Hey Mr. Orme, is the seat of your pants getting a little warm?

14 Mar

I got a kick out of the letters section in the Enterprise Record today – sometimes I think I’m the only person who takes offense to the city’s actions. This guy takes on the public toilets and other poor spending choices. 

Letter: Leaders need to spend our tax dollars wisely

By  |

Regardless of individual political beliefs, most citizens within a community have much in common.  We work, we pay taxes, and we care for our families and friends. Within this framework, what is the role of government?  To collect taxes and spend funds appropriately, and to make laws and enforce them.  The questions of how various income/wealth levels are taxed, how funds should be spent, what types of laws are created, and the way laws are enforced, are the fundamental topics of many political debates.

That said, elected officials have a fiduciary responsibility to the overall community they represent.  Does this mean that politicians must make decisions that make everyone happy?  No.  It means they have a responsibility to benefit the overall community. In other words, how can they support the quality of life for as many citizens as possible?  When politicians divert focus, funds and energy to pet projects that do not benefit most of the citizens, they are neglecting their obligation to the entire community.

Let’s get specific. How will 24-hour public toilets benefit the overall community? Just look at how it worked out at the Sundial bridge in Redding.  If by miracle the door is unlocked, you’ll be rewarded with a floor covered in human waste and used needles.

If our local leaders can’t spend public funds in a manner that benefits the overall community, they are failing to do their job.  Let’s be sure to vote them out of office.

— Matt Dutton, Chico

This one made me laugh out loud – 

Letter: The streets are pleading for some warm weather
By  |

Let’s see, “I gave at the office;” “The check is in the mail;” “Hi, I’m from the government and I’m here to help you;” or we can’t paint stripes or lines on your Chico streets becauseLetter: The streets are pleading for some warm weather we use special paint that needs warm weather to bond with the asphalt.  It will be some months before we get that kind of warm weather.  I guess Chico hasn’t had any “warm weather” for six or eight years.

— Dennis Anderson, Chico

And here’s a real ass-kicker – 

Letter: Ridge residents not to blame for increase in crime

By  |

Just to let you all know, we are very offended by the comments from the Chico City manager, Mr. Orme, about the Camp Fire survivors who were forced to take up residence in Chico after our town, our homes, our businesses and our lives were destroyed by the Camp Fire.

He implies that the increase in violent crime and traffic accidents are all the blame of the “invasion” of Chico by displaced people from Paradise and Magalia.  None of the stabbings or armed robberies that I have seen reported have been committed by Paradise people.  They all seem to be from Chico.  Traffic has increased, yes, but pay attention and most accidents can be avoided.

Many Paradise and Magalia people have always come to Chico to shop and I certainly haven’t heard any whining about us spending our money here, now even more money than before the fire.  Mr. Orme, have you considered that Chico’s liberal policies toward the homeless caused many new people to move here to take advantage of the relief help that was and is intended for the wildfire survivors and they just decided to stay here?  Why don’t you use some of the increase in sales taxes to help fund a few more police officers?  Or put in some new shelters and bathrooms?

This is not our home.  We want to go home, but we can’t.

— Mike Johnson, Paradise

I know a lot of Paradise evacuees, and that’s the main sentiment – they want to go home. Hearing Randall Stone and Mark Orme, among other staff members, on the news, citing all these problems they are supposedly causing, is like a knife in the back. 

Thanks to all these letter writers – I hope Orme is  feeling a warm sensation in the seat of his pants.

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Speak now or forever hold your hands over your behind

13 Mar

I was thrilled to  read letters from Dave Howell of Chico and Steve and Lorraine Christensen of Oroville. I speak to people all the time who feel Californians pay too many taxes, but people seldom get around to writing letters about it. I think it’s important to let your “civic” leaders know how you feel, let them know you’ve had enough, let them know you’re ready to do something about it.

Now that the city of Chico has made it clear they will pursue a tax measure, I’m not mincing words – Mark Orme needs to  go. Old Yiddish proverb – when the fish stinks, it’s the head of the fish that stinks!

