Tag Archives: Scott Gruendl Chico Ca

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss…

21 Aug

Sheesh I hate those night time meetings. I keep saying I won’t attend another one – for what purpose? The usual circus, freak show and bullshit storm? Sitting all night fielding their garbage, three minutes to puke out my thoughts, and then sit/stand and wait while they wax moronic for another 50 minutes? 

What I really hate is, they get to respond to your remarks, say whatever they want, but you don’t get to respond to their response. That’s why I went down there last night and asked them to leave the morning meetings alone.  I’m not sure what they actually voted to do, but it sounded as though they will actually be adding meetings.

At last I got in on a real  movement – remember Folks, what Arlo Guthrie said, in Alice’s Restaurant and Massacree:

 “One Guy is NUTS, Two Guys are (not politically correct), but THREE GUYS, THAT’S A MOVEMENT! “

Well, more than three guys stood up last night to tell council that the committee meetings are important. In fact, the Art Commission made a regular run on the place – out of 15 speakers I’m going to say at least nine spoke directly in favor of keeping the arts commission in tact. A lot of them just spoke about how bad we need art, but most of them spoke of the need for more public input in general. Jessica Allen actually said she agreed with me – stop the presses!

Several members of council, including Ann Schwab, expressed the same sentiment. Schwab remarked that many people don’t like to come to council meetings. Boy is she right. For years I’ve sat through meetings she agendized and ran poorly, hours into the night discussing “proclamations” about human trafficking and corporate personhood. Goloff seemed worse – my husband timed her one night – it took her almost 5 minutes to explain how to fill out a speaker card.  

I almost expected last night’s meeting to be better run, but it was more of the same shit we got from Schwab and Goloff.  Five items agendized as one, and the conversations all over the place. Gruendl even joked about speakers having three minutes to discuss 5 items – oh ha ha Scott, you suck.

Mark Sorensen, Mary Goloff and Scott Gruendl all said public meetings cost a lot of money. Mark Sorensen says they take staff away from other important activities, but wouldn’t elaborate. I’m saying, BULLSHIT BRUDDAH! What do they do Downtown that they can’t do in front of the public? They have conversations with stake holders, do special favors for people “under the wire” as Bob Summerville likes to say, that’s what they do down there.

Just when I thought they were going to move to end the committee meetings,  Scott did something funny I saw him do during a committee discussion about canning the Economic Development Committee – he actually ended up expanding that committee, with some of the meetings occurring between staff and local business owners, other at the city building, and all supposedly open to the public. They’re even hiring a new Economic Development Director, as if we can afford another management salary. All out of a suggestion Nakamura made to get rid of that committee.  

Ha ha Brian. I see Nakamura sitting at those meetings like a corpse, I know his life is hell, I’m waiting for him to quit and move along to the next teat.

Likewise, last night Gruendl agreed to leave the committees in place, adding “special study sessions.” He also says, right now the clerk is working with a new Granicus setup to allow the meetings to be interactive or something. 

I really don’t understand how Gruendl’s plan saves any money, and the interactive bullshit will only be available to the owners of Smart phones. Great, another investment in already been there technology, just like the phone system at the cop shop. But, if it allows the committee meetings to stay in place, that’s okay with me.  I guess.

I also wanted to stay for the Hwy 32 widening conversation – I wanted to tell those idiots to make the 19 developers who necessitated the widening PAY FOR IT, but why bother? They dragged the previous item out for TWO HOURS, a discussion about scheduling work committees. What the hell? At about 8:45, with a mob romping out on the front lawn waiting for the sit/lie conversation, Gruendl took a break, beginning the Hwy 32 widening discussion at 9pm. Great – the reports took at least 20 minutes, and they were just getting into them when I got home and turned on my box. Tom Varga was going on and on about how sorry he was the project was so screwed up, yadda yadda. This is the man who told us, with the approval of Merriam Park, that our traffic rating on Hwy 32 was going to go from A to D – even with the widening.  He said, at that committee meeting, that traffic would only get worse and worse in Chico, get ready for GRIDLOCK, he said.  Last night he was all full of news about grants he wanted to secure – with matching amounts from US, to pay his own fucking salary, and I assume, that of Ruben Martinez, his partner in crime.  I tuned out, it doesn’t matter – we’re fucked people, this town is on it’s last legs. In five years we will have Bay Area style traffic on and around our freeways, regardless of how many of our property tax dollars are sunk into these “improvements”. 

This is why the committee meetings need to stay in place, the night time meetings are too onerous to attend. As I walked my bike around the building, the lawns in front and on Fourth Street were busy with “sit/lie” protesters, a literally ugly crowd, members of which kept wandering back and forth through the lobby doors, keeping the air conditioning running full-tilt boogie, to see if their item had come up yet. Bill Mash was doing his best to rile them up.

I think the sit/lie ordinance Lori Barker came up with is useless. This whole discussion was a waste of staff time, I knew they wouldn’t pass it when they asked Barker to take all the teeth out of existing ordinances gleaned from other towns. There are already laws against blocking a public sidewalk, being drunk in public, and camping on public property, but for some reason I won’t speculate here, the cops won’t enforce these laws. I’ll never forget  those people who burned to death in Bidwell Park because the city turns a blind eye to transients living in the park. 

I guess the news is, Chico is still poorly run, the change in “leadership” hardly makes a blip on the radar. 

 

 

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“Super Troopers” starring Chico Police Chief Kirk Trostle

5 Aug

I attended the first Internal Affairs discussion a couple of weeks ago regarding Kirk Trostle’s request to fabricate a city licensing procedure for bars and restaurants, based on land use regulation, or “zoning.”   This is one of those conversations where almost nobody is saying what they really mean.

