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March 31, 2008

Unsustainable Practices

Image: Chicoan's beware, the Galaxie rides again. Late last week I received in the car parts I'd ordered. I've probably got another few summer weekends of work before my old car is back in solid shape. But the parts are installed and the car is back together now. It feels good to be less sustainable than I was over the last couple of weeks. For some reason the mailboxes in my neighborhood are not on individual homes. All of my neighbors have to walk to a central location to drop off letters. It's very new urban. Now that my car is fixed I can drive there. This way neighbors avoid me and I can get the mail in just my underwear and a shirt. Driving around in my underwear makes me happy, and knowing my car costs less than a downtown art bench makes me very un-smug. It's nice to be back.

More Unsustainable Practices: Speaking of unsustainable... Councilor Larry Wahl has requested that City union negotiations be made public (see E-R Jenn Klein article here). I half suspect his request will be ignored by some of the other councilors. From the article... In his proposal, both the city and its bargaining units would publicly disclose any proposed changes and increases at the beginning of the process during a public hearing where members of the public could ask questions and make statements. Then once negotiations were finished, a completed contract would be presented during another public hearing. " It's an effort to create some transparency so the residents and the taxpayers of Chico know what both sides have made available in the bargaining process. Hence they would have some feel how much people are being paid and what incentives are being made," Wahl said. Wahl is correct in suggesting that this change in procedure occur. There are no legal, or good, reasons to keep all of the negotiations secret. If the city was not in a budget crisis I think you could argue "what's the point". But after the firefighters secured a 25% raise over 6 years with negotiations ending during a budget crisis I think the public should be skeptical of the process. The Management Group gets a 2-5% raise (average is around 4%) every year from their Merit Pay system. This means that traditionally the people that negotiate with the unions (on the public's behalf) are doing so with an ongoing 24% increase in pay every 6 years. One could argue that the other unions (Police, Fire, Service) are just trying to keep up with management. And then there would be a natural desire for management pay to stay above other city jobs. This creates a natural upward spiral in pay. It would seem that a check or balance is missing from the process, and public scrutiny might be helpful. City Staff claim that the recent union negotiations were a give-and-take process where the city received concessions of monetary value in return for pay raises. That is probably true, but it is so convoluted that only people in the Finance Department can fully understand the implications. The public should have the opportunity to weigh in during these union negotiations. There should at least be an opportunity to question the logic behind the agreements before they become contracts. Larry Wahl again deserves credit for looking out for the taxpayer's dollar. I hope the rest of the council can see the value in making these procedures open to the public. If they don't I'll be left wondering what there is to hide.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Sean "S" Baber, who Granted us his knowledge today. See comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 07:16 AM | Comments (13)

March 28, 2008

A Little More of Ranch Dressing

Image: Possible new signs for Bidwell Ranch Is anyone sick of me talking about Bidwell Ranch yet? Too bad, it's yet another day on the ranch. Today we'll move the fairy shrimp up to the top 40, and Hoss has found another patch of meadowfoam that broke loose from its pen. Saddle up cowpokes and cowpokettes, we're off on another adventure. Normally I wouldn't go at this topic again but I received an email from someone in the City Planning Department pointing out some issues with some of the things I previously wrote. So to make sure all of you loyal readers have the best information, here is a discussion based on the email. These include my opinions as well, and not just what was sent to me. 1. River Partners is under contract to provide information to the City of Chico about turning Bidwell Ranch into a mitigation conservation bank. They have not asked to own or manage the mitigation bank. They are being paid $250,000. The estimated cost of an endowment to start a mitigation bank has been around $500,000. Some additional infrastructure costs would likely occur. In 2005 River Partners made a rough estimate of $1 million to create a mitigation bank in a bid that they submitted to the city. I assumed they were bidding to manage the bank, apparently they just wanted to do the paperwork. 2. A number of entities could manage the mitigation bank, including River Partners (although they have expressed no interest in doing so). There are lots of options related to who manages it and how it is managed. The City Council will decide that at some time in the future. It could be managed by the same group that manages the 4400 acre ecological preserve east of Bidwell Park. The city could play a part in managing the site as well. 3. The mitigation and conservation bank under consideration might include all 759 acres and not just the wetlands. Although it is my opinion that the majority of the value of the "bank" would reside in the wetlands. No decision on turning Bidwell Ranch into a mitigation bank has been made. The council will make this decision based on the information available when River Partners finishes their $250,000 contract. 4. Cows reduce weeds in Bidwell Ranch and prevailing thought is that they do more good than harm to wetlands in the process. The "no trespassing" signs were placed to keep ATVs off of the site. The City is considering placing more inviting signs up this year (see my recommendations above). 5. The developer's offer to purchase 200 acres of Bidwell Ranch for between $30-$50 million that the city turned down had some strings attached. They included some infrastructure and entitlement to the land. I still think it was far and away the best financial solution the city has seen regarding this property. In all reality, had that offer gone through, the developer would probably be trying to offload it now (housing market). Just to be clear, I'm not necessarily an advocate of developing Bidwell Ranch. The mitigation bank idea feels like a shell game to me. The city could use the non-wetland area for many things in the future. It could be parkland, a solar power site, or it could be traded for property adjacent to Bidwell Park with greater environmental value. But if you're going to put a value on the environment a mitigation bank allows you to destroy, then comparing it to the retail land value is reasonable. 6. There's more but I just finished working on my car and I'm tired, so you're off the hook.

Mysterious Woman Leaves Me Flowers: A mysterious woman left a flyer with a picture of flowers on it at my office. Rumor is she could have been a Friend O' The Park, or perhaps a Bosom Buddy of Bidwell Ranch. We'll never know. The flyer described a trip to explore the vernal pools of Bidwell Ranch. The trip is scheduled for Saturday, April 5th, 1PM. People will meet at the east side of Wildwood Park parking lot. Bring a hat, shoes, pants, hair, and fishing tackle for catching faery shrimp. I might try to go. Or instead I might build a giant wooden cow and hide inside of it. Then when the city goes to check the gate they'll see me as an offering and roll me inside the Ranch. At that point I'll rush out and claim Bidwell Ranch as the new Kingdom of American Liberty and Freedom (KALF). It will be a land where employee costs are limited to 60% of the annual budget. No study will be completed that costs more than $50,000. Only American flags will fly on lampposts. I'm sorry, only KALF flags will fly, but they look just like American flags. Parks will be built before open space is purchased, fenced, and populated with cattle. And lastly, our people will strive endlessly to free Cupcake from the faerie shrimp that hold her.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: The Hoss of Chico's boot-scootin' boogie scen, Gregg Payne. See comments belwo for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 07:30 AM | Comments (7)

