tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39102754262442717972024-03-13T09:08:37.180-07:00Santa Clara Plays FairUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger109125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910275426244271797.post-85294896766308725852014-10-31T05:57:00.000-07:002014-10-31T06:12:54.412-07:00Dominic Caserta and the Housewives of Silicon Valley<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">Dear Santa Clarans,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">To truly measure a political campaign, follow the money - from all sides.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">Dominic Caserta's money machine amassed $64,000 between January 1st and October 18th.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">Less than $4,000 of that even came from Santa Clara businesses, and less than $2,000 of it came from Santa Clara residents. <i>That's less than 10 percent from the city and residents that Mr. Caserta claims he's suited to represent.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">So much for that so-called "grassroots campaign," eh?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now, Kevin Park's campaign committee received less than $3,000 over that same interval.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>One hundred percent of Kevin Park's support came from Santa Clarans and Santa Clara small businesses.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now <u>that's</u> what we mean by "grassroots campaigning." I encourage you to search for "Caserta" and "Kevin Park" <a href="http://nf4.netfile.com/pub2/Default.aspx?aid=CSC&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1" target="_blank">here</a> . Look for "Form 460."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">I'm the committee Treasurer for <b>Santa Clara Plays Fair</b>, so I must also submit Form 460s - same place as you'll find the two candidate reports above. I'm required to correctly identify contributors to our group by occupation and employer when their donations amount to $100.00 or more in an election cycle.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">For example, the designation "Homemaker , No employer" is a perfectly acceptable entry on a Form 460 when </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">a homemaker tenders a contribution which is </span>a contribution from is large enough to be reported. Since a typical donation to us is $50 or less, our group doesn't get to itemize large gifts from homemakers that often.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">Dominic Caserta, however, sees a lot of them. His campaign Treasurer, a Mr. Pietro Costa, recorded on Dominic's 460s a total of thirteen "Homemakers" <b>donating an average of $336 each and putting a total of $4,400 dollars into the Caserta moneypot.</b> What gives?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">Well, the first "homemaker" I picked at random on the form, from Scott's Valley, turned out to be a real estate broker. Her name popped immediately in the state Department of Real Estate's licensing lookup. Her out-of-town contribution to the Caserta Machine? <b>$500.00</b> .</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">Another "homemaker" is from Danville - and her name came up in connection with a luxury goods business. Another $500 to Dominic Caserta.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">A third "homemaker" is apparently the vice-chairwoman of a wholesale beverage distributing business. $250.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">A fourth is in fact a gentleman "homemaker." That trail ran cold - but it ran real close to a real estate and insurance office in San Jose. Another five hundred bucks to Dominic.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">You get the idea. Also, note that not a single one of the thirteen "<i>Housewives of Silicon Valley</i>" conduct business in Santa Clara or reside here.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is troubling from another standpoint, too: Note that Dominic Caserta is the one who <u>signed</u> the City of Santa Clara's Campaign Ethics Pledge. Yet, part of those same campaign ethics is the truthful disclosure of who's really funding one's campaign.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">Kevin Park, <u>declined</u> to sign that same pledge - <i>but he then proceeded to honor the very process our city's leaders and their consultants claim that they want.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">H. Jackson Brown, Jr., has noted, "<i>Our character is what we do when we think that no one is looking.</i>" Dominic Caserta and the Housewives of Silicon Valley have some explaining to do, I feel.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">But Kevin Park, the true grassroots candidate, has explained himself rather well. He deserves all of our support, and he's earned our votes this coming Tuesday.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">Thanks for your continued support, and best regards,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">William F. "Bill" Bailey, Treasurer,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">http://www.SantaClaraPlaysFair.org/</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">-=0=-</span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910275426244271797.post-39399489478644987592014-10-30T09:00:00.002-07:002014-10-31T06:16:40.234-07:00Dominic Caserta and his Niner Bucks<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Dear Santa Clarans,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">In addition to the $32,000 from developers and real estate interests accepted by the Caserta campaign, ten executives from the front office of the San Francisco 49ers poured in an additional $5,000 - all within 48 hours beginning on May 1st.