Fanning flames of fear

The Chico City Council wrestled with some controversial matters at its May 15 meeting—condemning corporate personhood, placing a modified phone tax on the November ballot, whether to allow the Town of Paradise to hook up to the city sewer.

But the real fireworks came at the end of the meeting when the council was confronted by a council candidate and a firefighter upset by the recent closing of Fire Station 5 near the entrance to Upper Bidwell Park. Fire Chief Jim Beery shut down the station May 1 after being told by City Manager Dave Burkland to cut $95,000 from his budget.

The station is set to reopen July 1, but firefighters and their supporters have protested the closing with pickets and by going door to door in neighborhoods near the station to spread the word of potential dangers from delayed responses.

One of those neighbors is Toby Schindelbeck, business owner and candidate for City Council. Schindelbeck posted an online petition April 30 asking that the station be reopened. The petition says that, while the city is asking the department to cut $95,000 from its budget, the council spent “$74,000 on 5 paintings for City Hall.” In fact, that art work was not allocated by the current council but rather spent years ago from a specific fund for art work that was included in the 1995 construction of the City Municipal Center.

A number of those who’ve signed the online petition have taken the current council to task for wasting money on art. One comment: “When your house is on fire call an artist to take a picture. Wise up.”

Schindelbeck warned that closing the station will delay emergency response time. He also noted a dog was recently bitten by a rattlesnake in the park and asked the council to consider if that dog had been a person. He said he realized the council didn’t close the station but pointed out that the city manager and staff who recommended the cuts work for the council. He asked that the matter be put on the agenda for public discussion at the June 5 council meeting.

Schindelbeck was followed by firefighter Ken Campbell, who also asked that the matter be scheduled for public discussion.

“Let people tell you how they feel,” he said to the council. “Please find a way to fund police and fire services immediately.”

Councilman Bob Evans, holding up a letter he’d received from a constituent, asked Campbell what firefighters told neighbors when they went door to door. The letter writer accused the council of closing the station.

“That decision was made by the fire chief,” Evans said.

He said the letter he’d read was typical but that he’d also received threats.

Campbell assured Evans the firefighters were not holding the council accountable for the closure but that the city manager had left Beery in a tough position. “Do you think that we were telling people to make death threats?” he asked.

He apologized for the responses council members had received but not for going door to door.

“As I respect just about all of you, I personally apologize,” he said. His coworkers didn’t mean to harass the council, he added.

Campbell said it was more than a union-driven effort. “We’re not protecting jobs; we’re protecting citizens,” he said.

Mayor Ann Schwab pointed out the city had a $900,000 budget deficit that it had to solve in three months and that 78 percent of the city’s spending goes to public safety.

Councilman Mark Sorensen called the firefighters’ tactics “ridiculous.”

“All of these people,” he said gesturing to his fellow council members, “got hate mail based on a decision we didn’t make.”

Vice Mayor Jim Walker accused the firefighters of “fanning the flames of fear in the community. I’m going to be really happy when July 1 rolls around.”

Campbell assured the council: “Next time we’ll try to do a better job.”

The council voted to agendize the issue for its June 5 meeting, two weeks before the annual budget meeting.

In the other matters, the public will vote in November on the revised telephone-tax measure, which asks voters if they want to see that tax lowered from 5 percent to 4.5 percent. The corporate personhood issue will also be placed on the fall ballot. Finally, the council directed city staff to commence a feasibility study on allowing Paradise to run a wastewater trunk line down the Skyway to hook up to the city’s sewer system.