Tag Archives: Jerry Hughes Chico Ca

Enterprise Record trying to push a new aquatic center on us? Get some real reporters down there, will ya Dave?

8 Dec

I wrote a note to Chico Area Rec District Director Ann Willmann complaining she doesn’t notice the “public” meetings far enough ahead – wow, lookee see – here’s the notice for a December 16 public meeting:

Second comment meeting over proposed aquatic center planned

Enterprise Record, Staff Reports

CHICO >> A second public meeting about a proposed aquatic center will be hosted by the Chico Area Recreation and Park District.

The meeting will be at 7 p.m. Dec. 16 at the Chico Community Center, 545 Vallombrosa Ave.

Members of the public who would like to speak about an aquatic center in Chico are invited.

The first meeting was conducted in October by the consultants hired by CARD. Comments were made about the physical layout, possible programs and uses, as well as other CARD programs.

T he t wo me e t i n g s are part of the feasibility study process for the proposed aquatic center. CARD has hired Aquatics Design Group of Carlsbad to perform the feasibility study for about $50,000.

After this second meeting, the consultant will make a presentation to the CARD board about the feasibility of the project, although the issues of cost or how the district will pay for the facility have not been broached.

CARD’s master plan has included the suggestion of an aquatic center for years. Last year, the recreation district determined it would close its swim program at Shapiro Pool, next to Chico Junior High School, because of the poor shape of the pool, which is owned by Chico Unified School District but operated by CARD. CARD owns the other public pool, Pleasant Valley by Bidwell Junior High.

In September, CARD decided to explore how much it would cost to continue operating Shapiro, and hired a pool expert to examine the property. Basically the expert told CARD that the way the facility stands now, it would be a very expensive repair or remodeling project.

Comments regarding the aquatic idea can also be made to CARD General Manager Ann Willmann at annw@chicorec. com or dropped off at the CARD office, 545 Vallombrosa Ave. in Chico

Here’s the problem:

  1. the issue of cost and the issue of how the district will pay for the facility have so been broached. Tom Lando has come right out and mentioned a sales tax increase, and a past consultant raised the issue of placing a bond on district homeowners. Lando ran a survey regarding the sales tax increase and claims people support it, but the survey CARD ran regarding an aquatic center tax came back negative.
  2. the reporter opines that “ that the way the facility stands now, it would be a very expensive repair or remodeling project.” That’s not journalism, and that’s not what the consultant said – he put a price tag of less than $600,000 on the Shapiro remodel. How would you compare that to $10 – 28 million for an aquatic center?  

Who wrote this crap story? I think Laura Urseny wrote it, I’ve been in the ladies room after her, and I know what her crap smells like.  Urseny can’t take criticism, cause she knows it’s true. I’ve criticized her efforts at foisting this pool on the taxpayers, and she can’t take it, so she won’t sign her name to another crap story. As far as I’m concerned, Urseny has become entirely too friendly with agencies like CARD, city of Chico, Chico Chamber – she is so bedded down with these people, she has no objectivity anymore, and has no business calling herself a news reporter.

This is the kind of “campaign” CARD puts up for their aquatic center – nobody really wants to get behind this puppy, cause they know it’s all a bunch of lies. They don’t really intend to build anything folks – they can’t even afford to do the rot work on the Cal Park Pavilion. They need this money to pay the CalPERS deficit, and they need it now. Jerry Hughes isn’t going anywhere, and he still gets a check. Ann Willmann will need a big check to cover her bottom line – $120,000/year in salary, her package costs about $25,000/year, toward which she pays nothing. None of these people have paid anything toward their own pensions, but expect to collect 70 percent of their highest year’s salary, regardless of the shape the economy is in.

I hope you will send your comments to Willmann, and furthermore – ask her how you can view comments made by other members of the public – this is public information and she is supposed to show it to anybody who asks. 

Please write letters to the papers as well. This conversation has been held from the public too long, we need to get it out into the light so people can see what a booger CARD is trying to smear us with. 

Willmann has still not got back to me with the notes from the last public meeting. That is also public information, but see how she drags her feet like a 10 year old when she doesn’t want to do something. 