Orme claims he’s done a lot to lead out city out of deficit, but he’s overseen the siphoning of money from various departments into the pension deficit. Rather than fess up and pay more of his own salary toward his pension, he continues to take pay increases while offering up a mere 11% of his base salary toward his benefits, FURTHERMORE adding a tax deferred IRC 457 to his package. This guy is enriching himself out of the public cookie jar, time to slap his hands.

Write those letters!

  • letters@chicoer.com
  • chicoletters@newsreview.com
  • debbie.presson@chicoca.gov

At the February 27 Finance Committee meeting, city manager Mark Orme said he has resisted revenue measures in the past, but that Chico’s current situation calls for a new tax to mitigate the impacts of the Camp Fire evacuation.

City staff has been  calling for a tax increase since well before the Camp Fire.  They wanted to tax our cell phones. Then they said garbage trucks were wrecking our streets and added a franchise fee to our rates. Long deferred street and park maintenance. Transients  straining public safety agencies.  Now it’s the evacuees.

But on February 27 Orme finally acknowledged the “elephant in the room” – pensions. The city spends almost $20,000,000 annually on pensions. About $8,000,000 of that goes to the pension deficit.

Orme insisted staff has learned to “live within our means.” Really? The city manager’s base salary has gone from $192,000 to $207,500 since his hire,  but his total pay is over $225,000,  including perks such as a $400/month car allowance. Tack on another $82,000 in pension and health benefits, including $18,000 for an IRC 457 added to his contract just last year.

Orme only pays 11% of his base salary for a pension of 70 percent of his highest year’s salary at age 60.  This is how the deficit was created, the employees expect a lot but only want to contribute a  fraction of the cost.

The question isn’t whether we need a new tax, but why the taxpayers should bear the burden of a pension deficit created by public employees.

Juanita Sumner

Oroville transfers $366,000 in Camp Fire money to Pension Stabilization Fund

5 Mar

PUBLISHED OROVILLE MERCURY NEWS:  | UPDATED: 

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

“Let the games begin, or should I say, let the shell games continue.  On Feb. 19,  Oroville Financial Director Ruth Wright,  gave an update on Oroville’s city  budget. She caught my attention when I heard her say $366,000 in FEMA funds were applied to the “Pension Stabilization Fund.”

Oroville’s previous council decided to repurpose all “one-time money”, to this fund.  This year over $1 million was swept  away from city improvements and funneled into the  CALpers stabilization accounts.

For those that voted themselves a one percent tax increase in hopes of fewer crimes, street repairs, and clean parks, I fear you will be disappointed. It’s all about  the unsustainable CALpers fund. Oroville now has a one percent added-on sales tax plus a five percent Utility Users Tax. Look at the five utility bills you receive each month. Check out the UUT you are paying.

The city has been asked to repeal the five percent Utility Users Tax now that the one percent sales tax has passed.  City staff has recommended “no,” citing the city’s precarious financial situation. The council decided to delay that decision for a year.

I would predict there will be no repeal. The shell games will continue. The city will still be crying poor. New fees and tax proposals will be pursued. The proceeds will be used for CALpers contributions in a futile attempt to delay its inevitable collapse.

— Lorraine Christensen, Oroville”

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“Why is there always enough money for large pensions and raises (and propaganda) for bureaucrats yet never enough money to maintain the streets?”

4 Mar

I want to thank Dave for writing this kick-ass letter to the Enterprise Record last week. I know it ran either the day before or the day of the Finance Committee meeting last week and I know Mark Orme read it. Now I also know I’m not the only person who has a problem with paying for a campaign to raise my taxes to pay  for the pension deficit created by years of entitlement. 

Orme mentioned the pensions, but would not admit they are the real drive behind a revenue measure. He said they want the money to either  fix streets or hire more cops. But we’ve all seen the method by which they transfer money from every department into the “Pension Stabilization Trust” and the “UAL” fund to pay down a deficit that the employees created themselves by not paying enough into their own pensions. 

Write your own letter folks – don’t be an ostrich, stick your head up and be heard. 