March 27, 2008

Life On The Ranch

Image: The history of Bidwell Ranch from River Partners site inventory. I'm trying to catch up on the River Partners documentation regarding Bidwell Ranch. For some reason the whole Bidwell Ranch epic fascinates me. Here's a piece of property that the city was offered something like $30-$40 million (a couple of years ago) by local developers and they turned it down. The new construction was going to preserve the wetland portion of the site, but would have put homes nearer to Bidwell Park. I'm not sure a firm offer was ever made but the gist of what I remember was that the wetlands would be preserved and tens of millions of dollars would have been the net profit to the city. Now the purchase of Bidwell Ranch will probably be a net loss of several million dollars. Worse yet, an asset owned by the people of Chico may be shifted to another entity with no reasonable compensation. Access to Bidwell Ranch has been curtailed for years now (unless you're a cow), and River Partners has been working on a proposal to turn the area into a conservation/mitigation bank. I believe extra fencing and no-trespassing signs were put up to stop off-roading some years back. Here's what a River Partners FAQ says about access (see FAQ here)... In keeping with the direction of the Chico City council, we intend to develop a management plan that maximizes public access to the property while protecting environmental resources. We will thoroughly examine appropriate public uses of the property consistent with primary use of the site as mitigation and conservation bank. The regulatory agencies may wish to impose limits on activities and timing. Not all recreational activities that people enjoy in upper Bidwell Park are likely to be compatible with the use of the property as a conservation and mitigation bank. Ultimately, it will be up to the Chico City Council to determine if the benefits of converting the property to a conservation and mitigation bank outweigh other uses of the property. I had read some time in the past that the Army Corps of Engineers would be the regulatory agency of a mitigation bank. Access would then be controlled by that body, and not local officials. For instance, schools wanting to take regular trips to the vernal pools might have to submit a detailed access plan to the Army Corps. Keep in mind that only about 200 of Bidwell Ranch's 759 acres has wetlands and would be "bankable". Oddly enough, in the site inventory(see document here) River Partners provides , they consider guided tours to vernal pools to be "recreation". That activity and unauthorized hiking and biking are listed in the document as historic recreational use of the site. There is a section of the notes from the 1/31/08 meeting (here) that refers to possible recreation improvements at Bidwell Ranch as a preserve... Walking trails for low impact recreational uses on site. A trail along the border of the property that has a hard pan and would cause little erosion would be open for year-round use and a trail through the middle of the site would be open seasonally at times that would not disturb the wetlands onsite. Cows would be required to stay on trails as well (on a voluntary basis like they do today). I still have a lot of information to wade through. But here is one thing I found regarding the economics. The landowner (Chico) can recover the endowment cost (I assume this is between $500K and $1 million from other reading) once mitigation credits can be sold. I don't believe the landowner can recover the cost of the land ($7.5 million). I'm running out of steam as I write this so I'll have to tackle more later.

Move Along Little Doggies: From the River Partners site inventory is this insight into the cows on Bidwell Ranch. Currently, the City leases out the site for cattle grazing. The lease is for five grazing seasons (beginning in 2005 and ending in 2010). Either party of the agreement may suspend the agreement for a full season or remaining term of the agreement by giving written notice 45 days in advance of termination. The right to use may be terminated or modified at any time by the City. The grazing season commences on December 1 of each year, subject to verification from the Preserve Manager that adequate feed is available on the site, and ends in March 31 of the following calendar. The cattle stocking rate for the Property cannot exceed 40 Animal Equivalent Units (AEU). The lessee pays the City a sum of $605 per month for each month, or portion of the month, the Property is used for grazing during the term of the agreement (City of Chico 2005a). The Property has also been used for educational fieldtrips by Butte Environmental Council, Sierra Club, and the Bidwell Ranch Conservancy. I think in that last part they mean recreational field trips.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: The Hoss of Chico's art scene, Gregg Payne. See comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 07:19 AM | Comments (7)

March 26, 2008

Mr. Holcombchev, Tear Down This Wall!

Image: They don't call it Bidwell Ranch for nothing. Can someone tell me why grazing cows with no cowboy supervision is not a problem for vernal pools, but unsupervised human beings with tennis shoes are? A year ago I submitted a request on River Partners' web site (web site is here) to be on the Bidwell Ranch email list. I've never received any information from that organization on what they're doing with Bidwell Ranch. That's unfortunate because they had a workshop on January 31st this year, and have released their site inventory and wetland delineation draft plan. Knowing that those documents were available, when they were available, would have been nice. River Partners is working on a plan to turn the Bidwell Ranch property owned by the citizens of Chico into a mitigation bank managed by River Partners. To do this the city would pay River Partners an estimated $1 million. The details of the financial arrangement are not clear or fixed as far as I know. The city and private developers would then be able to "buy" bits of wetland in order to destroy wetland elsewhere. This is supposed to be a good deal for somebody. It seems like River Partners and the bunnies at Bidwell Ranch do fine, but otherwise it looks like someone is trying to fit an environmental square peg in an economic round hole. If the city wanted to buy mitigation credits to do something like develop the west side of the airport why not buy them from some pre-existing mitigation bank. Why spend millions of dollars to purchase land and then turn it over to an outside agency, lose control of the property, and then have to purchase credits anyway? Why not maintain the asset as park land for the citizens of Chico? Cattle grazing on Bidwell Ranch establishes one thing in my mind. There is, and was, no danger to vernal pools from foot traffic by humans. This property has been off-limits to the owners of it (you and I) pending a site inventory by River Partners. That inventory is complete. The city is letting cows graze with no fencing separating them from the vernal pools. The gate should be unlocked to allow foot traffic, and bikes onto the property. Mr. Holcombechev, tear down this wall! If the cows can walk in Bidwell Ranch then why can't I?

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Nobody. See comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 08:40 AM | Comments (6)

March 25, 2008

Wild Things in Bidwell Ranch?

Image: Artist's rendering of new indigenous native life returning to Bidwell Ranch. I received word today from one of the CI reporters-at-large that a magical thing has occurred in the Bidwell Ranch nature preserve. Some rather strange form of native fauna has returned to the pristine area. I haven't had the opportunity to verify the nature of this new animal, but I'm sure its return heralds the triumph of nature over man. How did we get to the point where an important and rare beast returned to Bidwell Ranch? It took quick action by local officials to get us here. First, the land was fenced and locked up so no human could foul the lands. "Keep-out" signs were hung and laws identified to ensure transgressors would be punished. While I may have been critical of these measures in the past, I can only be thankful now that someone had greater foresight than myself. These strange animals are known to have multiple holding compartments associated with their digestive system. These compartments have names like omasum, and abomasum, which are strange and exotic. The animals are known to produce a highly valuable liquid that some cultures apply to grain based meals in early morning rituals. Unfortunately, the U.N. has stated that these animals are responsible for creating 18% of greenhouse gases. That makes Sustainable Lon upset. Otherwise, this rare native beast, often referred to as an ungulate, is a great success story in preserving Bidwell Ranch's important ecosystem. Without keeping people outside of this public property there's no way this regeneration of native populations could have happened. If the report pans out, and these creatures have returned to Bidwell Ranch, all I can say is the millions in taxpayer dollars spent on that property were well worth it. I'll be keeping an eye on the Bidwell Ranch cam to see if I can spot the elusive animals.

Spotlight: See the 3 spaceship flyby: From NASA... Space shuttle Endeavour has undocked from the International Space Station and the two spaceships are now orbiting Earth in tandem. This sets the stage for a series of rare *triple* flybys, which many sky watchers will be able to observe on Tuesday, March 25th. It's a triple because three spacecraft are involved. First to appear is the European Space Agency's Jules Verne cargo carrier flying 2000 kilometers ahead of the ISS-Endeavour combo. Jules Verne is about as bright as a 1st magnitude star. Four minutes later, and even brighter, the space shuttle and space station follow Jules Verne across the starry sky--a spectacular sight! The link gives you directions and times to look for spacecraft in the night sky. This flyby is pretty early (8-9PM) and might be kind of fun to check out. Tax and spend liberal education: Chico Unified will consider taxing new commercial development because of the masses of kids it brings to our school system (Jenn Klein - ER). Of course without the Norteno Super Wal-Mart and all of the illegal child labor they use the taxes will be reduced. Actually this is the commercial building tax previously talked about, and they will also okay some layoffs.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Gregg "Cousteau" Payne, undersea cow milk expert. See comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 07:35 AM | Comments (8)

March 24, 2008

Springtime

Image: An azalea garden. Easter weekend felt like a typical introduction to Spring in Chico. I ended up working in my yard. What started as a minor clean-up and dump-run on Saturday ended up being a couple of days of yard work. I never had an interest in plants/planting until I owned my first home. When my wife and I purchased our first home in south Chico over a decade ago we had some work to do. We purchased the home in 1997 for $92,000. At the time I think our combined income was around $50K, and most of that came from a new job my spouse had won. We were married around the same time the house closed escrow. Our honeymoon money/time was spent putting a new fence up. In the BC days (before cids (kids)) we would walk across town on weekends to window shop at Hubbard's Nursery. While walking to and fro we would spy the various plantings in Chico's yards. In short order it was easy to determine what grew well in our town, and what ornamental plants would be a one season wonder. Unfortunately, that quaint little oasis of retail plant lushness is gone. Home ownership brings all sorts of "appreciations" to young couples. Combining incomes and spending toward a mutual investment and a future together is one thing. Better understanding of your community is another. For me it was also an education in home repair and the joys of gardening. I know every aisle of Home Depot like the back of my hand. To me it is sad that young couples are losing the ability to enjoy home ownership in Chico the way I have. I hear of young people moving to Gridley, Paradise, and Orland to get a start. In reality, it's not just young people making those decisions, it's anyone that wants to own a home at a reasonable cost. Additional fees and taxes on new homes, and a lack of good jobs in Chico, will make those trends more pronounced. In the meantime though, I'd like to point out to all Chicoans that the azaleas are getting ready to bloom. Keep your eyes open for these non-native invasive explosions of tropical color. They've come to define spring in Chico for me. Then will come the crepe myrtles in their pinks, purples, and whites and the summer heat beat only by a dip in the creek.

