http://www.norcalblogs.com/commission/ Fasten your seatbelts for an exhilarating trip through Chico's public policy; I guarantee it's marginally better than public access TV. en 2009-06-09T07:40:04-08:00 http://www.norcalblogs.com/commission/archives/2009/06/bad_to_the_bone.html

Image: The city released its 2009-2010 proposed budget yesterday. Still doesn't look very good. The 323 page proposed annual budget is available at the city web site (see it in all its glory here). As an interesting side note our disc golf referendum would have had to attach a plan as large as the proposed budget to each referendum petition sheet, according to some legal eagles downtown. Although I haven't had time to look over the document, I did scroll through it until I found the projected budget fund balances (a portion of this table is above). The entire table can be seen on page 61 of the pdf linked above. The 10 year deficit has dropped from $50-$60 million to $23,000,000 which is a step in the right direction, but only half way to AC/DC's Back In Black. I noticed several things that were a bit quirky with this chart. The first was that the emergency reserves the city has ($6,552,693) stays exactly the same over the next 10 years. That's obviously not real. For example, the new state budget problems might allow the state to take from the city $1.2 million in the coming few years. That temporary loan to CA would likely be covered by our emergency funds. But I assume for extended planning purposes this number was left stagnant. The second thing is that throughout the 10 year budget there are transfers into the General Fund in the amount of ~$4,000,000 annually. I assume some portion of this is continued use of gas taxes to cover General Fund deficits. If that's the case it's not a good idea. Third, the plan assumes something in the area of 3-4% revenue growth from 2011 on. The percentage of revenue growth is in the first light blue row shown above. When you contrast the 3-4% growth percentage in later years of the plan with the actual growth in current years (-1.3% for 08-09 and -6.54% projected for 09-10) you see where there could be a problem. Looking into the past you can see a year-to-year growth of +9% in 06-07. So it's really hard to know if 3-4% growth is a conservative estimate or not. The second light blue row contains the annual percentage growth in expenses. These also fluctuate significantly over a period of 3 years which makes you wonder how realistic the projected percentages can be. If we had a history of underestimating revenue and overestimating expenses then I'd say we're all good. However, I think the opposite is closer to true. Looking at this proposed budget (recognizing I haven't looked through the entire document) I think the city has reached the half-way to "balanced" point. This takes me back to Councilor Mary Flynn patting herself on the back at a recent council meeting for solving the budget problem. Bankruptcy caused by a $3,000,000 annual deficit is not really a whole lot better than bankruptcy caused by a $6,000,000 annual deficit. It was probably a little early for the high fives.

]]> Lon 2009-06-09T07:40:04-08:00 http://www.norcalblogs.com/commission/archives/2009/06/class_envy.html

Image: Bike routes from the Bike Plan Today begins my official summer. Since my son is out of school and our daughter's babysitter has changed schedules, I'm responsible for both of my kids on Mondays. I've got them until 2PM for the next few months of Mondays. I had my daughter on Tuesdays up until now, and she was pretty easy. She was all about a ride to work on the B-Line, some walking around downtown, and a lunch of rice at Aco Taco. While the B-Line might still be in the cards this summer, it doesn't really open up all of the summer locales Chico has to offer. I may take my car a couple of times, to get the kids up to Upper Park now and again. I'm afraid if I take my car I'll fall into the trap of running errands for half the day. It's amazing how many errands/how much spending can be delayed if you limit your transportation options. Several weeks ago I was riding back from the Doe Mill area with my son. We used the bike path that runs across the Meriam Park nature preserve site (entrance on Bruce near the big radio tower). I had never been on that bike path. It was very pretty, especially where it ran behind a series of apartments but skirted the creek for a distance. Interestingly, there were a bunch of barbeque stands located between the bike path and creek that were overgrown and obviously unused. I wonder how they got there, and why nobody uses them? More interestingly (to me, and probably nobody else) is that by traveling that route I had a completely new view of the town I've lived the last 20 years in. Those brief, lucid, experiences of newness are hard to find. As I wind my way into becoming an old Chico local it is sometimes challenging to ditch the rat race and reinvigorate the home town experience. Turning in 6,200 referendum signatures was something that made me feel like part of Chico. But really, you can only hold a referendum once every 6 weeks at best. As a parent I often feel the newness of this town vicariously through my children. Hiking to Salmon Hole, taking a canoe trip on the river, or experiencing the Christmas tree lighting downtown are examples. I think we'll adopt Monday mornings as a bike exploration day. That'll burn my son's energy, and give us a slow "summery"Chico way to explore the town. Here are some destinations that we might shoot for... 1. The airport, my daughter loves spotting airplanes, seeing them up close would be fun for her. 2. Sycamore pool for some wading, Caper Acres is closed on Mondays... bummer. 3. Sacramento River, just a quick trip from my house, but no bike paths. 4. Ride out to Durham (does anyone know a good place to have an early lunch or late breakfast in Durham?). 5. Sherwood Forest to throw some discs. 6. 5 mile to catch some wogs. 7. Wildwood Park, big slides although no replacement for Caper Acres. To help in our summer explorations the city has a bike map. But I'm going to go one step further. The city also has a 2008 bicycle plan located at its FTP site (see 3MEG pdf here). If I read the bike plan I can be a bike path know-it-all. If someone asks me where the nearest Class I bike path is I can respond... "Estimates of numbers of bicycle to school commuters are more difficult to calculate, because there are no official sources of this type of data. A major source of bicycle to school commuters is CSUC, where facilities management estimates that 6,500 persons bicycle to the University on a daily basis. Elementary, junior high, and high schools also generate bicycle traffic. Caltrans' Statewide Travel Survey estimates that 3.4 percent of Butte County students bicycle to school on a regular basis. Based on total public school enrollment of 14,000, it is estimated that this adds an additional 1,150 bicycle commuters. Combined with bicycle-to-work figures, the current total of bicycle commuters in the Chico Urban Area is estimated at 9,400, or about 11.4 percent. According to the City of Chico General Plan, the population of the urban area is expected to increase to approximately 135,000 people within the next 15 - 25 years. With the implementation of the policies for bikeways included in the General Plan, as well as the safe, well marked routes planned herein, the General Plan forecasts that 9 percent of the new population will commute to work by bicycle. Bicycle to school commuting is expected to increase as well. Total public school enrollment is expected to grow to 22,820 in FY 2013-14, thus adding another 780 bicyclists. CSUC, on the other hand, is close to its capped enrollment level, so no significant growth in enrollment or bicycle commuters is anticipated. Combined with existing numbers, the total amount of bicycle commuters is expected to reach approximately 14,130 at buildout." People who talk to me about bike paths will soon develop bicycle route Class envy. Since I want to make sure readers of CI aren't subject to this same envy, here are to descriptions of the various types of bicycle classes in Chico. Class I Bike Path - Red Provides a completely separated facility designed for the exclusive use of bicycles and pedestrians with minimal cross flows by motorists. Caltrans standards call for Class I bikeways to have a minimum of 8 feet of pavement with 2-foot graded shoulders on either side, for a total right-ofway of 12 feet. These bikeways must also be at least 5 feet from the edge of a paved roadway. Class II Bike Lane - Green Provides a restricted right-of-way designated for the exclusive or semi exclusive use of bicycles with through travel by motor vehicles or pedestrians prohibited, but with vehicle parking and cross flows by pedestrians and motorists permitted. Caltrans standards generally require a 4-foot bike lane from face of curb or edge of roadway with a 6-inch white stripe separating the roadway from the bike lane. Class III Bike Route - Blue Provides a right-of-way designated by signs or permanent markings and shared with pedestrians and motorists. Roadways designated as Class III bike routes should have sufficient width to accommodate motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians. Other than a street sign, there are no special markings required for a Class III bike route.