 

 

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Aquatic Center efforts go underground

18 Oct

I came away from last night’s CARD board meeting feeling like they aren’t going to fully discuss their aquatic center plans in front of me because I’ve criticized them publicly. I also saw something last night that tells me, these kind of people serve on these boards to forward their own interests, CARD doesn’t really serve the community. It serves the board members’ friends.

We sat through an audit report from Mattson and Isom. The woman reminded me of a school  teacher, she was very professional and cheerful.  I won’t pretend to understand or care. Of course she found everything in order – as long as they keep records of where the money goes, an auditor doesn’t care that they spend it all on their own salaries and pensions.  She was speaking as an auditor, not a person who pays for it out of her property taxes. Of course she gushed all over the board at the end of her report and told them how thankful M&I is to get their business, leaving as they moved along to the next item.  

The bottom line was, CARD revenues are down because the board has cut programs and cut staff, but they have continued to make the payments to CalPERS for benefits and pensions. Two of the board members, Tom Lando and Ed Seagal, are CalPERS pensioners, and Herman Ellis receives a pension through Cal State Chico. The conflict of interest seems obvious to me.  But the board moved right along to “Unfinished Business.” 

A regular item on this list, the Humboldt Skate Park is of constant concern down at CARD. From the time it was built, we’ve seen that it was poorly planned, never should have been done. It’s too small, stuck in a corner of town where no kids live, and destined to be a homeless hangout. It’s concealed by that stupid fence so people can do drugs, ride bikes, even cars! and vandalize, without the scrutiny of the non-interested cops or the unknowing public.  I’s closed due to vandalism at least twice a year, for weeks at a time. It has a bigger maintenance budget than larger area parks.  

Maintenance superintendent Jake Preston showed photos taken from the internet of “brawls” and even of a small car being driven inside the gated fence.  Board member Jan Sneed reported that she went into the skate park and had a conversation with some “hardcore skaters” who told her they’d “beat up” any high school kids who tried to use the skate park.  Instead of having these losers arrested, she says they need to  be part of the committee to figure out what to do about the problems. 

Does she think this is Mayberry RFD? 

Maintenance director Preston laid out four possibilities: 

  • leave the park as is
  • close and eliminate the park
  • give it back to the city of Chico
  • create a positive atmosphere with some supervision and even programs

I was surprised when about half dozen members of the established “skate community” attended the meeting, three of them stood up to talk about ways the park could be improved. Two of them agreed the park was too small. All three agreed with Jake Preston that the park is in a horrible location. They all blame the “bums” for the drug and alcohol use, the syringes and other paraphernalia that litters the site, and the constant reek of pee. They also pointed out that the best skate parks are private and charge a small entrance fee.  They said they drive regularly to Sacramento and San Jose to pay to skate. 

The board listened attentively and respectfully to these people. One thing I’ll say about CARD meetings is, the speakers are treated better. The board members don’t go on with their bullshit philosophy for hours on end, these meetings are very businesslike. But, I also noticed a distinct difference between the way they treat the skate board park and how they later treated the  folks who want an aquatic center.

For the skate board park, they want to “create ownership” – have some non-profit take it over. For one thing, bless his heart – Jake Preston is sick of the Humboldt Skate Park. I don’t blame him. He’s being made to be a babysitter for druggies and creeps who want to hide in that fenced yard where the cops can’t see them doing deals and shooting up. Preston clearly does not want to be responsible for the skate park anymore, and neither does the board. They want to hand it off to some bunch of dummies like the Outsiders, who took on the frisbee golf course at Five Mile.  These groups can then apply for grants to do the maintenance, and CARD washes their hands of it. 

That sounds great until that group falls apart. These facilities always end up degrading with time and neglect, and turn into a problem again. And, the skate park is poorly designed, too small to be safe, and tucked away into a corner where everybody admits – the homeless have “owned” that spot since before I was born. When I was a kid, that’s where “Bidwell’s indians” used to sit around and get drunk all day along the creek. 

But that discussion ended with Ed Seagle’s suggestion to start a “Chico Skate Board  Club” to pay for some supervision of the park.  Charging a membership fee to get in, and demanding membership cards would “get rid of the riff raff,” he says. As for the “money issue,” Seagle mentions contacting local businesses, “so we don’t have to spend any money…” on a CARD owned property. Wow, great Ed, thanks for your support. The discussion ended with the formation of another committee to continue studying things – more study?    Jake Preston handed his card to the skaters as they left the room.