Spotlight: Dan The Man: Daniel Donnelly, a local art personality, wrote this letter to the editor. I think he makes some good points about the City's public art program and how it is viewed inside and outside the art community. The Art Department seems like a fiefdom where if you're in, you're in. And if you're not "no soup for you"! The City Manager should make some changes in the Art Department. The first change he should make is to stop any more decision making until the Art Commission has an updated set of policies for the various programs they are supposed to support.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Nobody, but almost a few people. See comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 08:48 AM | Comments (16)

March 21, 2008

The Chico Kup

Image: Day 3 of being sustainable dawned with a great idea that may change the world. Day 3 of being sustainable dawned with several significant happenings. First, I collected my shower water in a bucket and used it to make Krusty's pancakes for the whole family. It felt good to not just let the water go down the drain. The pancakes were a little soapy tasting, and all of us had a short bout of hallucinations. That was fun. Anyway, while "tripping the light fantastic" I came up with a great sustainable product. It's called the Chico Kup. I'm selling them for $29.95 (that's Canadian dollars). Below are some of the ideas I had for advertising the Chico Kup. Oh, I don't want to forget this. Since I've been sustainable I've noticed additional facial hair growth. It's not much, but it is unusual for me. I'll have to keep an eye on this.

Spotlight: In Hot Water: Scientists looking for ocean warming expected by global warming models can't seem to find it. Since 2003 a fleet of diving robots has measured a slight decrease in ocean temperatures. From the story... "Unfortunately, we don't have adequate tracking of clouds to determine exactly what role they've been playing during this period," Trenberth says. It's also possible that some of the heat has gone even deeper into the ocean, he says. Or it's possible that scientists need to correct for some other feature of the planet they don't know about. It's an exciting time, though, with all this new data about global sea temperature, sea level and other features of climate. What I find alarming about this story is that scientists interviewed appeared willing to ignore data and reach for unknown "features" to accomodate a belief that the earth is warming, when the oceans are not. The overall impression I got was that the researchers would find a way to make the data fit their pre-defined conclusions. That's not science.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Rainman Squarepants, scourge of Bikini Bottom. See comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 07:02 AM | Comments (13)

March 20, 2008

Is Chico an Art Town?

Image: Art RDA spending over roughly the last 10 years. The recent survey results have described public sentiment as supporting cuts in the local art programs. Meanwhile there are numerous pronunciations from art group supporters that Chico is a successful "art town". The 2007-8 allocations from the General Fund for art groups/grants was in the area of $150,000 (see web page here). That's a 50% increase over the 2006-7 funding. There are a number of ways to put that dollar amount into perspective. $150,000 is about half the annual cost of our City Attorney. A traffic signal costs somewhere around $300,000, or twice what we spend on art. $150,000 is pretty close the cost of a a large set of playground equipment with installation. Allocations of redevelopment (RDA) money for large permanent art projects averages ~$80,000 a year over the last decade. That's not a lot of money when you look at other RDA spending. I don't think it could be described as exorbitant, but I'm sure that's debatable. I point these dollar figures out because it seems to me that there is not enough money being spent to make Chico an "Art Town" and there's not enough to cut to make a dent in our budget shortfall. That doesn't mean it can't be cut to save dollars, but cutting art will not have a dramatic impact. But this leads me to question whether Chico is an art town. There is no substantial local market for artists to make a living. People in Chico don't buy a lot of art as far as I know. Successful Chico artists tend to sell outside of the area. Much of the public art funding goes to groups, not individual artists. So how does our public art system support and grow private funding of arts? I don't think it does. If it doesn't what is its purpose? Some in Chico really seem to want it to be an art destination. A good deal of money goes into trying to make that happen, but probably not enough to achieve success. If Chico was looking for an identity that provided fruitful economic development, and brand identity, they kind of already had it. It was that whole party school thing. When you couple that with the presence of Sierra Nevada Brewery this town was tailor made to be a beer destination. I remember attending standing room only Brewfests in downtown Chico. It didn't take public money and handmade horses racing in circles to pack the plaza. People used to flood this town on certain days. And yes, sometimes they wrecked the place. I'm not sure anyone wants to go back to those good-old-days (well, to be honest some part of me does, but just for a quick visit). But there's no doubt in my mind that massive funds could have been drawn from a visiting public had we catered to them. Instead it seems like we're trying really hard to be something we're not. But who knows, maybe over time the art thing will stick. It just didn't seem to impress the people that were surveyed.

Spotlight: Super Trailer: Best super hero casting since Michael Keaton was selected as Batman. See Robert Downy Jr. as Iron Man (uber industrialist Tony Stark) in the trailer below. Iron Man has always been my favorite comic hero, and I can't wait for the movie to come out.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: He's been workin' on the Payne-gang all the live-long-day. See comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 07:02 AM | Comments (10)

March 19, 2008

Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome

Image: The same young woman is shown in both E-R photos from St. Patrick's Day. One photo is happy, the next not so much. Worse yet, I can't tell if she was wearing green. This is exactly why I opposed the party ordinance. Horse kissing should not be illegal. At least not between consenting equines and homosapiens. Luckily, Ty Barbour, one of the E-R's great photographers, caught these images. There's now proof that the local police are cracking down on horse-lovin' in public. Somebody call the ACLU! Better yet, call PETA. Okay maybe that's not what these photos show. Above are two photos of St. Patrick's Day published in the E-R. The left hand image shows a couple of happy gals making nice with the horse-iffer. The second image shows a couple of gals after a good ole-fashioned public brawl. The odd thing is that one of the girls is in both photos. I took my post title from the girl's last name, but I'm not going to reiterate her full name here. I'm sure it's embarrassing enough for the poor girl as things stand. I'm pretty sure the E-R knew what they were doing when they placed these two images in the paper. I wonder what the reasoning was? I think they were highlighting the double-edged sword of alcohol-driven-fun. Or perhaps they wanted people to know that the Chico PD were keeping a very close eye on this blond ruffian. Regardless of the reason, let this be a warning to all of us. Don't let Ty Barbour follow you around! If you do, you will make the news. And it won't all be good.

