Tag Archives: Chico Chamber of Commerce

Chamber Special Report: $3 million for more cops, $90 million to fix roads – $130 million for the pension deficit?

24 May

Chico Chamber started marketing their proposed sales tax increase measure five years ago. Below is the link to their “Special Report,” the product of five years of committees, task forces, clandestine surveys, and other ploys recommended by various consultants. 

Below is the link to their “Special Report”.

They list four “priorities for Chico – “police, roads, pensions and fire.” Don’t let the order in which they are listed fool you – that’s not indicative of priority. $3 million for the cops, $90 million for roads, and $130 million for pensions. 

The report summary says the Chamber would like to get the public involved in the discussion, but given the way Katie Simmons has scheduled the “community meetings,” there really hasn’t been much public participation – mostly Chamber and City officials. 

The Chamber wants a sales tax increase to pay for all this stuff. Do you really want to pay for the pensions? You’ve already paid more than the employees. 

Read that “special” report here:

Click to access CC_January_Special_Report_FINAL.pdf

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Chico Chamber says if we want usable roads and responsible cops we need to shake down with a revenue measure

28 Jan
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Biscuit snoops out another homeless camp in Bidwell Park.  If my husband were a member of Chico PD he’d get extra salary for Biscuit.

My husband and I noticed the bums vacated the park during the inclement weather, but predicted, correctly, they’d be back as soon as the rain stopped.

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There in the front of the trash pile you can see some scorched items – my husband said it was a partially burned pillow and what looked like clothing or bedding.

As soon as I saw this, I thought of the people who were fatally burned in their tent, just a block from my house, on a chilly winter morning a few years ago. They’d been drinking heavily, fell asleep, and the camp fire they had made inside their tent had caught their bedding and immolated them.

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This abandoned hobo camp is just off the main trail. in a well-worn path.

It’s also alarming because it’s within a mile of my house, in a heavily overgrown section of the park, easily prone to fire. This isn’t the first time my husband has come across the remains of a camp fire gone out of control – once we encountered a burned section of grass, at least 12 by 12 feet, right off the entrance to the park from our neighborhood.

The Ponderosa Fire this past Summer was started by a transient who was living illegally at a campground.

The City of Chico has essentially deputized park rangers, given them guns, in fact, required them to carry guns.  Critics predicted that the rangers would become part of the police force and be given other tasks around town. I don’t know if this is true, but I have yet to see or hear about the kind of sweeps they conduct regularly in Redding.

This section of park was cleaned not a month ago by a community group. That is not a solution, it’s enabling behavior. There is too much enabling behavior here. Just recently I saw a piece on the tv news about Salvation Army offering a liaison service for people who need social services. Wake UP! We already spend more than half our county budget on the social services departments, with a $63 million budget for Behavioral Health, and we still need to fund these private agencies (yes SA gets public funding) to act as liaison?

I don’t report the camps anymore – they just send the feel-good volunteer group – complete with $100,000/year staffer – to clean it up, and use it as another example of why the city needs more money. The Chamber of Commerce has launched their anticipated campaign for a sales tax increase – why would I want to give them more ammo?

What we need is a dedicated group to fight the propaganda blitz with facts.  Get your tennis rackets ready, and maybe get that old garbage bag suit you made for the Gallagher show.

 

 

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Melanie Bassett, DCBA – city not providing “really necessary services to keep the Downtown vital and vibrant”

10 Jan

 

I get very frustrated by the missing links in the “homeless” conversation. Different groups are having very different conversations, and working in opposite directions on this issue.

Some see it as an issue of housing helpless people – I believe this attitude has attracted people from all over the United States, people who are not necessarily helpless, who don’t necessarily want that kind of help. What they come here for is the tolerable weather and the laissez faire attitude toward criminal activity.

The other day, I read the kind of horrific front page story I had always feared would come to Chico. A “homeless” couple had murdered another “homeless” woman at a de facto camp in Oroville. I won’t relate the details, I hate reading stuff like that. I will share what I found on the Butte County Superior Court website – these people had been arrested several times over the previous year, in Chico, and the man had recently been released from prison.  They were using crank, and that’s kind of hard to miss. They were released “O/R” – own recognizance – time and time again. Finally they got into a methamphetamine motivated rage with this woman they knew, and they killed her at least 50 times.

Years ago when I was a young woman living, working and going to college in the Sacramento area, I became aware of “crank.” I had some customers at my night job who casually offered me some, but I was a “health nut” back then, working out at a gym, eating protein shakes. I used my fitness routine as my polite excuse, not realizing – these people were politely offering me what amounted to rat poison.

But now I was aware of the stuff.  Suddenly it seemed everybody around me – from customers at my retail job, co-workers at my manufacturing job, and even old friends from high school – was on crank. I did not hear about it at college, my friends at college were too stressed out to do drugs.  It had become the drug of choice for working people – it was cheaper than coke, more available, and it made you want to work like a bastard. I had a friend who got on it when he was on a crew that installed garage doors. Within a few months he had his entire crew on it. Not only was he getting garage doors installed all over the greater Sacramento area, he was making extra money off his co-workers. 

