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| The Chico Chamber of Commerce and all of
the people involved in organizing and volunteering for the Chico Airfest
2007 deserve some credit. The Airfest appears to be well marketed and also
seems to be growing into a large event for our community. This program will
draw in lots of people in the region and contribute to our economy, and
that's part of the Chamber's mission. More information can be found about the Chico Airfest 2007 at the Chamber's web site (here's a good page). The main event will be held on Saturday at the Chico Airport, but there is a dinner planned for tonight. On Saturday the gates are open from 8AM-4PM and tickets are $15 at the gate ($12 if you buy them online today). Aircraft on display or performing include the F-18, F16, P51, Japanese Zero and more. Chico Velo is even providing a bike valet service on Saturday. The aerospace industry has been the backbone of our military power since World War II. The creation of new stealth technology aircraft in the last 30 years has dramatically increased our country's capacity to project military power. These advances have assured our dominance in global affairs in the last century and more will be required to continue that into the future. The same technology and industry that developed our nation's powerful military assets have been leveraged to create our space program and many other scientific spin-offs. Aerospace advances have even helped develop our economic system. Even new growing markets, like those based on Internet sales, have capacity based on the aircraft. Without Fed Ex and UPS who can ship products anywhere in a day the Internet would have suffered from inefficient delivery and been at a competitive disadvantage. Some of the more famous military aircraft will be on display tomorrow. It should be a good show. But if you'd like to see one of the newest aircraft produced by the aerospace industry for our military check out the video below. Watch it until at least the 0:55 second mark. |
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  CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Greg Redeker, see comments below for the answer. |
August 2007 Archives
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| NOTE: I'm imposing a rule on
comments to this blog post. The body of your comment must start with
the words
"If I were
a Friend
of Bidwell Park I would [finish sentence with friendly activity]." For
example, "If I were a Friend of Bidwell Park I would take it to
lunch every
Thursday". I read with concern (imagine my brow all scrunched up and lips firmly pressed together) the possibility of the Children's Playground upgrade not happening because of maintenance costs. I don't know how much of that is a real problem. I'm also not clear what change in maintenance is caused by the redesign that costs so much, the area is being maintained today, right? The costs of concern were $15K-$20K per year out of the General Fund. The city could always re-prioritize spending. For example, I've been told that the lovely full-color Chico Today mailer costs about the same to produce. Let's see... kids vs. PR fluff...hmmm. I'd go with kids as a priority. One less charette would pay for 10 years of park maintenance. One less legal threat by the "Friends" would pay for 5+ years. Today's E-R editorial (read it here) correctly points out that the $100,000 necessary to fend off the Friends O' Park / Annie Bidwell for God Booster Club is cutting into money that could be spent on park improvements. I made that point in an earlier post (read my insightful wit and wisdom here), but the E-R makes the point sounding more professional, and has a couple more readers than I do. This from the editorial... Chico's politically active citizens have to get over the unfortunate belief that every decision has to have winners and losers. This is about doing what's best for the community. Lawsuits are counterproductive, particularly when all taxpayers would have to pay to fight against the Friends of Bidwell Park's snit. It's sadly ironic that the city now says improvements to Children's Playground might be difficult to afford in light of a $15,000 increase in annual maintenance costs. That $15,000 might torpedo the whole project. You're preaching to the choir Mr. (and Mrs.) Editorial Board. Tom Phelps (Genesis Landscape Architecture) created the design for Children's Playground (see design documents here, 6MEG PDF) as well as the design for the renovated, less hobo-friendly, Ringel Park. He's gone outside the box with both designs by limiting the use of concrete. Much of the design incorporates a revolutionary product known as "turf", and a similar new product called "plants". I haven't read through all of the design schematics but it looks like the city might use rubberized wood chips as surfacing of the play area (also called safety mulch). There was some talk of using Pebble-Flex like we used on the Nico Project, but it was determined that they weren't as cool as us and had to go with something less hip. It looks like the design incorporates some nice play structures at a cost of under $250,000. A number of things are not included in this price including the secondary stage, but the play areas are. This is roughly the cost of the chess table area in the downtown plaza. If not for the politically powerful chess teams in the Chico area that money could have been spent on play equipment. Both project's funding comes from redevelopment funds (RDA - which is also going broke). I do have one further point to make. The only "official" disc golf target in Chico is a target purchased by Gregg Payne and installed in the Children's Playground (Northeast corner). Are we absolutely sure that the Friends aren't trying to torpedo the playground improvements with their legal adventure and eventually move all disc golf to this site(See artist's rendering below)? That would be diabolical. Almost as bad as threatening to throw a kitten into Bidwell Ranch. |
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CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Mark Bohn, see comments below for the answer. |
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| Many of my blog readers (2, which is 40% of
readership) have sent me offline comments asking where all the extra vehicle
traffic is coming from.
The
roads in
Chico are clogged and the parking lots downtown are filled-to-the-rim (with
Brim?). As a blogger I'm always doing what it takes to keep my readers happy. In fact that's even part of my credo... CI Credo - "I'll do anything to keep my readers happy. Unless it's hard, takes a lot of time, costs me money, or if I have something better to do." And I've been doing what I do best, and that's cutting edge investigative reporting, to figure out the cause of our traffic problems. I've found that there's no need to build expensive parking structures or ban cars from downtown. Our traffic problem is temporary. The new traffic we're experienced can be summed up in one word... Jethro Tull. And I'm not talking about the 18th century British agriculturalist Jethro Tull. I'm talking about Ian Anderson's band that's coming to Chico on October 3rd. This magnificent band is coming to Chico as part of Chico State's contribution to Artoberfest. The performing arts page linked above also links to a music sample of Jethro Tull's "The Teacher", a fantastic song. Hear a snippet of The Teacher. Jethro Tull has produced a wide variety of music over the 39 years they've been making albums. They're mostly known for the classic rock exemplified by songs like Aqualung, Locomotive Breath, and even The Teacher. My favorite period was when they moved to a more rural sound as heard on the albums "Songs From The Woods", "Broadsword and the Beast", and "Heavy Horses". Hear a clip of Broadsword. This band has been eclipsed by the Rolling Stones throughout its history. The Stones still manage to ramble around on stage every now and again and mimic their old rocker days. Jethro Tull in contrast have become consummate musicians. This won't be a rock concert so much as a musical symphony. The long haired Ian Anderson of the past (shown in the photo above) is replaced by a mature musician whose musical skills have been perfected over four decades of showmanship. So we just have to make it through October 3rd and the traffic problem will ease. Once Jethro Tull has come and gone things will return to normal. I promise. Side Note: The Chico State ad for this band states that it's Jethro Tull and "a very special guest". I don't want to ruin the surprise, but as Tull's biggest local fan I've been asked to dance the "squirrel" while the band plays its classics. Here's a sneak preview. |
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 CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Tom Hall, with a new CI Challenge record of 21 minutes. Good job Tom, see comments below for the answer. |
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| Chico could have its very own red light district
some day. Not the kind in Amsterdam shown above, but one that converts
some traffic infractions from criminal violations to administrative citations. At the last Finance Committee soiree Police Chief Hagerty was prepared to discuss using "red light cameras" but the talk was postponed to cover budget deficit related items. After the meeting I read through a couple of memos in the Chief's packet and thought I'd share the information here. When implementing red light cameras there are a number of interesting issues that come up. The company that installs them gets paid on a per-image basis, and it's not cheap (an example given was ~1/3 of the total , or $85 for a $240 fine). Their fee cannot be reduced, and are due even if a prosecution for a captured offense never takes place. In order for the camera "evidence" to be valid local judges and the Court Commissioner need to be on board with the new enforcement tool. Even so, Judges can dismiss a ticket, or reduce the fine at will. If they did Chico would still have to pay the full amount to the camera / technology owner (one such company is Redflex). One way to avoid a local judge reducing the ticket is to convert the camera violations to "administrative citations". If you were caught running a red light by a camera, you would pay the city, but it would not be listed as a traffic violation on your license. If an officer caught you you'd go to court and get dinged on your driving record as is the norm. Other problems exist with the technology. There are products that can wash out the license plate number of cars on the images taken, but I doubt many people have bothered to install those. You also can't prosecute a non-owner driving the car if the owner won't turn them in. An engineer I know once fought a camera ticket by demanding to see the source code for the control system, tied up the process with "discovery" requests, and eventually became an expert witness refuting these kind of violations. That sounds kind of fun. Chico councilors will discuss this option for raising revenue at a later date. I would not want to see traffic light cameras installed. I haven't had a traffic violation in 17 years, and I know it's not because I'm a better driver than the rest of you. It's pure statistics and happenstance, my luck will run out soon. I also don't want us to go the direction of the UK. Big brother is big enough, keep your cameras off me unless you ask my permission. |
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CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Gregg Payne, see comments below for the answer. |
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| I've mentioned before that the city staff
have put together a list of 59 items for consideration to close
the $6million annual budget gap in our anticipated $56,000,000 10-year shortfall.
