Business Hostile Chico has different standards for different parts of town

18 Apr

Today the Chico Chamber and Police Department are holding a “public safety” meeting at the CARD Center on Vallombrosa. A news reporter was standing out in front of the center in pitch blackness this morning to pitch it on tv. The cops and chamber are desperate to put up a front – they want the public to think they’re on top of the situation. 

This is at least the second meeting they’ve held in the “Mangrove Business Corridor.” While the chamber is supposed to represent businesses (members) all over town, the main focus always seems to be Downtown and the surrounding retail centers, the campus area, and once in a while the Nord Avenue corridor. I’ve never heard of a meeting being held in south or north Chico.

Meanwhile, there are other areas of concern, and it seems neither Chico PD nor the chamber are too worried about it.

0416170917a

This building at 2560 S. Whitman sits vacant for months now between Home Depot and TJ Maxx.

I reported a de-facto transient shelter at a vacant building next door to Home Depot, located on South Whitman next to Hwy 99.

https://chicotaxpayers.com/2017/03/29/bum-friendly-business-hostile/

My husband complained about the transients to a staffer at Home Depot, who indicated the problem was ongoing. (“Again?!”)   When my husband returned a few days later, the transients and much of the larger trash had been removed.  When we went back yesterday we found even more elaborate housing.

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It looks like somebody has been living out of this cardboard box for at least a few days. There’s another “shelter” behind this one. Neither were occupied at the time, but note the knife on the ground.

From the looks of that knife, I’d say, don’t wander too close to this building after dark. Home Depot is open until 10 pm, well after dark. There to the upper left you can see the corner of the HD nursery – our truck  was parked right out front of this building. I wouldn’t park that close at night.

TJ Maxx is open until 9:30 pm, and I’ve seen a lot of women and kids coming and going from that store, some of them parking over toward the abandoned building. Not  that men should have to put up with this stuff either, but having been a mom with tiny tots in tow, I felt particularly vulnerable to these kind of creeps. 

I got other pictures but don’t have time to post now – suffice to say, the trash meanders well into the parking lot, and lines the side of the TJ Maxx building. 

Leo DePaola, the head of Chico “building services” just had a special meeting for Downtown business owners who are angered at having to pay a $150 permit fee to repair vandalized windows.  DePaola, a cranky bastard, stood steadfast on that fee, saying it pays employee costs. He ain’t lying – the city has a pension deficit of nearly  $180 million, you know they got costs! 

The owner of the bra store says she won’t repair her windows if they don’t dump the fee. I wonder is she’s been out to TJ Maxx lately, got a good look at what the city of Chico allows in the fringe zones. I think the city’s attentions toward Downtown are a double-edge sword – I’m pretty sure some Downtown merchants would say they are put under unfair scrutiny.

While others don’t seem to get any scrutiny at all.

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Stop the presses! CARD finally posting board meeting minutes on their website!

16 Apr

I sent a note to Chico Area Recreation District manager Ann Willmann because for years now I’ve turned to their website to look at reports of meetings and found them as much as a year behind in posting minutes. 

Hi,

I wonder why there are not minutes posted for a board meeting since Nov 2016? I know the minutes have to be approved by the board, but I’ve been present when minutes have been approved, and they still haven’t been posted on the website.

 Thanks for your response, at your convenience, Juanita Sumner 

I’ve asked before, and been ignored, I was surprised by Willmann’s response:

Hi Juanita, the website has been updated. Thank you for your email. I have established a new process to ensure our minutes are posted in a more timely manner after approval. Ann

I couldn’t resist telling her it was about time.  At least three consultants have been paid so far – make that six, including the informational meeting she presented for the board – to tell Willmann and her staff to get the public engaged in CARD’s business. Instead she seems to make every effort to keep people from knowing what’s happening – another question I’ve had to ask is, why so many “special” meetings – which only have to be noticed 24 hours ahead with a piece of paper on the front door of the CARD center. 

Next time I see an 8-and-a-half by 11 piece of paper flapping on that door I’ll have to make a screeching turn into the parking lot and vault up there to see what’s happening!

CARD has already started a campaign to subtly make us believe we want to tax ourselves to pay down their $1.75 million pension deficit. Pay attention Folks, there’s pick-pockets about!

Your toilet just got a lot more expensive

15 Apr

Hahn, Paul <PHahn@buttecounty.net>

Yesterday, 8:10 AM
You;
Kirk, Maureen (MKirk@buttecounty.net);Schmidt, Dennis (DSchmidt@buttecounty.net)

Juanita,

 We treated your request as an official Public Information Request which means it is routed through the Department, and then County Counsel for a response.   It should be forthcoming very soon.   You request was only received early Tuesday morning and the response is forthcoming.