Spotlight: Money talks, so does the Planning Commission: The Chico avenue group CANA expresses concern over Planning Commission micro-management. CANA lobbied for RDA money for neighborhood improvements and received $7.5 million. The Planning Commission wants to review the plan every year and remove the Esplanande from it. I think CANA has it right. You make a plan, the Council okays it, and staff moves it forward. There's no reason to have the Planning Commission making minor adjustments every year. There's only one thing to do about this... I call for the removal of Planning Commissioner Jon Luvaas... again. Guns don't kill people... bullets do: I support the right to bear arms. I'd also like cheetah legs, so I support those as well. Without getting into the Branch Davidian discussions of gun control I think it is an American right to keep weapons at home. I trust myself with a gun like I trust myself with a power tool. Fear of an armed populace is more an indication of a spreading lack of faith in Americans as responsible, individualistic, pioneers. The U.S. Supreme Court will weigh in on this topic soon, and likely in favor of gun owners.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: The fabulous Marky-Payne. See comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 06:57 AM | Comments (7)

March 18, 2008

Mean Green Machine

Image: A technique that hasn't been tried to get people to live more "green". I'm going seriously green this week. While all of you capitalist pigs are fuming up our blue skies I'll be kickin' it sustainable style. Call me Chico Velon from now on. This massive lifestyle change isn't based on a new moral compass. No, this is a much more powerful mechanism for social change. I broke my car. Now might be a great time to head down and buy a Prius. Or I could order one of those funny road-worthy golf carts. I think they are probably unsafe for my kids. On the other hand, if my entire family can achieve a moral superiority over the rest of you, the risk is worth it. However, since I'm old school green these new fangled technologies don't cut it for me. I'm all about the recycling. And that's why my 44 year old car needs to get back on the road. Oddly enough it was being green that knocked it off the road. You see, one fine day I was driving around town, using all 390 cubic inches of FoMoCo power to get somewhere important people like me have to get. The 44 years of accumulated 8 cylinder vibration finally took its toll on the '64 Galaxie. The right turn signal, which had always been a pleasing and morally correct green, had a sliver of white showing at its top. As I drove over the next few days the white sliver grew until all green was missing from my life. Every right hand turn was accompanied by a blinding, flashing, white light. It was like the ozone layer in my dashboard had disappeared. The immense carbon footprint emminating from the drivers seat had finally reached a tipping point. It was probably pushed there by massive methane releases that occurred last Monday. I knew I had to act locally but think globally, and emote universally. I had to get green back in my life. So I began to disassemble my instrument cluster to find the little piece of green cellophane that slipped from in front of my right turn signal's bulb. While I was at it I figured I'd take a look at the turn signal cam switch that would sometimes turn on my left hand signal when I hit a bump. Also, my gear selection lever had too much play in it. Driving out the roll pin and checking out the spring might be worthwhile. And I couldn't forget that my driver's side upper control arm should be replaced since I replaced the right hand one last summer. Should I try to find a new torsion bar for the trunk? I'm kind of tired of propping it up with a kite holder my kid got for his birthday. The list does seem to get bigger the more I think about it. Unfortunately, some of the parts I need are not easily found. My car is in pieces. So for the next week or so all of you Subaru driving enviro-snobs can kiss my hairless hiney, because I've gone green. And if any of you high-brow policy makers want to pass a law to make people use alternative transportation I've got an idea for you... ban professional mechanics.

Spotlight: Jolly Green Giant: Round table discussion on how the military can make the Iraq war more green. Very interesting. Sarah Smile: E-R starving student Sarah Kingsbury makes some interesting observations of taco truck patrons. She also expresses annoyance with enviro-snobs, at least that how I read it. There is at least one clarification the story needs... "roach coach" is not a term specific to taco trucks, but is applied to all mobile food vendors. In the mid-west and east taco trucks don't exist yet, but roach coaches do. For full disclosure the taco truck she reviews catered our company Christmas party in '06.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Nobody, see comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 07:14 AM | Comments (16)

March 17, 2008

Not So CUTA Anymore

Image: Here's something that will always be cute. It's got to suck to be a Chico Unified School District teacher and be low on the totem pole right now. Part timers will be let go, and any teachers without the proper CUTA "street cred" are hanging by a thread (CUTA, Chico Unified Teachers Association). Hundreds of layoff notices went out to Chico unified teachers and employees. Something like 330 layoff notices were described in this Chris Gullick E-R story published on Sunday. You can be sure the complicated method of determining who gets put out to pasture has little to do with job performance. What's probably worse than being laid off is the fact that the teacher's union was told this might happen a couple of years ago when they demanded pay increases. It wouldn't be correct to blame negotiated raises for all of the economic pain headed toward Chico Unified. But some in the district said the result of teacher's raises would be layoffs down the road when the district ran out of money. A December 6, 2006 Chris Gullick story covers some of the contract that was negotiated. The negotiations were long and sometimes unfriendly discussions. It took a year and a half to finish negotiations and mediation. Feaster [Assistant Superintendant at the time] predicted that the contract was the beginning of a cooperation between the district and its teachers . He described the agreement as representing the turning of a new page in the district -- one of trust, honesty and respect. The new contract gives teachers an 11 percent raise over three years -- 1 percent retroactive to July 2005, 7 percent beginning Jan. 1, 2007, and about 3 percent Jan. 1, 2008. It also gives teachers more rights when they are reassigned and a greater voice when a school's curriculum must be changed to address program improvement. The last time Chico teachers received a raise that was not tied to step and column -- the raises teachers receive for longevity and education levels -- was July 2002. The board will need to make about $1.5 million in adjustments in each of the next two years' budgets, to cover the scheduled raises , trustee Rick Anderson explained, but it demonstrates how teachers are a priority with the district. "We'll need to remember that when we have to make those adjustments," he pointed out. I hope they remembered that when they sent out the layoff notices. Past pay raises are likely to cause problems for state and city governments as well. Negotiating pay reductions with unions is not a quick process. When faced with a dire need for spending cuts layoffs are the only quick solution.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Ulster's own Orange Order observer, the Rainman. See comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 07:10 AM | Comments (4)

March 14, 2008

City To Cut Excess Green

Image: Probably not the kind of pruning we'll see in Bidwell Park. Large oaks and sycamores will be getting a hair cut in Bidwell Park starting on Monday. I wanted to let people know so nobody freaks out and files some kind of CEQA lawsuit. That sort of thing can happen here in Chico if the wind blows a little too hard. Here is part of the city news item... The City’s contractor, Fallen Leaf Tree Service, will be pruning the large oak and sycamore trees overhanging South Park Drive in Lower Bidwell Park starting on Monday, March 17, 2008. The contractor will be removing dead branches and doing some light thinning in the outer canopy as a safety measure and to ensure the health of the trees. The contractor will also be removing some of the smaller trees and vines along the edge of South Park Drive that are encroaching into the pedestrian and bicycle paths. No large trees are being removed or topped under this contract. I certainly hope Chico's West Side and East Side tree gangs are not involved in this senseless sylvan slaughter (see previous post for reference and joyous return to the Golden Age of CI). That would be frightful. All kidding aside I watched this company trim trees in Caper Acres last summer. They work in the tallest trees in the park using ropes and slings. Keep an eye out for them because it is pretty impressive work. I think I'll go watch them on St. Paddy's day. Normally I would drink green beer and expose myself in exchange for Mardi Gras beads. I do that even when it's not an Irish holiday. Unfortunately, I celebrated so hard after finishing the Sherwood Forest course that I think I can still taste the beer. No... watching trees get trimmed is more my speed right now. Below is a photo of city workers doing similar work in Lost Park (I've posted this before). The contractors worked quite a bit higher than this worker when I saw them, but this is still pretty impressive.

