Dave Waddell made some pointy observations on my last post about the generous raises being considered for city manager Mark Sorensen.
“On June 30, 2024, Mark Sorensen will be making $207,000 annually. On July 1, 2025, the taxpayers will be into him for $232,565 annually (times 14 years of free service credit in CalPERS = a gazillion dollars).” That last remark is a reference to the deal Sorensen made with the city of Chico (thanks for that correction Dave) when he left the City of Biggs (East Biggs?) (why is there a difference?) and took the city manager position here. Chico residents paid for him to be gang-jumped into CalPERS, since, at his decrepit age, he would never have time to accrue 15 years of service to qualify for pension. At this point he has still not served 15 years and I’m guessing he will retire before he does.
And what a retirement – at 70% of a salary of $232,565/year, with a very generous 4.12% COLA, Sorensen will be part of the One Percent. And Chico’s pension deficit-unfunded liability will continue skyward like TWA 800.
Which is what is important here – the effect these endless and unwarranted pay raises have on the city’s pension deficit and overall debt. And here’s what pisses me off – Sorensen, a former city council member, even mayor, knows fully well how the pension deficit works. As far as I’m concerned, his full knowledge of the fact that he is enriching himself at the cost of our city’s financial welfare makes him corrupt and unfit for public service. But that’s just me, old lady at large.
While we can’t vote Sorensen out of office anymore, or send him out of town in a hail of rotten tomatoes, we can pass the Taxpayer Protection Act and we can refuse the new tax measure he’s talked council into putting on the November ballot. Here’s a recap – because the TPA would require local tax measures to have 2/3’s voter approval, retroactive to 2020, if passed, it will overturn City of Chico one cent sales tax Measure H. Sorensen, whether or not he really believes TPA will pass, has convinced council to spend – to date – $275,000 on a new, updated Measure (?) for November. This new Measure (?) will supposedly be written to conform to the TPA.
Here’s the good news – that would mean, the new measure would either need to include specific uses or it would require 2/3’s voter approval. Council will discuss all of this at tomorrow’s meeting, the report is in the agenda, I’ll try to post more tomorrow.
Handing these people more money has only emboldened their ludicrous spending habit. It’s time to cut up their credit cards, and that starts with defeating both of their tax measures in November and passing the Taxpayer Protection Act.
Coming home from Winco the other day, my husband and I were almost hit on Vallonbrosa by a Ford F350 swerving to avoid a gi-normous pothole. This letter popped right into my head.
I saw the signs at Humboldt and Stilson Canyon Roads – newly surfaced and paved with Measure H money. How many city dwellers do these roads serve?
Meanwhile, the street in front of my house, in an old well-populated neighborhood annexed over 20 years ago, is not only crumbling, but long stretches have no sidewalks or drains. Thirty years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, pedestrians are forced into the street, to compete with cars and bikes – all dodging the enormous puddles and serial potholes created by years of no maintenance. Every time I ride my old bike around the hood I watch drivers swerving into oncoming traffic to miss various road hazards.
Driving over to patronize various South Chico businesses,, I see the traffic is backing up as expected around the Bruce Road corridor, adding almost an hour to the trip, eating my gas as I sit, polluting the hot summer air. A sign on Springfield Avenue boasts that widening is being done with Measure H money, even though it’s obviously necessitated by new development. They’re asking for state grants to widen Hwy 32 for the Fogarty subdivision. Why aren’t developer fees paying for those projects?
One last question – how do I get on the list for some Measure H funds on my street? The street I pay taxes on needs complete resurfacing, not just slop-job pothole patches. I’m still waiting to see the benefits of that garbage tax they foisted on us 10 years ago.
Today (5/21/24) the city is having a special 1pm council meeting – one topic they will undoubtedly discuss is the $30 million+ drop in revenues compared to this time a year ago.
From KRCR News: “Sales tax revenues citywide are down eight percent, but for the Downtown North area, between First and Fifth streets, sales tax revenue is up 2.3 percent.”
Wow, THIRTY MILLION. Even with their one-cent sales tax, not to mention hundreds of millions in Camp Fire and COVID disaster relief money. They pissed that money away like a bunch of drunks with their dad’s credit card. Sometimes Sean Morgan even reminds me of Ed Helm.
You remember where that money went – yep, stuff like a skating rink, parklets for bars, plans for Downtown remodels – it’s just been a hayride for consultants these past five or six years. And the city claims sales tax revenues have actually been up for the Downtown sector. Wow, 2.3% – they’re bragging about that while the rest of town is down 8%?
