Commission Impossible

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April 30, 2008

Under The Gun

Image: Funding cuts that would be shouldered by city department, if a 7.5% across the board cut occurred. At the 8/22/08 Finance Committee meeting the City Manager, Dave Burkland, provided information on how the city could balance the budget and fill the hole caused by the existing structural deficit. This budget fixing method would not solve the need for additional city employees as the area adds to its population. The police department proposed cutting 14.5 positions to meet their budget target. Being the largest department their cuts have the largest fiscal impact. All of the other cuts fall below them on the list. From their report most of the cut positions seem to be empty but budgeted, or officers can be transferred to other jobs, thus vacating the positions. The fire department cuts, whose plan I haven't read yet, have been described as cuts in overtime pay. It's still pretty amazing to me that cuts in overtime equaling $1,000,000 are possible this far into the budget problem. But I haven't read their plan, so maybe that's an oversimplification of the cuts. Notice from the agenda below that limiting the pay increase of all city employees to 1% for 2 years is equal to a 3.25% cut in every department. If they limited the growth to 0% for 4 years they could probably do away with the 7.5% department cuts. But looking at the broad view of the "plan" (reprinted below) it looks like the 2 pronged assault on the budget is a reasonable direction. The limit of employee pay raises to 1% for two years cuts the rate of the budget deficit's growth. When coupled with the departmental cuts, the General Fund's income can exceed the structural deficit over time. At least that's the expectation, but I've never seen the spreadsheet that shows how/when that happens. The thing to look for is whether or not the IAFF accepts a 6% pay cut by limiting their increases to 1% for two years. If they play ball the rest of the cuts will probably work. If they opt to take a different route, then Chico's budget solution will be occur over a much bumpier road. The budget issue is not static, even though it's being discussed as a static problem. it will change based on economic conditions and spending decisions. It has been getting worse lately. More than just the General Fund is in trouble. From the 8/22/08 Finance Committee agenda... The following expenditure reductions are recommended: (1) Limit cost of living adjustments (COLA) for all employees to 1% for January 1, 2009, and January 1,2010. This recommendation reguires negotiations with all employee groups and would result in a savings of $2.3 million per year. (2) Apply a 7.5% "across the board" reduction to Departmental Operating budgets to achieve a $4.6 million reduction of which $3.8 million would be from the General Fund. This target would be achieved through vacancies, attrition, and reductions in materials, supplies, and other nonsalary expenses. Based on the City's average six percent attrition rate over the past 11 years, I believe the necessary staff reductions can be achieved without forced personnel reductions. The workout plan for each department is unique and a variety of cost-savings actions have been proposed to meet the reduction targets. The financial impact of the 7.5 percent departmental operating budqet reductions over a two-year period is summarized in Table 1 below[shown above]. The detailed workout plans and service impacts for each department are included under the Exhibit A tab in the agenda binder.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Gregg "kaboom" Payne. See comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 08:33 AM | Comments (10)

April 29, 2008

A Wright Not A Privilege

Video: Some raw footage of me driving some of my various vehicles. Only the most dedicated of blog writers would report on Video Traffic School and the Bidwell Park and Playground Commission in the same post. And that's why reading this blog is a privilege, and not a right. Late last year while driving my wife's truck to the dump I was awarded a chance meeting with the California Highway Patrol. Since I can't hear the road in my wife's newer vehicle I couldn't determine how fast I was going. The CHP guy decided to let me know. Curse you Tom Nickell and all your CHP brethren from hell. In my 1964 Ford Galaxie 500 I can hear the birds singing and the wind whistling by at 25mph. It's like driving the Chico Nature Center down the road, though without the pompous anti-disc golf attitude. At 75mph my old car sounds like a minor hurricane. My wife's truck sounds the same at 35mph as it does at 90mph. So I like to drive it around 90mph. Anyway, I spent 4 hours last night paying for the sins of my first moving violation in 19 years. I learned a lot. In particular I learned that I do a lot of illegal things. For instance, it's illegal for me to listen to my iPOD when I ride my bike. It's also illegal to drive backwards on the wrong side of the freeway while passing cars on the shoulder in the fog. There are also new laws that don't impact me, but I should pass on. It is illegal for people under 18 to drive while talking on a cell phone even if it is a "hand-free" phone. It's illegal to drive when you're under 18. It's illegal to be 18. Apparently being 18 is also a privilege and not a right. You also can't smoke with minors in your car. I couldn't tell if it was illegal to drive if the minors are smoking. So there you go. If anyone out there needs to take traffic school, just let the court know that you read this blog. I'm pretty sure you just learned as much as I did last night.

Park Commission: (please read this while playing Ozzy Osbourne's Flying High Again). Proving once again that illegal behavior is the best way to get "the nod" the paraglider proponents got recommended for approval by the Park Commission last night. I'm kidding, but the fact is that if paragliding hadn't already been in the park for a long time they probably wouldn't have had a chance. They will need an EIR, a municipal code change, and City Council approval. That usually takes 14-20 years. Dennis Beardsley (interim Assistant City Manager, General Services Director, Park Director, and masked crime fighter known as "Mitigation Man") had said in a memo that the city didn't have money to perform the required EIR to allow paragliding. He backed off that statement last night when Commissioner Jim Walker suggested that hiking to a launch point and walking away from a landing point didn't really constitute a new kind of use of the park. Walker's main point being that since those activities are already allowed the environmental review can't be too complicated. The proponent of paragliding, Jon Stallman, provided a presentation that covered 3 possible launch sites along the North Rim trail and a couple of landing points (Horseshoe Lake and near Bear Hole). An interesting fact is that once the paragliders are in the air they are covered by FAA rules and not the City of Chico. Therefore, concerns over falcons or other birds cannot be enforced by Chico in relation to powered/unpowered aircraft. If the paragliders launched outside of Bidwell Park, they would have a right to make an emergency landing in the park. A couple of citizens complained about the visual impact on Bidwell Park. Commissioner Lisa Emmerich agreed with this point. A paraglider supporter pointed out that they've been using the site to do this for 12 years, and nobody has complained about the aesthetics of it before. Commissioner David Wood said that when he saw paragliders land they were usually peppered with questions about the activity and not complaints about the visual impact of it. Commissioner Emmerich stated that in her time on the commission she felt the body had resisted allowing any new uses in Upper Bidwell Park. She was confused by the apparent support for this new use, even though it's been in the park for years (illegally). Commissioner Steve Lucas responded that even though some on the commission are less outspoken, there are members that believe access should not be denied to the park, and that it should be used for recreation. Last night the Park Commission did a good thing by supporting paragliding in Upper Bidwell Park. That was a positive step for improving park access, even though it only impacts a dozen or so people who clearly have money to spend on their hobby. The vote was 5-2 with Walker, Barrett, Lucas, Wood, and Candela for, and Emmerich and Ober against paragliding.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Always the wright man for the job, Gregg Payne. See comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 08:44 AM | Comments (18)

April 28, 2008

Hang Loose

Image: Paragliding disc golfers intent on destroying Bidwell Knotweed. Disc golf, if approved, will be moved away from Bidwell Knotweed, a very common plant in Bidwell Park. Paragliding, if approved probably won't be held to this standard. Some advice to the para-gliders, don't ever carry frisbees! Here are a few topics for your Monday reading pleasure. The Fever For the Flavor of a Union- The Chico Fire Department makes thousands of medical emergency calls each year. In fact there's only an average of about 1 fire each week that they respond to. The medical calls are also responded to by private ambulance services in town. As far as I know each medical emergency is responded to by a fire engine as well as an ambulance. If hospitalization is required the ambulance provides the transportation service. I would guess that the average annual cost of personnel on a fire engine is close to $500,000 when the benefits are included. The people at the private ambulance service make something like $13/hour. That's caused employees at one of the two private companies to consider forming an employee union to take advantage of collective bargaining. This does make me wonder how one group of people can do a job for $13/hour while the other is pulling down 6 figures. I guess that's what the ambulance company employees are wondering as well. The Road Less Traveled - Steve Harrison, the Sierra Nevada Brewery executive that died last year, had a bike path named after him recently. This route runs parallel to Potter Road south-east of the Doe Mill development. The route was planned long before it was named after Harrison, and is a useful bike path to a specific class of cyclists. However, I recently heard that the city paid more than $300,000 for this route to be built. I have no idea why it cost so much. The route is useful to avid cyclists who enjoy riding up the adjacent canyon, and reduces the need for cyclist to be on the more dangerous Skyway to make that trek. But for $300,000 all of Potter Road probably could have been improved. More importantly, this project doesn't make Chico more friendly to bicycle commuting. It will not be used by a large number of cyclists. A better project could have been completing the horse/bike path between Wildwood Park and Horseshoe Lake. At least more people would be able to use it. Hang Loose: It sounds like disc golf may not be the most dangerous recreation in Upper Park after all. Para-gliders will be asking the Park Commission for permission to have legal access to the park that Annie built. Hang gliding and para-gliding are currently off limits. Hang-gliders have at times launched from the cliffs near disc golf, while para-gliders prefer to use slopes like those on the North Rim trail. A committee of the Park Commission recommended approval, and changing of the municipal code to allow para-gliders, but not hang-gliders. The city memo discussing this topic states that the city has no money for the environmental review that is required to allow paragliding. Had the park Master Plan not exceeded estimated costs by 100%, had the downtown plaza not exceeded early plans by 400%, and had the city not spent $42,000 on a plant study, perhaps there would be some money left. I suspect that opposition to this unique use of the park will occur. Colorful wings floating in the distance would destroy the meditative nature of Bidwell Park, as does anything humans enjoy. There was already a letter-to-the-editor fretting about the impact on falcons. Just a word of advice to the para-gliders folks... watch out for Bidwell's Knotweed, it's not endangered, but some people like to pretend it is. And it's everywhere, including the North Rim trail. Update: Images: Photo series of a para-glider in Upper Bidwell Park. Notice the rampant destruction and lack of falcons caused by this activity.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Hoale Bras Steve B. and Gregg P., see comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 07:32 AM | Comments (15)