 In addition, this issue has been discussed with the Board in public session on numerous occasions over the last two plus years as well as special meetings with the affected industries involved and has been extensively covered in the local papers.   The issue of transporting the septage to Lincoln is actually the most consumer friendly option for cost control.  

 As soon as you receive the official response, if you still have questions, staff and I would be more than happy to sit down with you to answer any more questions.   We pride ourselves in being transparent in the County and I assure you that this issue, as well as all others, has not and will not be pushed under the radar.  

 Thank you,

 Paul Hahn
Chief Administrative Officer/CAO

Butte County Administration

25 County Center Drive, Suite 200, Oroville, CA 95965

phahn@buttecounty.net

T: 530.538.7631

Here’s something people need to know about me – don’t call me by my first name until I’ve introduced myself that way. These people have their titles, I get mine – “Ms. Sumner,” thank you.

My Response:

Hahn, Paul (PHahn@buttecounty.net);
Kirk, Maureen (mkirk@buttecounty.net)
 Mr. Hahn, 

I’m sorry, I thought I had asked a pretty simple question. You told me, “I am forwarding your question to Bill Mannel, the Manager of the Neil Road facility who is charge of this operation for  a response.  Bill is extremely knowledgeable and can best respond.” You didn’t say anything about FOIA or the county counsel. 

I’ve followed the agendas Mr. Hahn, and I’v tried to follow the minutes – the reports are not included, and the minutes are very incomplete. I never saw a discussion about having our septage taken to the Chico wastewater treatment plant – can you direct me to that report, which I assume would be attached to the corresponding agenda?

I’m sorry you seem to be offended. I’m just trying to remind you – you came to the Local Government Committee meeting and told Mark Orme not to make the same mistake the county had made in rolling out the trash deal – you told him to be sure to get the public engaged early in the discussion. You reported two weeks of phones ringing “off the hook” with complaints over that deal. People are still mad.  But, here you are, making the same mistake in this deal, you are not engaging the public.   I own two properties with septic tanks, I haven’t had any notice. My septic pump technician has not been noticed in any way. Do you really expect people to check the agendas every two weeks just to make sure septic tanks are still legal? The newspaper isn’t really covering it adequately. How is the public supposed to know what’s going on here? 

What have you done to engage the public in this matter? 

I’ll tell you what, you aren’t exactly encouraging me to be involved, I feel very much I am being given the runaround.  

Juanita Sumner

Excuse me for getting huffy, but I felt Hahn was getting kind of huffy. His first response to me – the one-liner I quoted above – seemed friendly and casual. Now all the sudden he’s coming back with a process that includes county counsel? Why? 

Because I complain. I’m the squeaky wheel, but around here, you don’t get the grease, you get crapped on. 

Let me tell you what’s going on here. The city of Chico and County of Butte have conspired to keep the Neal Road Landfill  running well beyond it’s capacity by requiring that all trash collected in Butte County go to Neal Road.  There have been articles in the Chico Enterprise Record – Dump  Starving For Trash!  

Here’s an old post about it:

https://chicotaxpayers.com/2013/08/12/whats-the-real-story-on-trash-zones-first-nakamura-says-its-to-get-trucks-off-the-streets-then-admits-city-needs-revenues-county-manager-says-the-dump-needs-the-revenues-solution-pick-the-tax/

News and Review quotes Hahn:

“‘The county’s main goal in this is to make sure the haulers bring their trash to the Neal Road landfill,’ Hahn said. ‘We want that measurable solid waste for a variety of reasons.’

Not only does the landfill need a certain amount of waste to be fiscally sound, but it also allows it to pursue more waste-to-energy opportunities, he said.

What the county would like to see is for the city’s haulers to agree to bring their waste to the landfill.”

 

In past Recology has trucked trash they collected here to their state-of-the-art facility near Wheatland. When they refused to bring trash to Neal Road, they lost the contract for residential service in Chico. 

Of course the Neal Road dump is in the Stone Age by comparison and is already past it’s capacity. You realize, that big plastic-covered mountain you see from the freeway used to be a canyon?  How will they fit more trash in that place? By getting rid of the only septage ponds in Butte County. How could they do that when they know most of Butte County is on septic tanks? Sounds like they’re trying to pull something, huh?

