Commission Impossible

Your wife is right about you,

But that, we already knew.

The Challenge is clip art decals of the International Hazardous Poetry Symbol.

CI challenge: Looks like part of an optical test pattern. One example would be a printed test pattern to check the optical resolution of a camera, scanner or copier.

On that city survey, I’ll admit to having a small bruise on my forehead from hitting my head against the wall after reading it… “Ug” is about all I care to say about it.

"...…, it's not an "apples to apples comparison….”

It never is.

A typical response from (and serious error) from any management team is to stomp your foot down and say “We’re different” while refusing to go through the always painful exercise of paradigm change.

As for the comparisons to other Cities…. Those comparisons are interesting anecdotal information, but, just because those other cities are doing something does not make it right.

I believe that to some degree we have a problem whereby these different public agencies compare themselves to each other, and then fight to be “Above Average”.

Of course this causes a never ending spiral upward.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-02-20-pensions-cover_x.htm
http://www.californiapensionreform.com/initiative_press_release.htm

Or worse, in our own city we have examples of upward movement in salaries based solely upon an increase in General Fund revenues!

http://www.marksorensen.net/IAFF_MOU-2002-2007.pdf

Read exhibits C & D beginning on page 57 of the PDF.

“…Once the percentage General and Park Fund increase has been determined in accordance
with Subsection B.1 above, such amount will be used to establish a general salary increase
percentage from the “Revenue and Pay Adjustment Table” in Section D below….”

It would take a bit of work to do the calculations to see the exact impact of increasing General Fund revenues, but it is fair to say that the employees were likely to get a big chunk of it – regardless of any other factors. Regardless of any changes in CPI, city population, work load, productivity, etc….

No wonder we’re behind the Eight Ball in road maintenance, and other deferred maintenance… The more money that would in – by formula it would flow out directly to the employees.

Then, move on to Section D…

“…..The Comparison Cities Pay Maximum is equal to 115% of the Average Comparison Cities Top
Step Pay Total….”

The designated Comparison Cities were: Merced, Modesto, Sacramento and West Sacramento….

As long as we’re comparing ourselves to other cities, and per capita staffing levels, let’s compare our per capita REVENUE to other cities… See Page 5:
http://www.chico.ca.us/Finance/Chico_Financial_Challenges.pdf

In my opinion, this is the result of decades of failure in the area of Economic Development. 6 out of 10 of our largest in town employers are public agencies. In fact, the 2nd largest source of employment growth in our area is: government jobs.
http://www.labormarketinfo.edd.ca.gov/article.asp?articleId=642
http://www.calmis.ca.gov/file/indhist/chic$haw.xls
Meanwhile the average household income in our County is around $39,000 per year.
http://www.muninetguide.com/states/california/Butte.php

For those who may have missed Richard Ek’s articles in the CNR on the Chico City Budget issues and payroll/benefit costs, here are the links to the stories:

03-29-2007
http://www.newsreview.com/chico/Content?oid=302991

05-03-2007
http://www.newsreview.com/chico/Content?oid=318856

09-20-2007
http://www.newsreview.com/chico/Content?oid=540092

10-18-2007
http://www.newsreview.com/chico/Content?oid=589115

I agree with your wife, the Urban Beaver Blog was not nearly as interesting as today’s topic. However, since it doesn't sound like you are getting much support at home, I have written a poem to show my overwhelming support of your unwavering dedication to the truth. Thank you so much for all that you do to keep your enormous amount of fans in "the know".

Ode to the Blogger Man

Oh Blogger, Dear Lon
Giving us insight,
Starting at dawn

Oh Blogger, Dear Me
Such dedication,
Opining for free

Oh Blogger, Dear Flame
Let’s focus on the budget,
Beavers are lame

Oh Blogger, Dear Man,
Please keep up the posts,
Cuz I am a fan.

Withanee,

That's some "dam" good poetry. Sure could have used you yesterday.

Lon

Lon, I think the CIC "nobody" answer is on the wrong post.

The test chart is one I'm familiar with, working with digital and optics. It is the USAF 1951 resolution test chart.

See this:

http://www.sinepatterns.com/images/USAF---XL-target.gif

The USAF Test Target was developed in and for use within the U.S. Government specification Mil-Std-150. It is one of the most commonly used optical resolution targets.

it has a feature of smaller and smaller repeating patterns, ad infinitum, much like an M. C. Escher drawing or a fractal.

Mark pretty much covered it all, but I seem to remember that traditionally generous benefits were paid govt employees because salaries were normally below private sector wages. Obviously that is not the case in Chico. The comparison cities are a joke. I'm sure Folsom, Vacaville and San Rafael are nowhere near the same league as Chico when it comes to revenue.

Anthony,

You are correct, thanks. I left the "winner" there, because I think we've got one. Can you guess who it is?

Lon

Sean,

Here is the per-capita general fund revenue Mark spoke of (town, general funds per person, sales tax rate).

Santa Cruz 1,129 8.50%
Roseville 981 7.25%
San Luis Obispo 976 7.75%
Folsom 759 7.75%
Eureka 732 7.25%
Gridley 705 7.25%
Lodi 700 7.75%
Woodland 677 7.75%
Redding 639 7.25%
Napa 633 7.75%
Oroville 609 7.25%
Vacaville 588 7.38%
Red Bluff 556 7.25%
Davis 534 7.25%
Yuba City 494 7.25%
Merced 473 7.25%
Chico 408 7.25%
Paradise 341 7.25%

Everyone,

The Finance Department has a document (new to me, might have been for the last public forum, which I missed) that includes case studies on how other communities tried to balance their budgets.

