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THURSDAY Daniel Munoz Athletes of the Week 'El Ausente' JANUARY 17, 2013 Pastimes Breaking news at: www.redbluffdailynews.com See Page 4A SPORTS 1B DAILY NEWS RED BLUFF Sunny 66/34 Weather forecast 8B TEHAMA COUNTY DAILY 50¢ T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U NTY S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Recycling center hit in daylight robbery By JULIE ZEEB DN Staff Writer Red Bluff Police are seeking information regarding a robbery Wednesday morning at Bigfoot Recycling, 460 Antelope Blvd. At 10:39 a.m., a report was received of the robbery and officers were advised the man who robbed the business had fled in a pickup, Sgt. Michael Graham said. Officers from Red Bluff Police, the Tehama County Sheriff's Department and Cali- During investigation, officers learned the man approached a clerk at Big Foot Recycling and indicated he had a handgun before demanding money. According to scanner reports the clerk said they did not see the weapon. fornia Highway Patrol made an extensive search of the area, but were not able to locate the suspect, Graham said. The suspect is described as a heavy-set white man with a beard in his 30s who is about 6'1" to 6'2", he said. Scanner reports about 10:45 a.m. indicated the man, who was wearing a red flannel jacket and baseball cap, was last seen heading west on Antelope toward downtown in a white See ROBBERY, page 7A Deputies injured in suspect scuffle Solar snafu By JULIE ZEEB DN Staff Writer Two Tehama County Sheriff's Deputies were taken to the hospital Tuesday night following an altercation with a man, resulting in the arrest of three people. The two deputies, one of which was hit in the face and scratched and the other who was bitten by Jose Luis Hernandez, were taken to St. Elizabeth Community Hospital where they were treated and released, Public Information Officer Lt. Dave Greer said. See SCUFFLE, page 7A City grants $33K for police overtime By RICH GREENE DN Staff Writer DN file photo By JULIE ZEEB DN Staff Writer With the passage of its $298,000 budget for 2013-2014 fiscal year on Tuesday, the Tehama District Fairboard is one step closer to the Joint Powers Authority with the county. The agreement between the two entities is mainly waiting for two things — the completion of an audit and a resolution to the Solar Panel lawsuit, naming the Tehama District Fairground as a defendant, Fair CEO Mark Eidman said. The Tehama District Fairground is one of 17 in the state to have a solar system obtained through a loan done by the California Construction Authority (CCA), which previously oversaw improvement projects for fairs. The solar systems were supposed to be financed by a Clean and Renewable Energy Bond (Crebs), however, they were unable to sell the bonds After CREBS bonds did not do as well as expected and the bank the loan was through filed for bankruptcy, the loan was bought by a company called PNC and CCA tried to renegotiate the terms, however, failed to do so. While the fairground has been making payments faithfully, CCA went defunct and California Fairs Services Association (CFSA) took over handling the payments and in March of 2011 CFSA stopped making payments. This caused PNC to bring a lawsuit against CFSA and because CFSA has stopped payments the Tehama District Fair was named in the lawsuit, which is still on-going and it is unknown what will happen with it, Eidman said. In 2012, the Tehama District Fair began to make cuts, which included the premiums for many of the categories. "We tried to do cuts that would not affect the fair as much," Eidman said. Former Fairboard Director Joyce Bundy who is still actively involved in several activities on the fairgrounds, said the cuts really showed in the 2012 fair. "The entries were way down this year," Bundy said. Another change made was the choice to add a parking fee, which some fairboard attendees and directors questioned as to what affect it would have on fair attendance. While some were concerned with the $5 charge, only a handful of people even asked and most understood the charge when he told them it was necessary to keep the gates open, Eidman said. The parking fee brought in $26,700, which was about $1,700 more than what was projected in the See SOLAR, page 7A Red Bluff police officers were always going to be paid their overtime wages, but an agenda item at Tuesday's City Council meeting had Mayor Wayne Brown wondering aloud whether appropriating those dollars was the best way to tighten the city's budget. In the end, Brown joined a unanimous council in granting a $33,015 supplemental budget appropriation as well as increasing the police department's overtime fund by an additional $16,000 for the fiscal year. The department's overtime costs have soared this year due in part to a change