $300,000 in overtime pay in 2023. That’s before even factoring in their base salaries.“

At last the dirty little secret is out in the open.

But overtime costs reached new heights in 2024, with the city spending a record $1.1 billion on extra hours. That’s enough money to pay off the city’s entire budget deficit. In overtime alone, five people earned more than the $400,000 salary we pay the President of the United States.

Oh yeah – how about Butte County? Here’s a post I did last fall when they were telling us they needed more sales tax money –

Another claim the city of Chico and the county of Butte are constantly making is that they are short of public safety employees. This next paragraph has played out in agendas from both the city and county over the past 5 years. Early retires (cops and fire are allowed to retire with their highest year’s salary at age 50) exacerbate the staff and budget shortages, followed by the usual poormouth claim that we need more money to pay more staff higher salaries. So (bust a snicker) we can “attract good candidates...”

Hey, that’s not working! Our public safety employees are still self-important entitled assholes who put their own safety ahead of the people they are supposed to serve. Now they’re OVERPAID self-important entitle assholes, and that just makes them bigger assholes. And, as explained in the next paragraph, it puts our city and our town, and our entire state, farther back in the financial shitter.

“A revenue pinch amid Covid lockdowns led to a spate of early retirements that have exacerbated the need for extra-hours pay. And as the Los Angeles Police Department faces rioting, the force’s ranks are at their smallest in two decades—but the payroll is still growing.“

Folks, that’s why they call them PIGS. Ever watched a pig eat? Well, right now, we’re watching our local law enforcement eat us out of house and home.

LA is screwed.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/los-angeles-taxpayers-foot-millions-peaceful-anti-ice-protests

The violent and destructive Los Angeles anti-ICE protests cost taxpayers $32 million, according to a report by the city budget chief.

Controller Kenneth Mejia posted the figures on X, detailing what the money from local taxpayers will be funding. City taxpayers are on the hook for emergency services, cleanup and public property damage, all stemming from the protests that turned into riots, according to Mejia’s post.

More than $29 million, or 92% of the cost, is for the Los Angeles Police Department’s response. Part of these funds will also cover the cost of the citywide tactical alerts.

No wonder LAPD didn’t want the National Guard!

This is happening where YOU live. Contact your city council and county reps and ask them just what the hell you have received in return.

Earlier this month, the city of Chico agreed to pay for extra cancer screening for Chico PD and Fire. The first thing I realized was, the city (the taxpayers) already provide these employees with health insurance, really nice insurance, better than the average taxpayer can afford. Not to mention, salaries of $100,000+/ year. But we also have to pay for extra cancer screenings?

Here I’ll ask, where’s the free screenings for those of us affected by the Park Fire? How come we treat these people like sacred cows while the rest of us struggle to pay for health care? Or just don’t get any?

The California budget is billions in deficit because of entitled, self-centered, GREEDY employees. Public safety employees get the best salaries and benefits while paying unrealistic shares toward these plush benefits. You ask them, how much can we give, and they always answer “MORE MORE MORE!”, threatening service cuts if they don’t get what they want.

The public employee unions have brought forward California Assembly Bill 1383, which essentially undoes the reforms created by PEPRA. The Public Employees Pension Reform Act of 2013 raised the age at which employees could retire and required public employees hired after 2013 to pay at least 50 percent of normal costs of their own benefits. It also prohibited public employers from paying any of the required employee contribution.

In past the city of Chico actually paid the entire cost of pensions for management and most of the cost for public safety. Meaning those employees – the highest paid – contributed NOTHING toward their generous benefits packages until 2013. That is a big reason why CalPERS continues to be drastically under-funded and why cities all over California are having budget crises and raising taxes. PEPRA was not quite as far as I’d like to have taken it, but at least it was something. AB 1383 puts us right back on the Road to Perdition.

https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab1383

PEPRA requires each retirement system that offers a defined benefit plan for safety members of the system to use one of 3 formulas for safety members, 2% at age 57, 2.5% at age 57, or 2.7% at age 57.

This bill(1383) would establish new retirement formulas, for employees first hired on or after January 1, 2026, as 2.5% at age 55, 2.7% at age 55, or 3% at age 55.

PEPRA requires all public employees to pay at least 50 percent of normal costs and prohibits public employers from paying any of the required employee contribution.

This bill(1383) would authorize an employer and employee, through the collective bargaining process, to agree to terms in a memorandum of understanding where the employer pays a portion of employee contribution.

Jerry Brown gave us PEPRA, so I was not so surprised to hear that he criticizes 1383 – thanks to The Dude for sending me this piece from Cal Matters.

