Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/37260
Saturday, July 23, 2011 – Daily News 7A TOT Continued from page 1A Their ordinance requires some form of a structure at a fixed loca- tion, Chico Accounting Manager Frank Fields said. Visitors who stay in RVs come in their own vehicles and leave in them. Those vehicles are not fixed structures. The ordinance does not exclude RV Parks, but without them being specifically listed, the ordinance does not apply to them, Fields said. Chico has one full- fledge RV Park but does not collect TOT from that business and it does not have any campgrounds. In Glenn County the wording of its ordinance closely mirrors Red Bluff’s, and officials there take a similar stance to the officials here. “RVs and campgrounds aren’t listed, but they shouldn’t be exempt,” Assistant Finance Director Deborah Storz said. “I would interpret it as they are a part of the ordi- nance.” The most comprehen- sive TOT ordinance among the surrounding counties and cities can be found in Redding where the type of businesses that are subjected to collect TOT is listed and defined. The ordinance separates and creates individual def- initions for hotels, camp- grounds and recreation vehicle parks instead of lumping them all into the definition of a hotel. In developing an ordi- nance, cities should try to MAN Continued from page 1A Spencer, also known as “Res Dog,” allegedly slashed Wilson with a knife, Kimple said. Spencer was found just before midnight Wednesday at the bus station and was arrested on charges of assault with a deadly weapon, Red- ding police said. Police offi- cers added charges of pos- session of a controlled sub- stance when they found a controlled substance on him in custody. However, Spencer was released from Shasta County Jail Thursday afternoon when further investigation indicated that he may have acted in self defense when Wilson attacked him with a knife, said Redding police investigator Jon Poletski. Inconsistent statements led to the release. Then, Thursday evening, at 8:24 p.m., just hours after Spencer’s release, Red Bluff police officers were called to the USA Minimart, at 440 South Main St., when an employee reported a man was seen stealing a can of RATES Continued from page 1A A cut of fair premiums paid on all classes not spon- sored with premiums either reduced or eliminated will be a gain of $12,000, Eidman said. The board authorized Eidman and staff to pursue grants for improvements on the grounds and to pursue negotiations with the City of Red Bluff and Tehama County for Transient Occu- pancy Tax (TOT). This is both to deal with the cost of traffic control for special events and for the fair in general due to the state budget cuts, he said. “I don’t believe the intent of TOT was to go into the general fund,” Eidman said. “It was to encourage tourism. I think the chamber should get half and the fair should get half.” The board also approved the offer from permanent employees who volunteered to take a 10 percent cut in their wages for a $25,000 savings. The total amount the fair will gain is $110,000, Eid- man said. The board also heard an be clear on where it is applicable and where it is not. The Redding ordi- nance seeks to do that in order to avoid any confu- sion, said Finance Direc- tor Steven Strong. “We wanted to be clear,” he said. “There is no question as to whether our ordinance includes RV parks. Yes, we collect from RV parks.” Shasta County, Butte County, Corning, Oroville and Orland are among the other surrounding com- munities with ordinances that clearly list RV parks and campgrounds. Corning lists and includes RV parks in its ordinance because the law is meant to cover those sites, City Clerk Lisa Lin- net said. The city’s lone RV park, Heritage RV Park, does collect TOT from guests and forwards it to the city. “When they stay at an RV park they are staying in one spot,” Linnet said. “That’s a fixed location.” With the exception of Orland’s, the TOT ordi- nances were written dur- ing the 50s through the 70s and updated in the 90s. Orland’s “hotel user tax” ordinance was estab- lished in 1998, according to its municipal code. Each city and county municipal code can be found online at individual websites or through the sites of companies that offer codification services. ——— Tang Lor can be reached at 527-2153, Ext. 110 or by e-mail at tlor@redbluffdailynews.c om. beer, said Sgt. Kevin Busek- ist. Officers found the sus- pect, Spencer, nearby and arrested him on the charge of burglary, Busekist said. He also had two outstanding warrants for his arrest. The warrants included charges of failure to appear after a written promise and possession of an open con- tainer of alcohol relating to a Red Bluff police case opened on April 13, police logs said. A second man, Erwin Hall, 33, who was with Spencer, was arrested at the scene for public intoxication, Busekist said. Both men were booked at the Tehama County Jail. The case in Shasta Coun- ty is being submitted to the District Attorney for review. Charges may be added at a later time, Poletski said. Wilson has since been released from the hospital, he said. Spencer is being held in lieu of $51,241 bail. ——— Andrea Wagner can be reached at 527-2153, extension 114 or awagner@redbluffdailynew s.com. update on the fair including that the band Hot Rods from the Bay Area has been booked as one of the pieces of entertainment. The board also met the Miss Tehama County candi- dates and received an update from Miss Tehama County Coordinator Sonja Akers. “I’d