Schindelbeck doubles down

By now most of Chico knows my opinion of President Obama. CN&R Editor Robert Speer wrote about it extensively in his From This Corner column (“Schindelbeck shoots first”) last week. To recap, I believe that Obama is the most ineffective president since Carter, an utter failure at creating jobs, a failure at balancing our budget, reducing our deficit, and a failure on foreign policy. His naïveté on foreign policy is appalling, even to many Democrats.

While roughly 47 percent of you will disagree with me about Obama, the real question is this: How do my beliefs about our president shape my goals for Chico as your next council member?

As a fiscal conservative, I believe we need to pay closer attention to our budget. Everything the city does is predicated on a sound budget. We need to make sure our finance director supplies us with the adequate monthly report required by Section 908 of our City Charter. City finance needs more transparency and accountability.

Our emergency-reserve fund is almost half of what it should be, we just lost state RDA funding, we are cutting police and fire, many businesses are either closing or leaving, and we have lost manufacturing jobs.

Chico’s downtown is filling with homeless and mentally ill who genuinely need help, as well as “street life” enthusiasts and AB 109 early releases. Violent crime and burglaries have increased under Mayor Schwab, yet the current council majority thinks it is more important to craft policy banning plastic bags and making Chico a slavery-free zone, than to create solutions for our homeless population, our unemployed, and our local businesses.

Our liberal council members have not made tough budgetary decisions and are kicking the “deficit can” down the road for future generations, much like state and federal government is doing. This policy isn’t sustainable.

I am what our City Council needs; a fiscal conservative with a small-business owner’s experience and common sense. We have more important issues to discuss, and I plan on tackling them head-on.

The bottom line is this: If you think Chico is a better place today than four years ago, than you’ll likely vote for another candidate and not me. However, if you think Chico needs new leaders who will focus on the core issues that make our city a safer place to live, an ideal place for business, and a great place to raise a family, then I ask you to vote for Toby Schindelbeck this November.