As I reported earlier, various people in the discussion have different motivations. The bar owners are all pretty afraid to express themselves. They seemed to be mouthing a line for the city’s satisfaction – don’t bite the hand, and all that.  The committee members, Sean Morgan, Ann Schwab and Tammi Ritter, were all in their separate corners on this, with Schwab doing her best Annie Bidwell impersonation, Ritter seeming to be dragging her feet against over-regulation, and Morgan acting like the moderator of this debate, trying to make sure everybody gets in on the conversation, even if the conversation goes on in perpetuity.

Chico Police Chief Kirk Trostle started this conversation, originally wanting an ordinance to go before the public, requiring bars, restaurants, and “any business having to do with liquor”, to pay a fee, based on square footage of the establishment, that would go to the police department.  When Lori Barker  popped his ACE ordinance balloon, telling him it would be an illegal tax on alcohol, Scott Gruendl came to the rescue with an order that staff come up with some kind of zoning regulation that could be applied with no input from the public. 

Yes, this would also generate fees – Mark Wolfe from the planning department said such an ordinance would add “$5,000 – $6,000” to the licensing procedure for each business. I asked where that money would go, but nobody answered. I noticed, Kirk Trostle stiffened up and his face turned red. I didn’t make any friends at the cop shop that day. 

Mark Wolfe also reported that when council ordered him to come up with some kind of marijuana ordinance, he kept track of his time and that of his limited staff. He said they used at least $30,000 worth of staff time on that sinker. I asked him to repeat that figure. Ann Schwab later made fun of me, saying, essentially, that $30,000 is nothing. I hate to tell her, but most of the families in this town live on very little more than $30,000, and many live on less. She makes $80,000+ in a fluff position at the college, a salary that is stapled onto your college kid’s butt. Then she has the nerve to take a salary of around $7,000 from the city of Chico, plus a $21,000 insurance package.  

Ann, you need to step down, you are completely out of touch. Or, at least, please stop wearing shorts to meetings with open front tables. Don’t make me take a picture of what those ham hocks of yours look like under that table. 

But, I digress. 

I told the council I thought they were simply duplicating the duties of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. This really got Trostle’s back up, sheesh he was pissed off. He said, the ABC “has staffing levels from the 1950’s,” claiming they have only two agents for sixteen counties. I’m sure that’s what he said, I wrote it in my notebook right then and there. 

I sensed a case of “Super Troopers.” “Super Troopers” is a very off-color and tasteless comedy movie about a medium sized New England town in which the local police compete with the state highway cops for revenues. Yes, there’s sex, drugs, and inappropriate stuff all the way through, I do not recommend this movie to stodgy buttheads with no sense of humor (“who’s up for mustache rides!”).  But the plot line is still good: the police lie, cheat and steal to get rid of the state troopers all together so they can get their hands on all the law enforcement budget. 

So, I wrote to the ABC office in Redding, where Trostle claimed there’s only two guys sitting around a phone. I just told the guy what I’d heard at the meeting, and he came back with this:

Dear Ms. Sumner,

I apologize for the delay in returning your email.  The Redding District Office covers nine counties (Butte, Glenn, Tehama, Shasta, Lassen, Siskiyou, Trinity, Plumas, and Modoc).  The Redding Office staffing levels in July of 2013 were 3 Agents, 1 Licensing Representative, and 2 front office staff.  The Redding District Office is a satellite Office of the Sacramento District Office.  In July of 2013 the Redding District Office was overseen by a Supervising Agent from the Sacramento District Office.  That Supervising Agent was overseen by a Supervising Agent in Charge who was based out of the Sacramento District Office.  Additionally, ABC has two Special Operation Units, one for Northern California and one for Southern California.  These units are available to assist District Offices with enforcement efforts, whether problematic locations, special events, or assisting district offices with handling complaints of ABC licensed locations. 

 If you have any additional questions, please let me know.

 Paul 

530-224-4830  

I thought about forwarding this to the council, Trostle, etc, asking for some explanation. What do you think? I think it’s “Super Troopers.” 

 

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The cars keep going faster all the time. The bums still cry “Hey buddy have you got a dime?!”

27 Jul

I went to the city Economic Development committee meeting this week unsure whether these meetings should continue. In past, this has been nothing more than a monthly justification for Shawn Tillman’s employment. His reports were pretty desperate attempts to make himself look busy. His $88,000/year salary was being paid out of the RDA successor agency.  Well, he didn’t show up this past week, and I’m wondering if he got the sack (good riddance). Brian Nakamura was given the task of note taking and he scribbled busily in a notebook just like mine the whole time. I would give $5 to see his notes.

At the last meeting in June, Tillman announced the meetings were unrecorded because the clerk’s office no longer had a staffer to take notes. No tape recording, nothing. At that point, I felt the meetings should be discontinued, but I wondered, how will the public be able to keep tabs on what they’re doing with all these local consultants and business agencies? If these meetings discontinue, and there’s no reporting of their activities, just what kind of deals with they be swinging with the Chamber of Commerce, the DCBA, and whatever local businesses, behind the public’s back?

We already have the “Mayor’s Business Council,” or something like that. Last year I tried to get in to those meetings – not only Ann Schwab but Mark Sorensen held me out by the forehead. Sorensen wouldn’t even tell me who else was involved, but Ann said it was Butte College, Chico State and PG&E! Well, I guess they do qualify as “local businesses.”

Now Sorensen seems to want to take the Economic Development committee behind closed doors by making the meetings at irregular times and dates, at different locations around town, with little time to notice the public. When Gruendl insisted, although half-heartedly, that the meetings needed to be scheduled consistently and noticed in advance, Sorensen said he doesn’t want consistency “to become a strait jacket.“

Sorensen seems to be trying to keep people like me out. At this point Chamber director Katie Sweeny remarked that she didn’t think it was that important to get the public into these meetings anyway. Gruendl had to explain to her about that pesky Brown Act.