They'll then have to figure out how to fund the other $56,000,0000+ shortfall
caused by police/fire/staff needs over the next 10 years. I expect that $112million total will go down as the police and fire get less than they asked for, but the number will also increase when other city staff needs are included in the list. As citizens there's no need for us to wait for the city staff to compile all of the possible recommendations for saving money. It doesn't do much good to try to tack new ideas on to the list in 6 months after the council members have had in depth discussions. By then momentum is already moving in one direction or another. Here's a short list of things mentioned to me, and I think we could add to it, and submit it to the City Manager. If you've got some ideas add them here. 1. Convert city parking lot behind municipal building to metered parking (Mike Trolinder's idea). 2. Quit publishing Chico Today city newsletter. I think this costs $15K per issue and is nothing more than a PR puff piece for the city. It is pretty though. 3. Sell fire station number 6 property. It's on the corner of West 8th Ave and Highway 32. Great place for a Starbucks. This may be part of item #59 on the list, but if not I'll call it out here. 4. Reduce employee benefits by 1% = $125K annually. Bob Best got the dollar amount for this from staff, but I don't know if he's a proponent of the idea. Savings increase to $212K by 2016.see note below* 5. Reduce employee benefits by 2% = $250K annually. Increases to $424K annually by 2016. see note below* 6. Convert $300K merit pay for management to a bonus system for all employees. Employees that come up with cost savings methods get a cash bonus of 5% of the savings, not to exceed $5,000. If all $300K in bonuses were paid out savings would be at least $6million. If no bonuses are paid out savings are $300K. 7. Cut Non Salary and Benefit expenditures a set percentage. 5% annually - saves ~$550K, 1% = $110K. 8. Separate from mitigation bank some portion of Bidwell Ranch that doesn't have mitigation credit value for future GSD department move. Sell land allocated for police station (Bruce and Hwy32) and let police expand at current site. Move General Services to Bidwell Ranch. 9. 5 year moratorium on hiring consultants for studies. Untold riches could come from this item. Of course it could also devastate the regional economy since so many people now get their money producing documents that are rarely read by the public or followed by decision makers. 10. Invade Durham, before they invade us. So there's a few ideas I've heard. *Note: When the city originally provided these numbers they provided incorrect values. See the comment I've added below for details. |
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  CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: TJ Glenn, see comments below for the answer. |
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| I received word on Saturday that the Friends
of Bidwell Ranch Dressing were in the process of seeking a court order
to prevent me from dropping Cupcake into Bidwell Ranch. They had also
armed several out of town lawyers with Stinger anti-aircaft missiles. At the same time they had hired lawyers to enforce the hiring freeze that Greg Jones put in place before he resigned. These steps were taken to block my election to City Manager. In all they hired 32 different lawyers to prevent my election. So I made the decision to drop Cupcake into Bidwell Ranch 26 days early. It was not an easy decision. She went in at around 8AM on the 25th, fully armed, and stuffed to the gills with AntlerMax. Seconds after touching ground the faerie shrimp came spilling out of their foppish underground abodes. There were thousands of them. Cupcake fought valiantly emptying magazine after magazine into the swirling mass of convivial crustaceans. In the end it came down to brutal claw-to-claw combat. She was one glorious son of a bitch. But when all was said and done Cupcake fell to the ample arthropods of Bidwell Ranch. I blame myself for this. If not for my ego driven campaign for City Manager Cupcake would still be with us. I've learned my lesson, and so today I'm ending my campaign for that position. It was never worth the cost. I wonder if they'll need an Assistant City Manager when Dave Burkland moves up? I think I'd be pretty good for that job. |
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| Alternate Ending: My neighbors Debbie, Ken, and Kendall, adopted "Cupcake" on Saturday. Last I heard she was destined to be "Smokie". So, unfortunately, no matter which ending you like best Cupcake is no longer with us. God-speed Cupcake, may your faerie shrimp always be tasty, and your EIR's free of legal challenges. | |||||
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  CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Rainman, see comments below for the answer. |
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| On the advice of a friend I've been feeding
Cupcake a combination of Purina Mills' elk food, "AntlerMax", and Polish
dogs from Costco. Did you know that the polish dogs are expected to expand
in size proportional to the Costco warehouse expansion? I think they're
going to be around 30" long. That's a whole lot of dog. I've had some success and some failure with the new diet regimen. First, Cupcake has dramatically increased in size and her antlers are progressing as expected. I've even introduced gene therapy using a biomedicine lab I found at the recent Butte County garage sale. With DNA recombination techniques I've managed to coax out of her genetic structure the same coloration found in the black panther. Now I should discuss the problems I've run into. I'm pretty sure Cupcake is too large to fit through the gates at Bidwell Ranch. And she will soon be too heavy for me to lift over the gate. That's problem number 1, I'll need to find a different way in (possibly an air drop). If anyone has ideas about how to reduce her size I'd like to hear them. Problem number two relates to something I found in my kid's sandbox this morning (see image below). I'm pretty sure I know what it is, but I need more analysis to be sure. Luckily, I purchased a Mars rover at the recent Butte County garage sale along with the biomedicine lab, which I'll be sending in to grind and test this particular mineral "deposit". On the upside it glows a pleasant lime green at night and is quite a conversation piece around the neighborhood. |
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CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Mark Sorensen, see comments below for answer, assuming you've lived in a box for the last few decades and can't tell from the image. |
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| On August 14th the General Services Director
(GSD), Dennis Beardsley, sent a memo to the City Council informing them
that he would seek more funding in order to finish the Bidwell Park Master
Management
Plan (BPMMP). The memo states that the current cost of the plan is $498,648. Beardsley states that he needs an additional $100,000 to bullet proof the EIR against legal threats submitted by the Friends of Bidwell Park over disc golf. That $100,000 will come from the General Fund. The one with a $56,000,000 10-year deficit. That puts the cost of the BPMMP potentially at $600,000. The original estimate for the plan was $274,000 (~$200,000 of which came from disc golf and ~$70,000 from trails and other park funds). Remember that this plan was demanded back in 2003 by the Friends' lawyers. This was part of their action to stop a disc golf course from being built. In the Spring 2006 newsletter for the Sierra Club Yahi Group, Susan Mason, the President of the Friends of Bidwell Park wrote... "So, Chico seems to have a split personality regarding Bidwell Park. They love to use it, boast about it, and write about it. They may not want to spend more of their tax dollars on it..." I have to point out that we're now going to spend 600,000 tax-payer dollars on the plan that they demanded. $100,000 of that is directly related to their inability to compromise on the issue of disc golf. There was another $50,000 worth of studies and plans that were thrown out in 2003. So we'll spend $650,000 on a plan they demanded. Some of that could have been spent on the park or other needs. Let's look just at the most recent need for $100,000 which the GSD directly attributes to answering the "Friends" legal threat in his memo. What could $100,000 be used for instead? 1. The Finance Committee talked about raising the business license fee by $20 for every business in Chico to raise $108,000, so if every business in Chico pays $20 dollars we can pay for the "Friends" latest legal adventure 2. The annual salary of 2 Park Rangers 3. The annual salary of 3 park maintenance workers 4. 4 play structures for kids, or one complete play area for a park 5. 4-18 hole disc golf courses 6. 6 new chess tables to go with the ones we already have 7. 60% of the annual funding for the Butte County Library 8. 1.5 years of funding for the Chico Creek Nature Center 9. 6 Years funding for the Chico Cat Coalition 10. The amount of money I would accept to end my campaign for City Manager, and thus save Cupcake This has become totally absurd. Here is the memo (1MEG PDF) |
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CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Brian Ray, see comments below for the answer. |
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| At yesterday's Finance Committee meeting
the councilors (Wahl, Gruendl, Flynn) discussed 15 items from the budget
deficit reduction matrix previously supplied by city staff. There are
59 items in total that will be discussed over 2-4 more committee meetings.
