Readers may recall my first and second entry on my town’s “sustainability task force” a couple of years ago. It has gotten so bad here that I made it an April Fools Joke in 2010.
This editorial in the Chico Enterprise Record pretty much sums up the whole green movement problem; they’re blind as mole rats when it comes to self examination. I used to be on this sustainability committee, but got booted off because the majority (university types) voted to move the meetings to middle of the work day, when people that aren’t on the state dole actually have to be at work to run their own businesses. That ploy effectively weeded out all the local businessmen, including me and two others on the committee.
Now, with nobody watching but pal reviewers, they’ve crossed a line, and been called on it for wholesale conflict of interest while remaining clueless as to why.
Editorial: Grant doesn’t pass sniff test
Our view: The city should be more careful about how it throws around grant money. No special favors should be handed out.
A sustainability committee hand-picked by the Chico City Council decided to apply for a $400,000 grant from PG&E, then gave $70,000 of that grant to two members of the committee in exchange for work.
What’s the big deal, wondered one of the beneficiaries. What’s the big deal, wondered one reader in a letter to the editor.
Where to begin?
The money was awarded without the work going out to bid. That lack of accountability is galling. Only members of the Sustainability Task Force are qualified to do the work?
The ethical questions don’t end there. Honesty is doing the right thing when nobody is watching. Well the truth is, not many people keep an eye on the Sustainability Task Force, and they did something that other commissions — and the council itself — would never get away with.
We were bothered by the quote from city employee Linda Herman, who told reporter Katy Sweeny, “It just kills me when people take a really good project and turn it into something nasty.”
It sounds as if she is saying, “We’re doing good things here, so don’t question us.”
The controversy started when a City Council member wrote about the issue. Mark Sorensen, who writes an informative blog at www.norcalblogs.com, said a citizen asked him about the PG&E grant and why Sustainability Task Force members benefited from it.
Sorensen looked into it. The grant was supposed to be spent to make homes more energy efficient. Task force member Jon Stallman, a former Butte College employee, received $60,250 to administer the program. Task force member Scott McNall, a former Chico State University administrator, will get $10,000 to manage students who are evaluating residents’ energy use.
Sorensen wrote, in part: “On the question of conflict, my gut-level value system rings full-scale alarm — as does 24-plus years of nonprofit board experience where we would simply never direct agency business to a board member, even if there was an advantage to the agency. It just looked too much like self-dealing …”
He can see that. We can see that. Most other people see that, too. The folks who received the benefit, not surprisingly, apparently do not.
At least Herman allowed, yes, the work probably should have gone out to bid.
================================================================
Full story here.
I really have to laugh at CSUC’s Scott McNall, who recently said of the climate change issue:
“There are certain people who benefit from denying that climate change is real,” said Scott McNall, executive director of the Institute for Sustainable Development at Chico State. “If you’re selling oil or gas, you’re not really interested in trying to conserve energy. There’s a financial interest in denying climate change is real, but we’ve known that for a long time.”
The flip side is that there are certain people who benefit from hawking climate change alarmism, now with some grant cash to monitor residents energy use, Scott McNall is clearly one of them. He can be certain that if one of his students come snooping around my home or business asking questions about my energy use they’ll be immediately asked to leave with an admonition of “it’s none of your damn business“. Besides, why the hell do we need this intrusion since we were all forced to install Smartmeters that log our energy use last year?
And people wonder why California is in trouble. Problem is, people like McNall think taxpayers and business owners are cows that never run dry. Not just here, but worldwide we need to yank the teats out of their mouths and wean them.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Dr. Dave says:
December 9, 2011 at 2:43 pm
Perhaps someone here can provide me with a succinct description of what the hell “sustainability” is. It’s a cute and catchy buzzword, but what is really meant by it? ….
____________________________________
It is the code word for the United Nations Agenda 21
Full Text of Agenda 21: http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/agenda21/res_agenda21_00.shtml
A decent summary of the politics: From Carroll Quigley to the UN Millennium Summit
http://www.lewrockwell.com/yates/yates14.html
Shirley, you jest! That’s How Things Are Done in China. Most small towns and villages are personal financial fiefdoms for Party officials, with only the rare ones being knuckle-rapped when the demonstrations and petitions and so on get too severe. Counting on China to bring morality to the West is delusion on stilts.