Ironically, Sorensen had criticized the wheeling and dealing that went on in the Sustainability Task Force, by which a $399,000 grant from PG&E was divvied up between several members of that committee, but I guess he forgot to send that complaint to the Grand Jury.

I was shocked at Sorensen’s behavior at last Wednesday’s meeting. He seemed to be trying to ditch the public from these meetings. Instead of following Nakamura’s suggestion, and having these meetings quarterly to save staff time, Sorensen and Gruendl came up with this plan to meeting monthly with various businesses, at their locations. Gruendl kept making it clear, since he’s up for re-election, that these meetings need to be noticed to the public – but it was funny how he and Sorensen kept coming up with ways to get around the Brown Act. “If we’re meeting outside our jurisdiction (Chico), there’s no Brown Act violation…” and stuff like that.

Sorensen and Gruendl want to keep the meetings monthly, and Sorensen doesn’t seem to care whether the public is involved or not.

After that $399,000 pie from PG&E was divvied up right in front of him by Schwab and her friends on the STF, you’d think Sorensen would be a little more appreciative of Sunshine. But he’s a local businessman, just think what kind of deals he can cut in this committee that will benefit his bottom line!  He was on the old RDA “citizen’s oversight” committee, which was totally running under the radar, a group of local business owners having meetings without public notice, and giving input regarding the spending of RDA funds directly to council. When I complained about the lack of public oversight on this committee, staff and council admitted it was illegal and disbanded it.

This committee is all full of rhetoric about helping Chico become “more business friendly” – “we’re creating bridges for people to move along as they build momentum and mass…”  “create venues for people to network...” What a pile of silly bullshit that is. Sounds like the Chamber of Commerce’s job. Katie Simmons gets a salary, which is partially paid with a grant from – you guessed it – the City of Chico. Then there’s the Downtown Business Association. These entities get money from their members, as well as city grants, to help businesses get started, navigate the governmental pitfalls,  all kinds of workshops and presentations to help them stay abreast of the changing regulations and business trends.  As Scott Gruendl rambled on describing his grandiose plans for the New and Improved!  Economic Development Committee, Katie Simmons kept reminding him that the Chamber does all the stuff he was babbling about – including an ongoing series of  “Budget 101” workshops with city manager Brian Nakamura.

http://www.chicochamber.com/news/lunch-hour-city-manager-725

The website says these presentations are exclusive to chamber members, but all you have to do is e-mail or call Katie Simmons and ask nicely if you can attend. She gets money from the city every year, out of our tax dollars, she’s pretty cooperative if you approach her the right way.  I have not been able to get to any of Brian’s lectures, but I went in when Chief Kirk Trostle was having a Q&A and that was very informative.

Sorensen is a funny guy. One minute he’s all yakking about sunshine and the public and yadda yadda, but when it’s his project, the public is not that important. I think the Economic Development committee should just be canned, but I sense Sorensen and Gruendl have something else in mind.

Meanwhile, throughout the meeting, right outside the windows, the Downtown circus was in full swing. At one point, a man approached the windows wearing nothing but a pair of ratty underwear, then climbed into the trout fountain to take a bath. A group of men stood across the street on the sidewalk along the plaza, talking, every now and then somebody would approach, and one man would walk over and open the trunk of a car parked along the street, motion the person over, stand behind the open trunk lid for a moment, then shut the lid and walk back to the group as the newcomer departed down the sidewalk. Cyclists rambled across the concrete plaza as though it was the skate board park, occasionally jumping the concrete curbstones and bouncing along the sidewalk.

And the beat goes on.

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Happy Fourth of July – let’s start thinking about Election 2014!

4 Jul

It’s a good time to be an American. For one thing, in about 40 minutes,  the Rotary Club, with help from The Work Training Center, CARD, and the city of Chico,  will be offering FREE PANCAKES over at One Mile.  

I’d like to take this opportunity to remind everybody that public participation is the most important part of Democracy, and I’m not talking about a pie eating contest or a horseshoe toss. We have an election coming up in less than two years, I’d like to see some likely candidates step up for the city council race.

Scott Gruendl is talking like he’s running – on the news yesterday he was quoted as waiting for the employee unions to come forward with a better deal to keep the airport fire station open. Yeah, yeah – he’s so full of shit –  let’s not forget, Councilman Gruendl approved the MOU that linked public salaries to revenue increases but not decreases.  He knew exactly what he was doing – the same thing was happening in Glenn County, and over the same time period, his Glenn County salary went from about $50,000 to about $105,000/year – oh my! What a co-inky-dink!  And, in Glenn County, the employer pays the ENTIRE  “employee’s share” for pensions and benefits. That is odd, since Glenn County is in the lowest income bracket in the state, one of the poorest counties in the entire country.

Gruendl seems to have no shame as he strings together an impressive total of public moolah.  In addition to his $100,000+ from Glenn County, Gruendl takes about $8,000/year from Chico State as a part time “lecturer”.  And, contrary to what a lot of people believe, our city councilors are paid and benefitted – Gruendl takes  another $7,800/year for his council seat, plus a $17,000 benefits package for which he pays 2% of his salary,  less than $200/year.

If this guy gets re-elected, you can say GOODBYE to the America you thought you knew. People like Gruendl are moving into position all over the United States, pushing the employee unions into power, taking more public money to feed their war chest. If they have their way, the government will be the only employer out there, and if you don’t have a government job, you will be a slave. You will work 60 hours a week to pay their salaries.

I know, pretty dramatic. Oh well, just sit there, and see if I’m right. 

Happy Fourth! 