like to thank the board for their support,” Akers said. “We’re really excited about this year and we have some awesome girls.” Akers told of Kerry DeFonte’s accomplishment in becoming Golden State Ambassadress and that Linda Jo Bennett would be filling the role of Miss Tehama County 2010 for the remainder of DeFonte’s term. Also introduced was Teen Miss Tehama County 2011 Oceana Midgett and Miss Tehama County candi- dates Lacie James, Lexi Dubi, Lindsey Hubbel, Marly Adams and Francess- ca Aguilar. ——— Julie Zeeb can be reached at 527-2153, extension 115 or jzeeb@redbluffdailynews.co m. Vina pursuit ends in arrest By ANDREA WAGNER DN Staff Writer A Magalia man was arrested early Thursday after leading Cali- fornia Highway Patrol officers on a pursuit through the Vina area. The suspect, Benjamin Asher Hughes, 29, was booked into the Tehama County Jail just before 2 a.m. after his arrest on Highway 99E south of Englehorn Road, according to Tehama County Sher- iff’s logs. Chico CHP alerted local officers that they had been in a low-speed pursuit of a 1995 Jeep that was crossing into Tehama County, said CHP Officer Phil Mackintosh. Hughes was seen approaching the county line near Lassen Steak House at 1:32 a.m., the logs said. Red Bluff CHP officers took over the chase at Englehorn Road, Mackintosh said. The driver turned west onto Sycamore Avenue at Los Molinos where he pulled over. However, as officers exited their vehicles, the Jeep accelerated back- ward toward them and swerved to make a three-point turn, making it past the patrol cars, Mackintosh said. Hughes then reportedly drove through a ditch, damaging the vehi- cle some and continued onto High- way 99E, heading south. Another CHP unit had set a spike strip near Los Molinos Hardware at 1:40 a.m., logs showed. The vehicle finally slowed and stopped for officers just south of Englehorn Road where he was arrested by CHP officer Aaron Gill- ham. Hughes was charged with evad- ing a public officer with disregard to public safety, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, being under the influence of alcohol or drugs and driving without a license. Hughes is being held on $58,380 bail. ——— Andrea Wagner can be reached at 527-2153, extension 114 or awagner@redbluffdailynews.com. Fire fee a solution for strapped states SACRAMENTO (AP) — The wildfire season in California has been tame so far, but that isn’t stopping law- makers from trying to make sure the cash-strapped state has enough money to fight future fires. They already have a solution: charge an annual firefighting fee to people who live in or near forests. Neighboring states have been using similar fees for years. As more people move closer to forests and wildfires become more costly, a fee may prove more attractive to legislators when the alternative is to cut programs else- where in the budget. Critics of the California fee call it unfair, saying rural residents already pay taxes to the state and should expect basic services in times of emergency. Supporters disagree, saying that people who live in fire-prone areas should pay for their own protection. ‘‘This bill recognizes that a portion of the costs borne by the state for wild- land fire prevention and protection ser- vices should be funded by the landowners in these areas,’’ Gov. Jerry Brown said in his signing statement. The West has seen an explosion in the amount of acreage burned by wild- fires during the past decade. At the same time, costs have increased to fight fires in the growing communities nes- tled in what once were remote areas. Nationwide, the equivalent of Cali- fornia’s population — nearly 38 mil- lion people — has moved into areas where forests border cities and suburbs over the last 20 years, said Mark Rey, who had oversight of the U.S. Forest Service during the George W. Bush administration. Rey said that vastly complicates the job of fighting wild- fires. The firefighting fees have been helpful in Oregon, Rey said. ‘‘I don’t think Oregon otherwise would have the quality of firefighting response it has today without those,’’ he said. In California, a $150 annual fire- fighting fee will be levied on rural homeowners. According to the state, more than 846,000 homes covered by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection would be affected. The department is responsible for preventing and fighting wildfires on 31 million rural acres. The vast area cov- ers about one-third of California, including much of the Sierra Nevada foothills and the coastal mountain ranges from Santa Barbara to the Ore- gon border. The federal government is primari- ly for firefighting on another roughly 40 million acres, mostly at higher ele- vations. WESTMINSTER (AP) — Arraignment has been postponed for a Southern California woman accused of serving her estranged husband a spiked meal before she cut off his penis with one swift slice of a kitchen knife and ran it through a garbage disposal. Orange County Superior Court Judge Debra Carrillo on Friday rescheduled Catherine Kieu’s arraign- ment to Sept. 23 and set bail at $1 million. Kieu, 48, is charged with torture and aggravated may- hem, with sentencing enhancements for great bodily injury and use of a knife. If convicted of all counts, she could face life in prison without parole. California expects to collect $50 million in the first year the fee is imposed and ultimately $200 million a year, which would equal 20 percent of the annual budget of the Forestry and Fire Protection department. The fee and the revenue eclipse much smaller