]]> Lon 2009-06-08T08:12:48-08:00 http://www.norcalblogs.com/commission/archives/2009/06/summer_dance_ca.html

Video: Today's theme song. Well, school ends today for the elementary kids. I'm not hip to the jive of the high school or JHS schedules. But since my kiddies are home for the summer that means a change in my work schedule and a need to populate their lives with fun summer experiences. Most people's summer dance card tends to fill up fast. But here are some CARD activities to consider for the big '09. Check out CARD's revamped web site for all of the things they have available. CARD really does provide a lot of opportunities for summer classes and other fun activities. For example, the Neighborhood Night Out is occurring in parks around town this summer. Baroni Park had one last week. Spark N' Cinder is scheduled to play, there will be low cost food vendors, and a bunch of little activities for people to take part in (bounce house, slip-n-slides). Or you can just hang with your neighbor on the lawn. Day Date Time Location W 6/24 6:00-9:00 PM Peterson Park W 7/29 6:00-9:00 PM Wildwood Park W 8/26 6:00-9:00 PM Oakway Park Camp-Chi-Da-Ca (Chico Day Camp) is always fun. Your kid will join the long tradition of other Chico kids that know the camp song "Go Bananas" if they attend Chi-Da-Ca. I would not be surprised if this is sold out by now. Coming up on June 13th is CARD's Community Campout. This is a fun opportunity to camp in Bidwell Park. It takes place at the Hooker Oak Recreation Area, near the Sherwood Forest disc golf course. In fact, I was setting up disc golf courses for campers for a couple of years in this area, and when CARD wanted to build a disc golf course I knew we could fit a kid's one at Hooker Oak because of the campout. You must register for this event by tomorrow! CARD is hosting its annual Community Campout. This event will include dinner, a moonlit walk to the Kiwanis Chico Community Observatory, camp songs, arts and crafts, family games, pancake breakfast and more! Participants are asked to bring their own camping equipment and personal items. Tent camping only, no trailers! This is an alcohol, drug and smoke free event. Participants must pre-register at the CARD Office by Friday, June 5th. Saturday, June 13th, check-in begins at 4:00 pm. Sunday, June 14th, departure time is 10:00 am. Course#: 5962 Date: Saturday and Sunday, June 13-14 Fee: $20 per family Site: Hooker Oak Park Volunteers from the Outsiders will be leading the night hike to the community observatory at the campout. It's really fun to trek the campers out to the observatory. We normally go in a big group, but this year we might shoot for staggering smaller groups so there's not so much of a wait to see the universe when everyone shows up at the same time. Other upcoming events include the Movies In the Park. I'll be sure to highlight those as their dates approach. Highlight...the first on is June 20th, and is Shrek. I keep asking for them to show 300. No such luck.

