According to the latest Federal data, there are 3,320,977 small businesses in California. It’s not enough any more to have a unique idea or recognize an unmet need to start a small business. Coming up with enough capital is always a challenge, but possible for the determined. However, in Sacramento the challenges just keep getting lobbed.

If I want to start my own small manufacturing company in Sacramento, I must first deal with a staggering the twenty-one agencies for permits, licenses and regulatory controls:

• City of Sacramento City Finance, Revenue Department
• City of Sacramento Fire Department: Fire Prevention Inspection
• City of Sacramento Planning Department Land Use Permit/Zoning Clearance
• City and County Police Department Police Regulations/Public Safety Issues
• County Assessor Business Property Statement office
• County of Sacramento Treasurer Tax Collector's Office
• County of Sacramento Environmental Health Department Hazardous Materials/Waste
• Sacramento Metropolitian Air Quality Management District
• California Department of Industrial Relations Air Tanks Permit
• California Secretary of State Corporation, Company or Partnership Filings
• California Department of Fair Employment and Housing
• California Department of Toxic Substances Control Hazardous Waste Facility (two different permits)
• Cal Environmental Protection Agency Industrial Activities Storm Water General Permit
• California Department of Industrial Relations: (OSHA)
• California Employment Development Department (EDD)
• Franchise Tax Board
• US Department of Treasury Internal Revenue Services
• Department of Industrial Relations (Workers' Compensation)
• US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)

It is not enough that a small business owner must apply to and work with each of these agencies before starting a business; surprise inspections and unannounced visits regularly occur. Any business owner can enumerate from memory, the audits and inspections they are subjected to: Annual inspections by the Fire Department and/or Fire Marshall, OSHA, safety and liability inspections by Insurance carriers, EPA and Cal-EPA toxic substances inspections, and Sacramento Air Quality Management District for emissions tests, to name just a few. There are surprise spot checks for permits and licenses by the city, county and state, even if there are current permits and licenses in place, as well as highly disruptive unannounced inspections.

One manufacturing owner shared that recently he has been subjected to increased permitting, licensing mandates, pop inspections, and required to obtain additional insurance coverage (terrorism insurance?). The Fire Marshall recently decided that the annual inspections by the Fire Department are not enough, and has conducted several surprise inspections, consequently announcing that he needs to purchase additional permits for paper storage and propane tank usage, replace existing EXIT signs with larger EXIT signs, change the open/close direction of interior doors, stop using extension cords, and the like. The redundancy of their request with Sacramento County and State licensing and permitting is of no concern as long as fees are associated; it is as if orders are coming from the top down in all city agencies to step-up permitting, fines and fees collection. This is mafia-style extortion for hapless business owners to operate in certain areas of certain counties and cities – such as Sacramento.

Another business owner told me that during a recent unannounced insurance inspection to his business, the Insurance company Risk Assessment Manager “recommended” the company move large rolls of paper away from the printing presses, and to take sales reps off the road if they have any moving violations or spotty driving records. City of Sacramento Parking Enforcement department keeps ticketing his trucks… parked on his property.

This is all in addition to all of the annual audits conducted by the IRS, the Franchise Tax Board, the bank, State sales tax audits, Worker’s Compensation insurance audits, payroll audits, and EDD audits, all totaling hundreds of hours of employee time.

The business climate in California is treacherous and unfriendly. The City of Sacramento is no better and is bullying more and more business owners with no concern whatsoever for the cumulative impact of their demands. Existing businesses are struggling to keep their heads above water in an ever-increasing regulatory nightmare, not to mention a particularly hostile economy. Given this miserable climate, who would want to start a business in California, and equally important, who wants to continue doing business in this city and state?

Katy Grimes is a long-time political activist, writer and columnist.

Police Officers, Fire Fighters and members of the Military are often called brave and valiant Heroes. And they should be; much of what they do is dangerous and requires a degree of courage, selflessness and valor.

They are also, public (government) employees.