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Anyone can read what I've read. The FPPC Form 460 for Dominic Caserta's dollar-drenched campaign is <a href="http://nf4.netfile.com/pub2/?aid=CSC" target="_blank">here</a> - just search for "Caserta."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">But the 49ers have their subsidized stadium in our city - and we Santa Clarans are stuck with it. So what would make the team's management so fearful?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Well, Santa Clarans will probably learn that the San Francisco 49ers need a compliant council in order to guarantee a compliant Stadium Authority. This means a Santa Clara Stadium Authority that won't stand up to the team on issues such as parking stalls on the Montana hotel parcels - and which will not ensure access to the city's Youth Soccer Park by parents, soccer coaches and players during the NFL season (The 49ers want your Soccer Park so that they can park stretch limos on it.).</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">If you have a council and Stadium Authority that considers the 49ers' needs to be more important that residents' needs, then we have a big problem. But putting the 49ers first has been an agenda for our city's leaders since at least 2007, when then-Mayor now-Councilwoman Patricia Mahan justified putting a 14-acre stadium on a 17-acre plot by stating: <i> "This site, we believe, would give the fans a great game-day
experience and that's what it's all about: <b>doing what's best for
the 49ers and doing what's best for the fans.</b>"</i> (Emphasis mine.)</span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Santa Clarans living north of U.S. 101 will tell you exactly what the price of the above policy has been. Does anyone actually believe that Dominic Caserta will go up against his 49ers when real neighbors truly need his support?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Recall Dominic's sandbagging the "No-on-A/B" voters on the BAREC issue in the previous post. Still believe him?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">We need an independent city council in Santa Clara - but Dominic Caserta is simply too flush with developer dollars and Niner Bucks to claim as much - any more than he can claim that he's running any kind of "grassroots" campaign.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">But I want a council that puts Santa Clarans at the top of the list, and I believe you do also. We'll only achieve that by denying Dominic Caserta our votes.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">The candidate who has taken no developer money or Yorkbucks - <i>and whose campaign is truly grassroots</i> - is right there on that same ballot for Council Seat 5.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Please. <b>Vote for real change. Vote Kevin Park on November 4th.</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Best regards,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">William F. "Bill" Bailey, Treasurer,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">http:://www.Santa Clara Plays Fair.org</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">-=0=-</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Still coming: Dominic Caserta and the Housewives of Silicon Valley </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=nfl&id=2909173">http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=nfl&id=2909173</a></span></span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910275426244271797.post-12791737672164552332014-10-29T01:42:00.001-07:002014-10-30T09:09:37.618-07:00Dominic Caserta and his Developer Dollars - Kevin Park and a TRUE Grassroots Campaign<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;">Dear Santa Clarans,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;">Would you consider for just a moment?:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;">A single-family dwelling next door is about to get razed to the cellar and replaced with a "mini-dorm" holding ten SCU students - with no onsite parking for their ten automobiles.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;">A hotel/banquet complex will be torn down. The very first plan we see shows it being replaced with 511 living units - <i>with a density of 67 dwelling units per acre (!)</i> - and with barely enough parking provided for its residents. For the mere fact of the 22 bus passing by this site, the developer is actually entitled to demand an <u>additional</u> increment of 25% more living units as a "transit sop."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;">These are not hypotheticals. They're 2325 Park and 2500 El Camino, in fact.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now consider who will represent <b><u>you</u></b> on the Santa Clara City Council:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;">Kevin Park accepts not one dime from developers, real estate brokers or their lawyers. That's $0.00.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;">Dominic Caserta has taken, between January 1st and October 18, over $32,000 from those same developers, brokers, developers and their lawyers. That's $32 grand.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>So, which candidate, if elected, will more fairly hear the legitimate grievances of homeowners forced to watch the value of their homes destroyed in the name of unconstrained and reckless development?</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;">Unquestionably, that's Kevin Park. He sat on the very General Plan Steering Committee that proposed moderation in the mad rush to super-dense housing. In the case of 2500 El Camino Real, for example, that new General Plan recommends a much more sensible 280 units, maximum, instead of 511.