Cranksters are under a spell. When they’re on that stuff they think the world is great, they think they can do anything. But, as you could expect, the comedown is at least as dramatic – you don’t want to be the one holding money when your friends are out of crank. 

When I think back on it I remember an almost surreal feeling that I couldn’t trust anybody I knew. I had friends steal out of my purse, threaten me, and bully me to loan them money, or even my car. I had co-workers offer me drugs and when I didn’t accept they never spoke to me again – how do you work with people like that?  Tension was building at my manufacturing job as my supervisor became aware of the problem and began to sort out employees. He was an older guy, remembered “crystal meth” from his “hippy days”, and feared he might have to purge the whole staff and institute drug testing – very expensive all the way around.

Talking to my boss, I felt we were the last people in town who were not on crank.  So, I took my grandma’s suggestion and transferred to Chico State. Growing up in Glenn County, I had visited Chico many times as a child, shopping, movie theater, Easters at One Mile, Grandma’s ear doctor, etc.  I loved Chico as a child, it was shinier and prettier than Willows, with more ice cream shops.

 As an adult, the first thing I noticed about Chico was the huge emphasis on booze and partying. As I drove into town from the Westside, I saw groups partying, drinking beer in their front yards at 10am. I thought, “I’m too old for this…” But, family and friends helped me find a good part of town to live in, instead of “The Ghetto,” and I stayed. 

Sacramento seemed a million miles away, a stinking island teeming with leeches. 

Almost 30 years later (gasp!), I have made my home and raised my kids here, and suddenly the town seems to be teeming with leeches.  Call me Slow, but it took me a while to realize what my friends who get out more had already concluded – Chico is full of creepy cranksters. Look at these people – they’re gaunt, their skin is tight and sallow, their eyes are baggy, and if you come close enough, you smell their constant nervous sweat. Just yesterday I observed a campful of them at the post office annex on Vallombrosa – Safeway moved the recycling enterprise but these people just camp in the old location anyway. 

This is a problem all over town. You might have heard they found a dead body along the freeway out past 20th Street – next time you drive Hwy 99, look at the bushes, they have old mattresses laying in there, the trash indicates regular camping.  I see the same thing along the freeway and in commercial parking lots in North Chico.

Downtown Business Association and  even Chico Chamber would have you believe this is just a Downtown problem. Council and staff have spent hours, and money, on the Downtown problem. I was just listening to an interview with DCBA director Melanie Bassett on Alan Chamberlain’s podcast news show “Chico Currents.” 

Bassett was talking about the private security hired by DCBA to patrol Downtown Chico. “This whole idea happened as a result of the city not having the financial resources to provide some of the really necessary services to keep the Downtown vital and vibrant.”

You mean, cops?

The police have cried that  they don’t have the employees to protect our town, so DCBA has hired private security “for our merchants Downtown, so they have someone to call, and someone to respond quickly to issues that they’re experiencing…”

Bassett added that DCBA is “working on private funding” for the patrols. According to their website, DCBA is currently working with the city to reassess merchants in the “Downtown” grid for fees, they say the fees have not been raised for a long time. You have to pay DCBA to locate your business Downtown.

So, what about the rest of town? I’m seeing these freaks walking down my street, I see them in gross numbers near my rentals. I hear reports of break-ins around my neighborhoods. I have transferred all my mail to my post office box, but I can only access that between 7am and 10pm because of “security concerns”.  

Council just handed the cops a bunch of guaranteed raises and okay’d more hiring. Again. They keep giving the cops more money, but the problem is not getting better. I’d say, it’s getting worse. 

When I related the story of the stabbing of a passerby by a homeless man in Sacramento, Ann Schwab laughed out loud at my narrative. She found my description of a man being “stabbed in the gut” with a 12 inch knife to be comical. I had related it because the homeless man had been a regular fixture around Downtown Sacramento, I’d see him almost every day walking the K Street mall as I changed buses in a sea of commuters. People called him “Jesus” because he wore bedsheets and would hold his fingers up in blessing as you walked by him. One  day, he was “initiating” some young woman in the bushes alongside Sutter’s Fort, and a man who was on his way to Sutter Hospital to see a friend thought it was a sexual assault. “Jesus,” whose real name was Jerry Paddy, pulled a long knife out of his sleeve and stuck the man right through his “abdomen”. The man died within minutes, never saw the ambulance coming. 

Reading about these two who murdered the third, people who wandered the streets of Chico at various times, according to arrest reports, really woke me up to our “homeless” problem. Up til now it’s just been disgusting – both having to move among these creeps every time I go out and about, and also having to put up with a police force that is overfed and unable to do it’s job. 