April 25, 2008

County Livin'

Image: The bush shown on the county web page is growth study area 43. It's a possible area for a new urban style housing components for metro-sexual jackalopes. Last night I attended my first meeting of the Butte County General Plan update since they began their process. I couldn't stay for the entire show, well actually I could, but decided not to. The meeting was for the Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) to discuss growth areas near Chico. That committee has about 30-40 people on it, and it looked like about 60%-70% of the seats were filled. It was interesting to see so many people from areas like Oroville, Paradise, and Biggs, involved in a discussion about Chico's growth. The public had a very short comment period and Chico's traditional anti-growth crowd was out and mostly focused on water or areas near the green line. I was actually there to support growth... kind of. Maybe that's not the best way to describe it. Most officials think that growth is coming, and the best growth is the well planned growth. In contrast Jon Luvass, a Chico Planning Commissioner, said last night that growth is not coming, and that we already have more single family homes than we need. He felt that all growth should accommodate housing for 1 or 2 people, not families. I think growth is coming and we need more parks. I don't think we can count on the city to build parks, or to provide access or improvements to public land that they purchase. I was on CARD's Master Plan update CAC last year when study area 9 came up. A study area is a location where growth may be allowed or prevented through this planning process. The 1440 acre study area 9 sits between The Skyway and Potter Road. It is adjacent to the Doe Mill development and between two sparsely populated canyons west of Chico (Update: Ooops, it's east of Chico). The landowner wants to use ~400 acres as a regional park with mountain biking / hiking trails as well as set aside 90 acres for a CARD community park. CARD has even penciled in a design for the community park. The development would essentially add another 400 acres with the characteristics of Bidwell Park, but with components specifically designed for recreational use. Roughly 1500 homes would be built. If growth is inevitable, this is where I'd want to live. Although I suspect this plan would have to fall into the City's realm of control at some point. I don't know how the vote went last night, and it's up to the Board of Supervisors to make the final call on where growth might be allowed.

Tovey Giezentanner, a County General Plan CAC member, Sherwood Forest kids' disc golf course hole sponsor, and I seem to recall he holds an appointed county position (although I can't recall what it is) asked an interesting set of questions at last night's meeting. City of Chico staff delivered a memorandum to the County CAC of their recommendations or opinions on the growth study areas. I didn't see the memo, but from Giezentanner's comments it sounded like the City was also providing their preferred alternatives. Giezentanner calculated up all of the new homes that could in theory be built if those recommendations were followed. I'm going from memory here, but I think it was around 15,000. And then he asked the most relevant question. Who directed city staff to make this recommendation? The City Council has never suggested those growth areas accommodate that much additional housing. In fact the city General Plan update, that might answer those questions lags the County effort. It's unlikely that any body appointed by the liberal council would make the same recommendations it appeared City staff was making. That growth may be needed over the next 22 years, but it hasn't even been considered by elected officials at the City. I hope that discussion continued as the meeting went on. But I to have to wonder why City of Chico staff were making recommendations without direction from elected officials. The memo's purpose may have been misunderstood, but some clarification seemed needed.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Known for his Mt. Vernon learnin', Sean Baber. See comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 08:33 AM | Comments (9)

April 24, 2008

Back in Black

Video: A heartfelt message to Chico's financial decision makers from the youth of Chico and one of our community's aspiring video artists. I've finally found my calling in life. I've decided to make poorly shot music videos featuring my latest child. Actually, you have no idea how hard it is to make a baby dance on cue and sit still while dancing, which is why I added that videotaping secret to the video. You need to overwhelm the baby's senses with dancerific input. Yesterday I shut off the comments because it seemed to me like the discussion was getting away from a reasonable dialogue between neighbors, which is my preference for this blog. If anyone wants to start up that conversation again, feel free, but I thought the down-time was a good thing. And since I take the time to write this non-award winning blog, I get to make the rules. I've been reading the 7.5% cuts proposed by the police management, and I'll read the fire management's proposal in the next few days. After I get through those I'll post a couple of times about it. In the meantime a much more important budget cutting issue sits before the Finance Committee today. While some people might consider police or fire to be important, and yes the biased survey might have even pointed in that direction, most of us know that's not the case. Today the Finance Committee will decide on funding for community organizations. If the Chico Cat Coalition doesn't receive $10,000 there will be hell to pay. The Chico Cat Coalition is a group of 60's radicals who have banded together to protect other 60's radicals from recognizing that Woodstock is over. These hep cats deserve our support, and releasing them into society can do nothing but harm to our city. Of course I'm kidding. The Chico Cat Coalition is actually a Chapmantown based group of intelligent felines. They've been mutated over time by the malt and barley clouds wafting over from the brewery. The coalition recently formed and was supportive of Jane Dolan in the last election. Their antagonistic attitudes are credited with Dolan running unopposed. Expect them to get funding. No, that's just a joke. The Chico C.A.T. Coalition is a group of people that were nerds or dorks in high school and they've set up an institution to help young people avoid dorkiness. The Center for Awkward Teens (C.A.T.) will teach kids to smoke, let them know which boy band is in style, and provide free purple hair dye. Actually the Chico Cat Coalition scours local parks for cats gone native. Then they house them in a big barn where they are catalogued and distributed to the public. This prevents giant prides of feral house cats from roaming the serengeti we know as Bidwell Park. OK, ok, I'll quit with the jokes. The Finance Committee will allocate money to community groups from the General Fund and Community Development Block Grants (CDBG). Last year's funding was $365,857 and this years requests totaled $388,060. The City Manager is recommending $318,521. That's a cut of roughly $47,000. That's close to the same price we paid for the vegetation study for Comanche Slough ($42,000). So a 12% cut in community programs was as important as a weed study. Nice. Only two organizations seemed to get what they received last year, and at the same time asked for what they received. Those groups are Catalyst Women's Advocates, Inc. and Rape Crisis Intervention, Inc. I believe Mark Sorensen is on the board of Catalyst, maybe he could tell us what they're up to this year? Economic development groups asked for $344,840 this year after receiving $276,974 last year. The City Manager is recommending $246,289 of funding. That's a $30,000 cut in funding. The Chamber of Commerce did their part this year by asking for $95,000 which is ~$30,000 less than they received last year. Their recommended allocation is $90,000. I believe Mark Sorensen is the head of the Chamber's board, maybe he could tell us what they're up to this year? CEPCO and the DCBA also have allocations similar to last year's funding of just over $40,000 each. So the total savings from these cuts is close to $80,000. I have to assume that all of that savings comes from the General Fund, but I could be wrong. Just to put that into perspective, one police officer being cut saves $125,000. This is why the Council as a whole, and city staff, should avoid extensive discussions on nickel and dime cuts, and come up with a long term strategy to get us back in black. This has to be done through negotiations with the employee unions or downstaffing. Image Below: Is this the Chico Cat Coalition? Is overt cuteness behind the $10,000 of public money they received? Or could it be something more sinister?

