by Jack Lee
When the Chico City Council seemingly couldn’t get a straight answer from their finance director, Jennifer Hennesey, three of the seven councilors, Mark Sorensen, Bob Evan and Scott Gruendl had suspicions something was amiss with our city revenues. The other four had their blinders on and refused to see what caused concerns for Gruendl, Evans and Sorensen.
That was over 20 months ago and since then, Hennessy has abruptly left for another finance position far away from Chico, and the city manager, Dave Burkland has retired. Two of the four counselors did not seek re-election and two remain… Mary Goloff and Ann Schwab.
What should be noted is, Mark Sorensen (shown left) was the only counselor to take the bold and unprecedented action of going straight to the Grand Jury with his suspicions about the city’s solvency.
When the facts started to come out we learned the city was coming up short over $20 million. As it stands, this is the single worst financial scandal in Chico’s history.
Today we have new city administrator, a new assistant city administrator and a new finance officer to deal with the mess that Hennesey and Burkland left behind. Mayor Ann Schwab, one of those who steadfastly refused to see the problem and had the temerity to assure the public that all was well, completed her term as mayor and now continues on the city council and so does Mary Goloff who has been elected Mayor to replace the outgoing Schwab, an odd turn of events to say the least.
I think it would be an injustice if Councilman Sorensen were not officially recognized by the City for his courage and integrity. He took a considerable political risk by going to the Grand Jury and the citizens of Chico owe him a huge debt of thanks. I imagine Mayor Goloff would sooner this all just be forgotten, but if she has an ounce of honor left, she should set aside her bruised ego and immediately initiate an official recognition for Counselor Sorensen. He deserves it and besides it’s not often we have a reason to say something nice about an elected official!
REPLY FROM MARK:
Thanks Jack, but really no courage was involved on my part. Just trying to do my job. Given the circumstances, the Grand Jury was a good step.
Even aside from the deficit spending, I wont go into all of the details here and now, but a great many things simply did not add up. Financially and otherwise.
The timing of my first letter to the GJ was 11 months into my term, after we had a quarterly “financial update” on Nov 1st 2011. I was so profoundly bothered by many aspects of that Council meeting and events leading up to it, that Friday I started writing. By Sunday I had 22 pages covering several very detailed examples, with hundreds of pages of referenced documents detailing serious concerns. Yes, it was another relaxing weekend as a Council member
On Tuesday Nov 8, I hand delivered copies of the letter and attachments.
I can’t go into details of the many communications with the Grand Jury since that time. But I sincerely hope that their work on this topic continues. I suspect that it will.
Unfortunately the original letter is so intertwined with “personnel issues” that I would have to redact it. I’ve thought about releasing it to the public because it absolutely nails what was going on at the time. I might even post some segments here on Post Scripts.
There were other efforts to bring in outside help. For one, I was so worried about the financial condition of the city that I was also in the process of putting together a request for intervention to the State Controllers office in June 2012, but held off as it appeared that we were on track to hire a new “outside” City Manager.
Meanwhile, in June 2012 the city passed another deficit spending budget. It is interesting to watch last year’s budget approval….Requires Internet Explorer..Fast Forward to time index 6:19 ….
http://chico-ca.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=311&meta_id=27187
Unfortunately, I learned how slowly things happen in the public sector, not because of the people, but because of the situations… I could detail, but don’t want to do so without expansive detail to avoid being misconstrued.
Brian Nakamura walked into quite a mess. A mess financially and otherwise. Certain dysfunctional components within the city worked very hard to discourage and undermine Brian. But he stayed calm and resolute, and systematically worked through the challenges. The financial challenges alone were massive. Brian Nakamura is the courageous one.
I also looking very forward to things yet to come. I believe that in the coming months more information will come to describe how the city came so close to the brink of insolvency. ….. All, as we try to save the city from insolvency in the near term. It seems that few people appreciate how very delicate our predicament is.
