A great event for a great cause – Wounded Warrior Ball tomorrow night at Chico Eagles Hall

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Chico Eagles hall is sponsoring a dinner dance tomorrow night for the benefit of troops coming home with injuries suffered in the defense of our country.

Your $25 ticket includes dinner, but if you just want to dance the evening away with your sweetie, you can get tickets at the door for $15 each.

There’s also a silent auction of memorabilia – some of it donated by Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, who was kind enough to address our Taxpayers meeting recently.

The entertainment is being provided by The Karma Kings, out of Paradise.

This kind of event doesn’t happen in Chico every day, so have fun and do something for your country at the same time.

You can get tickets or more information at 342-5696.

Paul Zingg: Pay more or we shut the doors!

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Chico State President Paul Zingg’s job is essentially to raise money for the university. He’s paid more than $300,000/year to do just that. I would think that would entail meetings with lots of local civic groups, maybe a local scholarship program, even working with the local high schools to raise local attendance, etc.

No, apparently, it means, e-mailing the local newspaper and telling them, “Chico State’s total loss of general-fund funding in this latest scenario (would) be about $33 million…We are facing program eliminations and significant negative impacts on our workforce in this scenario. Not to mention threats to supporting student access and progress to degrees.”

So, he’s threatening to kick our kids out of school unless…

“The November election will be critical because if the tax measure is not approved by voters, there could be long-lasting damage to the system based on another $250 million cut.”

…unless we raise our sales tax by a minimum of half a cent. 

Well, let me tell you something folks, I went to Chico State – graduated Suma Cum Laude!  That’s Latin for, ”we got all the money we could out of her!” 

My experience at Chico State was that of a turnip being squeezed. I had to sit through classes that made me feel as though somebody was putting a plastic bag over my head for 50 minutes. I had teachers who should have retired years earlier, but were riding their bullet-proof “tenure.”  I had teachers who sat in front of the room and point blank told us Chico State was a piece of shit – one teacher used the term “Sausage School” – and still expect us to show up every day. One teacher told us, in a lengthy lecture, that he felt the grade system was bad for students’ morale and self-esteem, but when we asked him why he still gave letter grades, he said, “I know you guys, you’re tough enough to handle it!”

 I had a couple of wonderful teachers – okay, make that three. Two had been great in their day, but were beyond retirement, and getting forgetful and distracted. One of these guys still works in the department, I mean, he’s practically mummified!  

The third was still sharp, admitting to me that half her class should not be passed, but the college “doesn’t like too much failure…” She actually complained to me that “Chico State populates most of the area schools with teachers, probably 30 percent of whom are not qualified…” This she told me on finals day, when she had to give a group an ‘A’ on their group project, simply because one of their members hadn’t shown up and the project was ruined. It wasn’t their fault, so she gave those who showed up an A, even though she admitted their project didn’t show much work. These gals, some of whom couldn’t write a complete sentence and often didn’t understand the course work, are now teaching in schools all around us, maybe teaching your children or grandchildren!

If you have a child at Chico State I would certainly recommend a visit to their classes, and make it surprise. Unless every seat in the room is packed, the teacher has to let you in. Wait a few weeks – these classes always start brimming over, but by the end, the teacher is lucky to have a dozen students left.  I know the feeling – sometimes, the last two weeks of a class was the worst, and people would begin to drop like  flies. I’ve been to finals where only a handful of the original 30 – 40 students even bothered to show up. 

The level of teaching I suffered was horrific. Good teachers teaching down because they knew their students were not prepared. Poor teachers bumbling on day after day, knowing they can’t be fired. I felt like I lost years of my life, and then there was the money! I paid my own way through school, working minimum wage jobs. Boy, did I feel like a sucker.

In fact, toward the end – and this happened to plenty of other students – my department head made me retake 9 units I’d already taken at Sacramento State. She said they didn’t transfer, and she made me do it. It was awful – one class even used the same textbooks as my previous teacher, I just had to sit through an entire semester of rehash. When I went to Evaluations, they told me I was nine units over, and I could have already graduated. It wasn’t a coincidence that my department head was removed about a semester later. I heard the same story from more than half a dozen of my fellow studentsover the course of one semester.  The department you major in gets your money, the longer they can keep you the better for them. Liberal Studies department head Sara Armstrong kept me, and Gawd knows who else,  for an entire semester that I didn’t need to take or pay for, just to get money for her department.  And, they didn’t fire her,  they removed her from the department, they gave her another job – secretary to another staffer. I’m not sure, but I think it was Scott McNall, I’ll have to ask him.