In attendance were just over 30 people, 22
of
which
receive
paychecks
from
the
city. I would not say it went well. Let me explain why I feel that way. Last June the City Council asked City Manager Greg Jones to come up with budget reduction recommendations. They were asking for HIS suggestions. What they received was a list of 59 items compiled by the staff. They've yet to receive any recommendation from the person managing the budget or the city. Many of these ideas for cutting costs or raising revenue still do not have financial impact associated with them. Some of them have absolutely no impact on the budget deficit. I'll briefly go through each item. If you have more in depth questions on a specific item I might have more information, so feel free to ask questions. 1. A consultant suggested that improving efficiency of the city vehicle fleet could save $250K. Fire Chief Brown said that he had never seen the report, and neither had the police (who run the larger more expensive vehicle fleets). Brown said a vehicle problem last year cost them an unexpected $250K which would have wiped out any savings. He felt this item may not create any realistic savings. 2. A consultant made small suggestions on where the city could save on energy usage as part of a free audit. They said for a $30K contract they could tell the city how much more money might be saved on energy reduction. The city has already taken a number of steps towards reducing energy use. This item came with no real cost saving estimate, and would actually cost money in the short term. 3. Implementing a tiered PERs plan for new employees could save money in 15-20 years. Police Chief Hagerty stated that tiered or reduced retirement benefits could impact retention and create divisions in safety personnel. This would require a renegotiation with unions. Councilors did not seem keen on this idea. 4. Canceling the Cohasset road widening project would save a lot of money ($10million) and was discussed. But this is an RDA project and has nothing to do with the $56-$112million deficit. It was removed from the list when that was pointed out by the audience. 5. Eliminating the cost of living adjustment for 1 year would save $1.6million and would reduce the accumulated debt over the next ten years. This was the only large dollar item related to city employee pay that seemed to breeze through the discussion. 6,7,8. Allowing more flexible work situations and even mandating a shorter work week were discussed with these items. But there were no dollar amounts associated with these deficit reduction items. 9. The city sometimes keeps job positions funded even though they haven't filled the positions. Those unfilled salaries can be used to hire hourly employees as long as they don't exceed union mandated maximum work hours. Eliminating these positions could save $110K, but in all likelihood the departments who had the positions eliminated would get some replacement money for hourly employees. 10. I'm not sure who would have to implement 3rd party indemnification from litigation clauses. I assume this was directed at developers but no dollar amount was given as to what this item would do to help reduce the budget. 11. Increasing parking fines from $15-$20 would raise $130K. 12. A fee used to cover the processing cost of a business license could be added. The fee would be $20 and would be on top of existing business license costs. $108K was estimated as the amount of money this would raise. 13. It was suggested that increasing fire inspectors / inspections would bring in $25K per inspector and force property owners to upgrade their properties. Chief Brown stated that each inspector actually costs $75K, so this would be a $50K loss. 14. City employees in management positions get merit pay for doing their job. I tried to find out if anyone doesn't earn merit pay that has the ability to do so. The answer seemed to be that everyone gets some merit pay. That sounds more like pay. Things like merit pay, which are intended to award good employees have a tendancy to become "expected". If all city managment are receiving merit pay, and it sounds like they are, then it has become an expected part of their compensation. That's my opinion anyway. Chief Hagerty pointed out that some employees can earn merit pay, but have reached a pay schedule maximum that prevents them from getting "merit" income on top of the pay they earned. Which would make some aspects of the system seem unfair. This was said to be valued at $300K. I can't see how this is an annual savings. So it must be a one-time savings, or a time-limited savings. In private companies you often see bonuses associated with cost reduction methods employees figure out while on the job. I think we should change our "merit pay" over the next 10 years so that managers earn additional pay when they cut costs and still get the job done. 15. Allowing people to buy multi-year licenses for doing business or operating alarms could save $140K in administration fees. This would probably reduce income from item 12. All of the items except number 4 were moved forward to the City Council. Councilor Wahl made repeated requests that each item moved forward actually have a dollar figure associated with it. Other requests were made for more information on various items. The first of 5 pages of items, if enacted, might reduce the deficit by $588K annually. It would also be possible to get close to $2million in one time savings from this list. With the $56million dollar deficit we needed close to $6million annually. When including the added cost of safety personnel over the next 10 years our shortfall doubles. What is astounding is that there has been no discussion of an across-the-board spending reduction. While there will be a discussion of increasing sales tax, there is no planned discussion of cutting the cost of government by a set percentage (like 2%). Looking in my crystal ball I think there is a strong possibility of a morale problem developing at the city. It will be very hard for staff members to deal with the extra workload these budget changes will require, and transition through the abrupt loss of our City Manager. The city staff work very hard, we should all recognize that. Correction: A little while back I mentioned in a blog entry that the Council giving up its pay would save the City $50,000. I made a rough calculation based on their monthly pay. The official estimate is $159,979 so they must get some more perks beyond the $600/month reported in the paper. |
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CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Rainman, see comments below for the answer. |
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| I'm tired of messing around! This City
Manager thing is coming down to the wire and I've decided to make the
final push.
And if you want something bad enough you've got to go the extra mile.
