Well, Wolcott finally printed my response to Bill Smith, regarding public salaries and where to find out more info. The more people who know the truth, the closer we are to a real conversation about public employee salaries and benefits, and the consequences of “kicking the can down the road“.
Speaking of the can being kicked down the road, Smith also mentioned the sewer rate increase. A can, a stinking can, that has been kicked around for probably 50 years or more. They’ve known the pipes were old, and leaking, leaking POOP, but they just kept kicking.
Anybody remember Chico City Council member Colleen Jarvis? Before she died of cancer in 2004, I sat in on a meeting in which she and other former council members Dan Nguyen-Tan, and Scott Gruendl discussed the last sewer rate hike – from around $25 a month to $45 a month. Jarvis wanted to be straight with the public, do the whole thing up front, tell everybody the truth. DN-T and SG both wanted to phase it in – they were a couple of total pussies, they were afraid of the public reaction. Council voted for the phase-in, meaning the sewer fund, already in trouble, would fall farther and farther behind. Fast forward today – there are still 100+ year old pipes running under Downtown and the older parts of the city, and I’ll guess they don’t even have the money to hire a consultant.
This can has been kicked around for years, without much public scrutiny. Now this sewer rate increase has finally wakened the mob – I’ll tell you what, you don’t mess with people’s toilets. When I picked up Sunday’s paper, I noticed a letter that echoed my thoughts, from a lady named Emily Martin.
“A 200% increase in five years is not responsible governance; it is the result of long-delayed decisions, now shifted abruptly onto residents.” Yup, can kicking. And then, the handing of the bag, to the taxpayers, who get left holding it.
What about Measure H? Council member Addison Winslow says that money can’t be used, because it’s General Fund money. He says not everybody uses the sewer, so the city can’t use GF money to fix the sewer. What an idiot – or does he think we’re all idiots? Martin puts him right. “That argument falls apart, even under basic scrutiny,” she responds. “We all fund services we don’t directly use…” including schools, roads, and emergency services.
Council also makes the rules for the spending of city money, without any scrutiny from the public.
She concludes, “Chico deserves a more transparent approach that reflects shared benefits and shared responsibility.” Yes, that would be nice – instead we got a mailed ballot that was deceptively printed to look like JUNK MAIL (thanks for looking out for us City Clerk Debbie Presson!), and failure to submit a written letter of protest was marked as a YES vote. Winslow sat in on that decision, a sham ballot that resulted in a FOREVER change to the rate mechanism. Without any future public vote, they can raise the sewer rate whenever they want, for whatever reason they want.
Martin echoes a letter I sent weeks ago – families and businesses are already struggling, this is just another nail in the coffin of our local economy. “This kind of increase will force real cuts to essentials and to the local businesses that keep Chico thriving.” On that note, I’m about to head for Oregon, to buy my taxable essentials. My family does little to no taxable shopping in Chico, although we did have our tires that we bought in Oregon rotated at a Chico shop and then treated ourselves to an oil change for the trip. But I realize, I’m retired, and my kid lives in Oregon – this isn’t feasible for working families. It would suck to be a family with kids in this town, unless you’re one of the privileged teat suckers known as “public servants“.
Emily, the only way to turn this decision back is to vote out the bad actors. Reynolds, Winslow and Van Overbeek are up, and they need to be turned out, like that carton of milk on the back shelf of your fridge.
Chico Taxpayers Association 