So excuse me when I say, go ahead and CLOSE CHICO STATE. Send Zingg packing. I don’t think he could get a job in the private sector – maybe he could run a medical school in Grenada or something. But if he thinks I’m paying another half cent on the dollar to foot his lifestyle up at 14 Mile House, he better think again. 

Get your tickets NOW for the Wounded Warrior Ball – May 19, with the Karma Kings!

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The Chico Eagles Lodge #218 is throwing a swingin’  shindig to raise money for men and women injured while serving their country. 

I have a poster, but I can’t figure out how to post it, so I will share the details. You can get more information at 342-5696

The Wounded Warrior Project  is a national organization that helps our returning vets who are dealing with life long injuries – everything from limb loss to mental stress. These folks have served their country, now it’s our turn to serve them.

This is a nice affair, because it’s affordable in this economy – tickets are only $25, and include dinner. If you can’t make dinner, you can get in to the dance for only $15 – what a deal! And they will be a silent auction of items donated by some generous supporters. 

My husband and I are not exactly huge socializers, but this event is tempting because it’s going to attract a nice cross section of Chicoans. Maybe I’ll see you there! 

Ann Schwab says pay the phone tax or she’s going to cut public safety again

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At last night’s council meeting, Ann Schwab, Andy Holcombe, Scott Gruendl and Jim Walker all threatened public safety with further cuts if the phone tax is not passed.

When speakers brought up salaries and non-essential expenses, such as the $84,000 and roughly $40,000 in benefits attached to the Sustainability Task Force, the council ignored them, opting instead to threaten public safety again and again.

Ann Schwab made it clear that if the voters don’t pass this tax, she’s going to cut the safety budget.

Then she promptly voted to allow the Nature Center to defer payments on their $800,000 loan for another two years. As I have said previously, the Nature Center has yet to make one payment on that 5 years plus old loan, and they get over $40,000 in Community Grant funding every year without having to open their books to any kind of public scrutiny. They use the money to run a for-profit operation, and I believe they siphon some of the money into political donations.

Why didn’t more people  come to the meeting last night to speak up? Maybe you all want to pay more taxes?

Thanks to Sue Hubbard, Toby Schindelbeck, Larry Wahl and Stephanie Taber for speaking up.

Why is the Enterprise Record trying to deceive us regarding the phone tax?

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To David Little: 

 In this morning’s Enterprise Record, reporter Katy Sweeny omits part of the story about last night’s council decision regarding the telephone tax – council voted to send it back to be rewritten because Sorensen said it doesn’t tell voters that the phone tax will actually be expanding to cover more services and people who aren’t currently paying. Council voted to have Lori Barker rewrite it.  Sweeny doesn’t even mention the motion or the vote on the subject. The headline actually says, “Chico voters could lower telephone tax.”
 
What a clever way to word a lie. “could” – I see, that gets you off the hook from a hard lie to a little white lie.  
 
This is the kind of slant I’m talking about in your reporting David. I don’t consider this “sloppy” reporting, I consider it to be a pretty point blank deception. 
 
This is going on my blog. If you want to respond, you will have to respond to my blog instead of bullying me privately in my mailbox. 
 
Thanks, Juanita Sumner

Our city is OBESE, but all $taff wants to do about it is buy bigger pants

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Tonight city council will discuss the implementation of a tax on your telephone. Don’t take it! We can make a difference. 

The meeting starts at 6:30. This item has been place in the “4′s” – the regular agenda – and will be heard after the weed abatement report and right before the request to allow the Nature Center to further slouch on their $800,000 taxpayer financed loan. 

I find that ironic – they want us to pay a tax on our phone so they can be completely asinine with our money. That’s just gin-cheee!