What really frustrates me now, is that if you complain about this problem, the cops just hold their collective hand out for more money.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Airport Commission scheduled to meet July 28 – Chico Chamber demanding commercial air service, wants city to pay $40 – 60,000 for a survey

17 Jul

thanks Jim for reminding me – the airport report, released in March, is a must-read.

http://www.chico.ca.us/airport/documents/AirlineFeasibiltyCommitteeReport3-3-15.pdf

Read it and ask yourself why we need to spend money on another survey. Katie Simmons of Chico Chamber wants a survey “of who uses the airport and where they fly”, and then she wants the city to guarantee the airline over $3 million in revenues, meaning, if they don’t sell tickets, the taxpayers pay.  For roughly 60 people who fly regularly. Many of the businesses in the survey suggested they’d be as happy to use a ground shuttle to Sacramento Airport if shuttle tickets were priced more reasonably. The shuttle currently charges $60, one way.  Respondents said they’d be willing to pay $35. Most respondents expressed total disinterest in paying for any kind of study. Simmons is demanding the taxpayers pay for it.

Read it yourself. There’s an airport commission meeting scheduled  for July 28. 

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Chico is “leaking” – retail sales are down due to traveling consumers and online shoppers, Chamber CEO tries to shame us into charity shopping

12 Oct

Months ago the city of Chico, Downtown Chico Business Asses, and Tri-Counties Bank ran a retail survey, which was available on the city website, asking consumers about their shopping habits. I participated – I said Chico does not have what I want, and when they do, it’s way more expensive than I can find it in other towns or online. I waited for the results, and I’m still waiting. 

I’ve asked at meeting after meeting, I’ve sent e-mails, but I’ve been put off again and again. Now Chamber CEO Katie Simmons has announced the workshops that will focus on the survey, telling local businesses how they can cash in on our thoughts, but still no survey results available to the public. The workshops are free, and I’ve been told they’re open to the public, but Simmons is not publicizing them to the public. 

I sent an e-mail to Simmons and Economic Development $taffer $hawn Tillman, including Mark Sorensen for shits and giggles, and asked them one more time when the results of that survey will be available to the public. I reminded them that Tillman had already admitted quite a few hours of $taff time went into that survey. We’ll see if I get an answer – Sorensen still hasn’t answered me regarding the employee contracts.   He’s no better than the “liberals” – disagree with him on something, ask him a question he doesn’t like, or make an observation he’d admittedly rather ignore, and you will get the back of his hand, just like Scott Gruendl, his erstwhile rival and now apparent paramour.

Meanwhile, Simmons did an interview with “business” reporter Laura Urpsilly.   I had to laugh – you try to tell people something, but they don’t believe it until they hear it coming out of their own mouth!

Years ago, former Chamber CEO Jim Goodwin left the chamber to take the city manager position in Live Oak, a town that is flowing over with agri-money and has no fancy bullshit spending machine to blow it out their asses. Their latest “state of the city” reports that Live Oak is just Dandy!   In  fact, I think they could make it off the sales tax from that Penny Candy store – people come from freaking MILES. 

Before he left, Goodwin came before the Economic Development committee – including Goloff and Gruendl – and  gave a very damning report of Chico’s retail future. He said, little towns around here are finally getting their own economies – their own grocery stores, their own WALMART!  For many years, Chico had enjoyed being a retail hub for these towns, and Goodwin was trying to tell us, that hayride is over.  He also mentioned online shopping, but didn’t have any statistics.  Wow, that was a gobstopper of a report,  I never forgot it. But Katie Simmons and our current council act like they never heard it. 

Little Katie had to find it out for herself. According to Urpsilly, “Simmons noted the economic development team that looked over the results was ‘shocked’ at the online shopping information, including that a large percentage of shoppers go online for almost everything except groceries.

She said the ‘leakage’ — what is spent outside Chico — was also stunning.”

Simmons just won’t get it. She tries to tell us that where we shop is some kind of charity we owe to our community, we’re not supposed to be smart  consumers and save money for our families, we’re supposed to prop up businesses that can’t  compete, and pay higher prices to generate more sales tax to feed $taff.

Simmons points out percentages about local shopping and the economy.

‘If you choose Chico for shopping, that is a locally owned business, 68 cents of every dollar stays in the community. Even when you shop with a business that’s within the city limits but not locally owned, 43 cents stays in the community.

When consumers shop online or out of the area, the community loses those dollars.’

‘It’s important to think where and how we spend our money,’ said Simmons, pointing out that the higher quality of life that Chicoans enjoy mean more city services.

Also, what I’m hearing from this bitch, is that same old crap about “local businesses.” I’ll tell you what Katie, WalMart is a local business – they are located in my town, and employ my neighbors, who spend money in our local economy.   I’m so sorry, I can’t afford to shop Downtown, which seems to be the focus of this effort.  Like I said in the survey, there are few stores Downtown that cater to the working class family.  My husband, who was raised in Chico, will tell you, Downtown has become “the U District”.  And, Tillman made remarks that the survey indicated they are not “taking full advantage of the student population.”   I’m predicting Downtown will become even more unfriendly to Chicoans as Downtown businesses stretch and contort to provide whatever the students want. I’m guessing, more of the same – BOOZE AND LOUD MUSIC! 