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Stayin' Alive with Gregg Payne's CI victories. See comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 07:26 AM | Comments (12)

April 23, 2008

A Super Budget Cutting Idea

Video: A news story on a real superhero. One possible "out-of-the-box" solution to our city's budget problem. In today's E-R there's a Jenn Klein story on last night's council meeting (update: this story doesn't come from a council meeting, as there was no council meeting last night. I think it is a precursor to tomorrow's Finance Committee meeting or from yesterday's, not sure?.). The story discusses some councilor's desire to reduce the impact on police and fire in the coming budget cuts. While possible, and possibly even appropriate, this could be difficult considering that 78% of the budget comes from police and fire. Considering that in budget-lean times the city ought to focus on core city services like police and fire, I would expect other departments to take the bigger hit. I'm just not sure they can take a hit large enough to support existing spending on emergency services. What's going on in the background of these discussions is as intriguing as the foreground. In a more recent article Jenn Klein quoted Councilor Scott Gruendl as saying the police like to "stir-the-pot" when it came to providing options for cuts. What was implied was that the police were providing unpalatable options, including recent programs the Council requested, in order to amplify the negative impacts of budget cuts. This caused a huge rowe at the upper levels of the police department. They didn't feel like they were doing anything but their job. They contacted Klein to verify the Gruendl quote was correct. This put the E-R on the defensive. Phone calls bounced back-and-forth between the E-R, police management, and Councilor Scott Gruendl, with some claiming that the other wasn't returning phone calls. The E-R resisted claims that it misquoted Gruendl. The police management denied the suggestion that they were doing anything other than providing options that they were asked to give, and went so far as to suggest a public apology was in order. The E-R produced an editorial basically saying the police should deal with it, it comes with the territory. Gruendl, who I haven't spoken to, probably wondered why a simple comment caused so much turmoil. All of this occurred over a councilor's fairly realistic assessment of a bargaining technique, even though it may not have been used at this point. The police said their cuts will cost graffiti programs, and downtown hobo mitigation. They also threw out some party quashing near the university. I can think of one other department that often says budget cuts may cost lives, which is not a claim the police made. I think all three elements of this lack-of-love triangle are past the turmoil. But the police management may have unintentionally run into a second great bargaining tool. Express public anger any time your position is criticized. People will criticize you less, especially elected people. But this little episode makes me wonder what will happen when budgets actually get cut.

World Superhero Registry: All of these budget cutting conundrums revolve around solving our current budget imbalance. There is also no money for future growth in police, fire, or other city employees. I would like to propose that some of us citizens become real-life superheroes to augment the local police and fire. This will minimize the cost of these services. People across the country are doing this, to see some of them just visit the world superhero registry (web site here). I think all of us at Commission Impossible would be willing to don superhero outfits to save our fair city. I'd work for no pay, as long as the $40 million police station incorporated a secret hideout. The entrance needs to be disguised to look like a cave. I could throw plastic discs at criminals, just not very accurately. Image Below: Real life superheroes from the registry

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Chico's very own Ferrous Bueller... Gregg Payne. Bueller, Bueller, Bueller...

Posted by Lon at 07:44 AM | Comments (21)

April 22, 2008

Chico Mello

Image: The latest in bicycle commuting technology. I've been riding my bike to work regularly for some time now. I also walk to work or take the B-Line at times. It's not the Chico Velo commercials, "move a pedal, save the planet", that makes me do this. I'm not trying to save anything, and I certainly don't want to brow beat any of you into doing the same. I just enjoy the mello ride to work. It takes a little longer, I get to see more hobos along the railroad tracks, and in the coming months I get to change my bike tubes at least twice a week because of "goat heads". I don't want people to think I don't use a car. I love my car. I also own a newer truck that we use for Home Depot trips and driving out of town. I feel like we need at least one car in our family, and having two is a mighty convenience. Keeping them full of gas has become a more significant part of our financial juggle I would expect the cost of gas to influence more people to ride bikes. In the short term that doesn't seem to be happening, although I only have personal observations to judge that from. Those can always be wrong. But I rarely see neighbors riding to work, and I do see people driving just a few blocks to drop kids off at school. I see people drive a few blocks to walk their dogs at the park. But I do wonder why more people don't choose to ride bikes or use some other lower cost means of transportation. So I'm going to go over some of the things in my life that make riding my bike, or using other sources of transportation, easier. My schedule is flexible, I can be late to work or returning home I don't shop for the household groceries My child's school is a few blocks away, we can walk there I'm mechanically inclined enough to change a bike tube, which is the most common problem I run into I don't dress well, so rumpling my clothes is no big deal There's no real need for me to leave work once I get there There are things like paying for gas or parking that might influence transportation decisions. A great catalyst for me riding to work was the hatred I had for feeding the meters downtown. And the cost of gas has certainly made me want to drive less. All these things make it easier for me to not have a car during the week. What I was wondering about today is this... if you would like to ride a bike, but don't, why not? Is it your schedule, health reasons, work related issues? Is it the mob of cyclists that wear funny pants and yell "on your left" that keep you from riding? As for today, it's Tuesday, and I have to be over at the Elk's Lodge for lunch. On Tuesdays I drive, but I would rather ride. Here is a map of Chico bike routes from BCAG (see map)

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: With pontification prowess propelled by pedal power, Sean Baber. See comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 07:30 AM | Comments (14)

April 21, 2008

Cribs

Image: North Valley new home prices. North Valley includes Butte, Glenn, Sutter, and Yuba counties on this chart. I saw a presentation last week by the Gregory Group, a consulting group out of Folsom (www.thegregorygroup.com). They create studies on the housing market for the building industry and banks. Some of their presentations are also located on their web site. There was quite a bit of information that was provided during the presentation. Much of it carried the vernacular of the building/financing industry which I'm not entirely familiar with, but I still found it interesting. For example, a steep increase in home foreclosures that has occurred recently in California was proceeded by a couple of years with a steep increase in no interest and negative amortization loans. I wonder if they are related? Also, California had ~38,800 (Butte County 1424) foreclosures out of ~176,000 in the United States. That means our state accounts for about a fifth of the foreclosure turmoil. No time frame was given for that statistic. Other information included anticipated population growth in California. Southern California will experience more growth in both population and as a percentage increase than the north in the coming decades. Us northern counties will see an increased population and an influx of people escaping the urban areas to the south of us. All of these facts are stating the obvious, but I always like to see numbers that "describe" why the obvious occurs. There are lots of reasons why people will want to move to our neck of the woods. The difference in home prices alone is probably magnet enough to draw people into our woodsy realm. This also allows enterprising young business people a way to target market our future neighbors. To equity refugees coming from SF we might sell sourdough bread and crabs from the Sacramento River, not to mention homes with itty-bitty yards. For the affluent escapees from further south a combination boob-job/tanning salon might fit the bill. And to do our part to make them feel at home we could all drive larger cars to produce a higher density traffic effect. Although at some times of the day that's hardly needed in Chico. Below are the average home prices for northern and southern areas of California, with northern including the hyper-priced bay area.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: He who feeds at the manger of the CI Challenge, Gregg Payne. See comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 07:13 AM | Comments (9)

April 18, 2008

When Cows Attack

Image: Guard cows attack illegal off-roader in Bidwell Ranch River Pardners, the consulting group that controls all access to Bidwell Ranch, had no comment on this photo submitted by reader Brian Solecki. It was clear from the photo, and other evidence collected later, that the illegal off-roader was being attacked by cows bred for this purpose. The only thing left after the attack was a sticker of a boy peeing on something. But working in concert with Walter Cronkite and Katie Couric, Commission Impossible has uncovered the dark secrets that River Pardners would rather the public not know. Cows are being used for secret military genetic research programs in Bidwell Ranch. They're being bred as weapons. This secret military program has already produced the deadly guard cows shown above and the Mark VII Mobile Cannon Cow (or MCC) shown below. Also under development are cows that say "howdy" repeatedly. It's expected that a herd of "howdy" yelping cows loitering in the area of al- Quaida terrorists would eventually annoy the terrorists into vacating their territory. Note: I'm leaving town this morning, any comments after 10AM may not get posted. Feel free to submit graphic images of other militarized cows for publication on Monday. Update: Anthony Watts' "cowitzer" has been added.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: The moseying mathematician, Sean Baber. See comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 07:53 AM | Comments (13)