Spotlight: Finance Committee has a say Jenn Klein gets comments from Councilors Gruendl, Wahl, and Flynn on the recent survey. All of the comments are kind of funny to me. Gruendl says the survey changed his mind on the Fire Department responding to paramedic calls. Currently the Fire Department mirrors private ambulance services. Quite often they drive to an emergency, see the ambulance there and drive back to the station. Public misunderstanding of who provides medical emergency service has little to do with budget cutting methods. Wahl makes some good points about some of the areas where the public supported cuts, and said the survey was a waste of money. One example he gives is that the public might support cutting anti-graffiti efforts because the efforts are successful and graffiti has already been minimized. Flynn gets the quote of the week by basically saying that the survey hasn't yet changed her mind, but that it has the possibility to. Chico General Plan Downtown Partayyyy The General Plan folks will be discussing and touring downtown Chico as part of a workshop on Tuesday, March 25th from 6PM-8:30PM. The meeting looks like it will occur at the Arroyo Room 131 West First Street (next to Colliers). I would have held the meeting Monday, St Paddy's day, and had it from 6AM-8:30AM, that would have brought in more young people. Watts Up with the IPCC This Washington Times article takes aim at the UN climate change panel for presenting poor science and being influenced by politics. Here's an excerpt... The IPCC published its Fourth Assessment Report in 2007 predicting global warming will lead to widespread catastrophe if not mitigated, yet failed to provide the most basic requirement for effective climate policy: accurate temperature statistics. A number of weaknesses in the measurements include the fact temperatures aren't recorded from large areas of the Earth's surface and many weather stations once in undeveloped areas are now surrounded by buildings, parking lots and other heat-trapping structures resulting in an urban-heat-island effect. Hmmm... I wonder who's work they are referencing in that last bit. Let me think... Watt's his name... I can't remember... I think he's local though.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: The Jolly Green Giant himself, Gregg Payne. See comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 06:06 AM | Comments (5)

March 13, 2008

The Raw Deal

Image: the summarized response from the recent $30,000 survey regarding issues Chicoans are concerned with. Yesterday I quipped that the City Council would be able to move ahead with solving our local budget imbalance now that this survey was complete. Today's E-R editorial takes the Finance Committee to task for not making any decisions in its recent post-survey meeting (see editorial here). I think we all knew that the survey wouldn't provide any new leadership in solving the budget problem. Unfortunately, when 80% of you budget goes to human resources, and you are spending 12-15% more than you take in, you are going to have to cut from your largest expense category. The City has a General Fund income of $48 million in FY2007-08. Salaries and benefits were $38 million. The annual deficit is $6 million. So if you limited city government to spending roughly $4 million total you could retain all of the jobs ($48mil - $38mil - $6mil = $4mil). The city spent $1.3 million for "purchased services" and $2.7 million for "materials and supplies". If you cut all other spending you could keep wages and staff levels where they are today (all info from city finances presentation). That would essentially fund a government for the employees by the employees (as opposed to "for the people by the people"). We could keep people manning their desks and shuffling papers, but that's about it. So local government must trim its workforce, or its human resources cost. As we begin to look at increased staff needs moving forward, and negotiated raises the picture becomes more bleak. The SEIU (service employees union), IAFF (firefighters) and the management group (high level staff) have renegotiated contracts. This will save ~$360,000 for FY2007-8. The Police unions (CPOA and CPSA) are still in negotiations. However, those figures are not actual budgetary savings. They are savings over what we would have spent had those contracts not been modified. In other words, you can't deduct that from our deficit they are already accounted for. Local government should work to provide transportation infrastructure that supports the population, I call this infrastructure "good roads". They should enable law enforcement to work efficiently, that might include letting them shutdown a kegger when a felony is committed. They should support policies that promote private job creation, even if that means letting the school district know that placing a fee on commercial development is a poor idea. They should prevent self-induced salary growth that places them in a position where they can no longer do the things they must do. Like all surveys this latest one can be looked at many ways. For example the summary shows that growth and development was as big an issue as crime. But what does that mean? Here are a couple of questions /responses that might have been built into that 11%. For the entire response see the raw survey data at the E-R web site. Question: is this a serious problem? Extremely --- Very --- Somewhat Increased development of residential housing-------------------- ------16% ------- 20%-------- 30%------- A lack of affordable housing ---------------14% ------- 24%-------- 28%-------- So growth would appear to be a big problem. But from a housing standpoint it is split evenly between people concerned with increases in development and those who want affordable housing. Here is another interesting question/result. Question: is this a serious problem? Extremely --- Very --- Somewhat Waste and inefficiency in City government -------------------------------------14% ------- 20%-------- 28%------- Roughly as many people are concerned about waste in local government as are concerned about development or affordable housing. That fact is lost in the summary above. Other results: 58% of people get a lot of city news from a friend or co-worker (vs. 18% blogs) 56% of survey takers have lived in Chico for 11+ years. 77% live in single family homes. 68% own the place where they live. 74% had no children living with them. 47% had a college or higher education. 86% were caucasian. 54% were female. 39% Democrat 37% Republican 17% decline to state 7% other. One last note: The Finance Department took a hit as the city department with the worst survey feedback. They had the highest "poor" rating, and the lowest "excellent" rating. This is understandable since the survey was related to budget problems and they have Finance in their name. But that result better defines people's lack of understanding of how the budget works. As far as I know the Finance Department has little say in how money is spent at the city. They provide an overview and accounting of the city's financial standing. They do a good job and most of the information I post about the budget comes from their work. They are very transparent. The Finance Department does not negotiate union contracts or approve spending. Responsibility for the budget lies with the City Manager and the City Council, not the Finance Department.

Spotlight: Take A Break Guy falls asleep twice, crashes, on highway 70 in two different cars. Diebold Voting Machines Leak 2008 Election Results A snafu with the electronic voting machines releases presidential election winner early.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Fine diner, food critic, and expert in graphic art knowledge, Mark Sorensen. See comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 07:41 AM | Comments (9)

March 12, 2008

The Latest Greatest Survey

Image: Another national survey was completed recently that gives us some insight into the presidential primaries. I'm not implying any connection between the results of the survey above and the one discussed below. I simply want people to be informed. Somehow I got sick again. I think it has to do with having two little germ factories running around my house. This impacts my blog writing because I feel like hell, and if I type for too long my nose will drain onto the keyboard. Plus I couldn't write it last night, and so don't have much time this morning. The big news is that the $30,000 city survey was unveiled last night at a General Plan workshop(see city presentation here). And now with new vigor and direction the city will move forward and solve all of the budget problems. We'll all look back on this moment as the turning point where the war waged against inefficiency and government waste was won. Jenn Klein wrote this story on the survey. In a stunning revelation the survey confirms that the public enjoys graffiti (they want to cut attempts to combat graffiti) more than the public art program (they want to cut money spent on public art programs). If only there were some way to combine graffiti and public art? Perhaps if we placed more gang members on the Art Commission? A 30% cut in art programs, which the Council already decided not to do, would make a teeny dent in the budget issue. I think the best part of this survey is that now the Council will make all of the tough decisions to balance the budget. I feel so confident that that will happen. Whew! What a relief. Buried in the report is a section on where people get most of their city news. More people get their city news from blogs than from the Chico Beat. But since The Beat doesn't print anything anymore that's not a victory I'm terribly proud of. On the other hand people get more news about the city from their church than from blogs. Also, the Chico Today News was a greater source of information than the blogs. I don't think the City can afford any more of those, so CI is going to move up at least one notch in the news source list. I'm going to use this survey to attract new readers because it's an excellent marketing tool. I probably need to approach church groups with some kind of media kit. I'll start working on that.

Spotlight: Supervisors don't like new river park idea The County Supervisors don't like the State River Park I mentioned previously. One interesting quote made it sound like the camping aspect is what they didn't appreciate. Flags Update E-R's Ryan Olson updates the story on why the American Flag may not fly in Chico because of the Earth Flag's use of the flag hardware, and legal issues.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: One of the Knights of Ni, Mark Sorensen. See comments below for the answer. I want some shrubbery.