Shopping is not a charity – a smart consumer, especially these days, shops to save money, not to prop up poorly managed businesses.   Simmons is going to have to tell businesses to be smarter – carry goods people want to buy at reasonable prices instead of trying to shove high-priced crap on us. You want more consumers Downtown? Put a grocery store Downtown, some reasonable kid’s clothing retailers and shoe stores, and more family-style restaurants instead of these spendy “bistros” where they treat you like a buffoon for bringing your kids. 

And Simmons might also want to have a talk with whoever it is trying to plant the “sales tax increase” bug in people’s asses.  I can’t believe any intelligent person would even mention a sales tax increase right now. 

Right now, I’m going out of my way to shop outside Chico because Matt Olson and whoever are running around trying to get a sales tax increase on the city ballot. I didn’t have to buy a car in Oroville – but I’m so glad I did.   Wittmeier screwed us out of $980 on our unused “extended” warranty, and I will never do business with them again,  or recommend them to anybody else. Finance officer and owner of Santos Paving,  Jackie Santos, personally told us that money would be refunded in the event “something happened,” all except for a $35 service charge!  Jackie, you are a Jersey whore with a mouth full of cat crap. Next time I see your husband George I’m going to tell him all the stuff you said about him – how he’s “one dead Portagee” if he steps out of line with you, etc. I guess you thought that impressed us, but we bought the extended warranty because we didn’t realize our car would be incapacitated before we were able to use any of it. Thanks for a good lesson – don’t trust Jersey whores.

And here’s something else funny – no ha ha – Wittmeier charged us over $3,000 for that extended warranty, Oroville Ford only wants $1400, and we bought a more expensive car. When we questioned this, the Wittmeier people essentially answered, we can do what we want.  I’m guessing that $980 went right into Santos’ pocket, to be spent on grease paint and acrylic claws. 

I learned something about that  from reading celebrity gossip – I read an interview with Goldie Hawn’s ex-husband Bill Hudson. He was talking about Hollywood stars and divas, but it applies to everybody – when you pay somebody a bunch of money, they think they’re important. When you give them a high position, they think they’re powerful. In Hollywood he says, nobody argues with them, questions them, or tells them to Fuck Off. That’s the way it’s become in Chico – the $taffers, all these overpaid divas, just think their shit doesn’t stink! They are doing whatever they want Downtown, and we’re just supposed to pay for it without question.  Katie Simmons is just another public $taffer – she gets the biggest chunk of Community Block Grant Funding – and she’s mouthing the same bullshit – “You citizens need to give us more money!” She just stands there with her hand out, like she’s some kind of royalty or something. 

Go to hell Katie.  Today I’ll be planning my Christmas shopping trip to Redding and Anderson, and in the past two weeks I’ve ordered over $100 in household goods online – everyday junk like soap and cooking aids. And, one of my favorite online sites – Lucky Vitamin – has added a whole bunch of food products.   Just keep pushing it Katie, and I won’t be doing ANY shopping in Chico anymore.  And I’m not alone.

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The fist puppets Downtown – manipulated from behind closed doors

21 Sep

Our town is broken, anarchy reigns. I used to think it might be fun to be an anarchist, but this really sucks.

I don’t know if you ever read Woody Allen’s short essay “A Brief Yet Helpful Guide to Civil Disobedience.” Allen discusses various tactics to annoy the shit out of government.  I know this may sound like a ripping good time, but I frankly prefer accomplishing something more practical. 

For years a lot of us have worked for more transparency in our city government. Not just because we’re nosy control freaks, but because we know, when you allow something to fester and rot behind a curtain you will certainly be left cleaning up a big mess when that curtain finally falls.

For a while, thanks in part to former councilor Larry Wahl,  the city website was usable by citizens who wanted to keep tabs but can’t walk away from their job or household responsibilities to go to these run-away meetings.  The committee meetings are shorter and better run, but held during most people’s work day. The council meetings are onerous – poorly agendized, time thrown out the door on stupid proclamations, trendy theology and off-topic chatter that goes out the door and around the block.  These meetings are more of a circus, a performance event, everything is scripted ahead of time.  Council all know how they will vote, they’re privvy to reports and communications from staff that we don’t get.  This stuff used to be more available on the website, for anybody, but lately it’s been hard to get anything out of staff, and more stuff is being taken behind closed doors, via memos and reports that the public never sees. 

Here’s an interesting story from Mary over at Truth Matters Chico:

http://truthmatterschico.com/2013/09/20/minutes-edited-to-cover-nakamuras-snow-job/

There she describes a report that was handed to council and some hard copies made available to the public, but none of it was recorded in the minutes or read into the video. It was never made available or mentioned on the website. This indicates to me that plenty of stuff goes on Downtown almost completely out of the public oversight. You have to be a fulltime council watcher to keep up with this stuff, and they know nobody can do that, not even Stephanie Taber. 