These include cities that implemented major cuts and those that increased taxes. There are also some bullets describing the benefit of the RDA and why assets can't be used to address the budget problem. It's worht a look.

http://www.chico.ca.us/Understanding_Chico_Finances_-_QA.pdf

It was created on 11/6/07. But the case studies are interesting.

Lon

At the last finance meeting, didn't they say that several of the cities that they are using for comparison are close to bankruptcy themselves? Vacaville, Folsom. I don't recall exactly which cities, but I definitely remember the comment being made.

Do you think they are blogging about the same thing as us?

I guess that is one way of comparing apples to apples but if they are all rotten, is that very smart?

I keep hearing that everyone wants to move to Chico because of the "quality of life" and the economic benefit. If that is true, then how come we have to pay public service employees so much just to keep them here?

What does that say about the people that represent the city?

I need an explanation because all the talk is starting to feel disingenuous and making me feel like a loser.

Lon,

Why would I waste time guessing who won this CIC when I know it's me? Your premise sounds like something from a public agency. At least you didn't suggest I perform a study, then out the results at a charrete to have the community vote on a winner.

TJ,

Unfortunately I missed the last public forum, and spent the time with my son's teacher. I'm not sure what was discussed, but the link I added in a previous comment shows some case studies that were probably discussed.

You make a good point on the quality of life issue.

There is also a common theme that we hire only the best people, and so we pay top notch for them. I don't want to tarnish the reputations of our hard working city staff, but how did we get into a huge budget hole if those super smart people are running the show? Is it true that hiring super state-of-the-art employees caused the budget problem? Wouldn't that mean that if we hire "lessor" people we'll get rid of our budget problem? So what is the benefit of hiring really good employees? Less money for parks and roads? That argument is beginning to lose steam with me.

Here are a couple of points regarding attracting employees:

Chico Police cannot find enough people to join up (and not wash out). That's because the job is pretty much thankless even with good pay etc. I've heard the Fire Department has a long list of applicants. That's because the job comes with great community status and pay. But the two jobs are very different and we don't need high pay to attract firefighters, in my opinion (I could be wrong).

Second, why don't we attract and hire really smart people from Butte County and Chico. The median income is much lower than what's being paid at the Hall. Do we really need to compete with Vacaville, Merced, Folsom, etc? How many people do we actually hire that aren't from this area? I'm going to go out on a limb and say we're competing with those towns on paper only. Police may be the exception.

Lon

Lon, I just wanted to say I really appreciate the blogging you do...

Just to let you know, I needed an idea for a contest for our open house and live radio broadcast. Kalf 95.7 is coming.... and Coyote of the moo crew...

I love your CI challenge, and kind of borrowed the idea to make contest to win a prize during the event! Hope it's OK, your CI challenge is the bomb-diggity-dang!

If any of you bloggers are free, please drop by! We will be here from 3pm-7pm at the corner of East and Esplanade right above Hulas BBQ.. Free food and a challenge....

the CI Challenge looks like an alien language of sorts, with futile attempts by humans to decipher it into a numeric system for easier understanding. It could possibly be Cylon.

(I know anthony won) =P

I'll run for city council. Then I will make a law that allows the beavers to have lease-to-own options on parcels of land around the creeks in the area. Water and Garbage paid. Pets considered after deposit.

Mark,

I love you to.

The CI Challenge is free to all.

It is a gift bestowed upon mankind by Steve Bertagna, who first challenged us by recognizing what car I drove by the air cleaner I held in an image. And also to Gregg Payne who sent me clips of car parts for a further "challenge" to post. And then I played a small part by broadening it to include the wide world we live in.

Go forth Mark, and spread the challenge to all who will guess.

Lon

The more times I read that survey, the more uncomfortable I get.

This almost looks like a no-win scenario. If the city is innocently giving out a survey like this, it shows how "innocent" they are in a naive way, which is probably not a good reflection of the salaries we pay. Or, perhaps they were just too busy to give it a thorough re-reading or proofing. Still, not a good sign.

If it is intentional, then that is obviously bad.

I am embarrassed for my friends at the city. and the fire department. I hate where this is going, but I hope it makes us stronger as community. In my mind, I think it would be worse if we didn't talk about it.

Don't you think someone like Gascoyne would spin this right into next year and it would be his advertising revenue savior?

Tom's not going to be at the Beat next year. He's going to be my campaign manager. Bet on it!

Lon

For those of you that are still enjoying the thrill of Urban Beaver rhyming I wanted to point out that Tina Hoover posted a very good rhyme.

http://www.norcalblogs.com/commission/archives/2007/11/ode_to_the_urba.html#comments

Lon

Tina,

Nice job!

Twas the night before dam-it....

Lon,

Your in depth coverage of the the police department during your ride-along was auxillerating and kept me on the edge fo my seat. I wonder if the same would happen if you spent a day at the fire station. Love to see suit up and go down the fire house pole. Give it a thought. Im sure they all love you down at the station!

Jason,

You make a very good point. I've treated the Fire Department somewhat unfairly by not seeking more information about their day-to-day job.

I've probably done a disservice to the FD by not seeking more information. They did have a representative call me and offer to answer any questions I have. I haven't taken them up on the offer, which is probably unfair.

So I'll give police, fire, and city staff an opportunity to address the readers of this blog in their own way, and they can decide to use that opportunity or ignore it.

Lon