Posted by Lon at 09:24 AM | Comments (6)

March 11, 2008

Pottycise

Image: Recreation on the potty might be possible. Last night the Bidwell Park and Playground Commission Master Management Plan Committee met. And since that committee has the longest name imaginable the meeting had to be led by city staffer Dennis Beardsley the Park Director General Services Director Interim Assistant City Manager, who has the longest title of any city employee. The committee is made up of Park Commissioners Steve Lucas, Mike Candela, and Jim Walker. Walker is the chair of the committee. For those of you not in the know I'll explain how committees work in city government. Commissions and the Council sometimes break into smaller working groups that cover specific areas. An example with the Council is the Finance Committee. The committees have 3 members and will discuss specific topics of interest and forward recommendations to the commission or council they are associated with. These committee meetings are often sparsely attended. This committee's primary topic of discussion was what to do with $222,000 of proposition 40 money that has become available for park use. The money is supposed to be used to support recreation. It cannot be used for studies. Some of the money could be used for maintenance if the thing being maintained were originally paid for with these funds. There really isn't anything that meets that description in the park. So essentially these funds are to be used for building something new that supports recreation. At least that was how it was described during the meeting. The funds became available when it was determined that a bridge proposed near Bear Hole couldn't be built before the grant period sunsets in 2011. Projects paid for with Prop. 40 funds in Chico One-Mile Irrigation and Lighting $223,000 City Plaza $34,885 One Mile Dam Replacement $145,101 Chico Creek Nature Center Building $200,000 Day Camp Bridge $222,000 (this is the project that won't be funded) TOTAL $824,986 The prop. 40 funds are actually for park and recreation projects, not just recreation. But you can see from the funding expenditures above that no recreation projects have been funded with this money. I suggested that the committee use $60,000 to fund disc golf. After all we've spent at least that amount studying it (perhaps much more than that). I even brought 147 signatures of people that agreed with that idea. The suggestion will be forwarded to the Commission as a whole for their March 31st meeting. The commissioners present seemed to prioritize a restroom refurbishment at 1-mile and an improved toilet at Horseshoe Lake above a recreation project. I like a good bathroom, but it looks to me like the city has completely avoided funding any recreation with this money. I've never considered going potty as recreation, but I suppose with the correct Mexican food you could give it a go.

Proposition 40: This proposition was approved by California voters in 2002 by 57% yes and 43% no. The particular funds are RZH funds. Here is how RZH funds are described at one government web page. Program Overview Funds for this grant program are to be allocated for projects pursuant to the Roberti-Z'berg-Harris Urban Open Space and Recreational Grant Program (Public Resources Code Chapter 3.2 commencing with Section 5620) and are to be used for: High priority projects that satisfy the most urgent park and recreation needs, with emphasis on unmet needs in the most heavily populated and most economically disadvantaged areas within each jurisdiction. Projects for which funding supplements--rather than supplants ---local expenditures for park and recreation facilities and does not diminish a local jurisdiction's efforts to provide park and recreation services. Block grants allocated on the basis of population and location in urbanized areas. Need-basis grants to be awarded competitively to eligible entities in urbanized areas and in nonurbanized areas. Eligible Projects: Acquisition of park and recreation lands and facilities Development/rehabilitation of park and recreation lands and facilities Special Major Maintenance of park and recreation lands and facilities Innovative Recreation Programs Note: Special Major Maintenance and/or Innovative Recreation Programs may not exceed 30% of grant funds. Fiscal Impact from the Legislative Analyst: • State cost of about $4.3 billion over 25 years to pay off both the principal ($2.6 billion) and interest ($1.7 billion) costs on the bonds. Payments of about $172 million per year. • Costs potentially in the tens of millions of dollars annually to state and local governments to operate or maintain property bought or improved with these bond funds.

Spotlight: The Red See: This Jenn Klein story covers the fact that a number of city funds, beyond the General Fund, are in the red. A couple of years ago I was on a committee that looked at the redevelopment agency spending. We concluded that the city needed to stop spending RDA money, reevaluate their priorities, and recognize that it was a limited asset. The council disbanded that group, and I don't feel like they took our advice. The RDA is now $11.4 million in debt and costing the General Fund $250,000 annually. Bob Best, Mark Sorensen, and others were on that committee and deserve a lot of credit for being fiscal watchdogs. Even if all they get to do now is say "see I told you so". Dull and Duller: Today's editorial suggests getting engaged in the Chico General Plan. Tonight's meeting, on land use and the local economy, is 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Lakeside Pavilion, 2565 California Park Drive. Last night I attended a meeting where we discussed spending more than a half-million dollars on a plan (the new Bidwell Park plan) but there is no money to implement some of the things that plan addresses. I wonder if all of this navel gazing is just a symptom of something missing in our community.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Nobody, see comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 06:40 AM | Comments (5)

March 10, 2008

The Summer of George

Image: The first throw at the grand opening of the Sherwood Forest disc golf course. From Seinfeld [George reads a letter] George: Severance package...The Yankees are giving me three months full pay for doing nothing. Jerry: They did it for three years. What's another few months. George: I'm really going to do something with these three months. Jerry: Like what? George: I'm gonna read a book. From beginning to end. In that order. Jerry: I've always wanted to do that... George: I'm gonna play frolf. Jerry: You mean golf? George: Frolf, frisbee golf Jerry. Golf with a frisbee. This is gonna be my time. Time to taste the fruits and let the juices drip down my chin. I proclaim this: The Summer of George! The summer of George got a little easier to have here in Chico. About 300 people showed up for the opening ceremony of the Sherwood Forest kids' disc golf course. We ran out of discs for kids right about the time they stopped arriving. So with the exception of some late arrivals most kids got a free commemorative disc. It was a great turn out and some local officials took the time to come by. CARD Board of Directors Jan Sneed, Mike Leitner, and Ed Seagle were there. So were City Councilors Scott Gruendl, Larry Wahl, and Tom Nickell and Park Commissioners Steve Lucas and Jim Walker. The Chico Police Officers' Association president Terry Moore came to the event and brought a number of Chico officers to hand out the free discs to the kids. It is always nice to see local officials show up for the opening of a local project. It was also nice to see readers from this blog show up and celebrate the opening day. I think the picture of the two councilors and myself was taken when Scott and I were laughing at an old lady that fell down, and Tom was inquiring about the enormous wax build up in my ear. Not sure though. The best part of the day was seeing the course full of families and kids. This was a great event for disc golf and a great day for those of us working for years supporting it. During the "first throw" (photo above) a couple of kids actually hit the basket target that is located to the left (outside of the picture). I'm not sure who they were but apparently there were some sandbaggers in the crowd. This course was proposed about a year ago. It was approved by CARD's Board 5 months ago. The property is leased to CARD from the city on a long term basis, so the project had to be approved by the Bidwell Park and Playground Commission. That occurred on December 17th. Environmental studies were paid for by CARD at a rough cost of $9,000 and CARD bought the 10 targets at a cost of $434 each. The remainder of the course components were funded privately (about $6,500). The project was built by volunteer labor. All fundraising and construction occurred during a 60 day period. See all of our sponsors and photos of the volunteer effort here.

Spotlight: What Green Line? The county will look at a proposal to expand a state park west of Chico. This doesn't really have anything to do with Chico's Greenline, and the County can't stop the project. The proposal would expand a state park by taking 360 acres of prime agricultural land and converting it to riparian habitat and recreation use. I would like to see the park expanded, but the destruction of orchards to do that should spark interesting conversation. Johann Gutenburg Not Green? This story from the UK says that the Vatican has revised its 7 deadly sins to include not recycling. The mass production of the bible was accomplished by Gutenburg in Mainz, Germany (I lived there for a couple of years). What followed were centuries of paper products never recycled including the bible. Poor Gutenburg... who knew that the mass production of the bible was the devil's work.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Steve B. who was much too quick in recognizing the Jason Alexander boudoir photo. See comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 09:25 AM | Comments (7)

March 07, 2008

Time Is Money... But How Much?

Asterisks: * used General Services Director salary ** salaries are low for position, probably represent only a portion of annual salary *** public safety used 62.5% benefits, others used 50% **** these positions had two entries in salary database, I added them together although they probably relate to different people holding the position.

