August 3rd Chico City Council Recap
There were many important items on the August 3rd agenda and it’s worth discussing the council’s actions
The first order of business was swearing in the two new council appointees. For anyone who hasn’t been keeping track of the hijinks that led to the historic vacancies (last time there were two concurrent council vacancies was in the 1800’s):
First, Scott Huber was forced to resign from his job and then from his council position in June because of harassment from the Safe Chico minions. Scott was working out of town for the summer, and Safe Chico (the conservative PAC that paid for the seats of four of the councilmembers – Coolidge, Morgan, Tandon and Denlay) ran paid ads with links to his employers to encourage harassment; then One Chico doxed both he and his wife. In the interim, the only council member to publicly condemn the harassment of Scott Huber was Alex Brown. The others were only too glad to see one of the two progressive councilmembers ousted, whatever the reason, and ignored it completely.
A week later, Kami Denlay resigned in disgrace after she was found to have been living in Red Bluff with her family since days after being sworn in. It is possible that she never lived at the District 3 address she used when she ran for office; she herself has stated the she used “decoy” addresses, which is election fraud. If she voted based on an address where she did not actually live, that is voter fraud as well.
Again, with the exception of Alex Brown, not one councilmember has spoken out on these issues. While many of us have called for an investigation into whether Denlay committed fraud, the council continues to ignore the issue.
After these resignations, Stand Up for Chico, Butte County Democrats and the Democratic Action Club of Chico called for a special election to replace them. The council (again, with the exception of Alex Brown) ignored that as well, only too happy to bring in more like-minded people.
The first appointee was former Police Chief Michael O’Brien. When O’Brien was asked if he would support enforcing the anti-homeless ordinances on the books (the very same ordinances that a judge told the city are illegal and unenforceable) he said yes, and didn’t see any reason to change them.
The second appointee, Dale Bennett, contributed the maximum amount to Vice Mayor Kasey Reynolds campaign, and substantial amounts to the campaigns of Mayor Coolidge, Sean Morgan, and Deepika Tandon. Unsurprisingly, they all voted for him. The new councilmembers then proceeded to vote in lockstep with the conservative members who appointed them.
The council didn’t make the slightest pretense of fairly representing our diverse community with these appointments. They simply installed two yes-men and rewarded a big-money donor, and in so doing made a travesty of Democracy in our city.
Item 2.4 brought forward an award of a $49,900 in funding for a local group. $49,900 is significant, because as was admitted at the council meeting, it falls just below the $50,000 threshold which would force the city to go out for bids.
We did some digging into this prior to the meeting, and discovered that the group, Verum Community Solutions Inc, DBA as Point of Contact, was started by none other than Vice Mayor Kasey Reynolds in January of 2020, and transferred into the name of a close friend in March 2021…just prior to them receiving another no-bid contract from Butte County. The council also snuck this item in on the consent agenda, a part of the agenda for items that are routine in nature and don’t require close scrutiny. It was a stunning display of cronyism.
Alex Brown requested this item be pulled from the consent agenda for further discussion, and at that time, Sean Morgan said he wouldn’t vote for an allocation to another local service provider that was bundled in with this agenda item, ignoring the vast difference in process between these two grantees; Caring Choices, the recipient of the second grant, actually responded to multiple RFQs from the city, provided detailed plans and budgets, and was above-board in all their dealings with the city. Nonetheless, neither organization was funded, meaning outreach and services for the homeless are not happening…again.
Phew. Still with us?
The next item of note was 4.1, rezoning the property on the corner of Eaton and the Esplanade for a new gas station. The problem? That area was part of an “Opportunity Corridor,” and as such, was zoned for high-density housing. As Councilmember Brown eloquently pointed out, the city says we have plenty of space for low-income housing, then rezones areas that are specifically designated for the same, despite the fact that only about 1.5% of needed low-income housing is being built. We didn’t need another gas station, we need affordable housing. But Safe Chico and the candidates they paid to elect were funded by developers, and they are certainly getting their money’s worth from this council, who naturally voted to rezone.
Up next was item 5.1, an update of the anti-homeless ordinances on city books. Chico City Attorney Vince Ewing, a contractor who is certainly racking up billable hours for the city this year, decided to heed one thing the judge in the case against the city of Chico has said – to update the ordinances so they aren’t unconstitutional. Of course, rather than consider approaches that might actually address problems, what he produced was a document with a bare minimum of semantic tweaks that he hopes will gaslight the community and the judge into thinking the city is doing…something. Or maybe he’s just trying to rack up more billable hours, because it’s hard to believe the judge is too stupid to recognize the game that’s afoot. Of course the council approved this as well.
The last item of importance was 5.2, another right-wing cash give away. As with item 2.4, this was brought in just under $50,000 so that it wouldn’t require the city to accept bids. The council hired Trump flunky and Dr. Drew acolyte Paul Webster to provide the city with a “strategic plan” on homelessness. If that weren’t already dodgy enough, Webster’s experience in this area is non-existent. He works for HUD, which sounds promising, right? Except, he works in finance. He also previously headed up the board of a San Diego non-profit that lost their HUD funding for not complying with Housing First principles, which are a federal requirement and have been since they were signed into law by a bi-partisan group under George W. Bush. So he works for HUD, but doesn’t adhere to the principles and requirements of the organization. Oh…he has also never had a client. Not one. Chico will be his first “strategic plan.” There was much council grandstanding on this one, with Morgan saying that obviously the city’s service providers can’t take care of the problem (as if NIMBY, lawsuits and council failures haven’t prevented nearly every project brought forward in the past 5 years), and Reynolds, a big Trump fan herself, vociferously defended Webster. Despite his complete lack of qualifications, the council voted 6-1 to give him the money.
At this point the council has made it clear they intend to ignore any citizens who don’t align with them. Increasingly, they don’t even pretend to care when individuals who don’t align with them speak at meetings. Morgan plays with his phone or at times appears to be catching a quick nap, Coolidge and Tandon stare into the near distance or at their laps. There has been talk of a recall, and it may be the only path left to exercise our rights and protect the community in the coming year.
If you’re interested in learning more, you can view the full video of the council meeting.
You can also hear Alex Brown and Angela McLaughlin discuss the meeting with Sue Hildebrand from the the Real Issue on KZFR.
𝐖𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫
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