As for Toby’s question “where did the $20 million go?”. My opinion is that rather than truly balance budgets (EG: actual revenues vs expenses) that the focus was on three primary goals.
1) Maintain pay levels
2) Maintain benefits
3) Maintain positions.
Go ahead and try that in your personal finances, or in your business. It does not work.
It seems that one facet of the Modus Operandi was to spread payroll and benefits and other cost allocations around to places that still contained dough.
Unfortunately, in this city that seems so very enamored with the concept of “sustainability”, the financial actions were not sustainable. Not even freekin’ close.
As for Toby’s other points…. ahhhhh…… re-read the above…. it aint over, yet.
But the best news of all, is that I fully expect to leave my City Government, of my little home town, in far better shape than when I got here. That is what true conservatives do. We absolutely will work through the current challenges and land on the other side much wiser and stronger.
Note from PS: And this is why Councilman Sorensen rates number 1 in my book of favorite politicians…anywhere!!! If we had a few hundred more like him in high places across this country and in the White House think of the possibilities! Well, just be thankful we have him on the city council. He’s doing a fantastic job, despite the resistance he gets from our liberals on the council and elsewhere.
I would urge all Chico residents to Read the Editorial in the July 5Th paper. Then start to demand a immediate resolve by requesting resignations from those still on the council, as well as any public employees that helped cover this up. They were not acting as public stewards, what they were was a disgrace to our community, and they were even willing to bankrupt Chico’s future for their own political control.
Jack I agree, Sorensen should get high praise and recognition for his efforts to put Chico on a better financial footing. I hope this is just the beginning of improved standards and practices.
Why does it take going to the grand jury to get answers like this? The Grand Jury is a panel of regular citizens. If they can get the answers the city council should have been able to get the answers. And we brought in a bunch of high dollar outsiders to continue looting the city. Didn’t I read that our new city manager makes almost as much as the governor of California? That is ridiculous. I am so sick of the way government runs itself. We are told if we don’t raise sales tax then we can’t have the park. Baloney. We are told if we don’t increase our federal income tax we have to cut food stamps. Why don’t we look at the billion dollar giveaways to defense contractors in the new immigration bill that John McCain is so excited about. All going to Arizona to increase our already overstaffed border patrol and to keep building the DHS fence that is a disaster.
Why can we only find cuts that affect all citizens instead of cuts that just affect rich contractors or corrupt city beneficiaries?
Mark deserves to be recognized for speaking up and fulfilling his duties of working for the people. Hopefully, come next election the ER will present the facts to the voters so those responsible will be removed and new members as qualified and diligent as Mark will help lead our city out of this mess and onto a road of recovery.
I do have one suggestion for now. Instead of closing the parks making the innocent children pay for the gross mistakes made by adults how about closing down the golf course, and other areas of public service that will impact the adults including the Chico State students. More specifically, punish those who voted the previous council in.
So honesty and courage aside, where did the $20 million go? Why aren’t people in prison? At the very least this sounds like fraud and that is a crime. Bring charges and then tell me about courage.
Toby…The money was spent to cover shortages in the city budget. Mostly it went for salaries. Like many CA cities Chico was facing massive tax revenue shortages, but they tried to maintain their over spending habit with money earmarked for programs other than salary. This was money that was never supposed to be placed into the general fund. It wasn’t stolen exactly, it was misused, and now it’s just gone spent on dozens of projects and like I said, mostly for paying those high salaries. The city owes the money just the same, for example the money spent from bond funds was illegal and must be replaced. The city was obligated to use those bond funds only for the purposed they were conceived by the bond passage.
Thanks Jack, but really no courage was involved on my part. Just trying to do my job. Given the circumstances, the Grand Jury was a good step.
Even aside from the deficit spending, I wont go into all of the details here and now, but a great many things simply did not add up. Financially and otherwise.