There is the City Sewer Treatment Plant out by the river west of town, why not truck it there, you ask? I couldn’t find the discussion they had at Butte County Supervisors’ chambers, but I think it went something like this. Chico Treatment Plant is already  at capacity, but they are in the same quandary as the dump – they still need more money for salaries and pensions.

The sewer fund, as told by our former mayor Mark Sorensen, was tapped out by fund transfers. Like the road fund, all the money had been trickled out by way of “appropriations” to pay salaries and benefits in other departments. They want more sewage out there, but they have the same problem as the dump – the sewer treatment plant needs a massive expansion, just to handle the new sewer hook-ups going on all over Chico right now. The city actually ran trunk  lines on private property, free of charge,  to encourage people in Chico to hook up.

Now they are making a deal to take Paradise sewage. But no room for Chico septic tanks? Looks like we’re out of luck! Looks like we’ll all end up going on sewer too! 

You think you sewer rats will get off easy? Take a look at your bill sometime, keep looking, cause sewer charges are going up, up, up!

I know – this is a racket.  You know too. Get off the pot and say something about it. 

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Response from my county supervisor

15 Apr
Kirk, Maureen <MKirk@buttecounty.net>
 
Yesterday, 7:45 AM
You;
Hahn, Paul (PHahn@buttecounty.net);

Mannel, Bill (bmannel@buttecounty.net)

 
It should be there soon.

Trying to pry public information out of the public “servants”

14 Apr
Re: some questions about the septage ponds at Neal Road
 
Today, 5:56 AM
Kirk, Maureen (mkirk@buttecounty.net);
PHahn@buttecounty.net (phahn@buttecounty.net)
Hi,

I still have not had any response from Bill Mannel.  I looked over Board of Supervisors agendas and minutes and the reports are very incomplete. I’m sorry to bother you people, but the public is not being engaged in this discussion. 

I contacted the city of Lincoln and they say they don’t know anything about this deal. The agenda for Tuesday’s meeting only says, “The Board recently approved a contract for the transfer and disposal of septage at a facility in Lincoln, CA, and the Department has contracted with Carollo Engineers to provide design, engineering, and construction support for this proposed septage transfer station”

Minutes for the September discussion are very incomplete. These reports don’t tell the public anything.

It looks like you are trying to run this deal under the radar as far as possible. Remember what happened with your garbage deal – you didn’t engage the public soon enough, and when you did, you got, and I’m quoting Mr. Hahn – “phones ringing off the hook for two weeks.”  Newsflash – they’re still mad. 

 I can’t believe Staff has not analyzed the cost to septic tank owners. You need to get that information out there before you force us into this deal. 

Juanita 

but a 26 year old resident with no criminal record is executed in his living room for waving a piece of the door the cops busted down…

8 Apr

What the hell is wrong with our town? 

Our county spends $63 million on Behavioral Health but when a family is having a crisis they sent two armed cops. A young man is appealing for help – instead he gets a taser. When he reacts normally to being electrocuted the cops blow his head off and send at least a dozen bullets into neighboring apartments.

We need to dump our district attorney, our police chief and our city manager.  We need to dump the top 10 highest paid staffers in Behavioral Health and hire more mid-range salary counselors. We need to demand these people actually live in Chico or at least Butte County – the top paid BH staffers live in Yuba City and who knows where – the top paid BH staffer does not even come to Butte County to work but communicates with her staff and the board of supervisors via Skype.

Chico Supervisors Larry Wahl (Dist. 2) and Maureen Kirk (Dist. 3) are both up in 2018. They’ve allowed this.  Let them know what you think.  That’s

LWahl@buttecounty.net

MKirk@buttecounty.net

 

 

Why are serial criminals released again and again, only to commit more violent crimes? Ask your county supervisors, ask Mike Ramsey.

7 Apr

I had the news on yesterday evening while I was getting dinner together, and I heard a name I recognized – James Henry Newsome.

Newsome is being sought by the Butte County Sheriff’s office for failure to appear.  He is accused of starting fires – usually garbage cans or dumpsters – including the firebombing of an apartment near Chico State. He was seen throwing “something burning” into the window of the apartment, and by the time Chico Fire arrived on scene the inside of the room he torched was a complete loss.

I used to have a picture posted here –

https://chicotaxpayers.com/2016/05/21/there-is-no-accountability/

the young resident’s bed was completely incinerated, the mattress just gone, the metal frame twisted up into what looked like modern art. Can you imagine what would have happened if the woman had been home that night? 

But this man was released, having been released time and time again.  And now we are supposed to be surprised that he has wandered off to wreak havoc somewhere else? 