Brian H says: @ur momisugly December 9, 2011 at 4:36 pm
The Gray Monk says:
December 9, 2011 at 5:02 am
It may already be too late in the West … But watch China and the rest send this lot packing. Or to labour camps …
___________________________________
Brian H replies: @ur momisugly December 9, 2011 at 4:36 pm
Shirley, you jest! That’s How Things Are Done in China. Most small towns and villages are personal financial fiefdoms for Party officials, with only the rare ones being knuckle-rapped when the demonstrations and petitions and so on get too severe. Counting on China to bring morality to the West is delusion on stilts.
_________________________________
This is the real face of “Socialism” both in China and as it is implemented here in the west. Perhaps a better word for it is Neo-feudalism.
Notice that Maurice Strong “Father of Enviromentalism/CAGW” and senior advisor to the United Nations and the World Bank is now an advisor to the Chinese government and living in Bejing China.
…when people that aren’t on the state dole actually have to be at work to run their own businesses.
Actually, even people who aren’t on the dole, but who work for someone else are left out. The majority of working people – tax payers – are still not business owners. It makes us grumpy too when the miserable county sets board meeting times so that the only comments are from whack jobs – on the dole, commonly worried about what the cell phones are doing to their brain cells – and the special interests who want to build the development, but want the state and county tax payers to pay for the roads, the sewer, the water, the power and other infrastructure that will connect their development to the rest of civilization, so their profit margin will be bigger. When you slice it like that there is no one at those meetings who is not on the public dole or at least wants to be.
Oh the irony:
http://goldmandeering.blogspot.com/2011/08/hi-friends-due-to-hail-storm-solar.html
If they had a generator they could still work (if they had some fuel). But seriously, I think I would rather try to design a small coal fired steam turbine. At least you could burn cow pies.
I used to be on this sustainability committee, but got booted off because the majority (university types) voted to move the meetings to middle of the work day, when people that aren’t on the state dole actually have to be at work to run their own businesses.
Perhaps it was just a dumb move with nothing nefarious. I work for myself, at home, and usually could not participate in a mid-day non-work meeting. But others can. My loss, not theirs.
Yep. I’m also in Chico, and I slapped my forehead when I read this. Sigh.
The progressive project is and always has been nothing more than a transfer of wealth, status, and power from those who work at objectively measurable pursuits to those who do not. It has never been about anthropogenic climate change, any more than it has ever been about equality, diversity, or any other red herring. The motivations of the left are always traceable to the desire to benefit by persuasion or force; a progressive fears objective measure above all else.
Well, Anthony, your town is named after one of the Marx Brothers…actually, I’m not allowed to make jokes like that given the clown-act, enviro-loony government we have Down Under.
Anthony these people are obviously well meaning and devoted to the cause, they are different in that they have never been taught morals, ethics or honesty, as the means justifies the end for the new earth religion. These people receiving the money most likely believe that they are doing great works for mankind. The work that they do may be close to your heart as in a temperature reconstruction for your area using the rings in the local palm trees. #@^$#
The older I get the more I become convinced that governments at all levels are mostly run by crooks.
Anthony please excuse me for being a bit off topic, but for some reason this article caused me to remember that you installed CREE recessed lights in your home. I think that was about 1 year ago. Now that you’ve had some experience with them, may I ask how they’re performing? Are they all still working? Are they still bright? Do they come on instantly or is there a delay?
The ban on incandescent light bulbs in the United States is soon to come into effect. We have many light fixtures which cannot fit a spiral CFL, even if we could trust it not to burn the house down. The results from the CREE reliability or sustainability experiments are most welcome and timely as the end of the year approaches.
Having worked extensively in Indonesia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, China and other 3rd World countries, this is EXACTLY what they (and we) call corruption.
Most Californians appear not to understand the concept of conflict of interest. A few years after I moved into the condo complex, which I’m now in the process of leaving, the president of the homeowners association was on the payroll of our then-under-performing management company. Because I was relatively new to this particular type of open-air insane asylum, I did not speak out. But most of the patients–I mean residents–did not see anything wrong with the conflict of interest.