Tom Van Overbeek, speaking on the local news, seemed to think it’s okay that while the rest of town is down, Downtown is on the up. He doesn’t mention how much money has been poured into that tiny grid, how many empty storefronts there are, and how many businesses are complaining about changes the city has made. City Plaza is (again) full of tents and trash, the streets are about to be torn out to accommodate a new sewer system, and more businesses are leaving. This man is in total denial.
“The recession has not materialized, people’s sense of anxiety about that has gone down They’re going out and buying drinks and going shopping,” said Chico council member Tom Van Overbeek. “There’ve been a number of initiatives to make the downtown cleaner, safer, and more interesting. We put up historical signs, we have police patrols now; Downtown Chico Business Association (DCBA) has been active in getting people downtown.”
But could Downtown pay for itself? Starting with a complete rehaul of the sewer system and then a new “streets plan”? Is Van Overbeek telling us Downtown generates enough sales tax to pay for that stuff? On restaurants, bars, and expensive crap shops?
Meanwhile, in the rest of town, I hear the usual complaints – mostly about the condition of the streets. Sure, potholes and fissures are bad for your tires and your car in general. They’re dangerous because people drive crazy to avoid them. Cycling around town also presents a lot of dangers that are not overcome by a white stripe painted along the side of the road. While the city is planning to spend millions on bike lanes Downtown, they seem to forget that people live elsewhere in town, on streets that are not conducive to cycling. I know a lot of people, like myself, that walk, drive, and cycle, and we’re not happy with the condition of the streets. That’s bad for business – it’s a lot easier to shop online, and plenty of nearby towns with nicer retail areas.
That brings us to the issue of pedestrian safety. In fact, the ADA, which requires sidewalks and street crossings suitable for people in wheelchairs, was passed in 1990 – 34 years ago. There are commercial and residential areas all over Chico that have no sidewalks, seriously damaged sidewalks, and damaged street crossings. Especially shocking to me are the TRIP HAZARDS, in the form of broken curbs, sink holes in the middle of crossings, and overgrown, unmaintained city street trees with roots that have lifted whole sections of sidewalks and streets.
Meanwhile, Downtown sidewalks have been redone twice in my recent memory, including the bulbing of the corners and the Studebaker strips.
Another huge problem all over town is lack of drainage – I’ve driven around town and seen entire blocks of both commercial and residential streets with not one drain. In my neighborhood that amounts to puddles the size of ponds that sit and stink for a week after a rainstorm. This forces pedestrians and bikes out in the street – thank you City of Chico. It also causes flooding and damage in yards. The people across the street from me all pay for flood insurance because the city has never placed drains along our street except in front of new subdivisions. When we were annexed over 20 years ago we were promised we’d get the full menu of city services, but all we’ve had so far are sewer hook-ups and the resulting shoddy patch jobs – future potholes.
So yeah, I’m angry about the work done on Humboldt and Stilson Canyon Road, and I’m wondering how many other questionable projects have been funded with Measure H while my neighborhood street – Old Chico! – voided the warranty on my new tire! “Excessive Road Hazard”!
I know others out there are similarly disgruntled, I hope they’ll write letters to the paper, I plan to.
I got a comment here about road work done with Measure H money – in Stilson canyon? Sure enough, when my husband and I checked it out, we saw that the city had not only resurfaced Humboldt Road but Stilson Canyon Road.
Stilson Canyon is a neighborhood of luxury homes in Chico California offering an assortment of beautiful styles, varying sizes and affordable prices to choose from. Stilson Canyon single-family homes for sale range in square footage from around 2,000 square feet to over 6,600 square feet and in price from approximately $479,000 to $2,349,000.
According to the city map, some of this neighborhood is in the city of Chico, but this sign shows that most of them live in the county.
You can see from this point, there is nothing, no housing, along that section of newly paved road. There are no city residents on Humboldt Road either. Who was served by this project – paid for with Measure H funding? This type of project should be funded with property taxes, and these people all pay property taxes to the county. Why are Measure H funds being used? Well, some very influential people live in this neighborhood, is about all I can figure.
A few weeks ago I got a cranky comment from “Susan” regarding the sales tax measure Butte County Supervisors are considering putting on the ballot in November. I’d expected it – just a few months ago, media shills were using the same old “county cutting library hours” bullshit to drum up support for a possible county parcel tax. I knew they’d switch to a sales tax – a general sales tax only needs 50%+1 to pass. Can you smell the chicken shit?