I attended the August Economic Development committee meeting, during which there was a discussion regarding future agendizing and scheduling of meetings for that committee.  Brian Nakamura has suggested dumping that committee a couple of times now because he says he doesn’t have enough staff to cover it. Shawn Tillman has supposedly been taking notes, but there’s no reports available on the website. Last meeting, they decided, I  thought, to change the schedule to include regular committee meetings, meetings at which the committee could “act” on various agenda items (make recommendations to staff or council), in alternative months, and then in between these meetings they would have what they called “listening meetings” with various local businesses. The “listening meetings” were to take place at various businesses around town. 

I told them the “listening meetings” sounded like opportunities for the business community to lobby the council, and that would be really inappropriate if the public were not included. They all agreed. The committee – Gruendl, Sorensen and Morgan – as well as Katie Simmons from Chico Chamber of Commerce and Audrey Taylor of Chabin Concepts (gets CBGF money) all acknowledged the Brown Act and the rules governing their activities as a committee. But I don’t believe they were sincere. Shawn Tillman, the staffer attached to the committee, said later he didn’t think it would be necessary to notice the “listening meetings” to the public, and frankly, if I hadn’t been there, I think that would have been the end of it.  I spoke up right away and said that would NOT be okay, that they needed to notice the same list of people who’d signed up to be noticed for the “regular” meetings. Tillman repeated what I said as though he was just told to eat a bowl of his own poop. Gruendl and the rest of the committee gave their lackluster affirmative.

They said the first “regular” meeting would be this month, on schedule, but just the other day I got the cancellation. They’d also said at the last meeting that the retail survey the city sponsored in part would be introduced at the October “listening meeting,” which was quickly metamorphosing into a series of workshops for Downtown businesses. I wondered, how will the public be included in that? Sounds like a Chamber event. But Katie Simmons made it clear that she’d be announcing that survey publicly, and the public would be welcome. She wouldn’t give me the details, she was pretty stubborn about that. 

Because they don’t want the public in those workshops, Dummass! At an earlier meeting, Tillman gleefully explained that the survey was going to show them “we’re not taking full advantage of the student population…” Wow, don’t be afraid to offend anybody Shawn, just blurt it out! Take advantage? As the mother of two college age people, I had to do a double take there.  And, it offended me as a consumer – here my city just used my tax dollars to help DOWNTOWN businesses find out how to better take advantage of my  college age kid, not to mention, my whole family. 

When I got the notice of cancellation for this month’s meeting last week, I replied to Tillman, including Gruendl and Sorensen, reminding them I’d asked to be noticed of all events scheduled for this committee, including the “listening meetings.” I also asked about the retail survey and whether the workshops would be open to the public. I didn’t get any response for two days, so I re-sent. This time I got an auto response from Tillman – he was out three days last week, won’t be back til Monday.  And, I got  this response from Gruendl. 

“The presentation of the retail market study will be at the October 15 city Council meeting at 6:30 PM. Instead of a September economic development committee meeting there will be an economic development committee meeting on its regular day in October on the fourth Wednesday at the regular time. “

Sure, they’d noticed me about the September meeting being cancelled, but when did they change their minds about the “listening” meeting in October? I’m assuming this was done in a discussion behind closed doors or on the phone or via e-mail with Katie Simmons.  And now we’ll see the survey, I guess, but we won’t be invited in on the Chamber activities.  

Simmons made a point to say, several times at the August meeting, that she’d be including the public in more of these business meetings that she schedules regularly with members of city staff and council. If you watch the Chamber website, you’ll see, these events are open to the public, at a charge, averaging $20 a pop. Or, you can just force your way in to the free business luncheons that she schedules over at the old Muni building. She can’t really say no if there’s a member of staff or a council member involved. Brian Nakamura speaks regularly at these meetings, including a meeting at which he disclosed that he was currently considering negotiating with Cal Fire to take over the fire duties of the city.  That conversation never went public, but it sure motivated acting Chief Carter to dump structural overtime and change the schedules at his fire stations.  You’d think that would have been a public conversation, but it was all handled behind closed doors with an “exclusive membership audience.” 

I did make one meeting, but it was a total pain in the ass, right in the middle of my work day I have to get cleaned up and change my clothes and forego my lunch to be spoon fed crap – no thanks.  They all know me anyway – the conversation is always different when I’m in the room – abbreviated, lots of body language and facial gestures. It’s always fun to get ahold of somebody who’s never heard of me, stupid enough to give me straight answers. That only happens once. 

Some of these people – and I’ll admit, some of them I know personally – really believe it’s okay to have secrets from the public. Makes them feel special, like one of the “in” crowd.   They think some information should be privileged.  That seems to be the going attitude Downtown these days. 

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What have I learned after 10 years of attending city meetings? Be a bitch, or get screwed.

29 Aug

Wow, isn’t that great that acting city Fire Chief Keith Carter has found a way to make those cuts at Chico Fire. The story behind that is, Brian Nakamura told an “exclusive membership” audience at the Chico Chamber luncheon he was considering out-sourcing the fire department to Cal Fire. Wow, all the sudden Carter got real imaginative on ways to save money! I honestly don’t think “public outrage” had anything to do with it – unless it was public outrage directed toward Nakamura.