So I'm holding this kitten hostage. I found this kitten, who I've named Cupcake, yesterday at a park. It's days are numbered. If I don't get at least 200 different endorsements for City Manager in the next 30 days I will release this cat into Bidwell Ranch. That may not seem like a big deal. But over the next 30 days I will be constantly training Cupcake to hunt and kill faerie shrimp. You have no idea how much damage a cat this large could do to the pristine ecosystem of Bidwell Ranch. If I throw this kitten over the fence the Ranch will be nothing more than a barren wasteland in less than a week. This cat will eat the butterflies too, so don't think they're off the hook. So you don't care what happens to Bidwell Ranch? Do you know what happens to cats lost in the open-space of Chico? They send the Chico Cat Coalition after them. You do not want Cupcake exposed to the sick and godless human-cat hybrid experiments the Coalition performs. Unless of course you hate kittens. So there you have it. You've got an opportunity to save Chico by making me the City Manager. You can save Bidwell Ranch by stopping my evil plan. And you can prevent the Chico Cat Coalition from getting their claws on Cupcake. All you have to do is endorse me for City Manager and ask me to save Cupcake on this blog. You've got 30 days to do it. And since I'm pretty sure I've only got 5 readers each of you just needs to find 40 friends to do the same. Save Chico, save Bidwell Ranch, save Cupcake, it's in your hands now! |
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CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Tom Hall, see comments below for the answer, if it's not already apparent. |
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| I expect that inclusionary
zoning will become a hot topic in Chico's
"planning for the future" discussions. I've already run across
the topic in three separate discussions with people that plan and
build. An email was also recently sent out from a well
known Planning Commissioner suggesting builders offer a 700 square
foot home (I can't say his name but it rhymes with "Muvaas"). So what is inclusionary zoning? It often requires small homes mixed in with regular sized homes to provide some affordable housing for the poor. The wikipedia link above has a good explanation, but I know that many of you only trust what you read on this blog, so I've copied some of it below. Go ahead and read it before you continue... Have you finished reading it? Be honest. You won't find my next comments funny unless you've read it. Okay, we can move on now. I wonder if inclusionary zoning works in reverse. If it's better for the community to offer "small" homes in new neighborhoods to mix socioeconomic groups, maybe we should demand that a few mansions go up around Chapmantown. The city is working on affordable housing in that neck of the woods, but maybe best answer for that neighborhood is to provide more unaffordable housing opportunities. Just thinking outside the box folks. I might also recommend that we have inclusionary zoning require that affordable housing come with wheels. Since one purpose of the inclusionary zoning is to allow poor people to learn from their upscale neighbors keeping the poor mobile might be good. We can shift them around from neighborhood to neighborhood showing them how to be better people. Heck, we should put wheels on all Chico homes. That way every few months we can mix and match the different socioeconomic groups. I'd like to be in a neighborhood where everyone bakes around Christmas time. Mobile homes would allow us to build on flood plains as well. And can you imagine the consternation felt by terrorists when they blow up part of Chico and we just move out of the way? Frustrated terrorists are funny. Inclusionary zoning is social engineering. What continually surprises me is the amount of effort our elected and appointed officials put into trying to define new neighborhoods. And at the same time there is almost no effort put into trying to fix existing neighborhoods. Most new developments have affordable housing mixed in with other stock without inclusionary zoning laws. Most of our older neighborhoods with failing roads or a lack of sewers and sidewalks go ignored. Where do you think our city should focus its efforts? It will be interesting to see what form inclusionary zoning tries to take in Chico. |
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| History of Inclusionary Zoning from Wikipedia: During the mid to late 20th century, new suburbs sprouted around American cities as middle class homeowners fled established neighborhoods for newer communities. These newly-populated places were generally far more economically homogeneous than the cities they encircled. Many suburban communities enacted local ordinances, often in zoning codes, to preserve the character of their municipality. For instance, one of the most commonly cited exclusionary practices is the stipulation that lots must be of a certain minimum size and houses must be set back from the street by a certain minimum space. In many cases, these housing ordinances have prevented affordable housing from being built, because the large plots of land required to build within code are cost-prohibitive for more modest homes. Communities have remained only available to the upper classes because of these ordinances, effectively shutting the poor out of access to desirable communities. Ordinances of this sort have not always been enacted with the conscious intent of excluding lower income households. In many cases it has however been the unintended result of such policies. By denying poor families access to suburban communities, many feel that exclusionary zoning has contributed to the maintenance of inner city ghettos. Supporters of inclusionary zoning point out that low income households are more likely to become economically successful if they have middle class neighbors as peers and role models. When effective, inclusionary zoning reduces the concentration of poverty in slum districts where social norms may not provide adequate models of success. As education is one of the largest components in the effort to lift people out of poverty, access to high-performing public schools is another key benefit of a reduction in segregation. Statistically, a poor child in a school where 80% of children are poor scores 13-15% lower compared to environments where the poor child's peers are 80% middle class. |
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CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Tom Hall, who I believe ties the CI challenge record of 27minutes. See comments below for the answer. Note: I've heard a complaint that the CI Challenge isn't related to my post topic. Sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn't. Connecting the two in a way that doesn't give the challenge away takes some thinking, which I am averse towards. But a tangential connection often exists. For example the last challenge showed the cones of the Bald Cypress. That is the Louisiana state tree. The post topic was homelessness, and Louisiana currently has a homeless problem. |
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| photo:
a family that found permanent housing after a 6 month stay at the Torres
Shelter. I received a letter requesting a donation to the Torres Shelter. The letter describes the Torres Shelter as providing an emergency shelter and other social services to individuals and families. It also says that the shelter is facing a $40,000 shortfall due to 30% decline in government provided operating funds. The request for money came with other statistics as well. the number of homeless people in Chico in 2007 is 1144 the number of homeless people in Butte County doubled since 2006 721 clients were served by the shelter in 2006 35% of the clients were women and children the Torres Shelter is the only shelter for 2-parent families the average stay in the shelter is 31 nights 38% of clients have moved into permanent or transitional housing 25% of adult clients obtained employment as a result of shelter services I have dealt with the significant homeless problem in downtown Chico for years. The issue of homelessness in our town is often colored in my mind by the dozen weekly pan-handling hits I get when looking for lunch in our City's core. My internalized response is often "get a job!", but I'm at least empathetic enough to keep that inside. The Torres Shelter can't cater to the downtown homeless, who are generally not looking for help. They can't stop them from rifling through my glove box every few months. They cant stop them from pooping behind my office a couple of times-per-year. They can't stop the vocal vulgarities that float around their heads as they swing by 7-11 for their 8AM 40 of Magnum, which by 10AM is shattered on a public street. I think some of the dislike I feel for our domicile deficient downtown denizens can be justified. The kind of behavior I've seen would not be okay from a neighbor. It would not be okay near a school or in an office building. Only the strange veil of protection granted by the "public square" makes their behavior acceptable. And even bothered as I am, I wouldn't want that freedom removed. So I'm left asking myself, why should I donate money that doesn't solve MY problem. There are quite a number of answers to that question, here are a few I've come up with. 1. My problem would be worse if the many churches and non-profits around town did not have financial support from the community. 2. People climbing out of addiction, or mental illness, that look for a helping hand should find one, and we should support that hand. 3. There is nothing more important than giving kids in our community an opportunity for a stable family life. That will pay tremendous dividends if those kids remain in Chico in the coming years. Recognizing the importance of the above points I'm going to send the Torres Shelter a small donation. In addition to those reasons for supporting the shelter's mission the North Valley Community Foundation is offering to match donations made between August 15th and October 11th 2007. So a donation of $20-$50 will result in $40-$100 being put to work by the shelter. Donations may be mailed to... NVCF / Torres Shelter 3120 Cohasset Road Suite 8 Chico, CA 95973 |
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CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Nobody, see comments below for the answer. |
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| Yesterday the Chico E-R published a story
about Chico resident Ilse Brown suing
the city for $50,000,000 for wrongful death.