April 17, 2008

Debtor's Prison Too

Image: Projects shifted to 2005 RDA bond (Fund 357) and those re-phased within Fund 352 - Tax Increment in order to improve cash-flow and allow for a new RDA bond to be issued. Yesterday I gave the somewhat populist and simplified version of the plan to change Redevelopment Agency (RDA) spending and seek another bond issue that the City Finance Department proposed. That perspective is important, because it is fairly accurate, but also city people need to see how this proposal looks to the general public. Today I'm going to give a more in-depth description that includes a possible perspective from the people that proposed the new bond. An important thing to realize is that the Finance Department is neither incompetent, nor nefarious in intent, when they suggest more debt can be a good thing for Chico. They realize that the purpose of an RDA is to fund large capital projects by incurring debt. When the RDA dissolves years from now, the improvements made are expected to have increased property values in the project areas. Furthermore, the debt incurred by an RDA bond issue is paid back via tax-increment income. This money is a portion of your property taxes (if you are within the RDA area) that is diverted from other governments (like the State) and kept here in Chico to serve our needs. That is a good thing. So by issuing an RDA bond your taxes don't go up, but tax money is diverted to local projects. That money can't be used for employee costs or general maintenance. It must be used for a project that removes "blight". So far so good. But why would the Finance Department decide now is a good time to seek another RDA bond? There are two reasons that I can see. First, they have been tasked to finance a new police station as well as a number of other large projects. Since they were given that direction the funding picture has gotten worse. But I think there was always a question of how to fund the entire police station. This new bond issue allows them to get that job done. In fact the amount of the new bond may be close to $50 million, so there is some money left over. The City Council could task the Finance Department to fund projects without incurring more debt. All the council would have to do is list all of the projects by priority. Top priority projects would get funded, and lower priority ones would not. Second, I think the Finance Department operates with a philosophy that all RDA debt is good debt. The bonds divert money to local uses. The tax-increment diversion pays for the bond, and money is left over to fund big projects. Plus the bond issue itself funds large projects. So it's clear that the Finance Department is not looking at public finance from the perspective of a household check book. That's good for us because its a little more complicated than our personal finances.

Redevelopment Agency Note - If you don't know what the RDA is, how it creates bond debt, or where the tax-increment income comes from please ask a question. I have a surface level understanding of Chico's Agency and the general purpose of RDAs, which is enough to answer most questions. A great question is "hey Lon, what constitutes blight?"

Breaking the Bond So does it sound like I support this new bond issue? Not so fast. The problem with the redevelopment agency has not been the bond issues, but in the application of the funds. I was on an RDA committee, as were Bob Best and Mark Sorensen. The group asked the Council to stop spending the bond money, reevaluate how projects were selected for RDA funding, prioritize them based on effectiveness in removing blight, and provide greater transparency to the process. We were concerned the RDA would be overspent, and that the tax increment income wasn't being conserved. There were ambiguous multi-million dollar projects that came and went from the RDA list on a whim. There was $10 million that the city manager could use for "stuff", with no defined project. The new police station showed up on various lists costing various amounts of money. It seems like I've seen $10 million, $17 million, $25 million, and now $40 million suggested for that project. The City Council disbanded the volunteer Citizen's RDA Committee, and booted us out of the chambers. The Council should have heeded our warnings and put the brakes on spending. Projects that are funded by the RDA should be better defined. The Council should re-evaluate all RDA projects and priortize them. Image: An example of RDA Projects on the 1/18/06 list. The RDA burden of the police station project has increased by more than 100% in two years. That's not inflation. This is an example of undefined projects being funded by the RDA.

Now Let's Have Some Fund Fund 357 (2005 RDA Bond): I likened the RDA to a credit card yesterday. It's probably more similar to a mortgage. When the bond is issued you get a lump of money (probably in those bags with the dollar signs on them). You pay that money back over a long time span by making regular predetermined payments. You also pay interest on the loan. In the end you probably pay close to $2 for every $1 you borrowed. So the $68,000 chess tables will cost $136,000 when they are finally paid for. The money the City was issued for the 2005 RDA bond is in Fund 357. Fund 352 (Tax increment): When the RDA bond is created portions of property tax collected in the RDA area are diverted to the City. This is called tax increment income. This money goes into Fund 352. The tax increment is used to pay down the debt caused by the bond via regular scheduled payments. The tax increment income can exceed the amount needed to make the scheduled payments. That money can also be used to fund RDA projects. This spending of the extra money in the income fund has caused the city to overspend the fund by $11.4 million in 06-07, and it is expected to be $26 million in the hole this year. The Real RDA Spending Plan In order to build Fund 352 back up the Finance Department is suggesting that the police station not be funded by Fund 357 (the 2005 RDA bond) to make room for a shift of projects out of Fund 352. Projects slated to be funded by Fund 352 will be shifted to Fund 357 and 4 projects will be delayed and/or partially shifted. One of those 4, the police station, will be funded by the new RDA bond issue, that may be as large as $50 million. The shifting and delaying of projects away from Fund 352 improves cash-flow which allows the new RDA bond to be issued. It seems complicated, but it solves a rather complicated problem. An alternative solution to shifting money and incurring more debt is to cancel some projects.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Anthony "My Name's Not Dolores" Watts. See comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 07:26 AM | Comments (10)

April 16, 2008

Debtor's Prison

Video: Being aware of what's going on in Chico is not an easy thing to do. View this video to test your awareness. Two days ago Jenn Klein wrote a story on an idea floated by the Finance Department that would temporarily improve cash flow at the City (see story here). The story starts like this... A change in plans for spending bonds issued in 2005 by the Redevelopment Agency could eliminate a deficit in the redevelopment fund, and improve the city's cash flow. Since I grew up believing that money does NOT grow on trees, I was immediately curious what the tradeoff was for this change in planned RDA spending. I also knew that all of my readers were wondering "what's up with that new RDA spending plan, I wonder if Lon will discuss it?" but you were all too polite to ask about it. When I need information on city finances I go straight to the top. But Art Commissioner Samantha Gale wasn't available. So I settled for getting my information from Finance Director Jennifer Hennessy, who presented the new plan. Why Bother Understanding This? The details of this plan are complicated, and I can't cover them in a single post. The plan involves the creation of an additional RDA tax allocation bond and the shifting or delay of funding for 4 capital projects (capital projects are typically large construction projects). The new bond creates more debt for the City of Chico, and would not need to be approved by voters. Because the new bond would not require voter approval it is important for people to understand its fiscal impact now. There will be no other place where the details of this are discussed outside of the city buildings. The subject is simply too complicated for a city meeting or news article. There should be some citizens that understand what is being proposed. Unfortunately, that's going to be you. And that's assuming that I understand it. Dueling Philosophies There are two philosophies that come into play when discussing public finances. There is the "mason jars of cash" concept that treats public funds like a check book. With this philosophy you write checks based on cash in your account. If there's no cash, then there's no purchase. A benefit of this philosophy is that you don't end up with $68,000 chess tables. Then there is the "modern finances" concept that assumes all major purchases will be procured through debt. In your personal household you can compare this to a home or car purchase. Few people buy homes with cash. A downside here is that you might end up with $68,000 chess tables. The RDA Is Our Credit Line The RDA is like a big line of credit. We have a credit limit determined by our existing debt and our regular income. Imagine that you live in house with a bad roof. It will take you 3 years to save enough money to put a new roof on the house if you pay cash. Using a credit card to purchase a roof today will prevent suffering 3 years of potential water damage, and therefore saves money in the long run. Of course the need for credit wouldn't exist if you had a savings account that was funded. With large capital projects there is a fiscal benefit to build them now since the cost of construction increases over time. So What is The Plan? I'm going to use an analogy to describe the plan. Consider this public finances for idiots, or more appropriately public finances by an idiot (note: I'm suggesting that I'm the idiot, I noticed that this could be read in other ways). Imagine that you really need a new car. You've been driving a Ford Pinto for years now. Your three teenage sons are upset because they can't fit their sports gear into the car. When your family drives around in it it is embarrassing and it just doesn't meet your family's needs. You also told your neighbors that you'd replace the fence separating your homes. And you and your wife decided to buy a new dish washer and clothes dryer. As it stands you are already in debt. You have some plans to cut some of your spending, but these purchases were going to be made with the last $10,000 available on your home mortgage credit line (a "credit card" tied into your mortgage). Unfortunately, $10,000 doesn't pay for the car, dish washer, dryer, and fencing. However, if you don't max out that credit line you can qualify for a new $20,000 credit card. With this new card you can purchase everything you need. You just have to delay buying the items. That's the plan. It is to delay purchasing items therefore reducing the negative impact on your monthly cash flow. Use the extra monthly cash-flow to qualify for greater debt. Buy what you need by increasing your debt and later negatively impacting your cash flow. Other Considerations To fully appreciate the city's position you have to do a couple of things with my analog of the new RDA plan. First, a credit card has bad connotations associated with irresponsible spending. The RDA is not a credit card. RDA debt is designed to benefit the city. RDA spending does have an ongoing impact on the General Fund, and increases project cost through accumulation of interest. In those respects it is like a credit card. Second, realize that the new car is the police station ($30-$40 million). It's debatable as to whether or not a new station is a must have. I've been to the existing station three times and it is a cramped and aging building. A single consultant suggested that the city spend $40 million on a new building. Perhaps a second opinion is warranted. Fully funding the police station is the primary result of this plan. Currently, less than half of the project is funded. You could also buy the car by not purchasing the dish washer, dryer, and fence. But the only way to get everything is to go further into debt. To complete the household finances analogy the past purchases of landscaping, a jet ski, and several mink coats on the credit line seem to have been bad ideas. Next Tomorrow, instead of talking about credit lines and dish washers I'll describe the actual projects and city funds that the plan impacts.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Hunt Johnson, President of the Encinitas Jimmy Neutron Fan Club. See comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 06:39 AM | Comments (8)