Just an end note – neither police nor fire are listed on the top 10 most dangerous jobs in the United States. According to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports, loggers have a more chances of getting injured, even killed, than either police or fire. So do “roofers, fishing and hunting workers, construction helpers, aircraft pilots and flight engineers, truck drivers, refuse and recyclable material collectors, structural iron and steel workers, underground mining machine operators, and agricultural workers. ”

We’ll keep an eye on this one.

I was looking at a friend’s Facebook page, when I saw a notification from the City of Chico Facebook – “City of Chico Celebrates second anniversary of Measure H”, insinuating that all that roadwork on the southeast end of town is being paid for with Measure H money. No, it’s not, it’s being paid for with state and federal grants of all kinds, as well as ADA money. Don’t take my word for it – read the budget yourself. It’s good for you, like cod liver oil. We also pay for the fulltime employee tasked with pumping out bullshit on the city Facebook page!

Type “pension” into the F-search and prepare to have your mind blown. You’ll see that they siphon the CalPERS “catch-up” payments out of every department fund, including the Measure H fund. This year the payment was over $18 million – that’s more than half of what they claimed they would receive from Measure H.

Measure H is in trouble. When I read the comments on the city’s posting I was glad to see that I’m not the only one who sees through the bullshit. Here’s a sampling, verbatim.

“Stop building new roads for developers and fix the potholes on the existing roads! Drive around Chico and see how many “invisible” crosswalks you see…”

“There was no reason to spend $24 million widening that seldom used road except to support Valleys Edge…” Yes, the developers should pay for work necessary to support their subdivisions, like all those new entryways poured into that field alongside Bruce. They also used Measure H money to resurface (NAME THE ROAD)

“They will be using some Home Depot asphalt going around in city trucks patching holes. I’ve seen 2 guys going around a couple weeks back and not even 2 days later the holes were back open…“

Actually, they typically use the leftover asphalt (“slobbers”) from the new roads they’re putting into new subdivisions and apartment complexes around town. They have to get the asphalt out of the truck before it gets hard, or it will screw up the equipment, so they dump it wherever they can. And then it’s all over passing cars, and the hole is back within a week.

“That $54m could go into fixing a lot of potholes around town. We are taxed to the bone and yet not one single improvement has been made. Roads are crap…”

“Want an itemized list of where the money is really going, millions of dollars were allocated for camp fire victims but spent on project in Chico.” ( NOTE: in the 2024-25 budget they are still listing victim’s fire fund money, claiming that the city was a victim because of evacuees, but that the money can’t be spent on regular budget items like streets or sewer – does that make sense?)

“can they show us the receipts? Id like to know EXACTLY where the money is spent.” (Look at the budget.)

“lol is this a joke it was suppose to go to increasing fire department and law enforcement – maybe have more than 3 jail sheriff at night” (here is some obvious confusion with county measure H – did they choose ‘H’ for both measures so there would be this kind of confusion? We’ll never know. )

One person suggests “let’s not piss it all away...” to which another answers, “they will“

I didn’t get every comment, but I sure as hell didn’t see any positive comments about the way the city is spending Measure H money. Looks like Chico citizens have next to no faith or trust in their city “leaders”. And yeah, I looked at the commenters’ facebook pages – this is a pretty cross-cut section of Chicoans, from working class people who are having serious problems trying to pay their bills, to well-heeled people who have to drive their nice cars over shredded streets to woke idiots who just hate the “conservatives” no matter what they do. People are PISSED OFF.

And city staff obviously feels the heat. This is the reason for those fucking insulting signs – “Thank you Chico Voters!” “Your measure H dollars at work”. That’s a lie, and you can see it in the budget. This is why the city has resorted to, again, spending taxpayer dollars to sell a tax measure to the taxpayers.

Don’t eat shit, demand better. You get what you will accept.

I read the findings and recommendations from the Ad Hoc housing committee, and then I read an agenda report recommending raising developer fees, AGAIN, and I had to wonder if anybody else ever reads these reports. Talk about contradictions.

The committee recommends more density with lower parking requirements, and then complains about the neighbors complaining. They recommend raising densities in low density zones, which of course is another invitation for the neighbors to complain. They recommend a pedestrian-friendly town, and then they raise the cost of putting sidewalks in your neighborhood.