The suit is alleged to allege City negligence in dealing with a
retention pond near the Paseo Companeros neighborhood. The pond is highlighted
above in the square. At first I thought the cars left of the pond were part of fairground parking, but I was off by several blocks. I think they may be part of a junk yard. I also need to point out that I get extra credit for
using allege twice in a previous sentence. Brown's husband and one of her neighbors died of West Nile Virus (WNV). Brown herself subsequently contracted the virus and other neighbors have tested positive for it. City, county and federal officials are all taking their time to ensure the problem is fixed in a complex way. They need to be certain that the fairy shrimp, giant garter snake, and beaver are not impacted by human safety concerns. It would be easy to chalk Brown up as a bitter crack-pot who happens to like lawyers. But in reading through the various reporting on the concerns of this neighborhood it seems to me that they have tried to work with officials, and have been patient. This is a man-made retention pond, and there is no reason it could not have been chemically cleansed, or drained, in a logical world. Shouldn't human concerns take priority when it comes to managing man-made ponds that might spread disease? I think so. Tom Gasgoyne wrote a good article on this issue in May (here it is). In it he states that Councilor Larry Wahl is championing the neighborhood's concerns. I think that's great, but Wahl shouldn't be the only one. After the last Finance Committee meeting I heard Councilor Scott Gruendl speaking with a Glenn County resident about mosquito abatement. Gruendl is the Health Services Director for that county as well as a Chico City Councilor. Gruendl's department has secured emergency state funds to deal with WNV because they know it is an important health issue. Glenn County residents have also formed a district (they tax themselves) for the purpose of mosquito abatement. Here is a story that ran on August 7, 2007 on KNVN. Glenn County is seeking support for emergency mosquito control after two more residents contracted the West Nile Virus. These latest cases include a man in his mid-twenties from Willows and a woman in her mid-eighties form Orland. These new cases bring the total-to-date to four people in county. Three of those people live outside the current vector control district. Now, county health officials are calling on the state to fund emergency fogging. “ The governor himself just last week declared a state of emergency in California,” Scott Gruendl of Glenn County Health Services told Action News, “in three counties, Kern, San Joaquin, and Colusa. The reason why he did that is because human deaths have occurred in each of the counties and as early as just last week, however, Glenn has the highest rate of WNV per capita as any other county in the state. We feel the governor should include Glenn County in that emergency declaration.” Gruendl knows this issue and should be out front in trying to solve it. He could do for the City of Chico what he's done for the County of Glenn. I suspect Ms. Brown and some of her neighbors have seen first hand what I've seen in Chico over the last few years. There's a lot of talk about things in Chico, but often there's little action. The talk is costly to the public but profitable for consultants. The talk results in studies that take time and move the issue out of the spotlight. I don't know if Ms. Brown will win a lawsuit, or even take it to a point of a real legal contest. But I hope this is a wake-up call to the City of Chico to deal with the retention pond. Temporarily drain the pond if necessary, kill the mosquitos, and pacify the neighbors. It's the best course of action. |
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CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Steve Lucas, see comments below for the answer. |
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| As we near the end of summer I can't help
but wish our courageous lifeguards at Sycamore Pool god-speed, and offer
them my thanks. While they never saved my life, they did watch me flop
around in 1-mile a number of times. That deserves hazard pay in itself But they likely did save some lives. They also did some gratis child care for our less well-rounded parents. And I'm sure at times they enjoyed the warm camaraderie that local crack-heads can sometimes provide. Here is a list of some of the incidents that were reported by the lifeguards this summer. 2 Bee Stings 9 Water Rescues 2 Nose bleeds 4 Cuts 4 Lost children 1 Dislocated shoulder 1 Anaphylactic shock 7 Fallen tree branches, one of which hit someone. 6 Reportings to the Rangers/Dispatch for disruptive individuals who were later arrested. What!!! Nobody slipped while running? No emergency cramps from swimming right after eating? These guys are good. What's really strange is that all of the incidents that did happen involved the same guy. I think he's the guy that stole the truck after vomiting in the cab. The lifeguards are on duty from Memorial Day to Labor Day every year. I had some college friends that served in that capacity, and I don't remember them getting paid very much. But it's better than dipping fries at McDonald's (I'm assuming, I've never done either job). Let's be sure to thank the lifeguards as the summer ends, they've done a good job for the community. Sad thing about Steve Harrison as well. But at least his family has closure. |
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CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: A challenge victory today I say he must gain, the winner again was artist Gregg Payne. See comments for answer. |
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| Photo: An enthusiastic gardener A few days ago Grace Marvin of the Sierra Club Yahi Group had a letter printed in the E-R about one of my blogs. I figured I might as well respond. She felt I misstated her sect's position on disc golf in the blog (here is what I wrote). The point of the blog was not about Grace or her fellows, it was about a position they printed 5 years ago and the author who now leads the charge to remove people from the park. I thought that was bipolar. Especially since 2 months after the article was printed lawyers were hired to stop the recreation project. I don't think Ms. Marvin actually read the blog. But she was nice enough to email me her new 2007 position. She no longer supports people in parks, at least as far as disc golf goes. Other than that, I don't know much about Grace. I'm sure she's a nice person and believes what she's doing is right. And to her credit I don't believe she's hired any lawyers to force everyone else to agree with her, like other people have. So don't think I'm directing this post at her. I just wanted to respond to her letter, and I couldn't resist going for the monopoly property / blog title word play. Chicoans should be aware of how the disc golf EIR potentially distributes the spoils of our little land war. The option the preservationists are pulling for is the one where the site is "restored". Or they want to throw out the $500,000 Master Plan they demanded in 2003. No quarter will be given otherwise. To what condition would the site be restored? Nobody knows. I hope it wouldn't need to be taken back to the dinosaur era. Is restoration less expensive than other options? No. There would be environmental consultants galore nosing around for some city money and all the big project expenses remain (parking, access, overlooks). In fact this would become a high priced preservationist gardening project. But if this scenario comes to pass we can all be happy when we look at our beautiful park from a distance, and wonder at the glory of land untouched by man. |
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| Side Note: I've
read an editorial and a letter to the editor suggesting that a disc golf
project would impact the Grande
Old Humboldt Road. That's not really true. Parking lots could impact the
road, but they could also be adjusted not to. All but one project option
has parking, including the "restoration option". The only option that doesn't
build a parking lot is the one where the city leaves everything exactly
how it is (that's the "no project" option). I have a hard time believing that an old dirt road would be impacted by tennis shoes. And people that complain about the aesthetic impact of putting a parking lot near a road might need medication. Just my opinion. I don't think working around that temporal turnpike would be a problem if it was desirable. |
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CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: D. Erickson, and it comes with a stock tip. |
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| I just got back from the morning Finance Committee budget meeting. The new ten year budget deficit which includes 63 new police staff and 20 new fire staff is $112,543,791. It also includes some funding for a new police station (about $20 million for the first phase). That's twice the deficit that was publicly reported up until yesterday, and three times what was reported last November (8 months ago). At this rate of increase it will be ~87 billion dollars in four years. That's probably not going to happen, but it makes you wonder how we could be so far off in just 8 months. Additionally, while the $112 million does include police and fire, it does not include increases in city staff that are not safety related. I'm thinking Mark Sorensen's estimate a few blogs back of $140,000 million is pretty close to what we'll hit. These deficits can't be entirely accurate, and changes in the state economy could make the needle move up or down. But estimates 3x lower than the actual should come with some explainin' (I think the explaination is that we were not including employee increases, which is sort of a poor budgeting method). Much of this meeting covered reports by the police and fire departments on where they need to be to address expected growth in Chico. The agenda and reports can be found here (6.5MEG pdf file). This City Council has its work cut out for it. As does the City of Chico. It would be helpful if a non-political effort was put together to address these issues. Since I'm at work I'll have to forgo the usual CI amenities, but I'll make amends tomorrow. |
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| I sat through a lunch today with the Chief
of Police as the guest speaker. He talked about a non-profit organization
that the Chico Police would be working with to employ
a telephone alert system that could be used to locate missing children,
or adults. The
E-R covered
this
topic
a couple of weeks back but I think a lot of people missed it
(here's
the story).