April 15, 2008

Blogs Logged

Image: Commission Impossible main page views since the beginning, plus some of the other top Norcal blogs. Doesn't include Anthony Watts' blog. A couple of days ago I received the Norcal Blogs update email from the E-R's Ryan Olson. Every now and again he sends us an update with our blog's page views. In addition to other info Ryan normally lists the top 5 blogs ranked by page views. I've charted Commission Impossible since it began in May of 2006. I've also included the stats for Bullfight, Post Scripts, and Chico Sustainable, where they showed up in the top 5. Anthony Watts blog Watts Up With That was already far exceeding these numbers when he moved it outside of the ER. He received almost 370,000 views, hits, or visits (I'm not sure what he tracks) last month, which probably exceeds all activitiy on all Norcal Blogs since it started. But the statistics are fun to check out (for me anyway). The peak for my blog occurred the day after I posted the city salaries (11-9-07), which occurred about a week before the E-R made them public. I read about the existence of the salary data on Dan's Bullfight blog, and had the information posted on CI about 4 hours later (thanks to an unnamed source). Before the salary data the most interest in Commission Impossible occurred when I threatened to throw a kitten into Bidwell Ranch if I wasn't elected as City Manager (8-22-07). 21 days prior to that, Councilor Steve Bertagna started the CI Challenge with a comment he posted. I used a picture of myself (that my son took) holding a car air filter for a "city manager campaign" sign. Bertagna correctly guessed the kind of car it was from by the tiny section of my car showing in the photo. That began the challenges, which started off being cars and then morphed into something related to the post, and now are simply about ensuring that Gregg can't guess it. On a sad note, there's also been a decline in page views in February and March of this year. That coincides with the fact that I quit posting on weekends. Or maybe the fickle public just tires of me, and the blossoms of spring have left my rosey cheeks. More likely I lack sleep and sentences like the last one are driving people away. You can learn a lot from statistics. For example I know that the CI Challenge is what gets people to return to this blog even when the topics may not be interesting to them. I know that posting relevant but controversial information, like salaries, can increase readership. I also know that I can increase my readership on a story by augmenting awareness through email notices. I did that with the Cupcake saga. I've yet to actually market Commission Impossible, mostly because its a hobby and I'm not sure what I'd be selling. It's plenty of fun just letting the whole thing take its own course. Perhaps I could sell T-shirts, or golf discs, or coffee mugs with snappy sayings? It's a thought. I think Commission Impossible could be marketed. I've noticed that Bullfight and Chico Sustainable have been cross linked with the Chico Beat (which could explain their lower numbers). But that's not a bad idea. I can't afford an ad in the E-R or CNR. Maybe I should advertise in The Beat? I could use my tax refund check to pay for a year-long ad. I'll have to look into that. Anyway here are some T-shirts that just hit the market under the CI label.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner and Champion of All Things Good in the World: Defender of the Challenge, Preventer of Payne, Kwai Chang Caine of the Inane, Sir Sean Baber, Knight of the Chess Table.

Posted by Lon at 05:58 AM | Comments (26)

April 14, 2008

Acing the Final Examination

Video: An example of a disc golf ace (hole-in-one). I hope everyone had a great weekend. The weather was fantastic, and a dramatic difference from what appears in store for today. On Friday I threw an ace (hole-in-one) at Oroville's Riverbend Park south disc golf course, hole 18. Oroville has two 18 hole courses at the park. The most glorious aspect of this event was that I told my son I would hit the target on my first throw right before I did it. Lon Ruth is in the house. That began a wondrous weekend where I finished many odd jobs and can honestly say that swimming season opened. You have to be under 11 and have no internal thermostat, which describes every kid in my neighborhood, but there was swimming galore in my backyard yesterday. All of this left little time for blog writing. I find myself on a Monday morning with 40 minutes to write and post this blog, get my son ready for school, and take my baby to work. I think I can do it. As for the topic, I'll keep it short. The Chico Unified School District Superintendent has proposed $2.8 million in cuts. There have been a couple of news stories on the topic. Below is the list of the actual cuts proposed. The district is short $7 million, so these cuts won't be all that are considered. But this list is a good point of discussion since sports and maintenance are prime candidates for cuts. This table was dropped off at my office by a reader who works for the school district. It can also be found online with the department associated with each cut listed. I am no expert on the school's budget. I recently looked at their paperwork and couldn't figure out exactly how much money they spend annually. It looked like it was about 2x the city's budget. If anyone out there has a grasp on a broad view of the annual income and expenses of the CUSD please enlighten me. I did attend an open house for my son last Thursday, and I can say that the budget discussion was completely missing from teacher presentations, which I thought was very professional.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Ace of the CI Challenge, Gregg Payne. See comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 07:38 AM | Comments (12)

April 11, 2008

Volunteers Wanted

Image: Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid tries to convince interviewer that the federal tax system is voluntary. The URL that flashes on the video seems to be a Libertarian web site, but I didn't spend much time there. The video above is pretty funny. Democratic Senator Harry Reid makes a prolonged, esoteric, argument that our tax system is "voluntary". His argument is based on a technical definitition of our tax system, and he is correct. He's also obstinate and intentionally obtuse when answering the interviewer. A voluntary tax system is one where the government doesn't confiscate their portion of our income. Taxpayers send their checks in when they are due. If the entire populace didn't pay their taxes the government does not have the infrastructure in place to collect it. However, if the government finds out that an individual didn't pay his/her taxes they will be fined, have money or property confiscated, and/or possibly be sent to jail. Reid's politicking during the answer was intententionally dense. He was dishonest to the extent that he obviously didn't want to discuss the transfer of wealth between individuals that happens with our tax system. By any common standard the description of our tax system as voluntary is incorrect. The government tax beast is so huge that almost every aspect of our lives is impacted by it. I wanted to put in one location all of the things our government is trying to do. So here are charts of the expenditures of the federal, state, county, and city money. Note that there are important government-like agencies not listed that collect and spend our taxes. Locally, the Chico Area Parks and Recreation District (CARD) and the Redevelopment Agency (RDA) are two examples.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is?

Posted by Lon at 06:25 AM | Comments (14)

April 10, 2008

American Pitches In

Image: Happy air travelers do their part to save the planet. American Pitches In By Laura Kleinlittle- Commission Impossible Staff Writer Article Launched: 04/10/2008 7AM PDT While some air travelers are distressed over American Airliners mass cancellation of flights these last few days, others say the grass is greener on the other side of the tarmac. Roughly 2300 flights have been cancelled due to maintenance issues related to the aging MD-80 aircraft flown by American Airliners. Passenger John Sallerbyte wasn't happy about the prospect of sitting in a terminal for days on end, "I was supposed to be at f&*^#%g work 2 days ago. This is costing me money, it may cost me a job, I am so pissed!" That attitude was considered the dominant opinion until American Airliners started its "It's Greener To Wait" campaign. Teddy Shuckelster, the Vice President of Customer Affairs for the airline was instrumental in creating this marketing campaign. "Our MD-80 is an older aircraft, and it uses a lot of fuel. The MD-80 burns 3,334 gallons of jet fuel on an average trip from Dallas/Fort Worth to New York's LaGuardia Airport. And each gallon of fuel produces 23.88lbs of CO2." explained Teddy. That's 79,616 lbs CO2 (3,334 gallons x 23.88lbs CO2/gallon) released into the atmosphere for an average trip. With 2300 trips cancelled, American Airliners has prevented 183,116,616lbs CO2 from being released. "We just want people to know that what we do, we do for the earth... for Earth Day... and the planet... and for the children... canceling these flights was the right thing to do." Pronounced Shuckelster Environmental hitch-hiking advocate Wendy Wander of The Green Thumb, LLC agreed with Teddy's assessment. "Anytime you can travel less, man... that's cool." The Green Thumb, LLC advocates hitching a ride so that somebody else produces the carbon footprint. This method still allows long distance travel, but doesn't impact your personal carbon footprint. There is one possible downside to the cancellation of so many flights. American Airliners has allowed carbon credits to be purchased for carbon not produced. A single tree can offset roughly 1300lbs CO2 annually. The amount of carbon not produced is the equivalent of 140,859 trees. John Sallerbyte, interviewed earlier, was not happy about the use of his carbon credits "I purchased some f&*^#%g carbon credits, and now that hippy chick is telling me to hitch hike home. I want my carbon credits back". Sallerbyte is not alone, and a class action lawsuit has been filed against American Airliners to regain those credits. Teddy Shuckelster explained that that is easier said than done. "The trees planted aren't planted on a per-trip basis. And we're finding out that some of the trees have been purchased by more than one company. The accounting is really a mess. But we've estimated that with a tree planted every 12' our carbon credit planting for the last three days should be roughly 464 acres. Our lawyers are figuring out a way to let us clear cut that land to ensure the carbon credits we didn't use are not in place." As an aside a quick calculation shows that American Airliners would have to plant ~100,000 acres of trees every year to offset the carbon footprint of its MD-80 aircraft. To do this they've implemented a test project that ejects tree seeds from the aircraft engines during flight. You might notice the many new contrails jets leave in the skies these days. These are thousands of tiny trees floating to earth to save the planet, courtesy American Airliners.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: An unstoppable CI Challenge force of nature, Gregg Payne. See comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 07:29 AM | Comments (8)