 

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Cutting the junkies off their dope – $70,000 a month “loss” to defeat of Measure J

1 Jun

I was making dinner tonight, watching Ch 12 news, and I heard Alan Marsden report that the city is losing $70,000 a month as a result of the defeat of Measure J. He almost seemed to scold the voters who defeated that ill-conceived grab, reminding us that the city is in heaps of financial trouble. Tsk tsk!

I had already heard Chris Constantin report this figure at the Finance Committee meeting Tuesday – Stephanie Taber had requested a report.  Constantin said they’d got their last check from the cell phone carriers two months ago, and that they’d lost $70,000 a month since. That would somewhat explain the “$840,000 – 900,000” figure he gave us at the May 21 council meeting.

Of course, that’s a projection. We don’t get the exact dollars and cents, we don’t get to see the receipts or any paperwork from the phone companies. I assume he rounds up, to what place I don’t know.

In December, Jennifer Hennessy reported we had lost $500,000 to the defeat of Measure J in 2012. Again, this is a projection, we don’t know the exact amount.

And it just doesn’t add up. We didn’t defeat Measure J until November of 2012. They didn’t start notifying the cell phone companies until later that year, and some companies were still collecting as late as February. How could they possibly have lost $500,000  so fast? In one month? And now, only $70,000/month?

These figures just don’t make sense to me, but I’m going to let it go and try to have faith that these new people are giving us the straight dope.

Something that bugged me about Marsden’s “news story” was, it wasn’t really “news” – he didn’t give any details, didn’t mention Constantin or the Finance Committee, no real practical information. He  just wanted to say that the city was losing $70,000 a month from the defeat of Measure J, and now we voters shouldn’t  feel too smart about that!  Scott Gruendl called it a “threat to Democracy” – what, voting? Scott thinks Democracy is when everybody votes his way. 

If  Marsden had been at that meeting, he would have heard Constantin’s first report, detailing the shenanigans undertaken by $taff over the last ten years – money moved from fund to fund to make certain expenditures legal, without any supervision; purchases made without supervision; development fees deferred for work performed, without any oversight by the accounting department; budgets padded so department heads would get an excess that they would be forced to “spend or lose”; and on and on.  Maybe if Mr. Marsden had taken his eyes of his teleprompter for two seconds, he’d understand why the voters put a wooden stake through Measure J.

Scott Gruendl heard every word – he chairs the Finance Committee. His only reaction was to question Constantin – “wait, didn’t we vote to do this, didn’t we vote to do that…”, mumbling into his shirt sleeve.   If I were Gruendl, I wouldn’t be planning to run in 2014. 

Let’s have some more perspective here. While we’re supposedly losing $70,000/month to the defeat of Measure J, we’re losing more than twice as much – about $158,000 a month –  paying  the “employee share” of pensions.  That was the figure for 2012. We pay more every year, as their wages creep up, and their “share” – which WE pay –  goes up correspondingly.  Management just got a gi-NOR-mous pay raise – about $30,000 a department head – but still only pay 4 percent of their pension premium. OUCH!

Some nerve these assholes have – and that includes “news reporter” Alan Marsden – complaining that the voters (oh damn that DEMOCRACY!) pushed back against an illegal taking. Screw US for demanding some accountability Downtown!   

Here’s some more perspective – remember how they HOWLED about spending $150,000 on the election for Measure A?  That’s got to sound funny in light of this $158,000 a month figure they spend on their own benefits. In fact, I’m going to use the EMBEZZLE word again, cause that’s how I see it. 

 

 

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City stoops to emminent domaining private property to pay their salaries – THIS IS AGENDA 21

1 Jun

From this coming Tuesday’s council agenda:

3.1.  HEARING ON ACQUISITION OF INTEREST IN REAL PROPERTY BY EMINENT DOMAIN FOR THE BICYCLE PATH – LITTLE CHICO CREEK TO 20TH STREET PARK  Hearing on the public use and necessity of acquisition of property rights at 1377 Humboldt Avenue by eminent domain for: Bicycle Path – Little Chico Creek to 20th Street Park Project. The City budgeted funds for the construction of the new bicycle facility and must acquire additional right-of-way from a property owner to construct the project.  By notice letter dated 5/13/13, Laura and Jerry Douglas, the property owners of 1377 Humboldt Avenue, were advised of this hearing, of the City’s intent to purchase right-of-way and improvements, and that the property owner should submit a request in writing within 15 days of the date of the letter if the owner wished to be heard at this meeting. No request was received as of the date of preparation of this agenda. Compensation is not the subject of this hearing. (Report – Ruben Martinez, Public Works Department Director) Recommendation – Adoption of the following resolution: RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CHICO FINDING THAT THE PUBLIC INTEREST AND NECESSITY REQUIRE THE ACQUISITION OF INTEREST IN REAL PROPERTY LOCATED AT 1377 HUMBOLDT AVENUE IN CONNECTION WITH A PROJECT TO CONSTRUCT A PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE OVER LITTLE CHICO CREEK CONNECTING HUMBOLDT AVENUE TO 20TH STREET COMMUNITY PARK AND AUTHORIZING THE INITIATION OF AN EMINENT DOMAIN ACTION TO ACQUIRE SUCH PROPERTY (ASSESSOR’S PARCEL NO. 004-374-032)

And here the real reason behind it, in an e-mail from $taffer Tom Varga:

Ms. Taber-
 
Thank you for your patience for my reply.
 