Police are at-risk every moment of every day they are on-the-job; from the cop on the beat to the patrol officer, every person they speak to, every car they pull over is a potential risk to their life. They serve voluntarily and selflessly, putting themselves in harms way every day.

Military personnel who serve in war-torn countries serve voluntarily and selflessly, and often give their lives in the course of defending democracy.  Stateside military personnel tirelessly train in preparation for the day they will be sent into battle.

Fire fighters are faced with treacherous work conditions when fighting fire. Of particular note are the California Department of Forestry (CDF) - fire fighters, who work tirelessly trying to prevent wild fires in our summertime parched state.

Missing from the discussion of selfless, tireless public safety workers, is the union representing the City of Sacramento Fire Department who of late, have been behaving more like hoodlums, than heroes.

Months ago when the City first started talking about the need for sizeable budget cuts due to a record budget deficit, the Sacramento Police Officers Association union (SPOA) almost immediately stepped up and agreed to make their $6.4 million budget work – cuts, salary freezes and all. The Fire Fighters union, Local 522 (an AFL-CIO union), instead turned on the machismo, did a few chest bumps, and began a months-long public tantrum played out dramatically in the media, by refusing to live with and manage their $5 million budget.

Remember the City of Vallejo’s recent Bankruptcy? It was their Fire Department that forced the city into the financial dire straights that led to insolvency, due to record and unsustainable salaries, benefits and pensions. This is a common theme in the state of California, and a severe lesson the City of Sacramento seems unwilling to experience.

The Sacramento Police Department and the SPOA actively educated members in order to get input and involvement on the inevitable budget problems the city was facing. Already down by 104 sworn staff officers since 2007, the Sacramento Police Department decided they could not afford any more police officer cuts. SPOA agreed across the board to accept the City’s budget, freeze salaries as of the last budget, and take cuts where deemed necessary in order to save jobs.

Contrast this with Local 522, the Fire Department union, and even city employee union Local 39: both unions propose sacrificing only lower paid workers, while insisting on raises for the older, more highly-paid workers. Many Sacramento residents are critical of firefighters for being hypocritical for claiming union “solidarity” with their firefighting “brothers” while rejecting a deal that will lead to the City laying off 50 of their “brothers.” Fire Fighters are behaving like thuggish teamsters, forgetting that they are city employees, and serve voluntarily.

Additionally, Fire Fighters have come under intense scrutiny for excessively high overtime abuse and ongoing abuse with sick-leave usage. With city fire fighters largely on-call while on duty, their antics are becoming intolerable.

What happened to the days when fire fighters called to a medical emergency showed up as a first-responder, in a two-person team driving a light-duty truck? The fire fighters’ demand for 4-man teams on every truck for every call, is unrealistic and absurd, and demonstrative of their refusal to prioritize staffing levels based on the nature of the emergency calls. Current staffing levels and call response tactics are purely to justify their pay, pensions and big budget.

This from the same local fire fighters union who recently threatened that they were considering sponsoring a ballot initiative that would seek to ban the City Council from ever reducing firefighters’ pension benefits without a vote of the public. 

This is all behavior inherent to Chicago-style unions, not most individual fire fighters. However, the fire fighters who consider themselves union members first and only secondarily fire fighters, made their voices clear at recent city council meetings.

When was the last time police or military personnel threatened using thuggish teamster tactics because they weren’t getting guaranteed pay and pension increases? Military and police personnel respect integrity and distinguished public service.

 Fire Fighters, police and military personnel choose their career paths voluntarily. Society honors those who choose careers that require courage and valor in the face of danger. But when Sacramento City Fire Fighters threaten tyranny while already receiving abundant wages, rich benefits and inordinately large pensions, while most of the rest of the city’s employers are laying off employees and cutting wages and salaries, we know that the union running the show has reached beyond usefulness and is moving into foolishness. Thus is the inherent problem with labor unions representing public employees.

Public employees work for the citizenry, but appear to work for the supremacy of the city, county or state. The law and the government are intended to serve American freedom and self-determinism — not the other way around.