Why is there always enough money for large pensions and raises for bureaucrats yet never enough money to maintain the streets?

And now our city council members have decided there is plenty of money in city coffers to propagandize the public, so they are giving tens of thousand of our tax dollars (and most likely more later) to a PR firm to sell us another bond measure (just another type of tax increase) or a sales tax increase. And this does not include the cost of the city bureaucracy’s staff time. Is this how you want your hard-earned tax dollars spent?

And whatever tax increase they sell you will be just a down payment as the city’s unfunded pension liability will only get worse. Just wait for the next recession and stock market plunge. Then the politicians will spend more of your tax dollars to sell you yet another tax increase.

I urge everyone to read the long time political watchdog and journalist Dan Walters’ editorials: “Despite law, politicians use taxpayer funds for campaigns,” “Local tax hikes cleverly packaged,” “Cities should fess up about taxes, pensions,” and “Property tax surge reveals the truth: Local tax hikes are all about pensions” athttps://calmatters.org/articles/author/dan-walters/. (Some of these editorials ran in the Chico ER.)

As Walters notes, “With very rare exceptions, however, officials who place the tax increases on the ballot will not publicly say the extra revenue is needed to offset rising pension costs. Rather, on the advice of high-priced consultants, they say the money is needed for popular police and fire services and parks.”And he says, “The League of California Cities has raised the alarm about ‘unsustainable levels’ of pension costs. Isn’t it time for the cities themselves to be truthful when they ask voters for new taxes?”

Our community is in a state that has some of the highest taxes and living expenses in the nation. And if the local politicians have their way your taxes and expenses are going up. Also, wages in Butte County are in the bottom 10 percent of the larger counties in the nation. California has the highest poverty rate in the nation at 19% and Butte County is even worse at 21%. It is unfair to increase this community’s tax burden while government employee pensions go unreformed.

It is long past time for politicians to spend within our means and represent us instead of special interests at our expense.

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Who’s responsible for these elephant turds?

2 Mar

At last week’s Finance Committee meeting (Feb. 27) Mayor Randall Stone (Chair) and council members Sean Morgan and Ann Schwab heard a consultant’s pitch for a revenue measure campaign, starting with the usual “survey”. City mangler Mark Orme made some interesting comments before introducing the consultant.

Orme stated that since he came to the city in 2013 he has “resisted” revenue measures. “I think there needs to be a high level of trust within the community that those funds are going to be spent prudently.” 

I always wonder about public sentiment. Do most Chico voters trust the city council and staff to use their money wisely? And here’s the scary question – what would they know about it?

Orme feels that he and staff have “created a higher level of trust.” opining, “We have learned to live within our means.”

Orme reminisced about his arrival in Chico in 2013, reminding us that the city “has been through hard times.”  He talked about “lost” staffers as though they wandered away in a storm or left for better digs elsewhere. No, hit man Brian Nakamura was hired, long time staffers were fired, or in some cases, simply encouraged to take a position in another city. “Hit Man” brought in former co-workers as new management and skipped off to his next assignment. Over the next year or so staff was pared down until there were no more workers, just management. And management salaries have continued to get higher – now in excess of $200,000/year – while they only pay 11 percent of their pension cost.

So I’d really like to ask Orme just whose means he’s been living within.

He certainly did mention the pensions – “one of the big elephants that cruises through any government living room…” He acknowledges the pension deficit. But here’s where the fiction continues – “The city  didn’t create it…”

I have to take exception with that last claim.  Looking at Orme’s contract here, it’s not hard to see what really happened.

Click to access OrmeEmploymentAgreement10-2017.pdf

“WHEREAS, the Council desires to have Orme participate in CalPERS cost sharing, and pay three percent (3%) of the Employer’s cost, in addition to Orme’s contribution for CalPERS;”

On “Exhibit A” you find the employee share, Orme’s contribution, is 8%. Plus 3% of the “employer share” equals 11%. For 70% of his $207,500 salary at age 60. The city payment has been increasing every year, I  believe they now pay 39% but it might be more. CalPERS is constantly demanding more. The other 50 or so percent rides on the stock market. This hasn’t worked out so far – CalPERS promises 7% return but has been lucky to see 1%. This has caused the PENSION DEFICIT, aka PENSION LIABILITY.