Yes you were looking at the right project when you checked the “2012 Chico Urban Area Bicycle Plan”. Regarding the work to be done with acquiring the Douglas parcel, there are sufficient funds to accomplish this task and that was what I had in mind when describing it as having no budgetary impact. Construction funds will at the very least come from the Bicycle Improvement Fund. The City Council will decide in its budget deliberations when and how much is appropriate. In the meantime, staff will continue to look for other funding sources to improve on this. As an important point of information, once all of the needed easements have been secured, (the Douglas acquisition being the final piece), then the City is qualified for many more grants it can not yet apply for. Nevertheless, eminent domain is a powerful tool that should be invoked as the exception and not the rule. The City has been negotiating with the Douglas family for several years now and if an impasse is reached, then such a tool may be considered. State and Federal laws are very stringent in giving the highest reasonable valuation to any property acquisition by a public agency. Given the consequences of such a choice, it is very much a public process with a difficult decision placed before the City Council.
 
Regarding the Bicycle Plan (from which the various items are being referenced in our email chain), that is a topic that is basically different from the project or the acquisition under consideration. Your observations refer to a generalized list of potential funding sources to accomplish all of the goals in the plan. Likewise, the Bicycle Plan is a long-term plan with the understanding that not every listed project may actually be realized. Coincidentally, the City is starting a major update of its Bicycle Plan. This would be an ideal time to join in this review if you find topic important to you. By copy of this email, I will ask Tracy Bettencourt who is working as our bicycle coordinator to contact you about your interest in the matter.
 
If there are other questions, or if I can be of further assistance, please contact me at your convenience.
 
Sincerely,

>>> Tom Varga 4/5/2013 8:09 AM >>>

What Varga doesn’t mention here is that he needs to secure these grants to pay his own salary.  Varga made over $113,000 in salary alone in 2012, and then we pay for all but 4 percent of his benefits and pension.  $taff is desperate to get these grants.
Scott Gruendl is all over this snatch. Gruendl, who lives like a rat in a hole over in Doe Mill because he’s not financially responsible, has no respect for private property rights. As a proponent of Agenda 21, Gruendl does not believe in private property rights.
It might be too late to save the Douglas’ property rights, but we need to turn that little slimeball Scott Gruendl out in 2014.

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Henny Penny tried to tell them about Loosey Goosey, but would they listen? Nooooooooooo!

29 May

Yesterday I put aside a bunch of junk I had to do to go to a meeting Downtown.  I don’t know about the rest of you people, but when I don’t work, it shows up pretty immediately on the balance sheet as no dinner, or clean underwear.   But, I figure, a few hours spent each month riding herd on the city monkeys is worth the effort. 

They had to hire some out-of-town gun to tell us, our city staff has been operating, as Chris Contantin puts it, “loosey goosey.” So, that’s why they called me “Henny Penny” every time I said they needed to slow down on the spending? 

I have to say – I really like these new guys. I like Brian Nakamura. I like Chris Constantin. And, I like Frank Fields,  a guy who’s been with the city for some time. I also have to say, I didn’t like Jennifer Hennessy. I wanted to like her – her kid played hockey with my kid, her husband worked with my husband on the rink in Ham City. But she was a petulant little spoiled rotten bitch who cared more about herself than her job. She was lazy, I’ll say it. She just didn’t want to do her job.  She expected to have that salary and those clothes and that hair and that little hot rod, but she didn’t want to do the work that paid for it. No, I”m not jealous – women like her make me embarrassed for the gender.

So, excuse me  if  yesterday, when Chris Constantin came into the Finance Committee meeting and gave the type of report that we’d been asking, begging, demanding from Jennifer Hennessy all these years – NO POWER POINT PRESENTATION?! – just the horrible facts, Ma’am – I just about blew up trying to hold back with “I TOLD YOU BASTARDS SO!” 

We all knew, the entire time, that money was being moved from fund to fund, excuse me for REPEATING MYSELF – like peas under nutshells. If I used the shell game analogy once, I used it a hundred times.  And yesterday Constantin reported to those in attendance exactly that – money was allowed to be moved, from one fund to another – willy nilly, loosey goosey, whatever – without any supervision from Hennessy or the Finance Department or the city manager. Departments were padding their budgets so they’d have a surplus to “spend or lose” – how many times did I tell you that? Like that episode of The Office where Michael has to choose between a new copy machine or new office chairs, and then finds out he can simply give the money to himself as a bonus and does so. 

I think most of the senior management staff needs to be fired. This is why Rucker and McKinley were fired. This is why Hennessy was quietly found another job elsewhere – it wasn’t all her fault – how many times did the council listen to Hennessy say we were in deficit and simply refuse to act? I know I sat in those meetings for years. I sat in one meeting with my then-6-year-old son, during which Scott Gruendl took a fistful of marking pens and a giant tablet and tried to draw a picture of how much financial trouble we were in. He jokingly put aside the red pen, not wanting to alarm anybody! But he made it clear, the city of Chico was spending alot more money than it was taking in. 

After the meeting, my son was aghast – “if the city is in so much trouble with money, what’s Scott doing with all those marking pens?” He noted that Gruendl was using more than one at a time, leaving the caps off, not really acting like a guy who might not be able to afford another set of marking pens. This is the same man who has voted to spend money on overpriced real estate, bar a major retailer from expanding unless they lay down a million dollars to swap out wood stoves, and who has led the city on a windmill chase over banning plastic bags that has cost God only knows how many hundreds of thousands in $taff time.

Furthermore, to listen to Ann Schwab and Mary Goloff sit on that dais and say they didn’t have any idea what was going on is like listening to the captain of the Concordia say it wasn’t his fault the ship ran aground because he wasn’t present at the time.

But let’s face it, it wasn’t just the way $taff was running the books, it was that MOU that raised Tom Lando’s salary from around $60,000/year to over $150,000. That MOU was the killer, linking salaries to revenue increases but not decreases.  It was like some kind of time release poison, it has taken us to The Brink. Gruendl voted for that MOU, in fact, I believe he was one of the proponents who pushed it forward for $taff.  The same thing was going on in Glenn County, where Gruendl’s salary went from around $50,000 to $103,000 in less than five years.