I get a kick out of the editorial in today’s paper, saying the department could have kept the public better informed – what’s Nakamura doing, discussing city policy at private chamber meetings? This was never discussed before the full public in any council or committee meeting.

I bet you all wonder how much stuff goes on Downtown without any public oversight – plenty! At yesterday’s Economic Development committee meeting, that was a large part of the discussion. Unfortunately, Nakamura and  council have decided to cut expenses by cutting the staff who usually keeps the public in the loop. There was no clerk at yesterday’s meeting, and I didn’t notice anybody at that table taking notes. If you don’t attend these meetings, you wouldn’t know stuff like, they have a staffer almost completely dedicated to servicing the Chico Chamber, Shawn Tillman.

Tillman was apparently one of the staffers who was kept through the makeover but “bumped down” a couple thousand in salary – he used to make about $92,000/year, now only $89,000. At another meeting, I found out, his salary is paid out of the RDA because he also administers the oft-cancelled “RDA Successor Agency” meetings.  That means we really pay him about $250,000 – most of which goes to the interest on the RDA money. 

The Economic Development Committee is currently struggling with this problem – even while we spend $38 million of our $43 million dollar budget on salaries and benefits, they keep whining we still don’t have enough staff to cover meetings, notice citizens via e-mail or post agendas and minutes online. Paubrecitos!

Yesterday’s meeting started out with a discussion about how they will run this committee. Gruendl has foisted a plan by which there will be “regular business meetings” every other month, during which the committee can take action. In alternative months, the committee would meet with the business community via “events” orchestrated by Katie Simmons, director of the Chico Chamber of Commerce.

Simmons already has a city staffer, Tillman, assisting her with business that really ought to be done by the chamber. Why are we handing the Chico Chamber a free staffer, in addition to money they get every year from community grants?   Tillman administers “Team Chico,” a group of consultants, including Simmons, who are supposed to be reaching out to local businesses, telling them about programs they otherwise might not be aware of!  This little club of matrons visits businesses they choose to visit, offering them perks and benies of Chamber membership, as well as notifying them of city programs.

Isn’t that Katie Simmon’s job? All a business has to do to find out about what the city offers is come to the website. 

This is the kind of crap that passes for “Economic Development.” Tillman gives roughly the same glossy report every meeting – “our business climate is healthy!” He says there’s been 400 jobs added by existing businesses – businesses he’s actually contacted!  Do tell?

But I wish you’d also tell me Shawn, other than contacting these businesses and then reporting it to us, what did you do to create those job? Well, nothing.  It has become more than apparent to me that Tillman’s part in all this is simply the part of cheerleader, yakking up the marvelous magic of Economic Development! 

At one point, Mark Sorensen raised an interesting issue – just how far should the city, a public entity, go to promote private business? That went out the window.

I think they’ve already gone too far. There was the Mayor’s Business Advisory committee, with Ann Schwab and Mark Sorensen meeting privately with businesses – – like PG&E! Enloe Hospital!  – – but Sorensen, Schwab and the staffer attached to that committee denied me access to those meetings, saying the business people didn’t feel comfortable talking in front of the public.   Well, that tells me more than an agenda! What the hell could they be uncomfortable talking about in front of the public?

When I asked Gruendl about these meetings, he said they will be “absorbed” into the Economic Development Committee, I’ll have to keep an eye on that.

I was pleasantly surprised that yesterday’s agenda included something like a business roundtable – several members of Team Chico, local business owners, had come in to give reports about their activities with TC. Unfortunately, Item 1 was allowed to go all over the place, at least 20 minutes spent completely OFF TOPIC, and by the time these reports came up, I had to leave. 

Unlike most of the people in that room, I am not compensated to sit in those meetings.  I don’t have a housekeeper at home to make my family’s dinner. I have two to three hungry family who have been working physically all day to further my bottom line as well, and I like to offer some support in the way of a hot meal on the dinner table. The fact that they schedule these meetings at the dinner hour is frustrating to me – how does this save staff time? How do council meetings that go on beyond 11 pm save staff time? 

Scott says having these alternate meetings with businesses, outside the city chambers, away from the clerk and the recording devices, will save staff time!

I will call Scott The Rubberband Man – you gonna lose control when the rubberband starts to jam.

Scott can turn anything around and make it sound positive. Yesterday he told us that these “industry meetings” would save money. Oh? How’s that? By cutting out the pubic, that’s how. The conversation covered the Brown Act – Taylor cheerfully announced that if only one or two of them attended an “event” it wouldn’t be a Brown Act violation. Sorensen agreed. They all kept repeating a lot of crap about keeping the public involved – I felt this conversation was almost fully for my benefit – thanks for the yadda-yadda wave Katie – but you know how some people say exactly the opposite of what they really mean because they know you won’t like what they really mean? 