Not only that, but Orme, as well as other management staffers, have recently added a IRC 457 plan to their contracts. In addition to their salaries and CalPERS contributions paid, they get tax exempt “deferred” compensation.

“Plans of deferred compensation described in IRC section 457 are available for certain state and local governments and non-governmental entities tax exempt under IRC Section 501. They can be either eligible plans under IRC 457(b) or ineligible plans under IRC 457(f). Plans eligible under 457(b) allow employees of sponsoring organizations to defer income taxation on retirement savings into future years.“

“Effective from the first pay period in January 2017 considered in calculating the maximum IRC 457 plan limit and annually, City agrees to contribute nine thousand dollars ($9,000) , to Employee’s IRC 457 plan. Additionally, effective October 5, 2017 the City agrees to contribute four and fifty-two hundredths percent (4.52%) of base salary to Employee’s IRC 45 plan.”

See, the city most certainly did create the deficit, because they’ve continued to agree not only to CalPERS stipulations but to bigger and bigger salaries (and therefore PENSIONS) and more generous contracts all along. Since 2013, Orme’s salary has gone up almost $20,000. Laying off people who made $35,000 – 65,000 a year while raising management salaries by 10’s of thousands is like taking 5 steps backward and no steps forward. As Orme acknowledged last Wednesday, we now get no services.

“Now we’re a city that’s living within their means that isn’t meeting the needs of the community…”

We need to ask ourselves, what the hell is the use of a city that doesn’t meet the needs of it’s community?

Orme casually mentions the elephant in the room – he is the elephant in the room. Somebody better get him a shovel, he has a huge pile of crap to clean up.

 

 

 

 

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FPPC: local prosecutors failing to file charges in cases where public officials have used public funds for political purposes

26 Feb

Busy little bees.

The city and CARD are still worming their way toward separate tax measures. It’s starting to look like CARD will go with a parcel tax. The city, meanwhile, has yet to decide what kind of measure they will flop out – the Finance Committee is hearing a $25,000 proposal from  EMC Research to conduct a “survey”.

It is illegal to spend taxpayer money to campaign for a tax measure, and I would think it’s illegal to use tax money to hire a consultant who promises to run the campaign for you. But it seems the agencies who would investigate and prosecute this illegal behavior are squabbling over who is supposed to do it.

https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-campaign-funds-misused-20190214-story.html

“With local prosecutors failing to file charges in cases where public officials have used public funds for political purposes, the state Fair Political Practices Commission is proposing their powers be expanded to allow the FPPC to prosecute misuses of taxpayer dollars.”

But as you might guess, local agencies are not too keen on being watched by outsiders – the good old boy system by which county and city administrators scratch each others’ backs is way too entrenched in Butte County.

The Times reports that “In response, the California State Association of Counties is filing a lawsuit to prevent such enforcement.”

Wow, that’s pretty blatant, isn’t it? Now the counties are spending taxpayer money making sure they  don’t get prosecuted for the illegal spending of taxpayer money. Koyaanisqatsi.

So I wrote a letter about it. Write yours too. 

“Last month the Fair Political Practices Commission revealed 34 allegations made since 2015 concerning public agencies misusing taxpayer funds for campaign purposes. Unfortunately  the agency lacks the authority to prosecute misuse of public funds, a power reserved for city and county prosecutors and the state attorney general.

Apparently, no local law enforcement agency has followed through on any of the allegations, prompting the FPPC to ask the state for the power to prosecute in these matters.

Does anyone  really believe that a local DA or city attorney would prosecute a public agency for raising taxes? FPPC commissioner Brian Hatch calls that “political suicide”.