The timing of my first letter to the GJ was 11 months into my term, after we had a quarterly “financial update” on Nov 1st 2011. I was so profoundly bothered by many aspects of that Council meeting and events leading up to it, that Friday I started writing. By Sunday I had 22 pages covering several very detailed examples, with hundreds of pages of referenced documents detailing serious concerns. Yes, it was another relaxing weekend as a Council member 😉
On Tuesday Nov 8, I hand delivered copies of the letter and attachments.
I can’t go into details of the many communications with the Grand Jury since that time. But I sincerely hope that their work on this topic continues. I suspect that it will.
Unfortunately the original letter is so intertwined with “personnel issues” that I would have to redact it. I’ve thought about releasing it to the public because it absolutely nails what was going on at the time. I might even post some segments here on Post Scripts.
There were other efforts to bring in outside help. For one, I was so worried about the financial condition of the city that I was also in the process of putting together a request for intervention to the State Controllers office in June 2012, but held off as it appeared that we were on track to hire a new “outside” City Manager.
Meanwhile, in June 2012 the city passed another deficit spending budget. It is interesting to watch last year’s budget approval….Requires Internet Explorer..Fast Forward to time index 6:19 ….
http://chico-ca.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=311&meta_id=27187
Unfortunately, I learned how slowly things happen in the public sector, not because of the people, but because of the situations… I could detail, but don’t want to do so without expansive detail to avoid being misconstrued.
Brian Nakamura walked into quite a mess. A mess financially and otherwise. Certain dysfunctional components within the city worked very hard to discourage and undermine Brian. But he stayed calm and resolute, and systematically worked through the challenges. The financial challenges alone were massive. Brian Nakamura is the courageous one.
I also looking very forward to things yet to come. I believe that in the coming months more information will come to describe how the city came so close to the brink of insolvency. ….. All, as we try to save the city from insolvency in the near term. It seems that few people appreciate how very delicate our predicament is.
As for Toby’s question “where did the $20 million go?”. My opinion is that rather than truly balance budgets (EG: actual revenues vs expenses) that the focus was on three primary goals.
1) Maintain pay levels
2) Maintain benefits
3) Maintain positions.
Go ahead and try that in your personal finances, or in your business. It does not work.
It seems that one facet of the Modus Operandi was to spread payroll and benefits and other cost allocations around to places that still contained dough.
Unfortunately, in this city that seems so very enamored with the concept of “sustainability”, the financial actions were not sustainable. Not even freekin’ close.
As for Toby’s other points…. ahhhhh…… re-read the above…. it aint over, yet.
But the best news of all, is that I fully expect to leave my City Government, of my little home town, in far better shape than when I got here. That is what true conservatives do. We absolutely will work through the current challenges and land on the other side much wiser and stronger.
Thank you Mr. Councilman for addressing my questions. I wish us all luck but I think fixing this mess is a futile endeavor. Having said that, you have my vote and whatever money I can pull together to help get you reelected. Twenty million bucks, damn that is a lot of hand statues.
I’m with Toby, you will always have my vote and whatever money I can throw your way to keep you in office!
Sean has my support too, but will the media including CNR report the truth or will they promote the liberal agenda that created this mess.
All the money in the world can’t fight uninformed and misinformed voters.
Sean has my support too. He’s learning howit works on the council and thanfully he has Mark to help him through the ordeal.
Peggy i think you should run for city council.
Jack, We’ve talked about this and I told you I’d support you. Nice try.
I think Jack, Peggy, Tina and Chris should run. You could sell tickets to those meetings and actually make some money. It would be a win, win. Things would turn around for Chico and the meetings would be entertaining as hell.
Toby, I’ve got an even better idea, you, Peggy and Harold run! I would like to see someone brave enough to go toe to toe with you 3, now that would be better than cage fighting!
Take my name off the list. Instead, I’m filing a permit for the popcorn concession. I could die rich even after donating half of it back to help out the city.