This past weekend, the news outlets picked up the story – again, showing pictures of Butte County library.
The library isn’t the problem – why don’t the news shills ask the real questions? How much is Butte County’s pension deficit? When did they pass that illegal pension bond? Bill Connelly told me it was back in the early 2000’s, and it was passed without voter approval, which is illegal. How has that worked out? Apparently it was implemented in 2004, but the county pension deficit continues to grow in leaps and bounds. Look how much the county is laying out both in regular and “catch-up” payments from their illegal pension obligation bond.
Cal PERS is short about $465 BILLION. How much of that is Butte County’s unfunded liability? As you can see on page 78 of the report, despite the pension obligation bond and the millions Butte County has paid into the deficit year after year, the county’s liability has grown over $30 million since 2018.
Here’s a question your news reporters should be asking – how much are we paying these people to run our apple cart off the road?
Andy “Maximo” Picket, County Chief Admin Officer – as of 2022, he was making a “regular” salary of $242,255.00. Add “extra pay” for a salary of over $257,000/year. Add the benefits package of $67,751.00 for a grand total of $324,543.00.
The board of supes can raise their salaries on a vote, giving themselves about $1,000 raise every year. In 2020, they lowered their salaries about $2,000, but as of 2022 the salary was back to about $62,000/year, same as 2021, and growing again. You would probably be more surprised at the generous benefits packages that they are allowed to choose for themselves. Like City Council members, they pay a small percentage of their salary toward their benefits packages, which currently range from about $18,000/year to about $33,000/year per member. They also get “other pay” – you can ask them about that, I won’t speculate. Connelly somehow wrangled his total salary to over $75,000, add his benefits package for total compensation of over $95,000. Teeter managed to get himself over $100,000.
Which means, given the few thousand dollars a year they pay toward their benefits, they each have personal pension deficits that are part of the county’s total unfunded liability.
Holy shit, no wonder they can’t keep the library open.
According to this article, ” Kratom users rely on this fast-acting formula to enhance their energy levels and overall well-being…” The article mentions nothing about the dangers of Kratom, selling it as an energy supplement.
Here’s what the National Institute on Drug Abuse will tell you about Kratom powder.
Adverse effects range from mild to severe. Some people who use kratom have reported mild side effects, such as nausea, constipation, dizziness and drowsiness.3, 4 In case reports, clinicians report seeing patients with a wide range of very rare but serious adverse effects associated with kratom exposure—including mental and neurological symptoms (confusion, tremors and seizures), heart and lung problems (high blood pressure and slow breathing), gastrointestinal problems (nausea and vomiting) and liver problems.1, 23Researchers continue to study potential adverse effects in humans, animal models and cells, including possible damage to the cardiovascular system.
The Drug Enforcement Administration is more to the point – they call Kratom a “drug of concern”
Kratom is a tropical tree native to Southeast Asia. Consumption of its leaves produces both stimulant effects (in low doses) and sedative effects (in high doses), and can lead to psychotic symptoms, and psychological and physiological dependence. Kratom leaves contain two major psychoactive ingredients (mitragynine and 7-hydroxymytragynine). These leaves are crushed and then smoked, brewed with tea, or placed into gel capsules. Kratom has a long history of use in Southeast Asia. In the U.S., the abuse of kratom has increased markedly in recent years.
At low doses, increased alertness, physical energy, and talkativeness. At high doses, sedation,,Addictive: causes hallucinations, delusion, and confusion,Nausea, itching, sweating, dry mouth, constipation, increased urination, and loss of appetite. Long-term use can cause anorexia, weight loss, and insomnia.
Kratom (Mitragyna speciosa) is a tree native to Southeast Asia. The leaves contain a chemical called mitragynine, which works like opioids such as morphine.
Kratom has pain-relieving effects like opioid drugs. It also has many of the same serious safety concerns as other opioids.
People commonly use kratom for withdrawal from heroin, morphine, and other opioid drugs, as well as cough, depression, anxiety, and many other conditions, but there is no good scientific evidence to support these uses. Using kratom can also be unsafe.
Kratom is banned in some states and countries due to serious safety concerns. The US FDA has warned consumers to avoid using products containing kratom.
Despite the above warnings, Kratom continues to be legal. The warnings are true. When our friend used it to get off alcohol and other substances, he vomited his way into very frightening seizures. When we tried to get him to stop using it he acted like an animal and stopped talking to us. We were finally able to get him to a doctor, who told him Kratom was dangerous. She gave him pharmaceuticals that worked – he’s off drugs now, and doing a lot better.