Image: Estimated cost in salary and benefits for an hour of a City Council meeting. Two posts back I complained that the City Council wasted time and money debating how to regulate 30 pedicab bicycles. They spent about an hour discussing this small group of people when the city has other more pressing issues that could be discussed. The city manager, Dave Burkland, suggested regulating pedicabs would be a waste of staff time. I used a little hyperbole stating that the discussion probably cost taxpayers a few thousand dollars and stated that a million dollars worth of staff salaries were dedicated to the topic. I thought it would be a good idea to actually do a little math and see if I was correct, or way off-base. So I embarked on a math problem to figure out how much salary and benefits are paid for each hour of a council meeting. I took the staff positions listed on the "council agenda with staff reports" cover sheet and assumed those were the staff members that would be required to be at a council meeting. Using the 2006 salaries I calculated the benefits for each position and divided the pay + benefits by 2080 to get the hourly cost (2080 = 52 weeks X 40 hours). Beyond what's covered above and the asterisks I made a couple of assumptions. First, I assumed that only about 3/4 of the city staff listed actually need to show up at each meeting. That could be wrong, but I don't know what the policy is. The second assumption I made is that the salaries did not go up since 2006. In all likelyhood all salaries probably bumped up by 2-5% for the merit pay raise management gets annually. After all of the figurin' it looks like I was a little bit off on the numbers I threw out previously. The annual salaries and benefits of staff at a City Council meeting is likely between $2 million and $3 million. That's quite a bit higher than I thought. The cost of 1 hour of salaries and benefits is not a few thousand dollars, but is probably closer to $1,000-$1,500. A very important point is that you can't save money by having shorter or fewer meetings. You can't save money by having fewer staff at the meetings. The annual costs are fixed. However, the hourly cost of staff for a Council meeting is a great indicator of how wasting that time on pointless discussions is a waste of taxpayer money. This is no different than if you were to call a lawyer or accountant knowing his hourly rate was $1,000. You would make absolutely sure you were prepared for the discussion and you would only discuss issues that warranted the $1,000/hour rate. I'll be looking at these meetings a little differently knowing the magnitude of the staff salaries, and the hourly cost to have them there.

Spotlight: Who let the dogs out.. who let the dogs out... Dog attacks squad car and destroys bumper. Try that on my '64 Galaxie. And the Beat moves on Chico Beat postpones print edition, moves out of office, and moves into post office box. Maybe not a post office box, I can't tell if Tom G. is kidding in his piece. This could have been avoided had they linked to Commission Impossible on their blog page. Why can't we be friends The Democratic National Committee precluded delegates from Florida and Michigan from being counted because those states held their contests too early. Both states were won by Clinton. Will the DNC choose to disenfranchise those state's voters, or change the rules after the contest has started. Not good options. In the 2000 presidential election Democrats wanted to change the rules of the contest after it was underway.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Hep cat Sean Baber backed up by the Big Lebowski. See comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 05:19 AM | Comments (16)

March 06, 2008

Bidwell Gets a Job

Image: This small bridge section of the Highway 149 project is getting ready to have concrete placed using a machine commonly called a "Bidwell". It is manufactured by a company called Bid-Well and is described by that company as a bridge paver. I don't leave Chico all that often anymore. I've already seen a lot of the world, and I'm kind of done with that for now. A few times a year I head down to the Bay Area to visit family. Maybe once or twice a year I'll go see a client. I used to drive out to Oroville every now and then to play disc golf (they've expanded their 18 holes to 36 holes with the Riverbend Park improvements). But with kids, a working spouse, a blog, a job, and various projects, I haven't even done that in the last couple of years. The closest look at the 149 changes I've had was when I took my son fishing at the nearby fish farm. It looked like lot of dirt and wood. When I saw these photos at a presentation I asked the presenter if I could share them on my blog. Kyle at Cal-Trans, who is managing this project, sent them to me so I could do that. There was one other experience I had related to the Highway 149 project. Last summer when we were building the Nico Project in Caper Acres we had some concrete work to do. We had to work around the 149 project because all concrete in our region was directed to that construction on certain days. On the day we were able to get a truck headed our way we had to accept the concrete at 5:30AM. This is a huge project that made use of our private construction infrastructure. It probably pumped some dollars into our economy. The project's winning low bid was ~$82 million, and the design consists of 1100 sheets of construction directions. Here is some of the work that has gone on.

Image Above: Highway 149 and 70 intersection before the project looking east.

Image Above: Highway 99 and 149 intersection looking south, before the project.

Image Above: A rebar form for a bridge's stems (pillars that hold up the bridge). The middle photo shows the height of the stem as two cranes move it. Lower right photo shows how deep rebar stem is set into the the ground.

Image Above: Concrete and rebar forms for a bridge . The white tubes house cables that will be tightened to a designed tension when the concrete cures to apply a specific tension to the bridge structure.

Image Above: Concrete being placed into forms shown above to create bridge.

Image Above: Rebar forms for road surface are placed on top of concrete bridge structure.

Image Above: Highway 149 and 70 looking east showing more recent work with bridges taking shape.

Image Above: Highway 99 and 149 this time looking north, with bridges taking shape.

Spotlight: Interim Assistant City Manager discusses tree mutilation: Dennis Beardsley calls tree carvings a threat to trees in Bidwell Park as well as a mutilation. Offensive language carved into trees is said to be on the increase. While I wouldn't promote carving your lover's name into public trees (let alone what you plan on doing with her) there seems to be an amplification of the impact of this act with this story. There's no mention of the thousands of holes drilled into trees by woodpeckers, or the hundreds of trees knocked down by high winds. Some of this comes from the false belief that all human behaviour can be controlled and therefore human transgressions are worse than nature. Somewhere between 5-50% of humans are jackasses. They are going to do jackass things. That's human nature. Water transfers will happen: The Butte County Water Commission discussed idling thousands of acres of farmland so the farmers can transfer water to other areas of California..

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Nobody, see comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 06:04 AM | Comments (8)

March 05, 2008

Council Artfully Dodges Budget Again

Image: Chico pedicab rear-ended by automobile in 2006. Photo is from the Orion online. One of two accidents involving pedicabs, both were found to be the fault of the car driver. The Council covered many things last night. The budget was not one of them. Short attention was given to the Art Commission workplan because so much time was spent on less important issues. The plan seemed to be both an over-reach (from a time and staff availability standpoint) and a hodge-podge of unconnected ideas. Interim Assistant City Manager dropped a bit of a bomb on the Council. The new police station that was planned to be moved out to Bruce Road may now remain in the same location that the police currently reside. This hinges on the City finding a location to move the Highway Patrol to. If the Highway Patrol can move, then the Chico Police could expand and include the adjacent CHP property. Councilor Gruendl pointed out that finding a new site for the police to grow into was a council top priority, and that this change of direction was not necessarily a step forward. The council previously set aside $2.4 million in RDA funds to evaluate the Bruce road site. I hope to cover the art plan and new police site in future posts. But first here are the important topics the council spent time on.

Peddling Snake Oil - The Chico City Council spent more time discussing regulating pedicabs last night than I've heard them discuss our massive budget problem. There are an estimated 30 pedicabs in town. Any regulation of pedicabs would put them out of business. A pedicab is not close enough to a real business to be able to afford insurance. A couple of businesses rent pedicabs to people and some other people own their own pedicab. The council early on stated that requiring insurance, which would put pedicabs out of business, was not desirable. The fact that this topic was less important than the budget was brought up by Councilor Steve Bertagna. He wondered why it was even being discussed. City Manager Dave Burkland suggested that staff time would be wasted looking into pedicab regulation. Police Chief Hagerty and Councilor Scott Gruendl felt that not checking the backgrounds of pedicab drivers like the city does with taxicab drivers could expose the public to predators. Gruendl pointed out that pedicab passengers may not be in the best position to take care of themselves if the driver of the bike is a ne're do well. Bertagna answered that if the city was really concerned about public safety then statistically passengers were much more likely to be injured by an accident than threatened by the driver. Therefore, insurance of the pedicab should be a priority if any regulation was required. Bertagna wasn't suggesting that insurance be required, just that the regulation of the driver being suggested was a rather pointless endeavor. Chief Hagerty responded that any new requirements for pedicabs might have to be cut in a month when budget cuts are required. At one point Councilor Larry Wahl asked why they were even talking about pedicabs. The answer was because taxi-cab drivers didn't like being singled out for license requirements. After all this was said Mayor Andy Holcombe felt the pedicabs should still be regulated regardless of budget shortfalls. The council voted to require pedicabs to get a special information handout with their business license. I highlight this part of the meeting because this conversation probably cost the taxpayer a few thousand dollars in staff pay and benefits. It lasted an hour and required staff with over a million dollars in annual salaries to take part in it. It provided the taxpayer with nothing. Pedicabs provide no substantial economic benefit to Chico, they do not have a history of problems. There was no need to try to micromanage this tiny group of people. The most tragic result of this waste of time was that the discussion of the police station location and the 90 degree turn it represents was given less attention. This is a $40 million project, and with little discussion the city management has turned it on its ear. The Art Department spends hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars per year, and the council could hardly take the time to discuss their work plan. They were too busy discussing regulating 30 bikes.