]]> Lon 2009-06-04T06:29:31-08:00 http://www.norcalblogs.com/commission/archives/2009/06/is_old_school_n.html

Image: Two examples of old-school Chico. The top one is cool, the bottom not so much. For old-school Chicoans Marge was an icon of angst, a champion of chagrin, a supplier of solicitude, and the mistress of misery when it came to parking violations. Those days of professionalized parking enforcement may be internally combusting to a close. If you remember Hey Juans, Marge the parking overlord, keggers at Bear Hole, or the tearful recollections of the channel 24 reporter when his car was turtled, then you are an old school Chicoan. Or perhaps you're a middle aged Chicoan. You might need to remember the go-kart track at the pristine 5 mile oak woodland area, or the dirt bikes in upper park to get some real old school Chico street cred. As time goes by you'll have more and more opportunities to bank that "I remember when" of Chico life. One thing that may become a symbol of our past is the mechanical parking meter and the parking officers in their golf carts. As part of the downtown access plan implementation the City is considering a number of changes to the parking situation. One big concept is that of smart meters. There are a wide variety of technologies available. These include using smart cards to pay all the way up to purchasing parking with your cell phone. With either of these technologies the need to lug around pounds of change goes away. That was a primary reason I opted to stop driving to work. In addition to changing the metering technology the city has requested quotes from companies to privatize the meter enforcement. They are also seeking to purchase meters with other entities, like the university, in order to reduce the per unit cost. Some part of me wonders if the city isn't reducing its revenue substantially by going away from coin operated meters. It will be less likely that people will underpay because of a lack of change. That was always my problem. I needed $4 in quarters to pay for a day of parking if I couldn't squeeze into one of our company's 2 leased spaces (pretty often). But then again if they are reducing the number of employees and benefits by getting rid of parking enforcement then that could offset citation income. Who knows? In the end I hope the coin operated meters go away. Coming up with gobs of quarters is so last last century. That old-school is not cool.

]]> Lon 2009-06-02T08:53:27-08:00 http://www.norcalblogs.com/commission/archives/2009/06/pilot_program.html

Video: John Stallman launching from Monkey Face and landing near Horseshoe Lake. About 95% of this video shows activities not under the jurisdiction of the City Council. Does the other 5% impact the environment? And how could one oppose an activity that comes with such a funky soundtrack? Is that Sekund Nature's music? Update: Files from City Council packet Council Staff Report Council amended resolution Exhibit A - map of the launch / landing points Exhibit B - proposed para-gliding rules Exhibit C - response to Friends of Bidwell Park CEQA comments The City Council will decide whether or not to allow paragliding in Upper/Middle Bidwell Park on Tuesday. Actually, they'll be deciding on whether to allow taking off in Bidwell Park. The city does not have authority over the para-gliders when they are in flight (that's the FAA's job). And pilots can make emergency landings at any place and time, so in theory the para-gliders could land wherever they want. Para-gliders, who paid for an environmental review of their activity, want to change section 12R.04.250 entitled "Hang-gliding and para-gliding - Prohibited" of the Chico Municipal Code. They would like for it to allow individuals with the appropriate para-gliding rating and a permit from the City to paraglide at designated launching and landing sites in Bidwell Park. Hang-gliding and motorized para-gliding would still be restricted. This small group of enthusiasts are asking for permission to do legally what they already do. I wrote a previous blog about the restrictions that are being placed on paragliding that limit the number of flyers in the air to 9 at a time, and the number of days the wind conditions allow for paragliding are pretty minimal (see old blog here). That old post also shows a map of the landing and takeoff sites. For those unfamiliar with the environmental review process, there is typically a study, and then a time period for public comments. Then the lead agency needs to answer all public comments. The answers can be in the form of "this is answered by the environmental review" to "this isn't required by CEQA" to "holy crap! we screwed up". That last one is pretty rare, and usually requires an attorney to generate. I've heard that some of the "impacts" attributed to para-gliding include... impacting the view of Bidwell Park scaring birds scaring equestrians If these are in fact concerns people have, they are not impacts to the environment. These are subjective concerns designed to oppose a newly legal use of the park. The place for subjective concerns is in front of the political body (City Council), not embedded into the CEQA studies. I tried last week to get the public comments related to the negative declaration of impact but the link on the city agenda is dead to me. That sounds so personal. I'll get them this morning and post them here. Here is the environmental document without the comments if anyone is interested (big pdf file ~16megs).

]]> Lon 2009-06-01T06:40:28-08:00 http://www.norcalblogs.com/commission/archives/2009/05/reductions_and.html