I hope I’m not the only person who is angry about this – please come Downtown tonight and protest these two completely contrary actions on the part of council – again, they are raising a tax on our telephones, and most likely, our computer usage as well, eventually even e-mail, in order to pay off bad debts for people who have made political contributions to their campaigns – Dave Guzzetti and John Merz, to mention a couple. These guys have turned a kids learning facility into a PAC, and here we’re financing it out of our taxes – FORGET IT! 

Just say NO! to bad taxes. That’s tonight, City Council Meeting, Downtown, starts at 6:30 but ought to get interesting around 7:15.

The city is out $900,000 a year – oh look! The Nature Center owes us $800,000! Problem solved!

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Tomorrow night,  the city is poised to do two completely contrary things: first they will vote to collect $900,000-plus a year off taxpayers by RAISING YOUR UTILITY TAX, saying they are broke and need the money to pay salaries. Then they will turn around and hand it to the Chico Creek Nature Center.

Okay,  it’s not THAT simple, but you can follow along. See, over 5 years ago, the city made a deal with Tom Haithcock and Dave Guzzetti and John Merz to loan the Nature Center, a PAC run by the aforementioned people and their friends, EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS to build the Taj Majal in the Park – a new “learning center” to which only Nature Center personnel hold the key. This building is not even open to the public. It is used by the NC to run a “school” by which they also suck in a good hundred grand a year, by my estimates. They’ve never been asked to show their books.

In addition, we taxpayers have been paying Haithcock’s $50,000+ salary and benefits  all these years with Community Block Grant Funding money.  This is the same pot they take out of to pay for garbage like “Artoberfest”. 

Well, the city started to cut the grant funding – down from $60-something-thousand to about $42,000 a year. So, Haithcock was faced with fundraising his own salary – like every other “non-profit” – or he could quit. If you know Haitcock, you were not surprised when he quit. He tried to go out like the Lorax, but when he stamped his foot, he just ended up standing there looking like a big spoiled brat.

Well, they hired a new front for their operation – Courtney Farrell – who is going before the council tomorrow night to ask that the loan payments be deferred, AGAIN. In the five or so years since they took $800,000 from the city pot, they have not paid one red cent, not principle or interest. But every year they take CBGF money to pay their director, because they can’t get enough support in the community to pay her salary. And benefits, yeah, she gets benefits. You pay for it.

I took my kids to the Nature Center “camp” before Haithcock took over – it was nice but not really worth the $50/week for  a half-day price tag. A full day was $80/week. That was over 10 years ago. Now they charge $135 for a week!

 Those camps were full, and in passing, I see they still get plenty of kids. But they are not being asked to present these figures – Haithcock got away with a hastily scrawled list of half-baked figures – and in his case, I think the word “baked” is applicable – he was just handing them amounts, I wonder if he even knew exactly how much the center was taking in and how much it was spending.  Nobody pressed him for his tax filings or anything like that. He just made the shit up and handed it over, and they patted him on the head and handed him 10′s of thousands of your money. 

So, here we go again. They want to raise your phone bill to hand money to their friends. 

Council to discuss ripping us off on our phones and computers

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This next Tuesday, May 1, council will get a report from the city attorney of an ordinance that will allow the city to take a 4.5 percent tax on your phone and messaging devices – on local and interstate calls, text messaging, voice over internet – even PAGING.

The report is available now at this link:

http://www.ci.chico.ca.us/government/minutes_agendas/documents/5-1-12CityCouncilAgendaPacket.pdf

It’s there, just keep digging all the way to the bottom. They aren’t going to make it easy to read these agendas, you know. 

I’ve asked the city clerk for a cut and pastable copy so I can share the pertinent points here. In past, she’s told me, she can’t give it to me in a cut and paste version, because I might edit it when I post it! As if, I can’t edit it when I type it in – what a pile of horseshit! I don’t know why the clerk’s office plays these little games – well, yes I do – $taff doesn’t want us to see this stuff. They don’t want us to know, they’re about to rip us off for about $900,000 a year off our phones and computers.

I’ll work on getting the report here, but in the meantime, it won’t hurt you folks to go to the city website and read the whole thing yourself.

And don’t forget, it’s time to get your Utility Tax rebate. I’m waiting for my April bill from PG&E, and then I’m going in. I only have PG&E to collect, so I’m getting about $50.  That’s a trip to the grocery store, with some Shuberts money to spare.