Or is he still hiding here, camped out under a tangle of blackberry vines in Bidwell Park, waiting to set your trash can on fire one night? 

Our county supervisors and district attorney are to blame here. Ask your county supervisor why Chico has become a dumping ground for violent criminals, demand that Ramsey spend more money and time prosecuting these people.

We are really to blame for this problem if we don’t demand action from our elected officials. Ramsey, Wahl and Kirk are all up for re-election in 2018, let them know that. 

 

 

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Bums putting the pressure on long time local businesses, meanwhile, $215,000/year city manager demands $63,000/year park rangers carry guns, make arrests

6 Apr

Yesterday I went to Safeway on Mangrove to pick up some groceries, and I had to ask myself – am I shrinking, or are these carry baskets getting bigger? 

So I couldn’t resist, when my checker made the usual small talk, I asked him about it. He didn’t seem too eager to talk at first,  saying the baskets were sent by a contract distributor, that Safeway didn’t really have anything to do with it. 

I said, “That makes sense, I notice there’s usually advertising on them.” I figured, the baskets are probably  free or very cheap to Safeway because of the advertising.  But the word “advertising” loosened my checker’s tongue, he said, “yeah, but with the transients stealing them and leaving them laying all over town, it was becoming bad advertising for Safeway…”  So now they are just plain brown baskets, they don’t even have the Safeway logo on them anymore.

Oooooo! I get it! I actually found one of the old ones in front of my house on Palmetto. I watched it scoot along the gutter for a couple of days before I picked it up and took it back to Safeway. I just walked right in with it and dumped it in the stack by the door as I grabbed a wheeled cart.  I figured a neighborhood kid had stolen it for a prank, and never mentioned it to anybody. 

According to my checker, these baskets were being found in and along Chico Creek, particularly near One Mile. Well, again, that makes sense. The creeks and the park have become illegal campgrounds. 

Yesterday walking my dog in middle park, I noticed another new trail, heading right into a dense tangle of blackberry and other non-native overgrowth. 

Meanwhile, the city of Chico discusses arming park rangers.

http://www.chicoer.com/general-news/20170405/chico-park-rangers-could-become-armed-sworn-officers

“The city is facing increased “criminal behavior” in its parks and public spaces, O’Brien said. Park rangers are encountering a criminal element with “much greater frequency” than in the past.

“’We want both the public enjoying our parks and our park staff to be as safe as possible,’ O’Brien said. ‘The issues in the park include a more sophisticated criminal element, not simply kids trying to sneak alcohol into Bear Hole or people letting their dogs off leash as in years past.’”

When I asked the checker at Safeway if they’d reported their problems to the city or the police, he frowned and shook his head. A sour “yes” was his verbal answer. I offered, “but they don’t do anything?” A sour look and a shake of the head was the answer to that.

If you look at the city’s salaries, available here:

http://publicpay.ca.gov/Reports/Cities/City.aspx?entityid=79&fiscalyear=2015

The first pages, sorted by salary, are full of police and fire employees, with salaries over $100,000/year,  plus packages starting at $35,000, as high as $65,000/year. 

Park ranger appears pages later, with a salary of about $63,000/year and a much smaller package.

The story in the paper says rangers have been told they have 15 months to make a decision – do they want to carry a “firearm” and make arrests in the park? Or get another job. 

“On top of that, Orme ($215,000 in salary with an $80,000 benefits package) said there is no dramatic increase in revenue projected that would allow for more city employees, and resources are already limited.”

Look at the government compensation charts for the last few years – police and fire salaries have been going up-up-up.  The city manager’s salary has increased by over $10,000 in the last five or six years. 

I think Mark Orme should have to go out in the park and roust the bums. 

 

Bum friendly = business hostile

29 Mar
0329170839

Welcome to Chico’s newest homeless camp at 2580 Notre Dame Blvd!

My husband and I are landlords, and we’re turning over a rental right now, so we’ve been making a few trips to Home Depot, off Skyway on Notre Dame Blvd.

The store building pictured above was built in the adjacent parking lot some years after Home Depot opened. It housed an office supply business, and later one of those “Dollar” or “99 Cent” stores. It’s been empty for a couple of years now.

Bad planning. There’s another empty building right next door.

0329170839b

I can’t remember what was in this building originally, but now it’s empty and becoming a total eyesore. What’s with all the trash?

So, now we have these two, huge empty buildings. Get a load of the torn canopy on the first building – you know, this city has a code, and people who get paid for code enforcement, and this is all against the code. 

