Fix Patterson: Help City Hall

From the very first day in which we created this site, we set out to do one thing, give Patterson residents an alternative forum to discuss important community issues.

Today, we offer residents an opportunity to take part in our “Fix Patterson” campaign. We have partnered with SeeClickFix.com, a local advocacy Web site that lets residents write about issues to encourage communication with city hall.

Patterson residents can now post a complaint about problems, like graffiti on a sound wall or pot holes on 1st Street.  Your complaint will be communicated to Mike Willett, our city Public Works director.

Let’’s work together to make Patterson a better place to work and live.  Start fixing Patterson today!

Editor’s note:  The city of Patterson’s website contains a customer service request form, that residents can fill out.  While this is another avenue to address non-emergency community problems, it lacks transparency and visible follow up.  Fix Patterson, allows residents to check off the problem once residents consider it to be properly addressed.  Have fun.

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The Patterson Hokey Pokey

Planning Commission requirement: Live inside the dashed line

Editor’s note:  To be fair, as noted on twitter, the planning commissioner’s residence is too close to call at the moment.  We will be pulling certain documents, not limited to city docs, to put this puzzle together.

According to the City of Patterson’s Municipal Code, planning commissioners  be a resident of the city.  See below.

2.40.030 Members.

A.  Said commission shall consist of five members.

B.  Qualifications.  Each commission member shall be a resident of the city.  Officers, elective or appointive of the city, shall not be eligible for membership on the planning commission.

On many occasions, we have questioned whether the mayor actually lives within Patterson city limits.  However, this time it appears that a Patterson Planning Commissioner may have been in violation of section 2.40.030, upon appointment.

Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to pinpoint the subject of this inquiry, but we are currently compiling a list of city and county documents that will surely raise some questions.

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Making a list and checking it twice: The OldTimer

Taking a page from the IrriGator, I would like to submit my Christmas wish list to the Patterson IrriTator crowd.  My wishes for the city of Patterson:

1 – My first wish is for better health care for the west side.  This would include a move of the health center to facilities better suited for the care we need.  It also includes the wish that the specialists have not been turned off by the delays and will be out, caring for us, in the very near future.

2 – Public safety.  My next wish is that with a new police chief, the streets will once again be safe for our citizens and that the gangs and drug dealers will no longer consider Patterson a safe haven.  I wish that those that  want the peace and quiet will get it, that those that constantly play their music loud are finally silenced and those that harass the citizens no longer do so.

3 – Common sense with the traffic lights.  I still can’t believe that the signals at 33 & Las Palmas still give the green arrows for left turns when nobody is there to trigger it.  The city wants to go green, yet they don’t do anything to stop the fumes and pollution that is being put out with cars waiting for nobody.  Also, that the city take another look at the traffic engineering at Ward and M/American Eagle.  Talk about idiotic traffic flow.  Why do both M and American Eagle get their own greens while both directions on Ward go at the same time?  Doesn’t make any sense at all, especially during the beginning and ending of the school days.  And, the third item would be that whoever programs the signal at 33 and M is NOT the same idiot that did Ward and M/American Eagle.

4 – No Wal-Mart.  As has been mentioned here, on the Pattersontimes and IrriGator websites, the citizens do NOT want the Wal-Mart.  There have been a lot of reasons why we don’t want it, and only one (greed) as to why we are going to be forced to get it.

5 – A smarter public works department.  When planning a major project that will involve tearing up the streets and alleys, a bit better planning could go a long way.  First off, if you know that the alleys will be torn up, why begin the project right before the rains?  Why not do the alleys in the spring and summer?  This way, the issues that have cropped up with the alleys and the mud wouldn’t appear.  Plan the street closures a bit better.  Create a time-line that is more suited to reality than what looks good on paper.  There are more, but I’ll leave it at this for this wish.

6 – Common sense on the city council.  I know this is just about as difficult as asking for world peace, but I gotta wish for it.  This has been hashed out so much, I won’t go in to details.

7 – A new city attorney.  It pains me to think of all the money down the drain on account of one man.  All our tax dollars wasted on bad advice or no advice.  As I have said many times, if he were the counsel for a private business, he would have been gone a long time ago.

8 – A good 2010 for John Ramos.  I know I have slammed him on the health center, Wal-Mart and other issues.  But, when you take a look at some of the other things he has done within our town, he has made a lot of improvements.  I appreciate what he has done with the Plaza building and other buildings.  Not only has he taken care to improve his downtown facilities, but he also maintains the outsides of them.  They are never the eyesore that they could be if he didn’t care.  He is also very generous with our community service clubs and organizations, donating money, time and items to almost any of the community service groups if they ask.  (Honestly, I am not aware of him ever saying no to a community group request)  In reality, the better his year is, the better our community services will be during these hard times.  While we all love to get on his case for certain issues, we all also owe him a big thank you for what he has done and continues to do.