The non-profit, A Child is Missing (www.achildismissing.org) will cost Chico nothing and provide a valuable service. When a local officer has determined that a missing person event has occurred they will forward information to the non-profit. At that time automated phone messages (1000 per minute) will be dialed out to a specific geographical area determined by the particulars of the incident. Amber Alerts require a higher threshold of evidence to enact. For an Amber Alert to occur you pretty much must know a kid was abducted. For this service a missing child or adult can trigger the messaging. The Chief said 70% of abducted children are killed within 3 hours of being taken. Okay, I threw out that last bit of fear bating, now I should reel it back in. Rarely are children abducted. Even more rare would be the occurrence in Chico. We don't need to be afraid of our kids getting swiped. It can happen, but it's rare, like school shootings. But this is a free service, and if a kid or adult goes missing and this system helps we should use it. At the meeting I asked the Chief if there was any consideration of doing the same with email. He said no, but he'd look into it. The city has an emergency phone alert system already in place. I received a gas leak notification a while back and was afraid to leave my house for a week. I even wrote a blog about it. I would like to see Chico expand their emergency notifications to include email. Many people carry cell phones that accept email, and fewer people are paying attention to recorded messages at home. The Chico Police could then coordinate the non-profit "missing child" message with a city email broadcast and improve the canvassing of the community. The city already has all of the technology and skill to create an opt-in email emergency notice system. It could help in the event of other emergencys and would hit people at work, where they are for half their waking lives. If there was an emergency you'd want to know wouldn't you? What if something awful happened, like the liberals took over city government? Oh, that already happened, and it might not scare some of you. Okay, what if the conservatives took it back? Oh, that'll never happen, and again, not scaring everyone. Just imagine an emegency you'd like to know about. Would you want to know about it at work, or wait until you get home have dinner and then check the messages? Somewhere in all this is my proposal. We should build a Chico Child is Missing email alert system and couple it with the new non-profit system the Chico PD have adopted. Then use that email broadcast ability in the event of some other emergency. I could even write the code for it. Unless of course you want it to work. |
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CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner:TJ Glenn, see comments below. Actually see first comment, it didn't take long for someone to beat this challenge! |
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| Bicycling to/from work has become something
I really look forward to (that's me above on the way to work). On Tuesdays
I have commitments that require a car to get to in a timely manner. And
there's
usually
another
day or
two during the work week where I need to drive for one reason or another. Other than that it's very easy for me to ride to work. My office is downtown and there is a well defined bike route along the railroad tracks through the University and then into the downtown core. I have to cross traffic intersections 4 times in the roughly 3 mile trip. The worst problem I face is puncture-vines, which I grew up calling goat-heads. I've had to replace 4 tubes in the last week. Otherwise, for me, the city is pretty "bike friendly". I wonder how others feel. I suspect it depends on where you live in Chico. While looking at the city's 10 year capital improvement program (CIP) It's nice to see that there are a number of bike improvements in the works. The largest I ran across, money wise, is Annie's Glenn Bikeway. This ~$700,000 project should build a path under the bridge adjacent to the Vallombrosa-Mangrove intersection. Which would mean I could ride from my house to 5-Mile Recreation Area and only cross intersections 5 times. What I do at 5-Mile is another question, as the only recreation component seems to be eating or vacating processed food. It looks to like the city will spend close to $3 million dollars on bike path improvements in its 10 year plan. I think that is money well spent. Making bike connectivity easier and more universal at least provides us with the option of getting out of our cars. When you compare that budget to the $4.4 million spent on the downtown plaza it shows you where the priorities are. I'm not saying that the plaza was money poorly spent, I actually like it quite a bit. But if you compare the ~$250,000 spent on a chess playing area with a lack of a completed/safe walking-biking path down Wildwood Ave (Middle Bidwell Park) you see flash over safety won the day with that expenditure. I would like to see a bike path from near the entrance to Upper Bidwell Park to Highway 32 along Lindo Channel. We also need to have greater connectivity north-south along the railroad tracks and other routes. Many of these connections are already nearly complete. Maybe those things can happen in the next 10-year CIP. Note: I think this is Greg Jones' last day as City Manager. Or not, see comments below. |
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CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Nobody, see comments below for the answer. |
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| I'm proud to be the first Norcal blogger
to post something from the big city, and even more proud that it was part
of an effort to improve Chico. This weekend I was able to take two big steps forward in my campaign for Chico City Manager. Using my contacts from the electronics industry I was able to get a deal on bumper stickers and lawn signs from China. I snapped a photo of the boat coming in with my delivery (above). It would have been a smaller boat, but I piggy-backed my order with the city's printed copies of the Bidwell Park Master Management Plan. Unfortunately my 175,000 pieces of print media did end up with some translation errors, but I think I can still use them (see below). In addition to checking on my election material I also scheduled a tour with the City Administrator of San Francisco. We covered a lot of ground and I learned a lot that I can apply to Chico's management. |
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| San Francisco managed to reduce green house
gas emissions and cut fleet costs for the city police department by switching
over to electric vehicles. Above is an image of the kind of vehicle currently
being used by the SFPD. Although this particular image is more of a celebrity
sighting. That's SF Mayor Gavin Newsom driving his city vehicle, which
is the same model as the police use. Although that's not his wife with
him, and he wouldn't look at the camera, which was kind of weird. There are also plans to add ladders to these electric cars and convert the fire department over. |
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| Edwin (SF, City Administrator) also discussed
parks and playgrounds with me. Having helped with the Caper Acres Nico
Project I was interested in ways to build affordable yet unique play areas.
In San Francisco they've moved toward using all sustainable products in
their new green playgrounds. Edwin and I stopped by a very popular new
play structure (shown above). It uses all recycled or natural material which is easier to maintain and uses fewer petroleum products to manufacture. I particularly enjoyed the surfacing which resembles sharp haphazardly strewn ocean rocks. In fact the main park play structure looks a lot like a half dozen randomly placed logs. But I was told they've been engineered for pure fun. We can learn a lot from San Francisco, and I hope Chicoan's are open-minded to the possibilities. |
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| I know a lot of my readers are interested to know if I ran into fellow blogger Dan Nguyen-Tan in the city. I did not, although I did look for him. I hope that puts to rest any more rumors of Dan not living in Chico. There's no real evidence to suggest he moved from Chico quite a while ago and never mentioned it on his blog. And being a board member of a San Francisco neighborhood association doesn't qualify as evidence, so don't bother googleing it. After all, I'm on the board of a Southern California youth group, the Compton Crips, and that doesn't make me from Compton. Tru-dat, yo! | |||||
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CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Nobody. It is a common copper ore called Chalcopyrite, a link below describes it. |
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| I have a little more information on the "loaded"
$125 million dollar budget deficit that I wrote about a few posts back.
More emails flew through the CI newsroom regarding this topic (currently
a dining
room table with an 11 week old girl napping on it, and the gentle
tinkle
of
Legos
coming from the other kid's room). The City Manager, Greg Jones for a couple more days, is saying that the $56 million 10-year budget deficit is a snapshot of where we are today. So it is our real budget deficit. The $125 million projected 10-year deficit is not a "budget deficit", but an "unmet needs" assessment It includes the cost to meet our future needs for increased public safety staff (fire and police), but not increased city staff. This was previously described as a loaded budget analysis. Jones suggests that we need to address the $56 million shortfall first, and separately, and then worry about future needs. So my question to the public is this. What is the point of a 10-year budget analysis? Is it to forecast where we will be in 10 years if nothing changes from today? How valuable is that? Let's look at a household with two kids, 10 and 14. If you wanted to do a projected 10 year budget analysis would you look at your household budget and project only today's expenses forward? Does this realistically assess your financial footing for the next ten years? It might. But what if you knew both of your kids would require a college education. You might want to include those future "needs" in your forecasts. Will the kids need cars to get to college? Not addressing future big expenses in a budget projection is a complete waste of time. In fact the main reason to do a 10-year budget is to identify future costs that you can begin saving for now. So why is Chico looking at its budget deficit without incorporating funding for police, fire, and staff increases? Why does its 10-year deficit not include increases in its largest cost, human resources. If the term "unmet needs" describes better the analysis of our real upcoming issues then we need to be talking about our "unmet needs" assessment and not our "budget deficit". Maybe we can call it our needs deficit. But these are really just semantics. Be aware of them as this issue is discussed in the public. If any 10-year analysis fails to include costs for increases in human resources it is low-balling the real problems facing Chico's financial future. Hiding the financial problems from the public through careful wording of what an analysis looks at is not helpful. The City of Chico should provide a projected budget deficit that includes increases in staff levels and union pay and benefit increases. Otherwise were not being shown the whole picture. pre-posted on 8-10-07 |