Image: Chico saw a 7.7% drop in sales and use tax income in last year's last quarter. The Q408 Sales tax report is available (see here). Things don't look great for Chico (-7.7%), however, they look even worse at the county (-8%) and the north state region (-11.4%). The Q408 quarter is described as the worst holiday quarter since 2003. That may not seem like a big historic low (just 5 years ago), but if you look at the city spending increases since 2003 you'll see that any drop in revenue during this time frame coincides with significant increased spending. In fact, at a recent budget update the city declared it had achieved the lowest rate of increase to payroll in years. It was as if a year-to-year increase didn't count as more spending. A Reduction to the "increase in spending" is not a cut. The sales tax report states that... Lower fuel prices and decreased sales from new auto dealers, department stores, family apparel, restaurants with liquor, lumber/building materials and electronics/appliance stores were partially responsible for the decrease. A delayed allocation temporarily reduced receipts from home furnishings and a recent closeout decreased revenues from specialty stores. So it sounds like at least in one case a store closure locally has not resulted in a spread of that store's sales to other businesses. There is absolutely no discussion in the report of where the 44% increase in contractor sales tax income comes from. It's possible that the last reported quarter was so low that regular business levels resulted in a significant percentage increase. Or maybe a lot of people are trying to get out from underneath homes, and the contractors are busy with pre-sale repairs. I have no idea. Who do you think I am, Bob the Builder? To exemplify how screwed up the state financial problem is we can go back to my state budget post about the state's ability to borrow $2 billion from local government (see here). When the Finance Director, Jennifer Hennessy, was questioned about this possibility she responded that the city could cover this "loan" with emergency funds. Chico would lose close to $1.2 million in property tax income to the state. The state would be required to pay the money back, with interest, within three years. So who pays the interest? Well, taxpayers do. Why would we pay the interest? So the shell game of using one credit card to pay off another can continue at the state level. Why are we doing that? Because the state has done the same thing the City of Chico has done. They've established spending habits that are completely out of touch with their revenue streams. And since these are mostly human resources costs, you won't find a lot of bureaucrats willing to take the hard-line cost cutting approach. Expect more taxes in the coming years.

A Growth Industry: Regardless of sales tax income, my daughter appears to be on a projected path of growth. She turns 2 today. There is a secret plot behind this blog. It's not to promote disc golf. That's my non-secret plot. The secret plot is to force Chicoans to view my family photos, since I can't have you all over for the weekly slide shows. Here's Ruby at 1 year Here she is at birth My goal is to keep this up until she's a teenager so I can maximize the parental embarrassment factor in her upbringing. The picture below was taken when we were pulling starthistle at Sherwood Forest. My son took the picture. It reminds me of that scene in the movie "The Jerk". All I need is my bottle. And this Klean Kanteen. And this camera. And...

]]> Lon 2009-05-29T06:09:28-08:00 http://www.norcalblogs.com/commission/archives/2009/05/crime_scene.html

Image: Chico Police Department "Incidents" in April 2009. In April there were 10,341 calls to Chico's dispatch office. 1,271 were fire related and 9,070 police related. The dispatch office handled 2,075 of the calls. This left 885 for the fire fighters and 7,381 calls to be handled by police officers. Most of the fire department calls were also serviced by local ambulance companies. The mall security teams did not back up the Chico PD. Breaking the PD calls down comes out to 246 officer responses per day, or ~11 per hour, or roughly a response every 5 or 6 minutes. That's a lot of driving around and getting in adventures. There have been 15 rapes in Chico this year, with 1 in April and 6 in March. 64 assaults occurred from January through April with 14 last month and a monthly high of 19 in January. In the horse race of which month received the most of any crime April did win the burglary category with 60. May even came in first in auto thefts (31). And that month is only half represented in the report I'm citing. Drunk in public and simple assault also seemed to be growing sectors of our crime economy this year. The seedy underbelly of Chico seems mean, volatile, and drunk. I'm longing for the old days of Craigs-list style prostitution-as-massage after seeing the numbers above. Actually, my favorite incident type listed above is "Mental". 1-Chico-12 this is dispatch, we've got a report of a guy dressed in a bird suit running backward down highway 32. He's obviously mental in public. The citations written for April include speed laws (46), public offenses (71), and registration/sales (50). I'm not sure what public offenses are, but I'm guessing this blog is probably one. "Mr. Glazner, you're being cited for presenting information not normally provided to the public, and data they are not prepared to understand. In addition, the gratuitous use of cleavage in your lemonade stand marketing is a public offense." I assume that Chico's Police Department has a lull in some activity now that the college students are gone. They can probably spend less time traversing Burning Divan Drive. There's no need to be circling Drunk Co-ed Court. And service calls to Help Me, My Kegger Got Too Big Avenue should be reduced. So except for responding to attempted rapes, rapes, attempted murders, murders, simple assaults, complicated assaults, assaults with a deadly weapon, and assaults and pepper they've pretty much got the summer off. Just like teachers. I'm looking forward to seeing some of you tanned and well rested officers down at 1-mile this weekend. Let's get mental!

In Your Eye: Evan Tuchinsky's In My Eyes column today deserves a read (see here). Possible names/slogans for the new Bidwell Park group he suggests include... Group Names: Amigos of Bidwell Park (to encourage our latino population) Park Lovers United (but not in public, there are kids around) Al-Qaeda (for a gentler, kinder, group of park advocates) Trailblazers (also a pro-smoking group) The Outsiders (what a clever name) Slogans: I moved to Chico and all I got was this hu-normous park Preserves are for picnics Come have your soil compacted Friends don't let friends join "Friends" groups Do tread on me Hangliding is not a crime, oh... yes it is, but it shouldn't be

]]> Lon 2009-05-28T06:52:40-08:00 http://www.norcalblogs.com/commission/archives/2009/05/hot_april_night.html