That was a dark time for my husband and I, it’s hard to convince yourself to get involved with friends when they act like they don’t even know you. But this was a friend we wanted to hold on to. So I looked for help. I tried to talk to my city council representative, Kasey Reynolds, about the prevalence of Kratom in the local tobacco and liquor stores, and how it’s used. Many cities across the US and California have banned it. She wouldn’t engage – let’s face it, the city of Chico likes this kind of trade, it’s produces a lot of sales tax revenues.
City council has the power to refuse licenses for alcohol stores and smoke shops. When was the last time you heard of them not approving a new liquor store or smoke shop, despite recent raids by the ABC?
And now Mike Wolcott is running ads for a highly toxic, addictive substance that produces sales tax. What next Mr. Drug Peddler? And he wonders why I won’t subscribe to his little ad rag.
UPDATE: At last night’s council meeting (5/7/24), council approved two new alcohol serving businesses despite the fact that the Alcoholic Beverage Commission (ABC) determined that they were both located “in an area with an undue concentration of alcoholic beverage licenses.” (Downtown Chico) Police Chief Billy Aldridge “did not oppose a determination of public convenience or necessity. ” What does that even mean – ask your council rep if they understand what they’re voting on, I don’t think they particularly care. Both items had been placed on the consent agenda, neither was held for any type of conversation before council agreed unanimously to allow two more alcohol serving businesses within block of each other in the Downtown grid.
According to California Code,
(a) For purposes of Section 23958, “undue concentration” means the case in which the applicant premises for an original or premises-to-premises transfer of any retail license are located in an area where any of the following conditions exist:(1) The applicant premises are located in a crime reporting district that has a 20 percent greater number of reported crimes,as defined in subdivision (c), than the average number of reported crimes as determined from all crime reporting districts within the jurisdiction of the local law enforcement agency.(2) As to on-sale retail license applications, the ratio of on-sale retail licenses to population in the census tract or census division in which the applicant premises are located exceeds the ratio of on-sale retail licenses to population in the county in which the applicant premises are located.(3) As to off-sale retail license applications, the ratio of off-sale retail licenses to population in the census tract or census division in which the applicant premises are located exceeds the ratio of off-sale retail licenses to population in the county in which the applicant premises are located.
I frankly believe those are all excellent reasons to deny an alcohol business to open in a particular area, but the city of Chico seems to be on a bender lately.
I had to renew my driver’s license, I did it online. They asked for voter registration information, even though I know my registration is up to date, I filled it out. I’m not sure what happened, but three days later I got a notice from the county clerk asking me to restate my residence address.
I read it over a few times, I was corn-fused. You can register to vote without a legal residence? With nothing more than cross streets and a brief description? Then excuse me, why the hell do they need my residence address? Assessor parcel number?
Here’s another question – if I can register to vote from a street corner, can I run for office in that district?
Sometimes, I’ll say, I lose faith in the government. How can they guarantee there’s no voter fraud when they allow people to register to vote from a street corner? But I have to provide a physical address in addition to my PO Box number – again, corn-fusing.
I believe voter fraud is real. I don’t believe county clerks across the country have the resources to check every voter. There’s no voter ID anymore, we all vote by mail, so how can they guarantee who’s turning in a ballot, registered at a street corner? Coincidentally, the 2020 election brought in a historic number of voters, “the century’s highest turnout.”
Where did all those new voters come from? Were they eligible to vote in the district in which they registered? How were they informed about the issues, and by whom? Soooo many questions.
But I turned it in with my residence address anyway, because I believe that in order to be eligible to vote in a community, a person should have a somewhat permanent and serious stake in that community. I don’t think a physical residence address, at a real residence, is too much to ask.
I also believe that allowing people to vote without solving the problems that have left them without a physical residence address insinuates that living on the street is acceptable. It’s not. Furthermore, I believe that encouraging them to vote is not done out of any sincere wish to empower them but out of desire to manipulate their political power.
Last I’ll say, it undermines and devalues our elections, and our confidence that our votes make any sort of difference. But I’ll vote anyway, they won’t get rid of me that easily.
I have said it before, and I will say it again: When it comes to municipal finance in California, There’s the cost of pensions, and there’s everything else.
What is the size of chico’s unfunded liability today? A couple of years ago it was more than 100 million dollars. Do I have that right, I’m not trying to be inflammatory?