Here’s something that should bring neighborhood complaints, referendums, and lawsuits – the city claims no responsibility for street improvements in existing neighborhoods. They shoe-horn in these crappily built subdivisions, dig up the street to make the sewer connection, then slap a crappy patch job that guarantees a future pothole, without offering ANYTHING to the rest of the neighborhood. Some developers, and most of the city staff, don’t give a flying fuck about the neighbors, it’s all about the money.

I often wonder, why the city of Chico is so far behind with Americans with Disabilities Act (1993) requirements. I wonder why so many neighborhood streets are completely crapped out, people who’ve been annexed for 20+ years with no sewer main, so drainage, no sidewalks… Unfortunately, in California, property owners are responsible for drains and sidewalks. Yes, you pay property taxes, year after year they go up, and you find out you actually have to pay extra if you want any service. And here’s the kiss afterwards – the city can raise the fees whenever they want.

So excuse me if I find the new Ad Hoc housing committee to be another example of wasteful spending on another layer of bureaucracy that never seems to achieve it’s stated goal. Staff time went into the report and the stupid Power Point Presentation, and that’s just allocated on to the cost of housing.

My husband and I had an experience yesterday that reminded us why we don’t shop in Chico. Having already made a decision to stop shopping at Raleys because of a shoplifting incident, we found that Target has significantly degenerated since the last time we’d shopped there.

We ran out of toothpaste. We simply forgot to buy it in our last online order. It’s one of those items that is so much cheaper to buy online that the combined Chico/Butte sales tax does not make a difference. We knew it would be more expensive in Chico, but we needed a couple of other items. We’re done with Walmart because we felt they were also folding to shoplifters, raising prices and putting a lot of everyday merchandise into locking cabinets that require assistance (another increase in prices). So we headed for Target. We hadn’t been there for at least 10 years, and we were shocked at what we found.

For one thing, the entire mall is getting crappy. Just crappy. When we were kids my grandmother tried to get us to stop using that word all the time, but when she heard us saying “shitty” she told us, “just go back to crappy.” Here’s what I mean – get some sweepers in that parking lot, get rid of panhandlers, clean your storefront! If you’re going to have planters at least maintain them. And then we went inside. The biggest shock was not the dingy appearance, but the empty shelves. Some sections of the store looked as though there had been some sort of mob event.

While we were able to make a few purchases, we were not able to get all the everyday items on our list. Their grocery section was really sad. There were bare shelves in the dairy case, and the produce was high-priced and shoddy looking.

So I came home, put away my scanty purchases, and went about investigating. Yes, the tariffs have impacted those businesses, like Target, Costco and Walmart, that do a high volume of business with China. Apparently, those three businesses actually tried to negotiate with China, asking their Chinese partners to absorb more of the tariffs. The latest news is that Trump has made some gains, and tariffs are going down. We’ll see if Target recovers.

What I would like to see is American shoppers and retailers walking away from Chinese goods. If you want imported goods, you should get ready to pay. It’s not that hard to buy US made goods – the only thing we bought yesterday that was not made in the USA was bananas.

You can ask Google if your brand is made in the USA. I just found out an item I use all the time is made in Canada. And three of my favorite TV shows. I’ll have to work on that. You’re next Canada.

You may have heard – the City of Chicago pays 80% of their property taxes to their pension deficit. Of course that leaves very little money to do any actual work, but that seems to be the standard these days, in cities all the way to Chico, California.

In February, Illinois Policy reported, “More than 80% of Chicago’s property tax levy – including all of the automatic annual increase – goes to pensions..”

Furthermore, “the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund, which has an additional $14 billion in unfunded pension liabilities that are not included in the city’s financials, has its own property tax levy specifically…” I get an instant visual of an old sow with sagging teats, trying to outrun a pack of snarling piglets.

In 2024, IP warned that “Pension costs used to consume 41% of the city’s property tax levy, but now take 80% of it. Even worse, on net, every new property tax dollar...”

We’ve watched this disaster unfolding in Chico for the last 13 years. We’re headed for Chicago. Baby, I don’t want to go.

Here’s one thing we shouldn’t do – allow unions to make campaign contributions. In Chicago, the mayor is leading the charge to raise taxes.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-11-26/chicago-mayor-struggles-to-find-revenue-fix-for-debt-ridden-city

Mr. Johnson is a union shill. His campaign was over half-funded by the unions – well, duh. Of course they want a man in charge who will guarantee they will get their 70-90% pensions without paying rational contributions. In a clip from Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson, Johnson declared, very enthusiastically, “Chicago is a union town!” You have to ask yourself, what does that mean to the rest of us?