Image: Chico Fire Department calls in April 2009. Here are the fire calls for the Chico Fire Department last month. I recall seeing in some summary a couple of years ago that the number of building fires was close to 1 per week (around 50 per year). I believe structure fires include things like fences. It would be interesting to find out how many of the structure fires listed above are buildings, since that number seems much higher than what I've seen in the past. Are more people lighting buildings on fire these days? Is a fence really a structure? It's kind of strange that they separate "sickness, general", "disease", and even "cardiac related" in the EMS call types. Maybe they should break it down further like "flu", "sniffles", and "queezy stomach from watching Gray's Anatomy sickly sweet episode". I would also tend to question the valuation of property exposed to fire. That table seems like a justification for service. I don't think it can be proven that $20.2 million in property was subject to fire loss but was saved. For example, if the average cost of a home in Chico is around $300K then 60 homes would have had to have been saved from fires in the first 4 months of the year. Even so, if it's 1/4 that value it would pay for the cost of the fire department. And if you calculate in medical calls, the service becomes quite a bit more valuable. I don't have time to look into all of the terminology shown in the graphic above. If anyone has answers let me know. In particular I'm curious what the automatic aid refers to. Is that ambulance service sent to calls? The received and given numbers are pretty high, I think it would have to be medical calls. What is mutual aid? Is it Cal-Fire service exchanges (CUAFRA)? Okay, yep, here is a description of mutual aid. I'll show the police calls for April 2009 tomorrow. There were 885 dispatched fire calls and 7381 dispatched police calls in April. Images Below: Thanks to the Boys and Girls Club of the North Valley, and other volunteers of the Outsiders who helped remove yellow star thistle from Sherwood Forest in May. There's plenty more to pull out, but we made a dent in this year before it go too "stickery".

]]> Lon 2009-05-27T06:56:53-08:00 http://www.norcalblogs.com/commission/archives/2009/05/the_circle_of_l.html

Image: New conversion to one-way streets designed to regulate traffic flow to popular downtown 1-hole disc golf course. The students are gone. Once again control of Chico's pulse has been handed back to the lazy summer days, small town streets, and backyard barbeques. A young woman who spent 1 morning each week with our daughter has graduated from college. She'll be moving on after the summer to other pursuits. It wasn't that long ago that my wife was a college student who babysat three little girls for a working family. Those kids have all grown up, and I think some of them have even completed college. You notice a lot of circular components of life as you get older. For example, city planners are considering modifications to downtown traffic flow patterns to create a circular traffic couplet. The plan under consideration converts 2nd Street to one-way heading east between Salem and Flume streets, and converts 1st Street to one-way heading west. City officials cite the following beneficial results of this project... 1) Increasing walkablity and safety downtown. 2) Providing a bike lane between SR32 and the entrance to lower Bidwell Park. 3) Construction of a round-about where 1st and 2nd Streets collide in front of the CNR thus providing a more exciting street crossing for peds. This should give Evan Tuchinsky a kind of real life version of Frogger to enjoy when gazing out the window. 4) Improved traffic flow between SR32 and Camilla Way bridge. 5) More downtown parking. 6) Less emissions (yes, every city project will now save the world). There are a couple of "under the radar" reasons that I completely support the proposed project. First, park goers will get diverted by this couplet from the highway 32 site to the fabulous 1-hole disc golf course in Children's Playground. Second, I've been secretly planning to build a walkable, new urban style, lemonade stand. Working with the city, using all of my back-channels, I've convinced them to divert traffic to a location where my lucrative "Smart-n-Tart" lemonade stand get the most visibility. And to top it all off, I'll be providing a free Chico Kup with each beverage served. Come visit Smart-N-Tart at our new lower emmission location. It's not just lemonade, it's Earth aid.

]]> Lon 2009-05-26T06:30:45-08:00 http://www.norcalblogs.com/commission/archives/2009/05/think_of_locals.html

Image: Aaron Clark of Chico. Died on December 5th 2003 from a bomb exploding near his Humvee. I'm sure we all have a lot of fun planned for Memorial Day. I've had a mix of work-around-the house and fun stuff planned. But today really is about honoring the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines that died in the service of our country. I have a picture of myself very similar to that of Aaron Clark above. It was taken when I served in the Infantry during basic training as part of a "yearbook" for lack of a better word. I suspect this photo shows Aaron near the tail end of "basic" but before he entered the world of army life. Aaron's picture takes me back to a time when I was 18 and away from home for the first time. In a real sense I never went home after that picture. California has had 537 service men and women die from 2001 to the present. A searchable database can be found on the LA Times web site (see here). It shows 1 serviceman who died with the hometown listed as Chico. From the LA Times obituary(see here)... For several months, Army Spc. Arron R. Clark gave soldiers serving with him in Iraq his two-week passes, which would have allowed him to visit his mother in Northern California. " Mom, they have babies they have not seen," he explained in letters to his mother, Tamela Lyne Clark, 45, of Chico. "I hope you understand." The 20-year-old Chico native promised his mother he would come home on his scheduled Jan. 8 return to the United States to attend the Army Ranger School. But Clark was killed Dec. 5 when an explosive device detonated next to his Humvee in Baghdad. " He was my only child," his mother said Thursday as she waited in Sacramento for her son's body, which was being escorted home by his cousin, Lisa Herrik, 28, of Chico, who is an Army helicopter pilot stationed at Ft. Bragg, N.C. It's easy to wrap Memorial Day in the flag and rejoice in the heroic gestures of so many that have died for our country. This year I'd like to give thanks to Aaron Clark and his family who have sacrificed more than anyone should have to. I don't know the family, or this young man. But he went to our schools, drove our streets, and passed his time in our community. And then he died in the service of our country. He deserves our thanks. Here are some other men from our region who gave their lives since 2001... Allen C. Johnson, 31 - Los Molinos Steven J. Walberg-Riotto, 18 - Paradise Micah S. Gifford, 27 - Redding Timothy Craig Kiser, 37 - Redding Casey M. LaWare, 19 - Redding Thomas B. Turner Jr., 31 - Cottonwood