April 09, 2008

Budget Busting

Image: New mobile charrette platform is expected to save city millions. But at what cost to the environment? There have been some interesting budget stories of late. Councilor Wahl's idea to open union negotiations to the public, and the City Manager's proposal to limit union pay increases to 1% over the next two years are two ideas with synergy. Councilor Gruendl was recently paraphrased as saying that they council could have paid more attention to the fire fighter raise of 25% that they ok'd during this budget crisis. That's a bold admission of a possible error. If my math is good the 1% limit would reduce that raise to 19%, which is still substantial considering the budget problem. I think the public should be involved (as bystanders) in those talks. With the police union contract unwritten, a decrease in fire fighter pay will make negotiations with the police less painful to the city budget. The police will ask for parity. That 1% limit in pay increases would save $2.3 million per year over the next two years. An additional $4.6 million would be saved by enacting a 7.5% cut across city departments. In today's ER story (see here, Jenn Klein) Councilor Gruendl is quoted as saying that an across the board cut may be an example of poor leadership. Wahl is quoted as saying that cuts to public safety are not desirable. Both of these comments may be true. The fact is that public safety uses up a lion's share of the General Fund. If the fund is out of balance a lion's share of the cuts (dollar-wise) will probably have to come from public safety. I don't think anyone who has watched the budget discussion would accuse the City Council of excessively decisive leadership. They've made very few decisions, and virtually all implemented cuts have come from city staff driven recommendations. I think the across the board 7.5% cut suggested by City Manager Dave Burkland may have been in response to a lack of decisions by elected leadership. That's just my opinion. Here are the cuts listed in the E-R, and some opinions I've added. Police — $1.6 million * Staff reductions in traffic, school resource officers, gang investigators, and Butte Interagency Narcotics Task Force I support reducing traffic, schools are short of resources so resource officers seem unnecessary and gang investigators are needed (who better to investigate gangs than members of gangs who are also investigators?) * Elimination of patrol team dedicated to downtown and the south campus area on Tuesday through Saturday nights Great... more hobos downtown * Elimination of downtown bicycle officer position Give the meter guy more authority, make him Judge Dredd (judge, jury, and executioner) of the downtown * Shifting of sworn officers to Community Service Officer duties I don't know what this means, probably combining job duties Fire Department — $1 million * Reduction in minimum staffing from 22 to 20 per shift Some areas of Chico are served by County stations that are already manned at lower levels, if those aren't "life threatening" I'm not sure why this change would be * Shifting of personal from Ladder Truck No. 5 to relieve positions to backfill for sick, vacation, and other leave to eliminate the need to pay overtime * Additional reductions in overtime Most of the savings seem to come from reducing overtime pay, why wasn't this done a long time ago? General Services Department — $740,000 * Restrict leaf pick-up for commercial landscaping for a savings of about 20 percent of the program costs, which would require an ordinance amending the Chico Municipal Code I'm guessing this would transfer the cost to businesses and generate income for private landscape services, that's okay by me * Elimination of downtown cleaning program Is this that one guy who got caught peeing downtown and has to spray the sidewalk? * Shift road maintenance to work solely on "worst pavement" conditions This will limit road repairs to only 93% of Chico's pavement * Reduce sidewalk repairs to only the most serious "trip and fall" sidewalks The future is rubber sidewalks, and soy beans... * Reduce trail maintenance in upper Bidwell Park Does this mean they'll actively start making trails worse? They already did that when they dumped 1" road base at Horseshoe Lake. This should be "spend less on studies and transfer money to trail improvements" * Reduce the ranger program Great... more hobos in the park * Prolong street pruning schedule Somebody call Tree Action, this cannot stand * Reduce lifeguard coverage by 25 percent Or charge a per rescue fee, prepaid of course * Implement tire re-tread program for the city's fleet vehicles I'm pretty sure the General Services Department just started throwing things on the list to make it look like they were cutting the most * Extend preventative maintenance schedules for fleet vehicles Change your oil every 40,000 miles, my wife does that and it seems to work * Reduce maintenance services at the Chico Municipal Airport Only repair the very worst runway Building and Development Services— $170,000 * Staff reductions resulting in a delay of processing sanitary sewer applications My application of sewer really shouldn't be delayed, I've had a lot of coffee this morning * Staff reductions resulting in a delay of responding to neighborhood traffic issues within the public right-of-way Last year I asked that the city consider placing a sidewalk along 200' of Oak Way so kids walking to school don't have to share the road with cars. By the time this request comes to pass people will either be piloting flying cars or we'll all have died in the inferno of Global Warming. * Staff reductions resulting in a delay of updating of construction data into the public access server Great... more hobos in the public access server * Reduction in the ability to provide services to other city departments, such as planning, Capital Project Services, and Police They won't have money for building improvements anyway Planning Services— $80,000 * Elimination of a senior planner position, which could result in the delay in processing major development services There is no way a senior planner only costs $80,000 this must be pre-benefit savings Capital Project Services — $260,000 * Staff reductions which will create a continued reliance on consultants to provide design and project management services Continued reliance on consultants... who'd of thunk it... General Administration — $735,000 Includes the following departments: City Clerk's office, Administrative Services, Finance, Human Resources and Risk management, redevelopment administration, the City Attorney's office, and Information Systems * Reduce support provided for the City Council, city commissions, and council committees And a giant sigh of relief was heard escaping the city buildings * Slower processing of agreements, contracts, and purchase orders Isn't that what government is all about? * Outsourcing of cashiering for parking citations and transit tickets See Judge Dredd suggestion above * Reduced ability to respond to the public Isn't that what government is all about? Housing and Neighborhood Services — $48,000 * Reduced ability to process code enforcement cases And a giant sigh of relief was heard escaping the public * A 50 percent reduction in the number of neighborhood plans developed each year These are the plans that there's no money to implement * Elimination of processing "public convenience and necessity" requests Great... more hobos in the "public convenience and necessity" requests I think one thing I've taken from the many news stories is that the City Manager is happy that no layoffs will be required to meet the budget targets if these changes can happen. I understand the value of that to the city as an organization. However, I do think it is important to recognize that maintaining employee pay levels is trumping maintaining service levels. More people could be hired if wages/benefits were not as high as they are.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: No stranger to budget cars, the winner is Gregg Payne. See comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 05:20 AM | Comments (7)