When the public found out about that MOU, it was canned, but they replaced it with this practice of paying most or all of the employee share of pension and benefit premiums. Now our city has adopted a resolution requiring all new hires from out of the CalPERS system to pay “50 percent,” of what I’m not sure. But, Constantin explained to me yesterday – even if the new hire is from out of state, if they come from “an agency” that has an agreement with CalPERS, they come in as a member of CalPERS, and they will not be required to pay the new share.

Furthermore, Gruendl has already informed us, that if we are going to require employees to pay more of their share, we will have to pay them more salary.

At yesterday’s meeting, I sincerely thanked Chris Constantin, but I told the committee of Randall Stone, Sean Morgan and Scott Gruendl that we need to get management and public safety to pay their own share of their pensions. Constantin agreed with me. He  said he’d tried to pay his own share, but apparently the union won’t allow it? I didn’t get a very good explanation. But he also said that if public safety would pay their own share, their pensions would be cheaper.  I think he meant, they’d be cheaper because the city wouldn’t have to go into debt to pay them, the payments would be taken directly every month instead of put off. So, there would be enormous savings in interest. I’m not sure on that, but I think that’s what he meant. It makes sense. 

But there it sat. They won’t push it. Trying to get them to do something is like trying to push Jello. 

So, we have to put the heat to the people who really have control – the council. We have to start holding a match to Mark Sorensen’s ass – he’s up for re-election in November 2014, along with Gruendl and Goloff. They all need to be told, loud and clear, that they shouldn’t even bother to run in 2014 if they re-sign these contracts in January. 

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A response to Gruendl and Sorensen – somebody has to say something

12 May

Below is a letter I’ve sent to the Chico News and Review in response to the letters down further. Emily Alma had written a letter and sent it to both the paper and the council. While I don’t agree with Alma on everything  – in fact, I rarely agree with Mulhullond toadies on anything –  I do agree, there’s something fishy going on Downtown. Because of e-mails I’ve received and read from Mark Sorensen, I’m absolutely positive he knows more than he and Gruendl are admitting to in the letter below. 

So, here’s my letter, I wish the  rest of you would start asking questions too:

A letter writer accuses city council of losing control of staff and two council members respond in a joint letter, insinuating “a subversive whisper campaign emanating from City Hall” against their newly hired city manager Brian Nakamura. But they want us to think everything Downtown is just copacetic. 

Councillors Scott Gruendl and Mark Sorensen claim Nakamura has the support of “a council supermajority.” But not the “unanimous council” that hired the guy? 

Gruendl and Sorensen claim “reorganization has not resulted in layoffs,” – what about the wrongful termination suit that was filed against the city on February 1?   

I wonder if the hostile atmosphere Downtown could be one explanation for the $10 million missing from the development fund, or the $50 million “structural deficit” attributed to “unfunded pension liabilities.” 

And how does raising department head salaries save money? Gruendl admitted at a council meeting that we would not see the savings from this reorganization “for years.” How many years?  

Gruendl and Sorensen insist that ” far higher levels of transparency and communication are being demanded and achieved,” but, at a morning meeting I attended, Nakamura actually used the Brown Act to keep citizens from discussing the true motives behind “surplussing” a Downtown parking lot – possible transfer to a developer.

Alma is right to be asking questions, more people should.

Alma’s letter, which appeared in the N&R April 25:

Is the council losing control?

Re “Money man: Chico’s new finance director takes his seat” (Newslines, by Tom Gascoyne, April 18):

Since Brian Nakamura’s appointment as Chico’s city manager, it seems that control of the city is slipping away from our elected City Council. We have two instances of long time, beloved employees leaving their posts without explanation, the loss of Jennifer Hennessy as finance director, major restructuring of departments, city employees nervous about losing their jobs, and Councilwoman Ann Schwab expressing disapproval at how the shakeup has been handled.

I understand that changes are needed for the city to be managed more efficiently, but the way this is coming down feels like an aggressive attack rather than a thoughtful approach to reorganization.

Now the hiring of another person from outside the area at another inflated salary, someone with a questionable history involving hostile relations with employees, adds another layer of concern. It seems that we have an increasingly toxic environment in the city offices.

I’m disappointed that Ann Schwab’s objections were not discussed at the last council meeting, and urge the remaining council members to take these warning flags seriously.

It is the City Council’s responsibility to oversee the dynamics of this major transition. I’m sure there are ways to reorganize without losing the spirit of warmth and respect that has characterized the city of Chico. I hope it’s not too late.

Emily Alma
Chico

Here’s Gruendl and Sorensen’s response, which followed in the same issue (she’d sent the letter to council as well):

A unanimous council very deliberately appointed Mr. Nakamura as city manager, and a council supermajority continues to support Mr. Nakamura’s new direction for the city.

In contrast to the subversive whisper campaign emanating from City Hall against Mr. Nakamura and Ms. Alma’s unfounded accusations about “control” or a lack of a “thoughtful approach to reorganization” in City Hall, the opposite is true. The path to positive changes has been laid out for nine months, well communicated and methodically executed.

Reorganization has not resulted in layoffs, and department heads know they may be reclassified but remain employed. Salaries correlate to new responsibilities under a leaner administration.

Ms. Alma is mistaken that city management is slipping from the council. Council is exercising its authority by restoring the “public service” focus to the organization and installing the expertise necessary to lead the city out of financial crisis.

The city has been spending more than it receives for many years, and that trend had to stop.

The city employees we speak with support the change in direction, and recognize that challenges remain ahead.

As we work through the process, far higher levels of transparency and communication are being demanded and achieved.