]]> Lon 2009-05-25T08:21:49-08:00 http://www.norcalblogs.com/commission/archives/2009/05/tanc_battle.html

Image: Two possible routes of the new and improved power transmission systems and their proximity to Chico. The image is from TANC's Google maps application. I've added the disc golf site and pointed out the area where the lines cross Bidwell Park. TANC, the Transmission Agency of Northern California, has been in the news with their proposal to update the electricity grid in our region. You can learn more about this project at this web page. And below is a summary of the project. TANC and the Western Area Power Administration, the lead federal agency for environmental review of the proposed TANC Transmission Project (TTP), are at the beginning stages of the environmental review process. The TTP would increase California’s electric system reliability and provide increased access to local California-based renewable energy resources through approximately 600 miles of 230-kilovolt (kV) and 500-kV transmission lines and substations. The TTP would help to improve the state’s current transmission system, which is at times severely constrained and at risk of not meeting California’s energy demand during peak periods. There has been limited new major transmission infrastructure built in California since TANC placed the California-Oregon Transmission Project (COTP) in service in 1993. There is a Google maps application at this web site that allows you to enter an address to see the new power lines in relation to your home. Or you can just scroll around the image. I'm not sure if the TANC project includes all three proposed transmission lines, or if the three routes are separate options (I assume the latter). But essentially the transmission lines create a circuit that moves up into northern California and into the Sierra foothills. The three routes travel north from Sacramento and then head west at Anderson over to highway 395 between Alturas and Susanville. I suppose there's some hydroelectric site there. Or maybe that's where an indian casino is going to be built. As far as I can tell this project should be an easy thing to support. However, I'm guessing that that won't be the case. One route does cross Bidwell Park near Chico. I suppose that would be an upgrade of the existing power lines. Luckily that route misses the disc golf site. We know the level of opposition created when improvements are proposed in that pristine wilderness area. Plus I'm not sure the non-profit being formed can raise enough money to pay for the extension cords needed by that project. I suppose that the TANC project will be opposed for environmental reasons. It's also being promoted for environmental reasons. Transmission of energy is also growth inducing, and that's a strike against it right there (like water projects). I'm always struck by the odd reality some people live in that causes them to promote green technology and then oppose infrastructure that supports it. Let's assume for a moment that electric cars are the answer to our transportation needs and pollution reduction desires. For a societal conversion to electric vehicles to work you would need to divert vast amounts of energy produced by internal combustion engines (combustion means explosions) into energy distributed by a network of power lines. That is a lot of energy. Imagine if every car you see is a dryer running for 4 or 5 hours a few times a week (30 amps at 240 volts). It seems like that could increase residential electrical use by 10-20% per car. And If you wanted a charge in 30 minutes, you might need something closer to 240 amps. That requires a pretty fat copper wire. Actually it requires greater surface area of the conductor due to the skin effect, so maybe stranded wires would work better. Still. that's a lot of copper. You'd probably need new guts for your breaker box as well. These aren't insurmountable problems, and technology will ease some of the hurdles. But to get to the point where everyone's cars are clean and energy for cars is produced at clean energy producing plants, we need better energy transmission infrastructure. And of course you'd have to shift gas taxes to electrical use to allow for continued government funding. As the fight unfolds to prevent this TANC invasion keep these infrastructure needs in mind.

]]> Lon 2009-05-22T06:57:47-08:00 http://www.norcalblogs.com/commission/archives/2009/05/plan_b.html

Image: On to Plan B. Five City Councilors supported keeping the short disc golf course at the highway 32 site for up to 5 years Tuesday night. The site will be shrunk a tad and go from 18 to 12 holes. But we'll be able to add improvements to reduce impact and improve playability. The fab 5 deserve some atta-boys for making a good decision. The five councilors, none of whom are quite as lovely as Neve Campbell or Lacey Chabert, but all handsome men nonetheless, will forever be known as the "Party of Five". And every year on May 19th we'll watch re-runs of Party of Five episodes at the Outsiders corporate HQ, and then act them out with the councilor's names replacing those of the main characters. Supportive councilors included Walker, Wahl, Nickell, Gruendl, and Holcombe. Flynn and Schwab declined to support the motion. In fact, Flynn had declined to meet with Gregg and I to discuss alternate locations prior to the Park Commission's decision to select Caper Acres as a disc golf site. She cited the fact that she knew everything she needed to know about disc golf. Unfortunately, some of the anti-DG folks followed Flynn's lead, and as soon as the conversation shifted to the park commission all decisions about alternate locations omitted the opinions of people that play disc golf. That fact, and the reality that other park users and neighbors would oppose most proposed sites, resulted in a site selection that really wouldn't work (Caper Acres). That resulted in a return to the highway 32 site. They were so sure they controlled the process that they allowed it to fail. They are still sure that we won't raise the funds or commit to maintaining the 32 site. Continually underestimating the commitment of people that actually use the park for recreation is probably not a winning strategy. We're still interested in finding a new place for the short course. But we'll likely shy away from anything to do with the park commission, and work more closely with CARD. And since we've got 5 years to pull this together I'm hopeful we can find a solution. In the meantime, recreation continues in upper Bidwell Park. And 182 days later disc golf has been restored.