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;">On the other hand, anyone who remembers the battle over open space at BAREC, or 90 North Winchester, will recall clearly how they were treated by Dominic Caserta: After they had walked precincts and planted yard signs for him over a period of some months, Dominic proceeded to take thousands of dollars from Summerhill Homes, the developer of BAREC - and he then tanked the open space proposal altogether. Mr. Caserta has struggled to stamp <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131126225412/http://notcaserta.org/no-integrity.html#fppc" target="_blank">this website</a> out, but thanks to web archives, we can see it for the truth it told us back in late 2007.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;">If this were youthful indiscretions, we could wave this stuff off. But please see these links, two accounts from one columnist six years apart, which tell this Santa Claran pretty much who Dominic Caserta really is: <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_9224065" target="_blank">2008</a> <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/scott-herhold/ci_26663797/dominic-caserta-remains-controversial-guy" target="_blank">2014</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;">We really do have an alternative. In my own dealings with Kevin Park, I've found him to be ethical and above board. Over the past eight weeks, I've been quite pleased to walk precincts for Kevin and help get the word out: A resident rather than a professional politician is actually running for our city council, and that's been extremely gratifying to see.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;">Truth be told, it was precisely over this revolving door of stale candidacies that <b>Santa Clara Plays Fair </b>endorsed Kevin Park along with four other candidates for council and our school district's Trustee seats.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;">As Santa Clarans, we can make a real difference in the governing of our city. I'd like to urge all of you not to pass up this opportunity.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Please vote Kevin Park for Seat 5, Santa Clara City Council.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;">And as usual, thanks to all of you who have given <b>Santa Clara Plays Fair</b> your generous support - contributions, shoe leather, hand work and words of encouragement.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;">Best regards,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;">William F. "Bill" Bailey, Treasurer,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;">http://www.Santa Clara Plays Fair.org/</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;">-=0=-</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;">Coming: "Dominic Caserta, his Niner Bucks - and the 'Housewives of Silicon Valley' "</span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910275426244271797.post-27361921888031834452014-09-26T01:28:00.002-07:002014-09-26T01:33:13.643-07:00Walk with us.<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Dear Santa Clarans,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I'd like to thank the many Santa Clarans who visited new candidates' tables at the Santa Clara Art and Wine Festival. Meeting new people and connecting with old friends was a welcome delight for me, and I know that the candidates we support enjoyed the opportunity to meet with you all.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">We think our platform is clear: </span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Santa Clara Councilmembers responsive to Santa Clarans, not to developer dollars or Niner Bucks. </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Santa Clara Unified Trustees standing for academic excellence and resisting political pressures out of City Hall and monied interests.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: large;">We can make that case. It sells itself, in fact.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>But will <u>you</u> help us get the word out?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The most important way we can reach voters between now and Election Day is by walking the voting precincts of Santa Clara. Volunteers are already out there, and they're not politicians or pretend-consultants - they're your neighbors and your friends.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">If you'll provide your time, we'll provide the materials, the training and the partners. Just contact us at:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="mailto:info@santaclaraplayfair.org" target="_blank">info@santaclaraplayfair.org</a></span> <br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">...and let us know when you are available to walk for <b><a href="http://santaclaraplaysfair.blogspot.com/2014/09/why-independent-scusd.html" target="_blank">Chris Koltermann, Michael Helms</a></b>, <b><a href="http://santaclaraplaysfair.blogspot.com/2014/09/why-we-need-independent-city-council.html" target="_blank">Kevin Park, Karen Hardy and Deborah Bress</a></b>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I'm walking myself, and I'll look forward to joining you these next several weeks.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Thank you for volunteering - and as always, for all of your support,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">William F. "Bill" Bailey, Treasurer,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.santaclaraplaysfair.org/">http://www.SantaClaraPlaysFair.org</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Please visit our blogs at:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.santaclaraplaysfair.blogspot.com/">http://www.SantaClaraPlaysFair.Blogspot.com</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.stadiumfacts.blogspot.com/">http://www.stadiumfacts.blogspot.com</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">-=0=-</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> --- Mahatma Ghandhi</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910275426244271797.post-5105084013906066582014-09-15T01:07:00.000-07:002014-09-15T01:13:51.301-07:00Why we need an independent City Council<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Dear Santa Clarans,</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Whether you’ve got