April 08, 2008

Compact Urban Forum

Image: Similar homes have dissimilar prices. I think it goes without saying that Chico has a little more variety to offer than Orland. As a community Chico has greater retail choices and has cultural opportunities missing from other North State towns. It makes sense to me that our home prices are higher than Orland. Chico has had a downward correction in home prices, but as a homeowner I've still seen significant increases in my home's value. I'm off the peak of a couple of years ago, but up from when I purchased it. Are Chico home prices in a position to drop considerably? I'm not a realtor, but I think a significant decrease in home prices is unlikely. I think we'll do better than many other California towns. I read an article recently that suggested college towns were more likely to avoid home price reductions from the national real estate slump (see article here). From the article... "...college towns have remained relatively stable in this slumping real estate cycle. Students, university employees, and faculty keep apartments filled and form a steady stream of home buyers. And retirees and professionals flock to college towns because they're attracted to the lifestyle and cultural activities." I would agree that we are likely importing home buyers. This means that the demand portion of "supply and demand" is not based entirely on our local job market. This is good since our local job market is most lucrative if you land a public sector job. I think the public sector is facing some cuts. On the other side of things our City Council deserves credit for limiting growth and therefore reducing supply. This keeps my home price from drooping too far, and protects my investment. Additionally, they seem to approve homes with tiny yards which don't sell very fast. Again, this makes my home more desirable, propping up my investment. Some local builders may also have benefited from the City Council's slow growth policies. They didn't build when they wanted to, and now are avoiding the downturn. Others may be nearing serious financial crises due to slow sales of existing lots and decreased demand of specific home types. Only time will tell how all of that will play out. The liberal Council's slow growth, compact urban form, mixed use development policies were not intended to protect my home investment. Their desire to shape and control the nature of construction on privately owned lands wasn't put in place to help out local businesses. So I'm not going to give them credit for financial wizardry. But their policies probably did protect my home investment to a degree. And a number of local developers that would have built units faster may not find themselves overextended. As someone who enjoys a fiscally conservative outlook I don't like it when the government starts deciding what kinds of homes people will live in, or how they will manage their private property investments. But as a homeowner I guess I shouldn't be complaining too loudly about the results.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: A pillar in his own right, Gregg Payne. See comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 06:48 AM | Comments (6)

April 07, 2008

Up The Creek

Image: The three musketeers or the three stooges, you decide. Friday's round of disc golf in the Comanche Creek Hobo Preserve was a welcome change from all of the expansive disc golf infrastructure in Upper Bidwell Park. You can read about our expedition in David Little's Sunday column if you'd like to (read it here). When you add the purchase of Comanche Creek a couple of years ago to the 1994-5 expansion of Bidwell Park and the 1997 purchase of Bidwell Ranch you end up with about 2100 acres of public land. The cost of these properties is in the area of $12.25 million. The money allocated for studies of these properties is around $900,000. The number of access improvements or new approved uses for these 2100 acres... 0. In fact, Bidwell Ranch and Comanche Creek are theoretically illegal to enter (Bidwell Ranch to keep out illegal off-roaders, Comanche Creek to bar the homeless). Although, the Assistant City Manager said on 3/31/08 that Comanche Creek was open to the public (during BPPC meeting). With regards to the Bidwell Park expansion the Annie Bidwell trail was canceled and disc golf and a bridge near Bear Hole have lost their funding. Only those three improvements were proposed for that property. That's not a great track record of providing open space to the public. It's a pretty good track record of buying land with taxpayer money. It's a pretty good track record of paying large amounts of money to consultants to produce unread studies. But as far as giving us new places to stretch our legs and escape our legislated compact urban form... not so good. The odd thing is that "no trespassing" signs at Comanche Creek were placed to keep out the homeless. They work best at keeping out the taxpayer. It doesn't take a highly paid consultant to know that allowing park users to frequent the site would be helpful in keeping homeless campgrounds to a minimum. Maybe that's why the city hasn't figured it out yet. Comanche Creek is a combination of pretty green scenery and trash piles. The city should move quickly to invite public access and might even help organize a couple of cleanup days for the worst areas. It's public land, take down the signs. Anyway, without further ado, here is the inside of Comanche Creek from a frisbee golf perspective.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: This challenge is dedicated to Cupcake who gave her life so that I could almost be City Manager.

Posted by Lon at 07:18 AM | Comments (16)

April 04, 2008

Who's Steering This Boat?

Video: Yesterday's challenge is featured in this video clip. Can you find him? I assumed tin-whiskers on printed circuit boards would be my most popular post. I was trying to broaden my blog's appeal to reach the number of monthly hits/visits that Anthony Watts has been getting on his blog (367,000 / month... not bad for the inventor of the Bidwell Ranch cam). But only Gregg squeezed out a guess at one of the most important CICs of this decade. This challenge subject played a pivotal role in my understanding of the universe, so I'm going to do something I've never done. I'm going to have the same challenge featured again. Why you ask? First, I'm lazy. Second,... I'm about to make a short story long, and it relates to my car, so if that topic bothers you stop reading now and just enjoy the video. After I bought my car I noticed it had a strange problem. It would slip out of park (it is an automatic) and it's hand-brake would disengage at random. I noticed this when I was standing in the back of my office, and I glanced out the window, and my car was rolling out of the parking spot and heading backwards towards Lost Park. I caught it about a foot from the parking meters, and it had achieved ramming speed. Luckily, it was summer and nobody else was parked in that lot. Never knowing if your car would stay parked when you leave it somewhere is a nagging problem I've lived with for more than a year. There were several solutions to this problem. I could fit the car with a homing beacon. I could locate an anchor in the trunk and toss it out whenever I stop. "Hiring" an unpaid intern from CSUC to travel with me and stay with the car was an option. The final option was fixing it. Instead I just chocked a tire whenever I stopped. I have this beautiful wooden tire chock that I made. I've considered painting it. But I think I'll stain it to bring out its natural lines. It is really a piece of art, and keeps my car from crashing into things. Last night I decided to try to fix the problem. I had a steering column that I bought on ebay, and it had an intact nylon bushing I was looking for. A mechanic once told me that the bushing was likely worn out and was causing the problem. I thought it was transmission linkages with too much play. He said he adjusted those and although that helped it didn't fix the problem. Last night I removed the steering column from my car. This almost made me Sustainable Lon again. I started around 4PM and finished at midnight. What I found out was that the nylon bushing was in great shape. I also found that when I reduced the "play" in my transmission linkages the problem seems to have gone away. The Moral of The Story: I drove around for more than a year chocking my tire. Based on the advice of a paid expert I ignored my own assumptions, failed to develop my own knowledge of the problem, and avoided a low cost and simple solution to the issue. I thought I'd post this story to let city government know that today, I feel their pain. BTW: Did anyone else read the ER editorial yesterday that stated that the Comanche Creek plant study cost $42,000. Holy crap! They spent less money on a survey to find out how to fix the multi-milllion budget shortfall this year. Think of all the things we could have funded. If the Chico Cat Coalition had that money they could expand to get cats, dogs, horses, coyotes, cougars, bears, squirrels, and deer out of Bidwell Park.

Secret Mission: I'm on a secret mission this morning. I could tell you what it is, but then I'd have to kill you. That would be hard since I don't even know who you are. I could probably creates some *.gif animation that caused epileptic seizures in some of you. But I couldn't get all of you that way. I could heartily endorse a really fatty food that was bad for you. Perhaps one or two of you would become addicted and perhaps die of heart disease in the coming years. No... it is best that I keep this secret. But I will say that it involves legal transgressions of the highest nature. Beware of Criminal Lon.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Greggbot from Mystery Chico Theater 3000. See comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 07:06 AM | Comments (4)

April 03, 2008

Inspector Gadget

Image: Tin whiskers on a connector could be a result of lead-free electronic assembly techniques being mandated by some governments and adopted by the electronics industry. If you make runs to the dump out at Neal Road you've probably noticed that the list of things that can't be dumped keeps getting longer. A long list of electronic components are now posted. The electronics industry has begun adopting the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive, or RoHS (called row-hoss, see here). The primary effect of this directive is to remove lead from electronic waste. So that list might get a lot longer. Since the EU adopted RoHS many manufacturers of electronics have followed. This has resulted in a number of changes in the industry I work in and some potential problems for consumers and businesses that require reliable electronic devices. Most lead in electronic components is in the solder used to electrically-mechanically attach components to circuit boards. Individual integrated circuits also use some lead. The replacement for lead solder is tin based solder. Tin solder has a higher melting temperature, so during assembly the circuit boards and components are under greater temperature stress (this can cause warping or premature failure in components). Tin solder can also crumble when exposed to low temperatures. But more problematic are the "tin whiskers" that magically grow from tin solder plating. In today's compact, low power, electronic systems these whiskers can cause short circuits that don't fuse (burn in half). Introducing lead to the solder prevents these whiskers for the most part. Here's an excerpt from an October 2007 AP article (complete article here) They've ruined missiles, silenced communications satellites and forced nuclear power plants to shut down. Pacemakers, consumer gadgets and even a critical part of a space shuttle have fallen victim. The culprits? Tiny splinters — whiskers, they're called — that sprout without warning from tin solder and finishes deep inside electronics. By some estimates, the resulting short-circuits have leveled as much as $10 billion in damage since they were first noticed in the 1940s. Now some electronics makers worry the destruction will be more widespread, and the dollar amounts more draining, as the European Union and governments around the world enact laws to eliminate the best-known defence — lead — from electronic devices. This change-over to lead free electronics is occurring now and the transition is a pain-in-the-backside for people like me. Not all integrated chips/components are lead free. Selecting components for a lead free design is not that problematic, but sometimes it feels like shopping for groceries but being forced to buy only food that comes in green boxes. For the consumer the change may be much more frustrating. The desire to make electronic waste cleaner may result in lots more of it. If the consumer electronics we all use start failing from internal short circuits, they'll end up in the landfill in larger numbers, lead free or not. A variety of other arguments point out that this attempt to help the environment is not as beneficial as some assume. Lead in electronics is fixed as a solid and doesn't leach out easily in landfills. Only 0.5% of lead waste comes from electronic components. The changeover will cost 10's to 100's of billions of dollars to solve a nonexistent problem. Some lead free designs are already seeing a 3% increase in return rates. There are not as many tin mines as lead mines, and clear cutting rainforest is a possible result of increased tin demand. There's a reason countries are exempting military and medical industries from RoHS compliance. Can anyone guess why that would be?