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CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: No winner. It was a baboon butt. |
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| Historically the City Council has been responsible
for hiring the City Manager. Since I will be the first elected City Manager
I'll be accountable to "the people". The downside of this is
that I need to pander to a few interest groups to ensure I get
support during my campaign. I've come up with a bold plan that allows me to pander and solve many community problems. We must invade Durham. The Pandering: Save the Soil: Like many of you I have been concerned about the encroachment of agriculture on our prime development lands. Farms and orchards in Durham are exposing our top quality soils to increased global temperatures and harsh weather. We've got to protect the soil by building homes over it, and we have to do it for the children. Converting all of Durham to a gated community would also increase our tax income. Save the Planet: By now everybody knows this equation... Green House Gas Emissions - Carbon Offsets = Kyoto Protocol Levels If we can't balance this equation by June 13th, 2014 we'll all die (I think from an asteroid strike). You could reduce emissions, but that would be hard. If we increase our offsets we can still save the planet. Once we have Durham we have the dump. And with the dump we can build methane recovery systems to offset our increased emissions. The Plan: Now that I've got the development and environmental interests behind me it's time to formulate an invasion strategy. Durham is a farming community, and so we can expect a lot of well armed farmers with corn fed bruisers for kids. We will also need to weaken their government. Removing the Farmers: Farmers are a tough nut to crack, especially almond farmers. But if we can export 6-12 Starbucks coffee shops to Durham we can do it. First, the Starbucks will just sell coffee to draw the farmers in. Then we will begin 24 hour poetry readings and hire bad acoustic guitarists to sing about college-life angst. After a few months of inflicting our downtown culture on the farmers they are likely to flee. Or become beatniks. So that problem is de fanged. Bankrupting the Government: Directly after the first Starbucks opens we'll parachute in (under cover of darkness) the Butte Environmental Commandos First EIR Regiment. These able men and women are trained to inflict massive cost increases on public projects. They do it by challenging EIRs. They once stopped a merry-go-round from being built in Oroville when they successfully proved that the city had not counted the hairs on every squirrel's tail at the project site. Breaking Their Back: With farmers fleeing and public projects floundering we've nearly reached our goal. Our last effort involves papering Chico State and Butte College with advertisements for multiple, ongoing, kegger parties in Durham. Emergency services will crack as they deal with Chico-style riots, and a lack of municipal party ordinances. At the culmination of this trio of trials the people of Durham will either demand that Chico step in and run their community, or they will be in no shape to fight an annexation battle. It's even possible to kill two birds with one stone. While the keggers are ongoing, we could fence off exits from Durham. This would keep the college party crowd out of Chico. They could still take their classes remotely by using the computers at Starbucks. Problems Solved: So there you have it. In one concerted effort I've pacified home builders and environmentalists, increased tax revenue, removed drunk college students, and prevented an asteroid strike. Who ya votin' for now! |
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CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Rainman, see comments below. |
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| A new cycling club has formed in Chico and plans on promoting racing. They've got some post cards floating around downtown Chico. The club's web site is www.chicocorsa.com. From their web site it looks like the main reason they formed was because of the harsh right-wing politics practiced by the Chico Velo Club. All kidding aside, they've got a bike race planned for downtown Chico on Sunday September 23rd from 8AM-4PM. I remember seeing cyclists racing a loop downtown when I was in college, or maybe it was just after. But they were a great addition to the many events held in Chico's core. It'll be nice to see them come back. I'd also like to see the Bear start up the tricycle races again. The name of the race is the Chico Downtown Criterium. Criterium is latin for "on your left". I think it's also the name of the newest Lexus hybrid-diesel-nuclear powered SUMV (sport utility man vehicle). But that's all probably just coincidence Side Note: I'm headed to SF this weekend so I'll be doing some "pre-posting", like this one. I'm also hoping to be the first Norcal blogger to post something from the big city. I'll be really disappointed if it turns out I'm not. |
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CI Challenge: Can you guess what this is? Winner: Gregg F****** Payne again, see comments below for the answer. |
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| Last year Sierra Nevada Brewery (SNB) shipped
675,000 barrels of beer. Just under half of that ended up in my garage.
That
puts SNB in 7th place when ranked alongside the largest breweries in the
U.S. There's a bit of an asterisk in that ranking. We're not counting
beer produced
for breweries under license. For example, Samuel Adams sold more beer,
but produced less than SNB. Since it's our hometown brewery (not many towns
can make that statement) we'll ignore the details and just say "way to
go Sierra
Nevada Brewery"! Hold on... I'm about to do it... here it goes... Way to go Sierra Nevada Brewery! The brewery now has about 475 employees with about 200 working in the restaurant. They are looking towards expanding the number of their beer storage tanks by 30% for the sole purpose of providing more beer for my garage. SNB even has physician's assistants in house on a regular basis. This allows employees to make use of preventative medical care, or to address routine medical needs at their convenience. And did I mention they sell golf discs in their gift shop? Under Ken Grossman's leadership the brewery has installed fuel cells that dump energy back into the grid, methane recovery systems that recover... methane, and they are adding solar panels that will create power and shade the restaurant parking area. They send the organic remains of their beer production to Chico State's ranch (as cattle feed), and then sell the ranch's beef in their restaurant. They capture and reuse their clean CO2 byproducts (clean compared to CO2 byproducts from petroleum manufacturing). There's some talk of providing CO2 to Smuckers so they can carbonate an organic beverage they produce. That's just being a good neighbor. |
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| So am I "gushing for Grossman". Not really.
I know that all of the great sustainable headway his company is making
is a conceit of wealth. A truly successful company can avert its eyes from
generating income, and focus for a while on altruism. And since Grossman
is the sole owner of SNB, he can more easily make business decisions that
might not immediately provide return to shareholders. But setting that reality aside, what's going on at the brewery reminds me somewhat of Andrew Carnegie. Here's something Carnegie said... "Surplus wealth is a sacred trust which its possessor is bound to administer in his lifetime for the good of the community." Grossman seems to fit the template proposed by Carnegie. We're all lucky to have the great products produced by SNB (I'm talking mostly about Celebration Ale), and lucky that the brewery is run by a local guy who uses his money to make a statement that's not about how many shiny houses and big cars he owns. And did I mention he sells golf discs in his gift shop? |
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| Here's a true story I ran into Ken Grossman at Lowe's one time. One of the brewery's bottling lines had shut down, and Ken was there buying a fuse and some wiring to get it up and running. Can you believe he went down to get the stuff and fix it himself? That's a hands-on owner. Okay, that story is mostly fabricated. I did see Ken Grossman at Lowe's once. I have no idea what he was doing there. But that story is so dull I figured I'd spice it up. After all, this is a blog and I have no journalistic ethics requirements. Do I? |
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CI Challenge: You guys have been pretty quick to figure out the last couple of challenges, so I've upped the anti on this one. Can you guess what it is? Winner: Gregg Payne, see comments below for the correct answer. |
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| In its December 2002 newsletter the Sierra Club Yahi Group (Chico's local chapter) published an article supporting disc golf at the highway 32 site for all the right reasons. An excerpt of that article is shown above. The entire article can be seen here (4MEG PDF) . It was written by the Secretary of the Yahi Group, who was clearly speaking on behalf of that organization. It was a great example of a local environmental group supporting conservation and recreation in a public park setting. With support like that disc golf was moving forward as a coordinated effort to improve the area being used and care for the property in a way that minimized the footprint of the recreation. It's too bad that never came to pass. Just 3 months later out-of-town lawyers were hired to scuttle the project, the Friends of Bidwell Park were formed, and a process was begun that would cost massive amounts of taxpayer money. All in an effort to stop improvements anyone in Chico could use. This is in contrast to the very reasonable approach the author of this Sierra Club article suggested. If only we could have followed the direction and leadership of the author! Unfortunately, the reasonable person who penned this article supporting disc golf is none other than Susan Mason, current President of the Friends of Bidwell Park. What a difference a few months make. |