Vice Mayor Scott Gruendl

Councilman Mark Sorensen 
Chico

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Sorensen and Gruendl: city spending trend has to stop! Right after we raise management salaries!

8 May

I read a pair of letter in the News and Review, the first from fellow gadfly Emily Alma, and the next a response to Alma from Scott Gruendl and Mark Sorensen.

As you can read below, Alma is basically complaining about Brian Nakamura’s questionable management style. Gruendl and Sorensen, who hired him, are defending themselves. 

I don’t agree with everything Alma says – what “spirit of warmth and respect” is she talking about? Hah! The City of Chico has always been a snake pit. I’ve been approached by people who wouldn’t give me their name, but told me, in almost these exact words, “I work for the city of Chico, and I want you to keep doing what you’re doing.” I’ve  been handed documents by others who remained nameless, and told me things like, “if anybody asks where you got this, tell them you paid for it!”  I was approached once physically by a city employee and another time called at my private phone number by a county employee, both of whom explained to me the disparity between the lower paid workers and management.  The woman from the city approached me in the breezeway between the administration building and the chambers, looking over her shoulder constantly, whispering, acting in terror for her life. I couldn’t help but notice, she wasn’t dressed half as nice as the staffers I see regularly in meetings.  I call them, “the swishy people“, cause their expensive clothes swish when they walk. 

Not to be confused with “The Swish,” Nick Swisher.

The classified staffers at both the city and county pay their full share. Meanwhile, I don’t know what county management pays, but city management still pay less than half of that 9 percent “share”. And, the “employee share” is less than a third of the total premium, which goes up yearly. Right now it’s around 26 percent of the total cost of the pension, it’s going up to 31 percent next year. The total cost of each pension being 70 – 90 percent of that employee’s highest year’s salary. 

Of course, I’m not talking about new hires. Mark Sorensen keeps reminding me, new hires will pay 50 percent share. “New hire” means, you are coming into the California system for the first time. Sorensen knows damned good and well they hire most of these people from other towns in California. Until Mealy Mouth Sorensen and the rest of the fist puppets on council stand up on their hind legs and make ALL of the current employees pay their full share, we will be headed toward bankruptcy. Instead, Brian Nakamura directs staff in looking  for new sources of revenue. 

Did you know, the city is  in the process of eminent domaining a family over near Hwy 99, in order to get a grant? Yes, Tom Varga admitted that they need the Douglas family’s property because they can’t get the grants they’re after unless the bike trail is contiguous, meaning, they have to take it right across the Douglas’ side yard instead of simply routing it on neighborhood streets, like they did over in my neighborhood. These grants aren’t used on the projects for which they are specified – are you kidding? You think it  costs $100,000 to pave a strip of dirt down the side of the freeway? No, it’s to pay Varga’s salary and benefits, duh.   If you start paying attention to the agendas for these meetings Downtown, you’ll see all the grant proposals flying out. They are desperate for money. 

NOTE: I have heard from a third party that this eminent domain was denied in closed session, but I don’t have any staff report to that effect. I do however have the e-mail in which Varga admits the action was necessary to secure grants. I’ll keep you posted.

So, why is Nakamura raising department head salaries? In my opinion, given his record of moving from one public entity to another over the last 5 – 10 years, I believe he is just enriching himself and his friends, and will move on to the next entity as soon as he sees the curtains falling on this operation. Go read the Hemet newspaper – what a mess!  

Meanwhile, Team Nakamura Head Cheerleaders Scott Gruendl and Mark Sorensen are still trying to  tell us, this guy is doing us a favor, a $217,000/year plus benefits kind of favor. 

The say, “The city has been spending more than it receives for many years, and that trend had to stop.”   Well, pray tell, when is THAT going to happen? Right after this latest supplemental budget appropriation to pay the newly inflated salaries/benefits? 

You voters realize, Scott and Mark are both in the trough themselves. Gruendl is a health officer over in Glenn County. I’ve read more than once in the minutes of the Glenn County Supes meetings, Gruendl getting reprimanded first by another department head and then more recently by a county supervisor for constantly trying to manipulate other departments into his control and asking for a salary increase for doing so. The department head had planned on retiring, but when Gruendl made a play to take over his department, the man changed his mind and stayed, claiming that Gruendl was just out for more salary. Duh! 

Sorensen meanwhile took a favor from ex-Chico-City Manager Tom Lando, who got Sorensen the city manager position in Biggs. Sorensen makes around $90,000/ year there – hey, anybody ever seen the town of Biggs? I’ve seen the sign, but I look around and all that’s there is orchards! But he gets about $90,000 to manage that. And benefits. In addition to the $21,000/year package we pay for him as city councilor. 

These two are in no position to rock the boat. They’re with Lando – essentially, these people are employees of CalPERS, and what’s good for CalPERS is good for them. It’s true what Emily Alma is saying – council isn’t running our city, Brian Nakamura is running our city. 

We really need to come up with some candidates for council in 2014 that work for us instead of $taff and CalPERS.  Or, how about, we change the charter to dump council and elect the city manager and other management staffers? It’s done in other towns, including Police and Fire chiefs. 

You tell me what we should do. Below are the letters I’ve mentioned above. 

Is the council losing control? – N&R April 25

Re “Money man: Chico’s new finance director takes his seat” (Newslines, by Tom Gascoyne, April 18):

Since Brian Nakamura’s appointment as Chico’s city manager, it seems that control of the city is slipping away from our elected City Council. We have two instances of long time, beloved employees leaving their posts without explanation, the loss of Jennifer Hennessy as finance director, major restructuring of departments, city employees nervous about losing their jobs, and Councilwoman Ann Schwab expressing disapproval at how the shakeup has been handled.