In Chico and Butte County we have staffers on automatic pay schedules, thousands of dollars in salary increases per person, per year. City management has created new positions at salaries over $100,000. Employee contributions remain at less than 25%, some less than 10%. For pensions of 70-90% of their highest year’s salary, with annual increases.

This might be okay if CalPERS was solvent, but they aren’t. They make poor investments, based on personal interest and personal gain, they demand more money from Chico every year, as city management pours millions more into the deficit every year. It’s like a broken toilet.

Speaking of a broken toilet, the city of Chico is facing the awesome failure of past administrations to deal with the failing sewer system. The pipes Downtown are over 100 years old in sections. They’ve been failing for years and the city has known it, but just “kicked the can down the road…” (Mark Orme used exactly these words pitching Measure H) Now it’s time for the taxpayers to fix it!

Just like Chicago.

Remember, a couple of years ago, Chico used a mailed ballot scam to pass what amounts to a sewer tax – they changed to “consumption based” sewer charges. The difference between a “volume based charge” and a “consumption based charge” is being charged for what you actually flush down your drains to the sewer system, or being charged in addition for the water you use on your lawns and gardens that never goes to the sewer. Meaning, with consumption based, you pay twice for the water you bought from Cal Water. They used mailed ballots because they knew people didn’t understand their rights and it would pass without a whimper. Read here.

See how these people are? Our city clerk, who has a legal responsibility to protect the voters, presided over that charade, because she, along with the city manager, was offered automatic raises over the next two years. They will retire at over $200,000 within the next three years, and you’ll be paying for it.

Here’s another prediction: the city will pursue a new tax measure for the sewer within the next two years. Put your money in the hat, I’ll bet my last $5.

The latest news that MediCal is waaaaay over budget because there are too many illegal aliens on the program reminded me of being cut off Cal Covered because my husband and I don’t make enough money. But non-citizens get Medi-Cal? To the tune of $2.7 BILLION?

“The administration acknowledged that more people are enrolled in the program than the state anticipated, and that the state is spending $2.7 billion more than it planned on coverage expansions for immigrants without legal status.“

Today I read that Newsom has acknowledged that he lobbied hard for those non-citizens to be given aid that is now being denied to citizens.  

My situation is unrelated, I’m not sure if illegal aliens have been allowed to enroll in California Covered. I just know my husband and I were very abruptly un-enrolled because our income was not keeping up with the increasing minimum income required for California Covered. See, Cal Covered is NOT about providing people with affordable insurance, it’s about making sure you can pay the deductible portion of your hospital bill.

Our alternative is MediCal, but I got Butte County Social Services to admit that if we enrolled in MediCal we would be agreeing to turn over our family home at our death to pay for services rendered. The county/state would determine how much we owed them, and then our kids would be left with the pickings, if anything. It is not uncommon for Californians to sue the State Recovery Program for keeping their parents’ entire estate, without providing records of money actually owed.

At 65 we can get Medicare, but it doesn’t cover everything, and patients can be left with deductibles. Doctors and hospitals can also choose not to accept Medicare, except under certain emergency conditions.

This is nuts, and we can thank the Governor and the Democratic-run legislature. They’ve lobbied for people who enter our country illegally to get benefits we pay for but are denied access to. I’d like to ask Gavin Newsom, personally, but wasn’t asked over to University Farms for his little get-together – “are you at war with the citizens of California? Is it because more people voted for Trump than ever before?”

When our house was burned, he and Kamala Harris told us we had voted for the wrong people. Is that what this is about?

And now he wants to run for president – how’s he planning to treat whole states that voted for Trump?

Uh-oh.

I have tried to follow the discussion regarding housing, I get the gist of it – it’s another “infill” vs “sprawl” argument. Again. We’ve been here so many times I think I should start making hash marks.

Infill makes sense for my neighborhood. We have big lots of an acre or more that would accommodate more houses. We are in the central part of town and we have many traffic arteries. We have sewer and water. And it would be good for the neighborhood, providing that the city provide street maintenance, sidewalks, drainage, and other amenities promised when we were annexed over 20 years ago.

But, in past, infill has been controversial, because it wasn’t done right. When we had a liberal council, infill was a shoehorn deal – New Urban – shove as many houses as possible in somebody’s back acre. The city adopted the Planned Use Development ordinance, by which developers were given variances to just about everything in the code – things like density, set-back, parking requirements, and other land use restrictions that the “big” developers are held to. These “flag-lot” developments were usually serviced by one tiny driveway sandwiched in between two existing houses. One minute it’s your neighbor’s two-car driveway and garage, the next minute it’s a road with cars cruising in and out at all hours of the day and night. Street lights on your bedroom windows – great!