I don’t think questions are inflammatory, and hey, you’re not that far off! But I didn’t want to bother staff with this question – you only get so many before they cut you off. They act like they pay for their own time! So, I googled it – “city of chico ca current pension liability 2024″
This is the annual report from CalPERS about how much money the city owes for un-supported city wages and benefits. Yes, unsupported – meaning, these positions are not fully funded. The city essentially borrows the money from CalPERS, at incredible rates. CalPERS said they could pay alot of the cost with stock market investments. That hasn’t worked out very well over the past 20 or so years, leaving CalPERS, along with all its “members”, in a heap of shit.
The city has gone along, like many CalPERS members, making the smallest possible payments. The employees pay a tiny fraction of the cost, while the city pays a little bit more – leaving a huge deficit, known as the Unfunded Actuarial Liability. You can look those words up in a dictionary – it means, the city actually didn’t have the money to promise these outrageous salaries and benefits, but they promised them anyway, and now the city is actually liable for the money.
Here’s the best answer I could get for BC – In 2021, the pension deficit was $64,293,003. In 2022, which is the most recent figure given in the report, it was $92,247,723. That’s over $28,000,000 more in a year.
The question is, who is going to pay it now? The city gave us a new tax, Measure H. They claim it’s brought in about $24 million, with which they said they would make all these wonderful road improvements. Instead they’ve budgeted an $18 million payment toward the pension liability. Whoa-ho-ho Nelly! By 2024 it’s projected to be about $25 million.
The payments they’re making are tanking our budget, but they don’t amount to spit on the CalPERS griddle. The problem is, let’s face it – employees need to pay more. Alot more. And Council needs to stop approving new hires – duplicate management positions, a consultant actually told them they are “management top-heavy”. How many $200,000/year management positions does it take to fill a pothole? Look at the staff salaries – I count at least three people in Public Works at over $200,000 in total compensation. Sorensen just created a new management position for Brendan Ottoboni last year.
Instead of asking employees to contribute a rational share, or downsizing management, Council has approved spending another $100,000 trying to save Measure H, which is under threat by the voter-initiated Taxpayer Protection Act. The TPA will overturn Measure H, because the city slid it under the door with less than 53% approval by the voters. The TPA will require 2/3’s approval of all local tax measures. So Mark Sorensen has led City Council to approve an initial $100,000 (we’ll see how many additional “allocations” they make over the next six months) to get that turkey back on the ballot with the required changes, just in case the TPA passes. It will require 2/3’s approval from Chico voters. Last time it got about 52.8%.
So hey BC, they’ve scheduled a “special” Finance Committee meeting for this Wednesday at 8:30am, go in there and ask some questions.
Now that Valley’s Edge is off the table for a while, we should start talking about November. It’s easy to get caught up in the presidential race but there are local and state issues to which we should pay careful attention.
As of now, according to Ballotpedia, the Taxpayer Protection Act, also known as the The California Two-Thirds Legislative Vote and Voter Approval for Fee and Charge Increases Initiative (#21-0042), is scheduled to be on the ballot.
Governor Newsom and members of the California legislature are so worried this measure will stop them from raising taxes they’ve sued to stop it, claiming the TPA is an, “‘unlawful effort to revise our state constitution’ which ‘seeks to eliminate the state’s ability to swiftly respond to emergencies and provide resources for critical services that Californians and communities rely upon.'”
I was trying to read old finance reports, trying to keep track of discussions regarding the TPA and Measure H, when I found some stuff that really blew my mind. I wanted to share it here immediately, but I found links that wouldn’t work and text that would not cut-and-paste. So I contacted the clerk’s office and asked them if they could load it correctly. I received a mailbox full of reports that I will try to share, but it’s going to take a lot of reading. It doesn’t make sense at this point.
In 2020 the city was already crying about lost revenues, when they had over $20 million in settlement money from the Camp Fire. Then came millions more in American Rescue money for COVID. They just recently received another $24 million in PG&E settlement money.
In one report staff says revenues were so low, they talked about deferrig the Cal PERS annual catch-up payment – that would cost them over $500,000 in interest! There were a lot of alarming little details. What I came away with, is that city council is not qualified to handle a budget of that size, and staff is suggesting projects not based on need or the community’s best interests.
Right now, I’m going to get ready to go grocery shopping, I find it’s best to get out and get it over with before the traffic shuts down the south side of town.
Chico Taxpayers Association 