Both the city of Chico and Chico Area Recreation District continue to spend taxpayer money on consultants who promise to help them pass their separate tax measures. Their consultant EMC Research claims “Great campaigns don’t just happen. That’s why we offer a full suite of political research and predictive analytics to help your candidates, organizations, and ballot measures succeed.”

Is this why you pay taxes? To hire people to raise your taxes?

Contact FPPC Chair Alice Germond <agermond@fppc.ca.gov> and tell her you support her efforts to impose stiffer penalties on those public agencies who flaunt the law and continue to undermine voters’ rights across the state.

You might also want to contact Chico city council at debbie.presson@chicoca.gov and the CARD board at annw@chicorec.com and let them know how you feel about paying for their campaigns to raise your taxes.

Juanita Sumner, Chico”

 

 

 

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Contacting your legislators isn’t always as easy as it sounds

17 Feb

Thank you Cyber Bully John Ferrera, due to your nasty comment, people have been reading that month-old post I made about your boss, Cecilia Aguiar-Curry and ACA1, the bill that would drop the 2/3’s voter approval threshold for tax measures to 55%.

And I took your suggestion and tried to contact your boss via e-mail at the address she provided on her website. I sent her your message, as well as a link to Bill Track, and the contents of the bill. I told her I thought your comment was inappropriate and unprofessional, and that you are trying to mislead the public regarding ACA1.  My e-mail was sent back later in the day.

“Delivery has failed to these recipients or groups:

cecilia@ceciliaforassembly.com (cecilia@ceciliaforassembly.com)
Your message couldn’t be delivered. Despite repeated attempts to contact the recipient’s email system it didn’t respond.

Contact the recipient by some other means (by phone, for example) and ask them to tell their email admin that it appears that their email system isn’t accepting connection requests from your email system. Give them the error details shown below. It’s likely that the recipient’s email admin is the only one who can fix this problem.”

Microsoft provided a link to try and fix the problem – they advised me that the problem is in the “destination domain,” probably “Aggressive anti-spam settings in the destination domain that block legitimate senders, for example, all senders from any domain in Exchange Online.”

I think this is the problem with a lot of legislators’ contact info. They hide behind their anti-spam software. They really don’t want to hear from the public, and they don’t want to use e-mail because then there is a record of what they said, they can’t deny it. A phone call can go all over the place, and then you have no record of what was said. 

Maybe I’ll write a letter to her local newspaper – that’s a 50-50 proposition in my experience, some editors won’t print letters from out of towners, others are glad to get letters from anybody. We’ll see!

 

 

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Meet professional cyber bully John Ferrera, chief of staff for California assembly member Cecilia Aguiar-Curry

15 Feb

There’s a lot of yak-yak about “civil discourse” these days but I don’t think any of it is sincere. We’re warned about “cyber bullies” but usually in the context of teenagers posting trash about each other online that used to go on the bathroom wall.

Adults do a lot of cyber bullying, I  get it all the time. I know, I’m a crusty old broad, but I can tell when somebody is trying to intimidate me into shutting up, just by calling me a “troll” and telling me to “get a life”. I usually don’t post those comments, not because I’m thin-skinned, but because they don’t have anything to do with the conversation. But yesterday I got a comment from a public employee that was post worthy.

John Ferrera, Chief of Staff commented on CA ACA 1 – another attempt to lower the 2/3’s tax measure threshold disguised as a housing bill

“You never comtacted our office for a conversation about your concerns or to explain why local officials should not be able to ask their viters for support of local priorities to support the local economy. So how transparent and engaged are you? The Assemblymember’s phone is everywhere. Her office is in the State Capitol. And she meets daily with people from all over California. But you’re frustrated that you can’t just troll her on social media instead of engaging in a policy discussion. Your choice, not hers. And, by the way, after years of fires in her district in Lake, Sonoma, Yolo, Colusa and Napa, she was the first person to offer assistance to her colleagues dealing with the Camp Fire. You think they may want to ask their voters to support local rebuilding efforts? Under her initiative, they can if they want, and voters must support. If not, nothing happens.”