I understand that changes are needed for the city to be managed more efficiently, but the way this is coming down feels like an aggressive attack rather than a thoughtful approach to reorganization.

Now the hiring of another person from outside the area at another inflated salary, someone with a questionable history involving hostile relations with employees, adds another layer of concern. It seems that we have an increasingly toxic environment in the city offices.

I’m disappointed that Ann Schwab’s objections were not discussed at the last council meeting, and urge the remaining council members to take these warning flags seriously.

It is the City Council’s responsibility to oversee the dynamics of this major transition. I’m sure there are ways to reorganize without losing the spirit of warmth and respect that has characterized the city of Chico. I hope it’s not too late.

Emily Alma
Chico

Editor’s note: Ms. Alma sent her letter to the members of the City Council, two of whom chose to respond to it as follows:

A unanimous council very deliberately appointed Mr. Nakamura as city manager, and a council supermajority continues to support Mr. Nakamura’s new direction for the city.

In contrast to the subversive whisper campaign emanating from City Hall against Mr. Nakamura and Ms. Alma’s unfounded accusations about “control” or a lack of a “thoughtful approach to reorganization” in City Hall, the opposite is true. The path to positive changes has been laid out for nine months, well communicated and methodically executed.

Reorganization has not resulted in layoffs, and department heads know they may be reclassified but remain employed. Salaries correlate to new responsibilities under a leaner administration.

Ms. Alma is mistaken that city management is slipping from the council. Council is exercising its authority by restoring the “public service” focus to the organization and installing the expertise necessary to lead the city out of financial crisis.

The city has been spending more than it receives for many years, and that trend had to stop.

The city employees we speak with support the change in direction, and recognize that challenges remain ahead.

As we work through the process, far higher levels of transparency and communication are being demanded and achieved.

Vice Mayor Scott Gruendl

Councilman Mark Sorensen 
Chico

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Happy Tax Day – give a taxpayer a hug today! They really need it!

15 Apr

Thanks to Sue Hubbard for getting a letter to the Enterprise Record about Taxpayer Appreciation Month, just in time for TAX DAY!

Her request to council was met with a ridiculous rant by Scott Gruendl, I’ve posted the text here:

https://chicotaxpayers.wordpress.com/2013/04/06/scott-gruendl-calls-defeat-of-measure-j-a-threat-to-the-constitution-where-did-we-get-this-guy/

But beyond taking a few really weird pot shots at the CTA, council did not even discuss the request. How predictable.  They’re too good to stand up there and thank the taxpayers for their own salaries and benefits, how very, very predictable.

But Sue’s letter was comforting:

Letter: Council needs to appreciate taxpayers

Chico Enterprise-Record
Posted:   04/14/2013 12:05:21 AM PDT

We at the Chico Taxpayers Association would like to proclaim April as Taxpayer Appreciation Month. Even though our City Council is proclamation and resolution happy, the mayor chose not to honor our request. So we will simply proclaim it ourselves. We think it is appropriate.

Whereas, the approximately 47 percent of Americans who pay no income tax are supported by the 53 percent of those who do

Whereas, 5 percent of Americans are paying 60 percent of all income tax

Whereas, America’s top tax rate is the second highest in the world

Whereas, taxpayers’ money is used to fund government services

Whereas, taxpayers’ money is used to pay salary and benefits to government workers

Whereas, taxpayers are the ones who are paying for all the entitlements so generously given out in this country

Whereas, taxpayers pay America’s bills

Now therefore let it be proclaimed, that the Chico Taxpayers Association hereby recognizes April as Taxpayer Appreciation Month.

— Sue Hubbard, Chico

So Happy Tax Day! I mean that.  Taxes provide for the public convenience, necessity, and security. The fact  that taxes are often unfairly distributed and unreasonably high, and that  public officials and publicly-paid employees are often corrupt, lazy or stupid doesn’t mean taxes cannot be a good way to fund the everyday needs of society. 

It’s up to the taxpayer to keep an eye on their employees, and we haven’t. The average taxpayer is asleep at the wheel, saying to him/herself and anybody who listens, “that’s what I elect people for.”

And Mary Goloff – a woman our town has elected –  has told me, if I want to have a say in the public’s business, I have to run for public office. She is the typical politician who is so high on her own fumes she thinks she knows better than the public what’s good for them.  She doesn’t think she has to listen to anybody – she thinks it’s her job to run things as she sees fit. She thinks election has proven her some kind of mental giant among the rest of us pusillanimous midgets.  And, that is makes her so popular she doesn’t need anybody’s approval on anything.

There are two kinds of politicians – the Evita type, who gets so drunk on power she eventually collapses, and then there’s the “roll up our sleeves and work together” people, like Dan Logue. No, I don’t agree with Logue on everything, but he’s quick to get a public forum going when there’s a problem. And not a charette, where everybody breaks into groups with a handler, and gets spoon fed information to give a controlled statement supporting the proposal. Logue’s forums are a chance for the people to get in there and let the public workers know what we think. 

Where was our “single use” plastic bag forum? Well, I guess you could call those 8am meetings forums, the public is allowed. 

The biggest problem with paying taxes is that most taxpayers don’t pay enough attention to what happens to their taxes after April 15. We can’t blame the council for everything  – people have got to get more involved. 

And so, on this April 15, I would like to ask those of you who think our town is headed down the wrong path, who think they have some creative ideas for getting our city back into solvency – SAY SOMETHING! Come out to the meetings, and not just the dinnertime meetings, but those 8am meetings Downtown. Look at the “agendas and minutes” page on the city website. Familiarize yourselves with the issues Downtown, write letters, write letters, write letters. 

But for now, give yourself a hug, and hug somebody else who pays taxes. I just mailed off my property taxes earlier this month, and I sure needed a hug! 

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