Tag: election

Tuscan Water District to levy fee that will finance operations

Large landowners who favored fee had more voting clout
by Leslie Layton | Posted February 13, 2025

photo courtesy of Tuscan Water District
Approved TWD map

The recently-formed Tuscan Water District (TWD) is now in the budget planning stage after winning the right to levy a special assessment fee on landowners within district boundaries.

In an election held last month, TWD won the support it sought for a fee of up to $6.46/acre to be paid by landowners whose votes were weighted based on the number of acres owned. That was in accordance with California law that allows weighted voting in special districts, said TWD General Manager Tovey Giezentanner.

Giezentanner said the fee could raise up to about $620,000 a year that would pay for “general expenses, not around a specific project, but to fulfill the mission of the district.” read more

Key race in City Council election narrows to seven-vote difference

District 3 race will decide which slate has majority
by Yucheng Tang | Posted November 7, 2024

photo by Yucheng Tang
Monica McDaniel at the Green City Coalition watch party on election night.

Nov. 8 UPDATE: The vote gap between Monica McDaniel and Dale Bennett narrowed to just seven votes as of 4:30 p.m. today, with Bennett receiving 3,009 votes and McDaniel 3,002. Updated vote counts will not be available until next week.

Whether challenger Monica McDaniel or incumbent Dale Bennett secures the District 3 seat has become the key question in the 2024 Chico City Council election.

The District 3 candidates are in a tight race; Bennett led McDaniel by only 40 votes Nov. 7, according to the Butte County Clerk-Recorder’s unofficial count that had been updated Nov. 6. The District 3 race will determine which slate will become a majority on the seven-member panel for the next two years. read more

For Which it Stands

by Danielle Alexich | Posted November 6, 2024

photo by Tania Flores
Graffiti in Oakland, Calif.

I would give myself an A plus.
Nobody has done what I’ve been able to do.
–Donald Trump

Grade school mornings
we faced the flag,
hands over hearts,
pride of a nation pulsing inside us.
We compared report cards,
took cuts in line at recess,
played dodgeball in the thin Oakland fog.
Across town and on TV,
dark people got dragged away in handcuffs.
If we saw a drunk collapsed on the street,
we were told not to stare.
People dreamed of getting rich.

Years later, we heard about other countries.
Epidemics, famine, hospitals bombed.
Our kids pleaded for Happy Meals
while foreign children covered with flies
slumped in the dirt.
Thank God we lived in America. read more

The PAC behind the negative mailers

"A Better Chico" launches attacks on two liberal candidates
by Leslie Layton | Posted October 22, 2024

photo by Karen Laslo
Candidate Bryce Goldstein is attacked in a recent PAC mailer that exploits the problem of homelessness.

It cost the political action committee (PAC) A Better Chico some $14,000 to taint election season with a bitter mood by sending out four mailers that attack two City Council candidates who are running for the District 3 and 7 seats.

The two women, candidates Monica McDaniel and Bryce Goldstein, were each targeted with two mailers that make misleading and false statements that exploit the issue of homelessness by showing pictures of tent encampments, piles of litter and needles.

District 3 candidate McDaniel, who is running against Dale Bennett, the incumbent councilmember supported by A Better Chico, is frustrated. McDaniel calls the mailers “hate-spewing” and says they’re full of “straight-up lies.” read more

City Council District 5: What does a diverse neighborhood need?

by Yucheng Tang | Posted October 18, 2024

photo by Yucheng Tang
Candidates Katie Hawley (left) and Melissa Lopez-Mora at the Chamber of Commerce forum.

This is the third in ChicoSol’s City Council election series. Read our District 3 story here and our District 1 story here.

Renter rights. Pedestrian safety. The unhoused. These are the issues people living in District 5 care most about.

Kaylee Hudson, 29, a Chico State MBA student, worries most about pedestrian safety in the district. She came to Chico only five months ago, but has already been hit by a car while crossing the street downtown during the daytime. Hudson said the driver didn’t stop after hitting her.

Bryce Ingersoll, a Chico State undergraduate, told ChicoSol that he cares most about renter protection. There are many old buildings in District 5, Ingersoll said, and one place he rented had mold infestations growing in the walls. He, like many renters, didn’t want to deal with the landlords, leaving those problems unsolved. read more

Deadline approaches to vote for or against Tuscan Water District

Some TWD residents say they had no chance to become board candidates
by Leslie Layton | Posted September 16, 2022

Landowners in the proposed Tuscan Water District received this ballot in the mail.

Ballots on whether to form the Tuscan Water District (TWD) in northwestern Butte County have been mailed to landowners — without any argument opposing a formation. The proposed district was the subject of debate for hours at public meetings earlier this year.

Only an argument in favor of formation of TWD -– which will have a landowner-based voting structure that will give the largest enterprises thousands of votes -– appears on the ballot that must be postmarked by Sept. 20. The ballot asks, with a single question, whether TWD should be approved with an annual parcel assessment of up to $10 per acre. Landowning voters can also choose nine people for the board of directors from a list of 11 candidates, most of whom are known already as TWD proponents. read more