What a jerk. He could have asked me if I wanted to chat about the bill, and then let it go, instead, he seems to be calling me out, playground style. This comment is so hateful and angry, if he had spoken to me like this in a small room, I think I’d be very uncomfortable. Not only is this man an adult, he’s an adult who gets paid over $100,000/year, plus benefits, to protect the public interest. 

He commented on a month old post I wrote about an assembly bill that would lower the 2/3’s voter approval for tax measures to a simple majority – 51 to 55%. But it’s been disguised as a housing measure, using wild fire victims as bait.  Read the post here:

https://chicotaxpayers.com/2019/01/08/ca-aca-1-another-attempt-to-lower-the-2-3s-tax-measure-threshold-disguised-as-a-housing-bill/

I don’t think I wrote anything insulting, I just expressed my outrage at this clever ploy to get us to sign away our voting rights tacked onto a bill that uses fire victims as a shield. Here’s the bill, from Bill  Track.

https://www.billtrack50.com/LegislatorDetail/21570

“resolution to propose to the people of the State of California an amendment to the Constitution of the State, by amending Sections 1 and 4 of Article XIII ? A thereof, by amending Section 2 of, and by adding Section 2.5 to, Article XIII ? C thereof, by amending Section 3 of Article XIII ? D thereof, and by amending Section 18 of Article XVI thereof, relating to local finance.”

How could they make this more confusing?  This stuff isn’t written for the general public to understand. But you get that, right?  “amending Section 18 of Article XVI thereof, relating to local finance.”  

It’s pretty obvious, this bill is an attempt to change the system by which bonds are approved and the proceeds spent.  Read about that here:

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CONS&division=&title=&part=&chapter=&article=XVI

This bill is being carried by  assembly member Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, from Dixon-Winters California, near Sacramento. I went to her website to look for contact information, but was asked for my zip code, and then told she didn’t accept mail from outside her district. I think that should be illegal – we’re ALL her constituents, everything she does affects all of us. But we’re not allowed to contact her at her taxpayer supported website?

So I dumped my outrage into a blog, and went about trying to contact various friends of mine about the bill. I didn’t call her a whore, I didn’t give out her private address with 12-packs of eggs, I just suggested that people write to her local newspaper to tell her what they thought. And I made a personal note to remember to keep tabs on the bill.

Then the other day I got the nasty little comment from Ferrera. A pretty nasty, deliberate attempt to bully me into shutting up.

Yeah, good luck with that!

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Chico city council plays their little violin for the “homeless” while sticking it to the rest of us with Utility Tax

13 Feb

I received two rate increases in my last PG&E bill, one a “general rate case application” and the other for the decommission of the failed Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant.

I also got a letter from Cal Water detailing their pending rate increase. A CPUC hearing held in Chico this week drew a few protesters, but I’m unaware of any city council member or county supervisor who bothered to show up. 

It’s better to approach the CPUC directly, anyway. The hearings are just a dog-and-pony show required by law, overseen by shills hired away from the utility companies. It’s a good idea to write to the CPUC – in past a CPUC commissioner actually turned down a water rate increase, asking for further hearings, because he’d had so many protests from ratepayers. That increase went through, but not at the original amount requested by Cal Water.

There is a “formal protest” option, but it’s not for the faint of heart. The local CPUC rep told me I should get a lawyer to fill out the forms when I inquired about it. He said they’re very complicated and mistakes will result in your complaint being round-filed. I asked then-supervisor Maureen Kirk to do it but she turned me down. The city of Chico didn’t even discuss my suggestion that they mount a formal protest. That’s frustrating, because we pay for the city and county to have a lot of legal counsel, more than any of us could afford. And that’s what it takes, paying a lawyer.

But why would the city lift a finger to stop utility rate increases when they collect millions in utility tax – about $7 million last year. The budget projection for this year was over $8 million, but that was before the Camp Fire drove who knows how many refugees into residence in Chico. Whether they live in hotels or rentals or have bought homes, they will contribute to a heavy spike in utility tax. 

