A recent Enterprise-Record editorial (10/13/13) lambasted the Chico Planning Commission for delaying the construction of another McDonald’s fast food joint to be built across the street from Pleasant Valley High School.  The E-R specifically targeted Planning Commissioner John Merz, calling him and obstructionist.  If the E-R is correct in accusing him of obstructionism then Mr. Merz has my full support.  There are lots of good reasons for obstructing the expansion of another McDonald’s corporate franchise in our community.  The usual reasons, some of which were acknowledged in the E-R article, are matters of public safety, design, landscaping, parking, traffic and costs to the city’s infrastructure, ultimately born by the city’s taxpayers.  But, besides selling “food” that is notably unhealthy (see movie “Supersize Me”) perhaps the foremost reason for opposing the construction of another McDonald’s in our community is that the taxpayer ends up subsidizing the “restaurant’s” labor force.

(click on image to view it larger)

Planning Commissioner John Merz

Democracy Now! (KZFR, 90.1, 8:00a.m., Monday – Friday) reported on 10/18/13 that “New research shows more than half of low-wage workers at fast-food restaurants rely on public assistance to survive – a rate double that of the overall workforce. According to researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, low wages in the fast-food industry cost American taxpayers nearly $7 billion every year – that’s more than the entire annual budget of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A companion report by the National Employment Law Project found McDonalds alone costs Americans $1.2 billion annually by paying its workers insufficient wages. Last year the top 10 largest fast-food companies to reap a profit of more than $7.4 billion in profits.”    http://www.democracynow.org/2013/10/18/super_sizing_welfare_costs_low_wages

Local Salvation Army offers financial assistance and food to needy

In it’s editorial the E-R claimed that “When the economy is booming and people are spending money, the city has more money to do things like pay employees, clean parks, fill potholes, hire police officers and so forth.”  That may be true, but no matter how many more McDonald’s are built in our town unless the poor, hard working employees are paid a living wage they won’t be able to participate in the “boom” and will continue to need the taxpayers support just to purchase their basic needs.  Is this the kind of business we want for our community?

Click on this image to view my opinion of McDonald’s

The most recent City Council Budget Update meeting was notable for whom it did not hire and who it did hire.  The council, at the recommendation of City Manager, Brian Nakamura, voted to not hire at this time the recommended Economic Development Manager but chose instead to hire a Senior Maintenance Worker for the sewers department.  After hearing about the disastrous flood that occurred in Colorado, normally an arid state, this was good news to me.

City Manager, Brian Nakamura and his team, Mark Orme, Asst. City Manager; Chris Constantine, Administrative Services Director

Three years ago on September 8th, I was walking downtown when it started to rain.  I was on the corner of E. Sacramento Ave. and the Esplanade when the heaviest downpour hit, and, in an instant, the sidewalk and street disappeared under a river of water and I found myself wading in water up to my ankles.  When the water eventually subsided, I saw that the street drains were clogged with leaf debris and trash.  Though the city maintenance workers typically clean the drains out before the rainy season starts, no one expected such a huge storm so early in the season.  So this year when we had our first pretty good downpour on Saturday, and what with the city workers being laid off, I remembered my earlier experience.

E. Sacramento Ave. and the Esplanade 9/8/10

E. Sacramento Ave. and the Esplanade 9/8/10

E. Sacramento Ave. and the Esplanade 9/8/10

Blockbuster parking lot Saturday, 9/21/13

E. Sacramento Ave. storm drain today. Citizens can help by cleaning up the debris from the drains on their street themselves.

We need to attract investment by high tech companies offering good paying jobs in Chico, and of course that’s what the proposed economic Development Manager would be hired to do. But what “high tech” corporation or progressive business of any sort would want to locate in a town where city services have been cut so much that there’s no one to haul dropped branches away or prune the city trees and where the city has to close its treasure of a park for lack of adequate staffing?  And who would want to invest in a town where its employees would have to commute through flooded streets with clogged drains?

Even from a purely business perspective, the Council made the most sensible decision under the circumstances. A Senior Maintenance worker makes about $40,000 a year.  The Economic Development Manager would have made about $105,000 a year.  The Council had the good sense to not hire such an expensive employee but instead hired a worker that will help to keep our town safe, clean, and attractive to future investors.  When that’s accomplished and city services are restored, and the sewers run unimpeded and, yes, the potholes are finally filled in, it might be time to consider hiring an economic consultant.

A Chico pot hole.