]]> Lon 2009-05-21T07:52:00-08:00 http://www.norcalblogs.com/commission/archives/2009/05/professional_fi.html

Image: What rolls downhill? Below is just one of many cost cutting and revenue increasing ideas suggested by the Governator's May budget revision (see Arnold's ideas here). H/T MPrime. See the related ER story here. $1.982 billion—Borrowing from Local Government. The May Revision contingency plan proposes to borrow eight percent of the property tax revenues received by cities, counties, and special districts in 2008-09 as authorized in Article XIII of Section 25.5 of the Constitution. Repayment must be made within the next three years. Legislation also is proposed to create a joint powers authority to allow local agencies to borrow against the state repayment as a group. The Governor's office estimates that California's General Fund will be short something like $15 billion for this year. And another $5.8 billion will disappear if today's ballot propositions fail to pass (1A-1E). Cuts in school spending, from college on down are suggested, as are reductions in support for legal non-citizens. Also on the chopping block are fee caps for veteran's homes residents. Increasing withholdings by 10% is suggested, although I'm not clear from the language if this is on estimated quarterly payments or all employee withholdings. I suspect the former. That means a higher tax on self-employed people, and small/large businesses. Hey, that's me! Whoooo-hoooo. The most hair-raising of state budget cuts are related to the realignment/consolidation of government bureaus. Here are some examples. Eliminate the Bureau of Naturopathic Medicine. Eliminate the Telephone Medical Advice Services Bureau. Consolidate the Board of Geologists and Geophysicists with the State Mining and Geology Board. Consolidate the Professional Fiduciaries Bureau under the Board of Accountancy. Consolidate the Board of Behavioral Sciences, the Board of Psychology, the the duties of the Board of Vocational Nurses and Psychiatric Technicians to oversee psychiatric technicians, into a new Board of Mental Health. Consolidate the Hearing Aid Dispensers Bureau under the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Bureau. Consolidate the nursing oversight functions of the Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians with the Board of Registered Nursing. Elimination of the Court Reporters Board. Elimination of the Inspection and Maintenance Review Committee and transfer its functions to the Bureau of Automotive Repair. Elimination of the Landscape Architects Technical Committee and transfer its licensing duties to the Architects Board. Tax me more, increase my kid's class size to 300, or get rid of fire and police protection first. But if you even suggest that I won't have the Professional Fiduciaries Bureau to evaluate my fiduciaries then I'll suggest it's time for a revolution. And what about the Hearing Aid Dispensers Bureau? Who's going to oversee the dispensation of hearing aids? The Contact Lens Location After They Fell Out Bureau? Like those guys have the time. We formed the Hearing Aid Dispensation Bureau for a reason. It was a damn good reason. Nobody remembers it, but it was damn good. And think of how much money we'll lose in government efficiency when all the hearing aids disappear. Government employee: What? You want your reference spec'ed? Citizen: No, I want my refund check! Government employee: The font is dachshund flecked? Citizen: Refund check, refund check! Government employee: Reefer tech? You need to see the Bureau of Hydroponics. Citizen: Keep it, I'm moving to Nevada. Government employee: Have fun grooving to Nirvana. I wasn't going to vote today. But after seeing the list of bureaus and consolidation suggestions above I think government needs to downsize. The best way to do that is make sure they don't have the money to fund all of the stupidity they seem to fund. So this morning I'll try to vote before I take my kids to school. No on 1A though 1Z. Let them eat cake. Update: I was the first voter today for precinct 2201. I forgot that ballot prop. 1F was out there. That's the one where no pay raises are allowed for elected officials if the state's General Fund is showing a deficit. That gets a Yea.

]]> Lon 2009-05-19T06:12:30-08:00 http://www.norcalblogs.com/commission/archives/2009/05/to_be_or_not_to.html

Image: The new shoulder patch for the disc golf army being formed? Tomorrow's council decision on what to do with the short disc golf course is a big one as far as recreation goes. The council punted the decision on where to locate a new short course to the park commission. This was seen by most people involved in this issue as a political hand-off. I think all of the councilors probably were correct in believing that the park commission should address the "where" question, but at the same time they put the VP of the Friends group on that board, and except for Skaggs and Lucas, the other commissioners are associated with the environmental movement by profession or association. It was not surprising when the park commission immediately dismissed the 5 sites presented by disc golfers and promoted the 2 championed by the FOBP (Caper Acres and the airport). And it wasn't surprising that those sites won't work. That's why the council is re-hearing the issue of the short course relocation. But what's going to happen tomorrow? The compromise of January 6th won't die. I think Councilor Gruendl is too far to the middle of this issue to give up completely on moving the short course away from highway 32 (he implies that in today's ER article). The big question is whether or not the city council will allow improvements to the short course at the same time they extend the decision on "where" to move it. I think we'll be looking at something near a 5 year time frame to relocate the short course. I think they should allow improvements. There is no other location that has been studied and identified, and there is no guarantee that there will be. Moving forward on the short course site is the safe bet. However, at this point CARD, the Outsiders, and a private property owner are working together to identify recreation components of a 60-90 acre community park and a 400 acre regional park as part of a planned development south of Chico. The property is currently in the county, but I believe the city is looking to annex it to offset the stalled Meriam Park project. Will that project ever move forward? Who knows. Is there a guarantee it will have a disc golf course if it does? Nope. Is the owner interested in moving it forward with disc golf included in the ~600 acres of open space/recreation that will be allocated. Yep. I expect the new compromise will involve the short course remaining open until this new property comes on-line. Whether or not improvements are allowed is the big "if" that will be answered tomorrow.