So, I’m actually hoping this nasty weather we’re having right now will result in higher PG&E bills, maybe people will get pissed off enough to start rattling their chains. Our city leaders are always posturing, posing and primping. Ann Schwab’s proposal for a rent control ordinance is a pretty brassy beginning to her 2020 campaign – she’s already pulled her papers. Randy Stone and Scott Huber have pasted their faces all over the “warming tents” – Stone has pulled his papers for 2020 and Huber used “the homeless” as his 2018 campaign. 

I think these petty gestures are very insincere, so I wrote a letter to the editor about it, see below.

REMINDER! start gathering together your utility bills, UT rebates will be available starting May 1. More about that later!

Chico council members have made goodwill gestures toward the growing low-income population in our town but have yet to offer anything of substance.

An ordinance to protect renters from landlords?  California tenants already get a minimum 30  days (60 days after one year’s tenancy) notice for any change in tenancy. Local jurisdictions mandating their own reasons to evict is contrary to state law.

A $100,000 budget for warming tents that attract less than a dozen street people? There are three publicly-funded shelters in town, as well as CHAT’s rotating “Safe Space”. 

These  gestures seem little more than grandstanding when council tacks a fee onto our PG&E, Cal Water and landline phone bills. Currently the city taxes our utility bills at the highest rate allowed – 5 percent. Utility Tax is one of the  city’s biggest revenue sources, raking in almost $7 million last year. While the city incurred some costs with the evacuees, UT revenues are sure to spike in 2019 – all those new residents, and rate hikes coming from Cal Water and PG&E. 

I saw no member of council at the Cal Water rate increase public hearing. Nor has the city mounted any formal protest against PG&E’s plans.

If council members sincerely want to help low income folks, they would reduce the UT, and protest the rate hikes. Instead they are using expensive staff time to figure out how to get us to approve yet another tax on ourselves.

Empty gestures are easily made with other people’s money. Let’s see something that really matters.

 

 

 

 

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Dan Walter: School officials and school unions are teaching students that it’s all right to run up credit card bills, blame others for overspending and then cross their fingers that someone will bail them out

11 Feb

After I wrote my analysis of CARD’s use of their expensive Cal Park Lakeside Pavilion facility, I read this piece by Dan Walter:

https://calmatters.org/articles/commentary/school-districts-set-poor-example-for-students/

Walters is talking about various California school districts, but what he says also applies to our local recreation district – ” it’s all right to run up credit card bills, blame others for overspending and then cross their fingers that someone will bail them out.”

That’s becoming standard public agency policy these days, and it’s not just the pensions, but poor spending decisions by policy makers. I mean, blatant decisions, like spend $385,000 on a remodel for council chambers, or paying a million borrowed dollars on a crapped out old building and then several hundred thousand fixing it. 

But most poor spending decisions seem to involve public salaries and benefits. Walter reports ” In 2017, when Sacramento Unified’s teachers were threatening to strike, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg mediated a new contract that gave teachers an 11 percent raise. Later, it emerged that the salary increases would come from a reserve set aside for pension fund payments.”

In Chico, both the city and CARD have set up “pension trust” funds, allocating money from other city funds, to pay down their pension deficit. this is in addition to what taxpayers already pay toward pensions on a monthly basis. We pay their payments monthly, and then we’re on the hook for an annual payment that increases every year – this year, $7,598,561.  Former CARD finance director Scott Dowell now runs the city finances, so he set up both funds. He says these funds save money by avoiding penalties from CalPERS. What it amounts to is embezzling money from one fund to another so you can spend it any way you want. 

In Sacramento, contrary to the  rules for one of these “trusts”, they spent the money to give their teachers an 11 percent raise. Of course, you know what those raises are going to do to those teachers’ pensions, right?

As soon as Chico Unified passed Measure K in 2016, district finance mangler Kevin Bultema told the board they were still looking at deficits caused by raises given teachers. He told me in an e-mail that if they didn’t get more money they’d cut programs. 

Walter’s point in this piece is that the schools are setting a poor example for the kids. I’d say,  government in general is setting a poor example for everybody. 

 

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