Send a complaint to the city? Read about that here:

https://chicotaxpayers.com/2017/01/18/city-of-chico-fiddles-while-rome-burns/

I’ve written post after post about trying to get the city to deal with homeless encampments in Middle Bidwell Park. That and a five-spot might get me a cup of coffee. 

What about private property owners? When my  husband mentioned the illegal campers to the checker at Home Depot, the man said, “Again!?!”.   That was it. 

Home Depot is right down the street from the Joel Castle’s “Farm”.

https://www.newsreview.com/chico/homeless-camp-shut-down/content?oid=23786829

It took the city and county months to roust that camp, even though they knew it was happening all along  – Castle made no attempt to hide what he was doing from the beginning. 

This is  a pattern – a policy – with the county and the city. The county tolerates many illegal camps, one of which was the scene of a horrific murder. 

http://www.chicoer.com/article/NA/20160105/NEWS/160109904

This policy is fueled by revenues the county receives for taking in these people at various facilities. Behavioral Health Director Dorian Kittrell told me the county receives $550 a day for each person they board in one of their facilities.  They are allowed to hold people up to 45 days when they are deemed to be “a  danger to themselves or others.”  When that 45 days is up they are referred to  shelters in Oroville and Chico.  That’s it – “referred” – with no requirements that they check in.  

These people are brought here from towns all over California. Some cities are not as generous as Chico or Butte County, they only tolerate a small  number of “beds” – when they don’t have a “bed” for somebody, they send them here, apparently happy to pay the $550/day just to get these people out of their towns.

You might be used to seeing these people here – go to other towns, you will find places where they don’t have filthy people laying all over their parks and other public spaces, panhandling, urinating and defecating on the ground, shooting drugs in the restrooms. 

Chico and Butte County have become an insane asylum. Business hostile? It’s resident hostile too.

Randall Stone takes responsibility for phony election mailer, says it was legal

24 Mar
1027161440a

City of Chico Elections?

When I found this post card in my mailbox, I did a double take – it looked like an official city of Chico mailer, but I realized – there is no “City of Chico Elections” department.

https://chicotaxpayers.com/2016/11/03/looks-like-neither-karl-ory-ann-schwab-randall-stone-nor-tami-ritter-have-any-respect-for-the-voters-or-the-rules/

A couple of readers asked me to follow up on this post – so I sent an e-mail to the county and city clerks’ offices, and cc-d Karl Ory and Randall Stone. I left Ann Schwab off by mistake, but intentionally ignored Tami Ritter because she seems to have to have done a Rumpelstiltskin since losing to Karl Ory, her running mate.

I got an immediate response from Randall Stone, who was able to retain his seat in the election. 

“1) I knew about it.  It is (in part) my mailing and I authorized it (as is indicated on the envelope…that’s not counterfeit).
2) I sent it (in part).  I paid for it (in part).  Both of these details are part of my campaign disclosures.
3) I’m sorry you find it misleading.
4) It is legal (and not uncommon).
5) I don’t know who you should ask and for what purpose.  But if you believe something about it is untoward, I would encourage you to ask anyone you feel appropriate – up to and including the FPPC.
Sorry I can’t be of more help than that.  We get a lot of accusations of violations about any number of things (you wouldn’t believe some of the wild charges that have been levied in the past), including requests for us to file accusations against our “opponents” or detractors.  Generally, I leave these types of requests for others to address.  I haven’t got the time.

Randall”

The city clerk’s office is responsible for accepting filings from candidates and groups who want to place items on the ballot, but she told me, “I do not have any authority over mailer content and format.”

The city clerk had forwarded my inquiry to the county clerk, who asked me if I wanted to come in to her office to talk about it? What? Why can’t you just give somebody a straight answer Candy Baby? 

She’s still pissed at me over this:

https://chicotaxpayers.com/2016/11/02/grubbs-resents-my-asking-questions-about-missing-ballots-thrown-out-ballots-undeliverable-ballots/

https://chicotaxpayers.com/2016/11/07/turn-those-ballots-in-according-to-butte-county-clerk-less-than-a-third-of-mail-in-ballots-had-been-received-by-october-29-with-1789-of-them-undeliverable/

https://chicotaxpayers.com/2016/11/12/grubbs-claims-20000-uncounted-ballots-will-not-affect-election-results/

So, there’s election accountability in Chico and Butte County – two women who just won’t do their jobs, and candidates who do whatever they want. And then there’s the voters, who apparently couldn’t care less.

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