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Can you guess what it is? Winner: Greggbot from Mystery Chico Theater 3000. See comments in next day's post for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 07:17 AM | Comments (3)

April 02, 2008

Money Down The Drain?

Video: Ricky Bobby saying grace and invoking support from the baby Christmas Jesus, which is his favorite Jesus. The rotten kids near the end of the clip are later "broken like wild mustangs" by Bobby's mom. Last night I was drawn into watching the Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby on TV. Maybe it was the recent spate of minor repairs on my old Ford, but I couldn't stop watching this NASCAR comedy. Will Ferrell as a big hairy American winning machine who regularly directs his prayers to baby Jesus is stunningly complex. I cried when he conquered his fear of speed by driving with a cougar named Karen. My point... I watched that instead of writing this blog. This left me with an early morning workload that was unexpected. Hopefully the quality doesn't suffer. I don't have much wiggle room there.

Bankrolling the Bank: Reader Scott asked about how Bidwell Ranch was funded last week and questioned whether the purchase may have taken money away from sewer connections for Chapmantown. I sent a series of questions related to how Bidwell Ranch was purchased to Jennifer Hennessy (Finance Department) and Brendan Vieg (Planning Department). I received answers compiled by Cindy Pierce (City Manager's Office). You can see the questions and a spreadsheet of payments and funds here. The purchase cost of Bidwell Ranch was $4 million. The city assumed responsibility of payments to the sewer assessment district of $3,384,779 when the property was received from Crocker Development Company. Title and escrow costs bring the total to $7,463,416. This includes an estimated final payment that has not yet been made Fund 320 the Sewer Capacity Trunkline fee was used to pay for $5,559,545 of the total cost in 1997. RDA money covered most of the remaining ~$7.5 million. When the purchase was made the property was not designated "open space", that happened in 2005. The justification for using the sewer fees to purchase the property was that the city could sell sewer capacity when future connections occurred. I assume those future connections would have occurred when new homes were built on Bidwell Ranch. Those homes and connections won't occur since the property is now zoned open space. The sewer Trunkline Capacity Fund can be spent in the following way, by municipal code. l5.36.020 Disposition of sewer fee revenues. All revenues received by the city from fees assessed and levied pursuant to this chapter shall be deposited in revenue accounts and used as follows: Section C: Trunkline Capacity Fees and Lift Station Capacity Fees. All revenues received from trunkline capacity fees and lift station capacity fees shall be deposited in a trunkline capacity fees and lift station capacity fees account and used only for the purpose of providing additional trunklines or lift stations, providing additional capacity in existing trunklines or lift stations, and/or paying the principal and interest on any debt or other obligation incurred by the city for the purpose of providing additional trunklines or lift stations or providing additional capacity in existing trunklines or lift stations, including, but not limited to, any obligation under a trunkline or lift station reimbursement agreement. There seems to be some leeway for unallocated funds as long as the end purchase can be justified as related to the purpose of the fee. I don't know if the city received some asset in the form of trunkline credits when they received the property from Crocker Development Company. If they didn't it would appear to me that using Trunkline Capacity Fees to buy open space is not supported by the city's legal code. Setting that aside I think it can be assumed that neighborhoods in Chico have had $5.6 million in sewer trunkline connections diverted in order for the city to purchase Bidwell Ranch. Note: It's sometimes hard to come up with a catchy relevant blog title. People often see meanings in the titles that I may not intend. I like to see the city purchase park land. I don't think they should purchase land with no intention of allowing public access and the construction of improvements for public use. The city should not purchase preserves with public money. I think the use of Bidwell Ranch as a mitigation bank and the funding of it with fees designed to make sewer connections are both questionable. However, from a more generic standpoint, purchasing 759 acres for $4 million would not be "money down the drain"..

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: A guy with no junk in his trunk, Gregg Payne. See comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 07:00 AM | Comments (4)

April 01, 2008

Natural Hobo Habitat Threatened

Image: A man made natural wonderland for hobos. I spent last night from 7PM-10PM at the Bidwell Park and Playground Commission (BPPC) meeting waiting for them to get to the allocation of Proposition 40 money. I sat through what seemed to be an endless meeting of art mini-grants and other funding. Some odd things happened. The Nature Center requested $42,500 in funding. But then city staff said it was a typo and they wanted closer to $61,000. The $19,000 discrepency was funded with no questions. Then the Chico Cat Coalition received $10,000 even though city staff hadn't seen recent documentation regarding how many cats had been removed from Bidwell Park. Nobody was there from either group when the money was allocated. I'm sure it's all on the up-and-up, but what a strange way to do business. Then came the long-winded quiet-talking consultant who finished the vegetation management plan for Comanche Creek (see plan here). Comanche Creek is roughly 20 acres west of the Park Ave - Skyway intersection in South Chico. The city purchased it for $1.2 million. Although the Assitant City Manager, Dennis Beardsley, stated that the property was open to the public, it seems to be fenced along the roadway. Maybe if I sneak around I can get in. Commissioner Steve Lucas brought up a concern that this property had a vegetation plan that seems to describe keeping people off of it. The Park Department has never discussed how the property can be used. You can read the goals and objectives below and decide for yourself. Dennis Beardsley said that controlling "negative impacts of human use" mentioned in the goals of the plan was referencing homeless camping (not public access). He also described the property as a "riparian land bank". Bidwell Ranchette? The riparian corridor of Comanche Creek is man made and not a natural waterway. Water is diverted from Butte Creek to fill this lush hobo paradise. Here is the goals and objectives in the consultants plan... Goals and Objectives of the Comanche Creek Vegetation Management Plan- The goal of this Vegetation Management Plan is to create a management framework to conserve, rehabilitate, enhance and protect the native resources of Comanche Creek. Specifically, the Plan aims to meet the following objectives: * Preserve existing habitat * Increase regeneration and recruitment of native plants within vegetation communities * Identify and protect special status plant species * Identify and protect special status animal species * Provide wildlife habitats that enhance the opportunities for essential wildlife activities in the creek corridor (e.g. nesting, foraging, etc.) * Eliminate non-native plants that are degrading habitat or outcompeting native plant species * Control the negative impacts of human use * Utilize maintenance methods that minimize adverse impacts on the native vegetative habitats This Vegetative Management Plan was prepared to provide the City of Chico with background information on existing conditions and special-status species within the Comanche Creek Corridor and guidance for the enhancement of native vegetation communities. Why was I at the meeting? About 15 disc golfers showed up to see if the Park Commission would set aside some of the Proposition 40 money for disc golf. By the time the agenda item came up (2.5 hours into the meeting) there were five of us left. It was grueling. No money was alloted for disc golf. I should have stayed home.

Shake, Rattle, and Roll: There is a news article by Jenn Klein on the rattlesnakes we found at Sherwood Forest kids' disc golf course on Easter Sunday. Gregg found some rattlers in a rock pile near a tee box on Sunday (3/23). By Monday(3/24) at lunchtime we had permission from CARD to remove two targets and post signs letting people know the holes were closed. Later that day CARD posted big orange warning signs. By Tuesday (3/25) the snakes had been herded down to the back 40. Since Wednesday of last week they've not been seen, we check every day. The ones that I saw weren't in the normal field of disc golf play but were close enough to be a concern. Plus, word on the street is that they don't stay in one place forever. Rattlesnakes migrate in Spring to summer hunting grounds so they can be anywhere in the park these days. Keep your eyes and ears open. They don't want to see you anymore than you want to see them. What was equally newsworthy, and only covered here at Commission Impossible, is that Gregg "Irwin" Payne also found a blue tailed skink. If he sends me the picture I'll post it. I haven't seen one of those since I was 12.

Image: The coveted blue-tailed skink.

CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Local bagman Gregg Payne. See comments below for the answer.

Posted by Lon at 07:52 AM | Comments (11)