“mini-dormitories” in your Old Quad neighborhoods, or abusive 49ers’ fans
parking up and down your streets while dropping their litter behind them, or
automobile speeders using your streets as expressways, we’re betting that you
can feel it:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: large;">A city gov<span style="font-family: inherit;">e</span>rnment
far less accessible to city residents than it ever has been, and much more beholden to special
interests.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A quick look at
the FPPC campaign finance reports on file with the City Clerk’s office – and
only as of June 30<sup>th</sup>! – tells just a part of the story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just halfway through the Form 460 of
returning candidate Dominic Caserta, one finds the following totals of
contributions:</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">~$18,000 from real estate, construction and
developers,</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>~$5,000
from the San Francisco 49ers</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">And that’s only
the first twenty some-odd pages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For
Patrick Kolstad,</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>~$3,750
from the San Francisco 49ers.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">You get the
idea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But what if there were an
alternative?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What if, rather
than “returning incumbents”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>pretending
to be challengers, we had <u>real</u> challengers who have accepted NO money
from special interests?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Candidates who
believe that Santa Clara is for Santa Clarans?</span><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It could be that
the best way to welcome regular city residents into City Hall may be to elect
more regular residents, with the energy and desire to serve, to our City
Council.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">And that is why
Santa Clara Plays Fair strongly endorses:</span></b></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.0pt;">√ Karen Hardy</span></u></b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>for Santa Clara City Council, Seat 2:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><a href="http://www.hardy4council.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial;">http://www.hardy4council.com/</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Email:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><a href="mailto:hardy4council@gmail.com" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial;">hardy4council@gmail.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.0pt;">√ Kevin Park</span></u></b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>for Santa Clara City Council, Seat 5:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.kevinpark.org/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial;">http://www.kevinpark.org</span></a><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">Email:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><a href="mailto:santaclarakevin@yahoo.com" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial;">santaclarakevin@yahoo.com</span></a></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.0pt;">√ Deborah Bress</span></u></b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>for Mayor,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>City of Santa Clara:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.deborahformayor.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial;">http://www.deborahformayor.com/</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Email:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><a href="mailto:DeborahforMayor@gmail.com" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial;">DeborahforMayor@gmail.com</span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">On November 4<sup>th</sup>, elect a truly <i>independent</i>
City Council.</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Thank you for all
of your support,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">William F. “Bill”
Bailey, Treasurer</span></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910275426244271797.post-60535798434436308412014-09-15T00:54:00.001-07:002014-09-15T01:04:51.223-07:00Why an independent SCUSD?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Dear Santa
Clarans,</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Do you recall the
2010 Candidates’ Forums?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Candidates-for-mayor
Jamie Matthews and Chris Stampolis squared off on the mayor’s role in the
affairs of the Santa Clara Unified School District.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mr. Matthews solemnly lectured Mr. Stampolis about the proper
separation between the city as a political entity and the school district,
which is charged with preparing young Americans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two necessarily separate things, said Matthews then.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">But it’s 2014, and
our Santa Clara Unified School District is apparently just a little <u>too</u>
independent to suit this same Jamie Matthews, Lisa Gillmor and certain
candidates for Council.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’re singing
a far different tune this year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would
you believe that <i>it’s all about <u>soccer pitches</u>?</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: large;">Here’s why: Throughout the summer of 2009, Santa
Clarans were fed a load of nonsense about some “synergy” among the 49ers’