You say your town’s advisors suffer from conflict of interest. I say the problem runs much deeper than that.
Try usmayors.org to discover your town’s affiliation with the totalitarian movement, sponsored by the UN’s ICLEI, the US EPA, and HUD.
The USCM, as well as the mayor of Chico, CA, stand for nothing less than the complete subjugation of my town and yours (meaning you, me, and everyone of our neighbors), to the UN’s Agenda 21. One starting point is the USCM’s “Climate Protection Agreement”, which commits a city to supporting the goals and details of the Kyoto International Treaty, sans US Senate approval.
Some details about USCM here.
For instance:
“climate disruption is an urgent threat to the environmental and economic health of our communities”
“reduce global warming pollution”
“meet or beat the Kyoto Protocol” … “through actions ranging from anti-sprawl land-use policies to urban forest restoration projects to public information campaigns”
“enact policies and programs to meet or beat the greenhouse gas emission reduction target suggested for the United States in the Kyoto Protocol”
“pass the bipartisan greenhouse gas reduction legislation, which would establish a national emission trading system [cap and trade]”
It only gets worse:
“implement the U.N. Secretary-General’s Five Point Proposal for Nuclear Disarmament”
“seek redress against the gun industry through the courts of the world – including local, state, and federal courts, and international courts – for damages caused to our countries, cities, and communities by global trafficking of illegal guns”
Dr. Dave says:
December 9, 2011 at 2:43 pm
Perhaps someone here can provide me with a succinct description of what the hell “sustainability” is. It’s a cute and catchy buzzword, but what is really meant by it?
You have to understand that when totalitarians use words, they do not mean the same thing you or I would mean, or that could be found in any standard dictionary.
“Sustainable”, which used to mean “able to be supported, held up, or borne up from below; able to be kept up or going”, but now means Earth worship and Marxism.
From the Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide:
“Sustainable development, therefore, is a program of action for local and global economic reform—a program that has yet to be fully defined. The challenge of this new program is to develop, test, and disseminate ways to change the process of economic development so that it does not destroy the ecosystems and community systems (e.g., cities, villages, neighborhoods, and families) that make life possible and worthwhile.”
More here.
The details of Agenda 21 – the perverting of our language and the subverting of our Constitution, the theft of your wealth and “redistibution” to others, your submission to the collective will, to the Borg – is online at http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/agenda21/
Or try http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/agenda21/.
Oh, and sorry, find Ann Schwab, mayor of Chico, CA, like this: http://usmayors.org/database_search6beta.asp?searchvalue=schwab.
squareheaded says:
December 11, 2011 at 3:09 am
You say your town’s advisors suffer from conflict of interest. I say the problem runs much deeper than that.
Try usmayors.org to discover your town’s affiliation with the totalitarian movement, sponsored by the UN’s ICLEI, the US EPA, and HUD…..
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
WOW thanks for that info.
The mayor of my former city has the GALL to write about a “…program designed to help foster a better relationship between small businesses within [the city], and all the city departments….”
I Moved out of that #$@ur momisugly# city because of the monthly visits to inspect my business and the continuing hassles with the city who kept moving around the goal posts. You can not meet a reg if the city official keeps changing what he wants.
One of the “Goals” of this mayor’s group is to:
“Positions cities and metropolitan areas as competitive centers and central advocates for small and mid-sized business commerce”
From: Partner America’s “Best Small Business Practices” was published and distributed at the Conference’s Annual 2001 January Winter Meeting to members. http://www.usmayors.org/bestpractices/smallbusiness_0603.pdf
That was ten years ago. This is what the actual reality is:
Since the actual goal is to “de-develop the USA” and other western countries, one can understand how the Mayors of US cities must be very please with the advances they are making in reducing the USA to the level of a third world country.
From John Holdren, Obama’s Science Czar. If you think this is crazy Pplease note the USA just passed a law giving the World Trade organization the right to write US food regulations.
Well now we know why food and agriculture were included in a trade treaty for the first time when the WTO was set-up.
A good word smithing propagandist program is important to have if deceit and control are the underlying methods and goals. Bob Constantine