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CI Challenge: Can you guess what this is? Winner: Mike Trolinder, see comments below for the answer. |
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| In 2003 after the completion of environmental and other studies the city of Chico had spent between $30,000 and $50,000. The money was spent to study disc golf. The City Council had also funded construction of a disc golf course and was preparing to build it. As the Friends of Bidwell Park formed their members hired the law offices of J. William Yeates demanding that the disc golf project be stopped and that the city update its Master Management Plan for Bidwell Park. The city bowed to the legal threat, and began the lengthy process of updating the Master Plan. After years of public meetings, hired consultants, and hours and hours of time put in by the Bidwell Park and Playground Commission, the draft plan was released. The cost to date has been close to $500,000. With regards to disc golf it represented at most a written compromise between recreation and preservation of 25 acres of Bidwell Park's 3700 acres. Not a nickel of that money has been spent on things people, or their kids, can do. Not a nickel of that money has improved trails, made the park safer, or provided more opportunity for taxpayers to enjoy their public property. Are the Friends O' Park happy that the public has had to foot the bill to address their deeply held concerns? Do they embrace the public process that they demanded? The answer can be found in the new legal threats submitted to the Bidwell Park draft EIR. On June 25th the law offices of J William Yeates submitted 25 pages of complaints almost identical to those sent in 4.5 years ago on behalf of the Friends of Bidwell Park. Virtually all of the legal complaints are about disc golf. These two legal shotgun blasts are not about what's best for the park, or whether an appropriate process has been followed. They are about an irrational desire to stop people from using public land. The Friends of Bidwell Park have shown themselves to be completely intractable and unwilling to compromise. The city of Chico should not roll over a second time. If the Friends of Bidwell Park have money to spend on lawyers and obstruction tactics, then make them spend it. Because placating them through additional studies has been a complete waste of time. We need some mitigation for the constant litigation threats coming from these people. Here is the current leadership at the Friends of Bidwell Park: See both legal threats here (2MEG PDF). |
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 CI Challenge: Can you guess what this is? Winner Anthony Watts, see comments below. |
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| Be careful what you ask for. You might not like it when you get it. I got copied on an email last night where
the City Manager Greg Jones states he has been looking at a "loaded" ten-year
plan that was produced back in January that shows an approximate budget
deficit of $125,000,000 for the city of Chico. I'm not sure what "loaded" means. If the term is analogous to the way "loaded" is used in electronic circuits or mechanical systems it would mean while in use or under pressure. Maybe I'm getting too engineery, and loaded simply means everything added in. The difference between "loaded" and what we've been previously told is $69,000,000. That's more than I make all year! The $125,000,000 deficit does not include increased staff or union costs. Jones' also states that we might see staffing needs assessments for the Police and Fire at the August Finance Committee meeting. I've noticed that the Chico Police Department tends to aim high when making budgetary/staff/infrastructure requests. The same may be true of the Fire Department, but I haven't seen any requests made by that organization. This is a good negotiating practice. But it does have the effect of making the first cost estimates out the gate wildly high. It looks like some folks at the city are already planning for higher deficits, and already have documents in hand detailing what they are. We should hear more on this before the end of the month. Side Note: I thought the Bertagna Challenge was fun. I'm going to continue doing it, but I don't want to just use images of cars. Most of you could care less about those old boats some of us like to drive. Since I can sometimes have an off-color sense of humor I thought it would be best not to use somebody else's name. So I'll call it the CI Challenge, and there's a new one below. Oh, and Gregg and Steve can play as well. |
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CI Challenge Be the first to guess what this is a picture of and receive 4 tickets that can be used to get into Wal-Mart free. Answer: Tom Selleck's mustache. Gregg Payne was the winner. Since Gregg doesn't shop at Wal-Mart, he'll be getting 4lbs of raw hamburger to go with his all-meat lifestyle. |
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| Will the real budget deficit please stand
up? Last November Chico's projected 10 year budget deficit was $40,000,000.
That's an average of $4,000,000 annually. 9 months later it is projected
to be $56,000,000, or 40% higher than it was less than a year prior. That's a pretty dramatic swing for one year, and one that I believe was based on unexpected reductions in sales tax income combined with more realistic estimates in employee cost. Other large institutions in the area have faced similar employee cost problems. One example is Butte County (the government not the territory). Another is CSU Chico. I believe they addressed employee costs in part by converting positions to part-time, thereby reducing benefits. We might see a similar approach in city government. A big issue with our deficit is that it really isn't a linear average. It will grow larger the longer it takes our elected officials to make hard budget decisions. Getting approval for tax increases will not happen fast, if it can happen at all. Cost cutting measures need to be implemented immediately to give the city breathing room to discuss the possibility of increasing revenue. Chico citizen's are probably very concerned, aren't they? A reader sent me an email saying that at the last Finance Committee meeting only 3 citizens showed up. That may not be unusual for that committee, but it was well publicized as a meeting to address the budget shortfall. Politicians explicitly asked for input from the public prior to the meeting. Yet the public failed to materialize (including me). A further issue that that reader pointed out was that the $56,000,000 deficit is based on no growth in city employees in the next ten years. Since local officials recently approved a few thousand new homes it's kind of ridiculous to expect the status quo of staffing levels to continue. If you recall the City Manager instituted a hiring freeze recently (does that mean we can't fill his position? That might hurt my campaign!). But that's not a sustainable policy for the next decade. I think we have yet to see the pinnacle of projected budget shortfalls. I'm betting that within a year it will be reported as exceeding $100,000,000. Any takers? |
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 Take the Bertagna challenge: Can you name the make, model, year of this car? Guess it right, and I'll put you in the lottery to become my Assistant City Manager. Answer: Chevrolet Impala 1965. Original image on the right, and 1963 through 1965 from left to right. Mark Sorensen wins. |
| I was entirely content putting together my resume for the position of City Manager. Then a blog reader suggested that she would vote for me. That started me thinking. If I can run a successful campaign for City Manager I can avoid all of the interviews and delving into my personal qualifications that otherwise would occur during the application process. Since the City Manager is not an elected position this campaign will likely be difficult. But with the support of both of my blog readers I'm hoping to win through in the end. To start my campaign I've put together three possible political mailers letting people know that I'm their man. The first is for working class people or our more conservative neighbors, the second is a powerful but generic fear piece, and the last one is for college students or our more liberal citizens. Which do you like best? Does a particular one move you? Do you have any campaign ideas I should know about (example: should I run an ad in the Beat, I think they're available)? |
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| As I put together my resume for
the City Manager position I'm incorporating some ideas I've been working
on for the last several years. I was a little hesitant to put these ideas
on my blog, but for a number of reasons I decided to do so anyway. Reasons Why I Am Sharing My Ideas: 1. Most of you won't understand my recommendations. They're the kind of things only us city manager types can grasp with our intricate thinking processes. But I thought you might be impressed by them, and I like it when people are impressed by me. 2. The City is likely to put on a national search for city manager talent. By making my ideas public that raises the bar on the competition. I'm basically saying, "Go big, or go home" when it comes to Chico's management. 3. If the city uses my ideas I might get to charge them for a charrette, which runs about $50K per day. First Big Idea! Back-in diagonal parking is OK. But if you really want to solve the parking problem in downtown Chico you've got to think outside the envelope. We really need to push the box on this issue. I've come up with, and patented, the concept of back-in diagonal sideways reverse parking. We can increase the number of parking spots downtown by nearly 400% (see graphic above) with this simple change. The sideways part of the plan is where much of the space savings come from. But the reverse part adds additional safety to the procedure. Advocates of the old-school back-in diagonal parking cited increased safety and greater visibility of cyclists and automobiles as a result of backing in. Building on that I've added the reversed back-in, so you can actually face oncoming traffic, thereby increasing visibility by 73.89% (trust me, I've done the calculus). Stay tuned for my guaranteed deficit reduction strategies. Which are also patented. Update: One of my regular readers, whom I like to refer to as "reader number 2" submitted the public service announcement below. It does a good job of detailing how much safer back-in diagonal sideways reverse parking is as opposed to traditional parallel parking. |
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Lon
About Me: Fasten your seatbelts for an exhilarating trip through Chico's public policy; I guarantee it's marginally better than public access TV.
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