Old Glory To Get Hosed? It seems like the 7 year tradition of hanging 375 American flags in Chico could be at risk. The US flags and the flag hanging hardware are owned privately by the "Flags Committee". All installation and removal of flags was supposed to be done privately, but years ago the City of Chico volunteered to provide the labor for flag process. This was to keep the committee from having to pay for insurance. Because government labor is being used, and because the Earth Day flag has been allowed, the City feels like it can no longer donate the labor to install the American flags. The cost to hang the flags may not be something the city will pay, or that the Flags Committee can afford. In April we'll see the Earth Day flags again. In July, around the 4th, we may not see anything. Great town. The Council will address this topic again in June.

Spotlight: Vallejo not broke yet: Vallejo is near bankrupt but might get a reprieve if unions amend agreements. Sly and the Family Stone: Randall Stone of the Democratic Action Club of Chico sent out this email portion about Sorensen, Daily, and Herbert in the last election... These candidates are supported almost exclusively (and by large financial contributions) by mammoth developers with specific projects earmarked for the next four years. While development is not the enemy, their specific interest in this election and the candidates they have endorsed have little regard for anything other than these developers. I am making the assumption that this is the same Randall Stone, which I think is a good one. The Stone brothers had their development (funded by RDA dollars) approved last night. I don't have any problem with the project, but previous anti-developer comments that were broadcast seem pretty comical today. In this case the mammoth developer was the City of Chico, and its taxpayers. The special project earmarked for the next four years was his. I wonder if development impact fees will be collected on this project? Koenig's Fowl Letter: Kris Koenig wrote a mamby pamby opinion that is a great example of why we have problems with our geese in Chico.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Mrs. Rainman, librarian to the stars. See comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 07:04 AM | Comments (4)

March 04, 2008

Great Bollards of Fire

Image: Artist's drawing of safer bollards requiring minimal changes or expense. There's no recommendation on what to do about giant cycling rodents in the park. The bollard story is one of those Chico discussions that I like to keep an eye on, but generally don't want to touch it with someone else's 10 foot pole. Wrapped up in the whole "is a bollard dangerous" question is the question of whether cyclists riding in big groups are the real danger. I think it's also fair to wonder if the issue is really all about Ed and not about bollards at all. I'm sure there are people around town that see the concern over bollards as special treatment for a popular guy. On the other hand I'm having a hard time wondering why bollards need to be defended. I know they keep cars off pedestrian/cycling routes. But were cars really that big of a problem? What happens if a car gets on the wrong road every now and then? Has someone been killed or injured? Why not just take the bollards out for a little while and see how it works? When I hit inanimate objects with my bike I always assumed it was my fault. I once hit a park bollard and it knocked my peddle off. I had to ride home from 5-mile with one foot. Another time I hit a brick pillar, which is like a bollard but bigger and rockier. I flipped over my bike and landed on my back on someone's lawn. I had to throw my bike away afterwards. Seriously, I had to throw it away. That was back before I was sustainable. Today I would compost it. However, if we set aside the emotion of the local discussion it is really pretty simple. Do we need bollards? Do we need bollards everywhere? Can we make the bollards safer? Can we do that in an affordable manner? I was copied on an email yesterday that Gregg Payne sent to city management, Councilors, Park Commissioners, and cyclists. He came up with some drawings showing how to make the bollards more noticeable, safer, and without spending a lot of money. My favorite part of the idea was the painting of surface graphics to highlight the presence of the bollard. These graphics might also have a raised surface to alert someone to the bollard in the dark, or if they are not paying attention. They do this same thing on the side of the highway to let people know they are leaving the roadway. I call them "drunk bumps" or "driving by Braille". I thought Gregg had some great ideas. The bollards stay (at least some of them). They are more noticeable and therefore safer. The changes don't cost very much. It's nice to know that city officials received these ideas from a citizen who put some thought into the problem. If the city embarks on expensive engineering studies, or costly modifications to the bollards, it will be with really inexpensive alternatives in front of them.

Spotlight: Elfs and Gremlins: The new kids' disc golf course has already been vandalized. People tore off two of the interpretive signs. But at least the vandals didn't burn down homes like the Earth Liberation Front is alleged to have done in this story. Chico Unified Playing Catch-up: The school district is dealing with more than budget problems as it tries to meet testing standards in specific areas.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Pillar of the community and stanchion supporter of bollard ducks, Mark Sorensen.

Posted by Lon at 06:00 AM | Comments (9)

March 03, 2008

Are They Amunds or Almonds?

Image: An strong indicator of a breaking news story. The sign above was pointed out to me by a friend. There are any number of things that it could represent. It's located at the S&S produce store on Mangrove. When I saw it I thought of a few headlines the image could be used for. Since staff writer Laura Kleinlittle is on vacation I thought I'd scribble down my ideas so she could do a little more investigative research. 1. Police Chief Takes Budget Issue Seriously: Chico Police Chief Bruce Hagerty has suggested a number of low cost ways to increase security at City Hall. Some of the methods could be described as stingy security subterfuge. Installing scarecrows at the Council podium was a first step. But it turned out that crowds of "trustafarians" could be found streaming through the council chamber at all hours. Apparently it didn't matter that the councilors were actually not responding to comments or even present. They still lined up to complain about whatever issue caught their fancy this week. The chief has now located a number of low cost signs around Chico encouraging more outspoken citizens to gather elsewhere. It seems to be working, as the Council Chamber is now empty during off hours. Like a moth to a flame the crazies have gone elsewhere all because of good signage. 2. Secret Hideout Finally Located: The secret hideout of the anti-disc golf crowd has finally been located. For years it was assumed they met in dark robes amongst the oaks of Bidwell Park. But after long expeditions into the wilds of Upper Park, via 10' wide fire roads, it was determined that they likely meet elsewhere. Additional research showed that if they tread on actual park property they could be breaking one of their most powerful religious beliefs. It was determined that they must gather on less sacred ground, and now the location has been identified. 3. Schism Develops at Local Produce Firm: Personal feelings of anger and distrust have boiled over at a local produce shop. Vegans and global warming-concerned employees have demanded that the profitable outdoor BBQ be removed. The consumption of animal flesh (slathered with spicy cajun sauce and grilled to perfection) along with the increased carbon footprint caused by the BBQ pit have resulted in the demand for its removal. Employee Chad McMannster suddenly found himself the only employee that supported the BBQ. Quietly, and in the dead of night, he took his first step into local politics by hanging a sign expressing his concerns related to the BBQ issue. Give it a try: If you're feeling creative feel free to summarize your own story as it relates to the image above. Creative writing projects are the meat and potatoes of this blog.

Spotlight: Interim Fire Chief Appointed: 24 year Chico Fire Department employee Keith Carter has been named as replacement to Chief Brown. All top city positions filled recently came from within the city ranks. Perhaps it's time for city officials to recognize that we're not really competing with cities like San Rafael for employees. There are a few positions that are hard to fill but extensive recruitment has been avoided for the top positions in local government. Bollards Poll The E-R's weekly poll asked whether bollards should be replaced. As of Sunday night it was 18% for removal, 17% for modification, and 65% for leave them alone. 518 votes total. The link goes to the discussion forum. Commission to discuss water transfers: The Butte County Water Commission will discuss water transfers and a study of the Tuscan Aquifer tomorrow. See also this story on the construction of dams in the Northwest U.S.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Nobody. The answer is posted in the comments below.

Posted by Lon at 06:10 AM | Comments (13)