Infill is a problem when it’s not compatible with the neighborhood. Another problem is when the existing neighborhood gets absolutely no benefit. In Chico, neighbors oftentimes protested these developments because they created traffic and parking problems, and encroached on neighboring properties. Suddenly your quiet street was super busy and there was a second story window staring down four feet off your fence. But there was no “upside” – the city didn’t make street improvements, in fact, the sewer hook-ups resulted in shitty patch jobs that became serial pot-holes.

After a few successful protests from neighborhood groups, it seems like infill went out of fashion. Like if they had to take the neighbors into consideration, they just didn’t want to do it.

That’s the city of Chico’s fault. I believe infill could work, and be accepted by the neighbors. It’s the city who has a poor attitude toward infill because it doesn’t generate as much in property taxes as the big subdivisions. They don’t encourage infill developers and they provide no assistance to property owners who want to make their property more development ready.

In my neighborhood we have 1.5 to 2 acre properties with a house in front. If these owners want to split their home off and divide the rest into simple lots for development, they are on the hook to pay all the fees – according to the state board of realtors, anywhere from $50 – 80,000. Just to split the property into lots for sale. On the city of Chico website it says that just the application fee is over $4,000. Just to have them tell you whether they’ll let you do it or not.

So we go on the sprawl, while the center of town and what used to be grand old neighborhoods fall into the usual abyss of neglect and abandon.

Wow, I been AWOL – missed all of April? Even April Fool’s Day Chico City Council meeting? Yep, I been busy, I got pots on the stove and irons in the fire.

I still look at the agendas when I get a chance to sit down (I have a timer going off right now, for two different chores) – looking over a Finance Committee report from February, I found a $12,846,466.00 payment to CalPERS.

Let me spell that out – twelve MILLION, eight hundred, forty six thousand, four hundred and sixty-six dollars. Now read it out loud. Repeat it to a friend, see if their eyeballs pop out. Cause if they don’t, you need to throw a bucket of cold water on their lobster tail and read it again. That’s a lot of fucking money folks, and we’re paying it.

See the agenda item below, for the CalPERS Unfunded Liability Reserve, created by employees to pay their own CalPERS deficit. Were you asked about this? No. They take the money from the General Fund, as of last June they had taken over $8 million. They took another $14 million+ over the last quarter, made the $12 million+ payment, and were left with over $9 million toward next year. Part of that money was Measure H. Here’s the agenda item from that Finance Committee meeting report.

903 CalPERS Unfunded Liability Reserve 6/30/24; (Actuarial) available balance 8,476,829; revenues 14,131,113 ; expenditures 12,846,466; xfers in/out 0 available balance 2/28/25 9,761,476. (includes the modified adopted figures from the report).

In the same report, there is another fund, 904, the Pension Stabilization Trust, through which they transfer the money from the General Fund. It’s like a laundering scheme. You really have to watch those walnut shells to see where that pea is going.

904 Pension Stabilization Trust 5/30/24 available balance 7,378,750 revenues 147,225 expenditures 11,406 xfers in/out 0 available balance 7,514,569 Modified adopted budget Revenues 0 expenditures 0 xfers in/out 764,035 available balance 8,142,785

Next year they intend to pay more than $18 million. That payment is in addition to their salaries and the payroll payments we make to CalPERS. These are the “catch up payments” that go to the deficit left by the completely ridiculous shares they pay toward their own retirement.

So think about this – we are paying these fuckers TWICE, once while they are “working”, and again while they go off to a plush retirement. And many of them take a “retirement job,” usually in the public sector, that adds to their pension, driving up the cost, for which they pay NOTHING.

If you’re not pissed off yet, you need to stick a fucking pin in your ass, just to see if you’re still alive.

Here’s one for you Scott – thanks for keeping me on my toes, Old Buddy. Chico PD and Fire Department are the biggest piggies in the trough. They generate over half the pension deficit. They need to pay a more rational and practical share of their own benefits, NOW. The cops need to write “mandatory overtime” out of the contracts. They need to “doff and don” on their own dimes. Etc. Read the cop contracts – they will complain loudly about the fire department “sleeping and playing video games” on the clock, but you should see the kind of crap their union demands in their contracts. The contracts are available on the city website, let me know if you have trouble finding them.

But yeah, we need a major overhaul of the city fire department, especially after the Park Fire. They sleep on the job because they are scheduled to work whole days on, instead of being given an 8 hour shift. Things need to be said Folks. And I’m sayin’ ’em. Scuse my French.