And then it was off and running to the aquatic center discussion, which was a whole new ballgame.  They talked about the 15 people who signed up for the committee (only one had signed up at the Sept 23 meeting), but argued over that being too many – “we’ll never get anything done with that many people,” opined one board member. Director Steve Visconti suggested the list be paired down by having each applicant submit “a letter of intent,” with information about themselves and their interest in the project. Oh? Pick and choose, eh? This committee is starting to sound kind of exclusive.   They talked about wanting more “stakeholders” on board – they only have one right now – and I’m guessing, that’s the Aquajets manager who was the only one to sign up at the Sept 23 meeting.  Aquajets are considered a “stakeholder,” but not a member of the general public? They want people with some sort of credentials, is what I get. How about this – I  can bring my cancelled tax payment checks? 

At one point in the conversation, Jan Sneed, one of the longest running members, declared that the board needed to decide whether or not CARD would take an active part in this aquatic center promotion before there was any further discussion. She seemed to feel they were violating some rule.  So, they voted unanimously to support this project.  

While they refused to talk about funding, Visconti mentioned that the next step would be for CARD to pay an artist to come up with drawing of the proposed center.   Here we go – CARD money! This is not appropriate, as far as I’m concerned, but they also chose to pay about $40,000 for a survey that they aren’t listening to. The survey indicated the public would not support an aquatic center, but Laura Urseny indicated in her article in yesterday’s ER that they still intend to pursue a bond. They refused to talk about that last night, I believe, because I was sitting right there. 

Ed Seagle did make a remark about finding a “stakeholder with deep pockets,” but that didn’t even get a response. Instead they opened the meeting to public comment, and of course the first “member of the public” to stand up was former CARD director and board member Jerry Hughes. First Hughes argued that they should have another publicly noticed meeting, try to get more members of the public “to commit”. But, he also detailed past attempts at “getting the public to commit.” Failure 40 years ago, failure 20 years ago, and he still insists we “need” an aquatic center. He ignored the results of the recent survey, which indicated, not enough support.  Two public swimming pools that CARD has refused to maintain, a skate park they are trying to pawn off on somebody else, but we NEED an aquatic center? The people have spoken again and again, but Hughes and his friends, mostly Aquajets grandparents who remember how many times this effort has failed but refuse to see why, still insist we need this ridiculous money pit.  There is NOT sufficient interest in swim sports here to build a fucking Taj Majal aquatic center, get over it!

Hughes and another speaker tried that old tack – “what an economic boon to Chico!”  One woman claimed a swim meet in brings 3,000 people to town. I don’t want to call her liar, but I would like to see some numbers on that from a more reliable source, like local hotels, restaurants and gas stations. Maybe she meant, several meets over a year? 

Here Ed Seagle broke in,  admitting, in a very frustrated tone, “The reality is, most pools barely break even…”

But Seagle had a bad case of double speak last night.  He acts like he’s uninterested, but went ahead and voted to form a committee of Sneed and Worley to oversee the citizen’s committee, and at a future meeting, they will vote to pay for the artist’s rendering.  I’ll drop a note to CARD staff, let them know I want to be noticed of these meetings.

I’ll try to keep an eye on this effort, you should too.

I find it weird that the skateboard park, which is already an existing problem, is left to “new ownership,” but this aquatic center rainbow is getting a  conceptual drawing, a  citizen’s committee, and according to the story in yesterday’s ER, a bond measure on the 2016 ballot.

When my kid’s hockey club went to CARD, asking for a spot in the facility they planned for DeGarmo Park, they told our kids NO – it’s bad for Cal Skate! They said it would be directly competitive with a local business. But here the aquatic center isn’t competition for In Motion? It isn’t going to negatively impact the school swim teams? What about PV and Shapiro pools? Will CARD close those pools due to inability to maintain them? They’re already in such bad shape that the school swim teams “are forced” to use In Motion Fitness.  This conversation was completely different than the conversation they had with our hockey club.  And completely different than the skateboard park discussion.

Why aren’t we screaming “MISMANAGEMENT” ? I sure wish the rest of you would get some letters to the paper on this. I think we could beat it down before any CARD money is spent on it.

NOTE:  I e-mailed CARD manager Steve Visconti and he has placed me on the notice list for the aquatic center committee. I’ll keep you posted. 

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