It was Tillman who said he didn’t think they needed to notice the “industry meetings” – he waved at “the partners” from Team Chico and said, “you can promote it…” he suggested. Oh really? Well, I’m not expecting to see any tv commercials or giant glossy ads promoting the “event” they’re scheduling for the “market analysis” they did with taxpayer’s money a few months ago. Remember the retail survey, you might have participated? Tillman told us in June that report would be made at this meeting, but all they have are tentative plans for a two day “event”, workshops planned mostly for businesses. They are planning workshops designed to show retailers how to “take advantage” of the data from the survey.   

Jesus Christ Katie, do you have to be so insensitive?  Great choice of words –  “take advantage”   This woman does not pretend to have any concern for the average citizen, consumers are her bread and meat.  She said it herself – those “exclusive to members” luncheons she’s been inviting city staff and council to attend are “a fantastic opportunity for our guests (city employees, elected officials) and for our members…” Yeah, they sure are. Legally, they call that lobbying. Unfortunately, not everybody benefits when special interests are allowed an exclusive event to lobby our policy makers.

When I pointed this out, they all sadly agreed. I told them, these meetings all need to be completely open to the public, and noticed, just like they have been in the past, or it’s going to look like something inappropriate is going on.  We wouldn’t want anybody like me thinking there was something funny going on, now would we?  Scott agreed, profusely, his tail so far between his furry legs you’d almost think he really meant it! Simmons actually said that the luncheons would be made public, but again, I’m not expecting a big ad campaign pointed at the taxpayers. 

What the hell does Tillman do with his time that he doesn’t have 5 minutes to send a list-serve e-mail? “I guess I could use the notice list for the regular meetings to notice the industry meetings?” he offered meekly, like a little child who’d been told he was expected to eat the crusts too.  Yes, that’s what you need to do Shawn, duh, please stop trying to make it sound onerous, you little drip. 

Scott runs these meeting horribly, he’s no improvement over Goloff. I’m all for public comment, I demand it, but Gruendl needs to keep the comments on topic or step down. He let a man go off topic for like 20 minutes. I had my hand up the entire time to ask on-topic questions about the public noticing of these meetings, and Gruendl just ignored me. After he let the other man go on at length, repeating himself, and going way off topic, he let Audrey Taylor in ahead of me – off topic, at length. I finally had to wheel my chair – from now on I will not sit in a chair without wheels at those meetings – and physically insert myself into the conversation to ask my on-topic questions. At one point, I just had to start yelling over Tillman, regarding the noticing of what Scott called “the listening meetings” – I had to keep saying, “No, that won’t work…” until they listened.

I’m not going to be polite, I don’t care who thinks I’m a bitch. One thing I’ve learned having dealt with these people all these years, be a  bitch, or get screwed.

I’ll keep tabs on these upcoming “events”. 

 

 

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What is Tom Lando up to?

5 Jun

Last night we reached a new low with the council’s decision to move forward on the eminent domain of a private property for a bike lane. The worst part is, the owners say they’d go along with these plans if there was adequate compensation being offered, but the city stands by it’s ridiculous offer and holds a club up to the Douglas’ if they don’t agree.

Again, I’ll remind everybody – Tom Varga has admitted this acquisition will allow the city to apply for grants.  Mark Sorensen has said, “As far as the Grant revenue to fuel capital projects salaries… I believe that has at times been too much of a motivating factor.”  And the city is greedy – if they paid for the Douglas’ sewer hook-up, that would probably eat a good deal of the grant they’re after. 

I’m glad Sorensen voted NO on this item, but I don’t know if he sincerely didn’t want to eminent domain this family’s private property or whether he knew it would carry anyway so voted NO for the pleasure of his peanut gallery.  He had expressed a desire for the bike trail to be completed. Like Stephanie Taber said, they should have had all the properties secured BEFORE they started the trail. I believe Varga did it this way on purpose, to pressure any of those hold-outs who didn’t want to go along.  

But I’m not going to get distracted with that item right now. I feel like we need to be looking ahead. This bike trail fiasco went through the approval process years back, I don’t feel like going back through that process, or the bag ban. Let’s just remember who voted which way in a year and a half, when these people are up for re-election.  

What worries me now, is our finances, and what our city “leaders” are planning to do about the lack there-of.  Brian Nakamura and the New Kids on the Chopping Block – Mark Orme on bass, and Chris Constantin on drums –  are on the “Your City’s Up Shit Creek” Tour, with an appearance at City Chambers, this Friday, noon to 1:30. This event is being hosted by the city, as well as the Chamber, the DCBA, and the Chico Stewardship Council.

Yeah, I’d like to be there, but my family has already moved our plans to accommodate a financial opportunity for my son and a CARD budget meeting.  I hope somebody will go down there and fill us in. 

I will be at CARD’s budget meeting Thursday, 3pm, at the CARD center on Vallombrosa. The story in today’s ER says they have a balanced budget, with expenditures actually falling short of revenues – HOLY SHIT! Stop the press!  I’ll try to get photos of he momentous occasion.