fees on far fewer owners in Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Wash- ington. Owners of smaller parcels in Wash- ington pay $18 a year, while most Ore- gon forest homeowners pay about $66 annually. The assessments date back decades, to the years when private tim- ber companies first taxed themselves to pay for fire protection. While the dedicated firefighting fee is a budgeting solution where it’s been implemented, officials in three Western states that have suffered major wildfire damage this year or last — Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado — say they have no plans to impose one. To help defray the costs of fighting wildfires, Colorado Gov. John Hicken- looper recently signed a bill transfer- ring some $3 million in taxes the state receives from drilling and mining to the state’s Wildfire Preparedness Fund. That money typically goes to local governments to offset the effects of drilling, such as damaged roads. A legislator representing a forested district in eastern Arizona — where a fire this May and June became the largest in state history — said she has- n’t heard talk of such a charge. ‘‘We’re moving in the wrong direc- tion if we think we solve this problem by making people pay more taxes,’’ Republican Sen. Sylvia Allen said. ‘‘We have to get really serious about thinning and removing debris in the forest and stopping these catastrophic fires.’’ State officials say the state likely used its entire $5 million budget to fight fires for the just-concluded fiscal year in May and June alone. New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez said this week that her administration is not considering a wildfire fee. Oregon Associate State Forester Paul Bell said it costs 48 percent more to fight fires around homes than it does in the open forest because of the more intensive use of helicopters and bull- dozers and a higher concentration of firefighters. In addition, he said more fires start around homes than in the wild. Oregon landowners are responsible for the costs of fighting fires on their property, and Bell said the state fees have done a good job of covering that liability. The fee raises about $7 mil- lion annually, which in some years is Kieu appeared in court briefly in a blue jail jump- suit, with chains rattling as she walked. Her long dark hair blocked portions of her face, and she answered Car- rillo’s questions through a Vietnamese-language inter- preter. Frank Bittar, Kieu’s attorney, declined to com- ment on the allegations, except to say ‘‘there’s a lot there, to the case — more than meets the eye.’’ Authorities say they believe Kieu spiked her 60- year-old husband’s tofu din- ner on July 11. The victim recalled the food tasted ‘‘metallic,’’ according to a search warrant affidavit filed by Garden Grove police. Independently owned Telephone: (530) 824-3792 Over 50 years of serving Tehama County more than the entire cost of fighting wildland fires. Richard Scanlon said he was barely aware that he paid Oregon’s fee as one of 1,251 of homeowners in the Black Butte Ranch vacation home communi- ty in the forested central part of the state, but said the levy makes sense. ‘‘For those people in peril like we are, close to a potential situation, I think, yes, why not?’’ said Scanlon, who had two neighbors who lost their homes in 2002 when a wildfire forced the community to evacuate. States’ firefighting costs vary wide- ly, depending on the number and sever- ity of wildfires. But that variability only adds to the unpredictability of try- ing to balance a budget in already lean times. California, for example, spent a recent low of $93 million in the 2005- 06 fiscal year, followed by a record $372 million during an extremely active season two years later. Oregon spent $57 million in the 2002-03 fiscal year, which included a 500,000-acre blaze in southwestern Oregon that was the biggest in the nation that year, but just $2 million two years later. An Associated Press analysis of fire cost data during the past decade shows that 12 Western states from the Rocky Mountains west to Alaska spent at least $377.5 million. Some states did not have data for all 10 years, and Hawaii is excluded from the calculation. Lake Tahoe, straddling the Califor- nia-Nevada border, where homes have been crowding around one of the coun- try’s natural wonders for decades, is among the areas where the potential for a devastating wildfire is acute. Four years ago, a fire driven by high winds and densely packed trees destroyed 254 homes, caused $140 million in property damage and scorched 3,100 acres in a subdivision that had sprouted on the California side of the lake near its southern end. Many homeowners have rebuilt amid charred stumps and barren soil, looking out over acres of blackened trees against a backdrop of snow- capped peaks. Several offered opinions about California’s $150 wildfire fee on a recent afternoon. ‘‘We said when we moved in here in 2005, if you want to live in nature there will be a slight risk of a wildfire,’’ said Kenn Wulff, who tried to fight the flames with a garden hose before flee- ing with his wife, dog, and his parents. Wulff said the fee should be voluntary, but said he probably wouldn’t pay it because there’s nothing left to burn in his community. Arraignment delayed in Calif. severed penis case After he went to lie down and fell asleep, Kieu tied his hands and feet to the bed with white nylon rope and cut off his penis with one swift motion as he woke, telling him ‘‘you deserve it,’’ the affidavit said.