You Can’t Fix Stupid – But, You Can Vote Them Out!

by Jack Lee

Despite the headlines and the abundance of public information, it’s a safe bet that very few voters in the City of Chico are aware of our pending insolvency or are even much concerned about it. That just amazes me.

For them, this latest fiscal scandal is just another one of these things that (1) they had no control over, (2) can’t change and (3) won’t really affect them anyway, no matter what happens. Never mind the fact, they helped elect the people that caused it! That they turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to it when a couple of good people on our City Council raised the alarm and called for help.

These indifferent citizens never stop to realize what a bankrupt City budget does to people…even to them. But, because their world is just fine at the moment, they don’t notice the steep rise in burglaries, the increase in armed robberies, more rapes and even a few more homicides each year. Yet, if we only had the recommended number of police officers on the beat, a lives could have been spared, a few rapes prevented and so on. These are real things happening to real people and that’s why we should all be concerned.

But, it doesn’t stop with crime, the ripples of fiscal damage extend to our most basic City services too like fixing pot holes, park maintenance and even leaf pickup. Things are just things we expect will get done. And then there is the human toll down at City Hall. This City employs people who are just like us. They own houses, they have kids in school and yes, they pay taxes too! When these good people get a pink slip the damage is never far away from us; they’re our friends and neighbors.

Special units in Chico PD, from narcotics to gangs, were folded up months ago for a lack of money and that has resulted in a sharp increased in gang and drug activity. That area also impacts the number of robberies, burglaries, thefts and more. But, unless these low information voters happened to be right there to see it, these increases in crime are meaningless to them.

The fact is, the average citizen is insulated from crime by the odds. It’s always happening to others and never them, or so they would like to believe. It only becomes an outrage when they are the victims – then they notice! But, it’s too late, the damage has been done and when it’s a human life there’s no reset button. The time to be pro-active was years back when they had the chance to save the City budget, now the money is gone and they are still electing the wrong people?

We had a 24% turnout in the last municipal election when we elected 4 council members. That number could have changed the entire fiscal awareness and competency level and impacted future spending policies and business attraction. These are issues that have long plagued the old liberal dominated council.

But, for some reason the voters chose to replace the four empty seats by returning two liberal incumbents and adding one more liberal, which kept the council makeup exactly as it had been when they were blowing through $20,000,000 tax dollars that caused the City to be in a fiscal crisis facing bankruptcy by November, 2013 when the last of the money runs out.

It’s said that in a republic/democracy people get exactly the kind of government they deserve. Never has that been more apparent than right here, right now in little old Mayberry (Chico). I guess when this crisis finds it’s way to enough door steps maybe it will get fixed, but for now the low information voters are having their way with us. And they can because 75% of you didn’t vote in the last election and apparently you don’t stay informed enough to be motivated to do your civic duty.

As a side thought, it’s almost comically ironic that voters think a municipal election matters least to their lives, when in truth it most directly affects their lives!