in union contracts that occurred after the city passed its annual budget. Previously officers were compensated for working holidays by an extra contribution to their composite leave pay. However the city has since ended that practice and instead begun paying officers double time for working on a holiday. Department administration calculated that change alone would represent an additional $33,015 on their overtime budget. Chief Paul Nanfito asked for the additional $16,000 for his overtime budget to cover the costs that in years past were covered by overtime training grants. He said the department was projected to go over its budgeted overtime amount. That prompted Brown to ask what would happen if the city did not appropriate the money for the department. Brown said it wasn't as if the city wasn't going to pay the officers for their work, but by not setting a number the budget committee could get a more accurate indication of what the department needed in future years. "In all fairness you need to set a number that I can try to meet," Nanfito answered. See CITY, page 7A County opts for LaMalfa supports $17B in Sandy relief local control of 'We think it's a fiscally responsible response to medical services By LARRY MITCHELL Chico Enterprise-Record By RICH GREENE DN Staff Writer Tehama County joined with seven other Northern California counties Tuesday in expressing its desire to maintain local control when the state changes the way rural Medi-Cal recipients receive their health services June 1. As part of Gov. Jerry Brown's budget the 28 rural counties who operate under a fee-for-service health care delivery system will switch to a managed care system, more similar to commercial HMOs. The gatekeeper approach to delivering health care is expected to drive costs 7 5 8 5 5 1 6 9 0 0 1 9 down for the state, but just how the system will be managed remains a question just months before implementation. The 30 counties already utilizing a managed care approach to Medi-Cal operate under one of three different models: • County Organized Health System: In which a public agency runs one health plan. • Geographic Managed Care: In which beneficiaries choose from of several commercial plans • Two Plan Model: In which recipients choose between a public or commercial run plan. On Tuesday the Tehama County Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution supporting a County OrgaSee LOCAL, page 7A WASHINGTON — In one of his first major votes in Congress, Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Chico, supported a measure Tuesday allocating $17 billion to repair damage caused by Hurricane Sandy. The measure passed the House by a vote of 327-91, according to the Associated Press. LaMalfa was among Republicans who voted for an amendment that would have cut all federal budgets by 1.63 percent to offset the $17 billion that was approved for immediate hurricane relief. This amendment, which was proposed by Rep. Mick Mulvaney, RS.C., was backed by the conservative Club for Growth. It was defeated by a vote of 258-162, according to AP. Tuesday afternoon Kevin Eastman, LaMalfa's legislative director, Sandy' — Kevin Eastman, legislative director said the House still had to vote on a $33.6 billion package of Sandy aid. That measure ended up passing 228-192. Eastman said LaMalfa planned to vote against that package because it includes "more than $10 billion in spending only loosely tied to Sandy and (which) could easily wind up as non-Sandy spending." Regarding LaMalfa's vote on the $17 billion allocation, Eastman said, "We think it's a fiscally responsible response to Sandy." The Mulvaney amendment was controversial. Eastman said LaMalfa felt it was warranted. Eastman said if the allocation hadn't been classified an emergency measure, Congress would have had to cut an equal amount of spending to authorize the expenditure. In an interview in Chico last week, LaMalfa, who was sworn in as a congressman on Jan. 3, talked about his first couple of weeks in Congress. His first significant vote was on Sandy relief, just a couple of days after he was sworn in, he said. A total of $60 billion, supposedly for aid to hurricane victims, had been proposed, but because many questions had been raised, Speaker Boehner decided to have the voting done in pieces, he said. The first piece was $9 billion, which was approved and which LaMalfa supported. The new congressman said he planned to scrutinize the rest of the proposed spending very carefully. "We have an enormity of issues to do this year, not in number but in scope and magnitude," he said. There's the debt ceiling and also a farm bill to be passed, he said, noting some people say it involves a "dairy cliff." The last farm bill expired on Sept. 30. If a new bill isn't passed by Sept. 30 of this year, a 1949 law would take See LAMALFA, page 7A