The Outsiders 501(3)(3) Public Charity - The Sunday ER editorial was a bit of a disappointment. Not necessarily because of the content or conclusions. There was just not an attempt to verify some of the information that was in it. I sent an email and a document to 3 people on the editorial board and let them know that I was available to answer any questions they might have on the disc golf issue. Nobody took me up on it. Had they done so they would have received an update on our non-profit status, and known that we are seeking additional and alternative locations for the short course. The California public charity Outside Recreation Advocacy, Inc was incorporated on 4-16-09. DBA's for the Chico Outsiders and The Outsiders have been filed with the county. We've registered with the California Department of Justice public charity registry, and submitted our IRS form 1023 request for recognition of tax exempt status. This process required the help of an attorney, and an enrolled agent (accountant), a lot of paper work (a couple of hundred pages), an organized board of directors, and roughly $1,200 in filing fees and other costs. All of this was done while attending more than a dozen city meetings. We now are waiting for the IRS to respond to our request for tax exempt recognition. That takes some time. Far from being unengaged, we're a disc golf legion. And we're growing. But at the same time we've yet to have a meeting with the city regarding any MOU or agreement to manage the long course. Why? Probably because the council hasn't made a final decision. The first meeting should occur before the end of the month. Since November 18th, 2008 organized disc golf efforts have raised close to $6,000. Unfortunately ~$3,600 was required to fight the decision to remove disc golf from Bidwell Park. And $1,200 was required to form a non-profit the council stated we must form. So 80% of our funds have gone to things that have not put assets into public use. It's kind of like the city's budget. Moving forward I suspect we'll be much more efficient in applying our resources toward improvements. We'll also be more active in soliciting charter/annual members, and supporting recreation in our park system.

]]> Lon 2009-05-18T08:58:22-08:00 http://www.norcalblogs.com/commission/archives/2009/05/beer_money.html

Image: Property tax income to the City of Chico gives the term "beer money" a whole new meaning. I think #4 on the top list filed for bankruptcy recently. A rather old-ish Finance Department report on the city web site is a wealth of information related to Chico's financial position, as well as a snapshot of regional troubles. The report is the 2008-2009 property tax report (see report here). For example, the median home price in Butte County changed from $295,000 in 2007 to $245,000 in 2008. That's a 17% decrease. For Chico it was $315,000 in 2007 and $280,000 in 2008. That represents a drop of 11%. In 2000-1 the median price of a Chico "single family residence" was $149,000. Luckily wages kept up with the increased cost of living. If you earned $50,000/year in 2000 you should now be making $100,000/year. Oh wait... that didn't happen. Sutter, Yolo, and Yuba counties all suffered close to a 1/3 drop in median home prices from '07-08. Ouch! In those counties you can buy a home at roughly 2002-3 Chico levels (~$180,000). And I heard they let the public use the public park system. Wild ideas. I'm going to go out on a "financial document understanding" limb here for a minute. It looks to me, the untrained blogger, that growth in property taxes from the various RDA (redevelopment agency) zones in Chico contributed to a little more than 80% of growth in Chico property taxes (2007-8). The RDA diverts increases in property taxes from the other tax collecting entities to the city. This is called tax-increment income. In concept it is not a bad idea. Properties that improve and/or change hands have their increased taxes stay local. One problem with the diversion is that it takes money from things like the school system. This money is backfilled by the illustrious "triple-flip", a great example of state government fiscal hijinks(sp?). Another problem with property tax diversion is that the city borrows against the tax-increment income. They create huge bonds that are not approved by the public (like a school bond would be). This indebtedness accrues interest causing RDA projects to cost something around twice their face value by the time the debt is paid back. The bet decision makers are taking is that a large project will be cheaper to build today, even with 20 years of interest, than it would be if the city paid cash in 10 or so years. The cost to service the RDA debt is about $3,000,000 annually (roughly half our General Fund annual deficit). If the property taxes in the RDA drop significantly, then so will the tax-increment income (I'm assuming that tax-decrement expenses are a possibility). Then we have reallllllly big long term debt servicing problems. Kind of scary. There is a significant upside to some of the spending. For example, we were able to get those "spirit flags" on Forest Avenue with some RDA money. It'll be nice to get those paid off in 2029. Another thing that really stands out in this report is that the Grossman Family Trust of Sierra Nevada fame owns a whole bunch of Chico. This trust paid a million dollars in property taxes in 2008. That was nearly 3% of the total. Grossman Family Trust also owns ~1/2 of the Meriam Park development. I assume when/if that development comes online the property tax value will skyrocket (now it's just vacant land). I've also heard from someone close to the previous owner that Grossman purchased the Sunset Hills golf course on the south side of town. That property was where Wal-Mart was looking to land its second Chico store. It's also a site where some of the disc golf removerinos wanted to move the short course to. That's the problem with selecting private property as a replacement site for public property use. You never know if/when it will change hands or allowable uses. But perhaps Sierra Nevada is opening their own disc golf course? I hear it's a growth industry.

]]> Lon 2009-05-15T07:26:12-08:00