9 – A good year for all the readers and contributors to the Patterson IrriTator, even the liberal/socialist red/blue state.  ;)

To one and all, I would like to wish a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
The OldTimer

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Patterson City Council: Naughty or Nice?

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Connect the Dots

Ever since the Mayor took charge, the list of potential conflicts of interest have grown too numerous to list.  We believe the image below supports our contention that these businesses and individuals are not merely loosely connected, but have economic relationships that would normally warrant a conflict of interest in any other city.

Editor’s Note:  Check out our updated flowchart here.

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The Perfect Storm

We really don’t know how else to say it, but city hall has officially hit an all time low.

The delay tactic utilized by City Attorney George Logan is commonly known as “bumping” an initiative.  The government entity, in this case the city,  intentionally drags out the analysis with hopes of missing deadlines that essentially make an initiative ineligible for the nearest election (here they avoid the closer special election and buy themselves six more months in a general election).

The argument centering around cost is simply ludicrous.  The city seems to have no problem paying unnecessary attorney fees, but the moment residents set forth an initiative, cost is somehow a major hurdle.  According to our rough estimates, Patterson residents could initiate 10  special elections without exceeding the amount of money we’ve paid out to a floundering city attorney and others.  Pathetic.

We still stand by our source that after the 30-40 day review period is up, the Mayor will reverse direction and support the move…her legacy as Mayor depends on it.  Bringing a Taco Bell to Patterson isn’t going to cut it.

Where there is chaos lies opportunity.  So if we’re wrong, and the Mayor and Co. continue down this destructive path, we’re stuck with the June 8 primary election.  This presents an opportunity to take a long and hard look at a recall election.

A recall campaign would not seek a complete change of council, rather, it would target the candidate most deserving recall…..Annette Smith.  We have never really hidden our disdain for Ms. Smith, she consistently blasts anyone who opposes her point of view and is simply a mouth piece for certain special interests.  Over the past year, we believe the residents of Patterson have enough information before them to make an intelligent decision regarding Ms. Smith’s ability to appropriately serve the people of Patterson.  Waiting until 2012 is not an option.

We would only need to gather qualified signatures from 25% of the registered voters in Patterson to make this happen.  This would have to be completed in a 60 day window.  Not an easy task, but nothing worth having is never easy.

Let it be clear, we want to give Ms. Smith an opportunity to do the right thing by approving the move without delaying the process any further.  However, if the initiative is bumped to June, the residents of Patterson will be voting on two crucial issues, the move and whether Annette Smith is fit for office.

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Patterson Health Care Debate

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Brown Act: BIA latest to chide City Hall

So how much of our money did the City spend on the BIA lawsuit?  Who voted to continue litigation?  According to the Brown Act, actual votes of each member are public, as are records documenting closed session actions. (§54957.1).  In a recent letter to the Patterson IrriGator, Steve Madison claims that numerous decisions were made to further litigation.  Yet, out all these decisions, the city only managed to give proper notice once.

Why do our city leaders continue to believe they are above the law?  How can we all silently sit back and let a handful of individuals ruin our city’s sound reputation?

This Mayor has been a total embarrassment…..her entourage even more disappointing.  We’re patiently waiting for someone to tell us how this rather huge breach of the public’s trust will be corrected so it will never happen again.  Click on the newspaper for Steve Madison’s letter to the editor.

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Give Thanks

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Patterson Housing Element DRAFT: Need we say more?

The projected need for affordable housing units by income (extremely low; very low; and low) in Patterson from 2001 to 2014 was approximately 417 units.  We have managed to build zero, cero, null, صفر, 零.

The purpose of these income group goals are to ensure that each city within the county attains its share of state housing goals without any relative disproportionate distribution of household income groups.   Clearly, the city of Patterson isn’t pulling its weight.

We don’t want any crap about how easy it is to buy a home now, the last chart will hopefully point out that home prices are similar to 2002, yet in 2002, there was still a significant demand for workforce housing.  Today’s economic climate doesn’t eliminate the need for this essential human right.  The bottom line:  the city has totally failed our working residents who want, seek, and long for an affordable home.

Patterson Housing Element 2004

Patterson Housing Element DRAFT 2009

Patterson Housing Element DRAFT 2009

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