Although, I am perplexed – if they can stay within their budget, why this panhandling lately? First they try to get us to agree to some sort of assessment or parcel tax, and when that doesn’t go over, board member Tom Lando tries to shove a SALES TAX HIKE onto the agenda. That’s what he said at the last meeting, that he wanted to discuss a sales tax initiative. The agendas aren’t very descriptive, there’s no report, so I’m going to the meeting to see exactly what comes up in the discussion. 

I could see a link here, excuse me for having a rubber brain. Lando has his fingers in several pies – he is a board member and past president at the Chico Chamber, and also a board member at CARD. As past city of Chico manager, he also consults extensively Downtown. This meeting Friday, sponsored by the city, the Chamber, the DCBA, and Bob Lincheid’s friends at the Chico Stewardship Council, just reeks of a campaign to get us to raise our own taxes. We need to pay attention to these people, because I’ve found, leeches do not like sunshine.

 

 

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Sleep with your hand on your wallet/purse strap

25 May

I would certainly like to think we just landed a house on a witch, but I got another think coming.

“Self-imposed Chico tax supporters take a break”

Well, I’ll tell you right away, I got a problem with that headline. Lando and friends were not imposing a tax just on themselves, they were imposing a tax on all the rest of us as well. What’s with the ER, always trying to make this thing look so magnificent – those magnificent tax paying bastards!  They’re so community spirited!  Anybody who doesn’t want to pay this tax is just, well, NOT community spirited! Damn us!

Now, please note, Lando, who sent this article to Urseny as a press release – that’s some news reporting!  – Mr. Lando uses the word “hiatus”. That means, he isn’t quitting, he’s just taking a “break, or a pause, in a sequence, series or process…”

“We think it’s best to wait for another round of elections,” he says. Well, duh!

He can’t float this turd in the same pond in which his colleague Bob Evans must make his swim for re-election. I am afraid Evans might support this tax if he thought he could get away with it. Mr. Evans told me early on that he would not agendize a discussion of this tax because there was, as far as he saw it, nothing to discuss. He said he hadn’t seen any proposal and therefore didn’t want to talk about it. But come to find out, he’s been meeting with Lando over at the Chamber of Commerce, where both are longtime members, and the topic on the agenda has been the sales tax increase. So, Evans has heard something, and I’m afraid he’s not being completely honest about what he knows or what he intends.

I certainly don’t trust Ann Schwab. She’ll play it safe for now, sure. She’s already busted a bottle of bubbly on that leaky phone tax vessel – a sales tax increase would sink her battleship, and she knows it. When I asked her if she’d put this stinker on the ballot, she referred to Lando’s early proposal for a ballpark, and indicated she wouldn’t support a sales tax “for a ballpark,” that’s all she’d say. She wouldn’t say, “I won’t support a sales tax increase,” she qualified herself – she won’t support a ball park.  She just wants to distance herself from this thing until she can get her butt back in that chair, and then you’re going to see the biggest turn-around since George H. W. Bush told you to read his lips.

I fear either of these two would support a special election for November 2013, when they could put this sales tax increase measure on the ballot with a 5-2 majority, without any immediate retribution from the voters. Ah, how the voters forget!

Well, I’m a vindictive bitch, I never forget.  What I’d like to hear from Evans before I can support him in November is that he will not vote to put a sales tax increase on the ballot without the required number of signatures on a legal petition.

I’d want a petition because I want to know that a sufficient number of voters support an election. As we were told when we presented the legally required signatures for Measure A, a special election is expensive, and there’s absolutely no basis at this time on which to justify that kind of expenditure – I remember hearing estimates as high as $120,000.  They made the Measure A proponents spend over $50,000 gathering signatures, I will feel completely had if they do not require signatures of Lando and his friends.
This issue is not going away, in fact, I don’t think they will even slow down. They have a lot of money to raise to run their campaign, and lots of lies to spread to try to get it passed. We have to keep our ear to the ground, and be ready to pick up after the phone tax fight and go at it again.
Here in Chico, you must sleep with your hand on your wallet/purse strap.

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Please contact your council with your opposition to the proposed tax increase

2 Feb
CONTACT:

TOM LANDO  – tlando@landoandassociates.com

CHICO CITY COUNCIL – as a group, dpresson@ci.chico.ca.us. Individually – aschwab@ci.chico.ca.us; aholcombe (same), mgoloff, bevans, msorensen, sgruendl, jwalker. This might be a good tack – some people are distrustful of a “form letter” sent to a whole group.  Remember, Schwab and Evans are up for re-election, but it’s worth your time contacting the others as well, they’ll all vote on it.

KATY SWEENY at the Chico Enterprise Record – Ms. Sweeny is doing her own survey, you can contact her on Twitter@KatySweeny, or ksweeny@chicoer.com

KATIE SIMMONS, interim director of Chico Chamber of Commerce – katie@chicochamber.com – please ask Ms. Simmons for her support in opposing this measure that will leave you with less money to spread around town. That’s not good for her clients. 

HEATHER KEAG, director of the Downtown Chico Business Association – heather@downtownchico.com –  ask Ms. Keag for her support in opposing this tax increase. Most of the businesses Downtown collect sales tax, and they’re going to be hurting if this increase goes through. 


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