stadium, Great America, the Golf and Tennis club and the Youth Soccer
Park. Jed York and the 49ers’ front
office were happy to exploit the appeal of a youth athletic facility such as
the YSP in order to get up the steam for the stadium subsidy – the $42,000,000
that the 49ers sucked out of our former Redevelopment Agency.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">But by last fall
the 49ers knew that they didn’t have enough parking for their guests’ stretch
limos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They then decided that the
Youth Soccer Park was just too close to their stadium – but that it would still
make dandy parking spaces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Soccer
Park would have to go.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Rather than
engaging with soccer parents and young players fairly, the 49ers reneged on an
agreement to fund the relocation of the Soccer Park.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They reneged yet again when they refused to fund the development
of additional soccer pitches in our city.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The Council should
be stepping up on the issue for us residents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However, Councilmembers Mahan, Gillmor and Kolstad are instead running
interference for the San Francisco 49ers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Their <i>ad hoc</i> Council Committee claims to reach out to all the
stakeholders – but its real aim is to force Santa Clarans give up even more to
the 49ers than we already have.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This coercion
started against youth soccer in our city, but it’s now a squeeze play intended
to make the School District solve Jed York’s parking problems for him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why are they demanding that our childrens’
schools (!) surrender control of district athletic fields for soccer pitches
which are unlikely ever to be enjoyed by those same students?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">They’re not
done:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This arm-twisting now continues
with attempts to<b> </b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">carve up city park
lands</b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the City Council meeting
of June 10<sup>th</sup>, the neighbors of Jenny Strand and Montague Parks saw
this firsthand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In particular, friends
of the Ulistac Natural Area, know all about it.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Santa Clarans, you
can see how the dominoes are truly falling:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This City Council voted to build a 14-acre NFL stadium on a 17-acre
plot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are now running a blame
game against the SCUSD along with a possible grab of city park lands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b>The City Council – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> the Santa Clara Unified School District – have led us exactly
to where we are toda</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">y.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Clearly,
this City Council no longer believes in an independent SCUSD.</span><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">We’re Santa Clara Plays Fair, and we <u>do</u> believe. For an <u>independent</u> SCUSD, we urge your vote on November 4<sup>th</sup>
for Dr. Chris Koltermann and Dr. Michael Helms for Trustee Areas 2 and 3. They will work for all of us – <i>not for
special, monied interests</i>.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Say NO to the
blame game – and NO to giveaways of park and school land.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Thanks for your
support,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">William F. “Bill”
Bailey, Treasurer</span></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910275426244271797.post-20658330331198236362014-09-01T14:38:00.001-07:002014-09-01T14:38:15.960-07:00Santa Clara Voters, please vote for an independent Council and School Board!<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;">Dear Santa Clarans,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><b>
</b><b><a href="http://www.santaclaraplaysfair.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Santa Clara Plays Fair</a></b>
is proud to announce our group's endorsements for the November 4th
General Election. We urge all city residents to cast their votes for
an <u>independent</u> City Council and for <u>independent</u> Trustees of the Santa Clara Unified School District:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
<u><b>√ </b></u><u><b>Karen Hardy</b></u> for Santa Clara City Council, Seat 2: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <a href="http://www.hardy4council.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.hardy4council.com/</a> Email: <span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409601021143_5619"><a href="mailto:hardy4council@gmail.com" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409601021143_5618" rel="nofollow" shape="rect" style="color: #336699; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409601021143_5617" style="color: blue;">hardy4council@gmail.com</span></a> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><u><b>√ </b></u><u><b>Kevin Park</b></u> for Santa Clara City Council, Seat 5: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409601021143_15215"><a href="http://www.kevinpark.org/" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409601021143_15257" rel="nofollow" shape="rect" style="color: #336699; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409601021143_15256" style="color: blue;">www.kevinpark.org</span></a></span> Email: <span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409601021143_15215"><a href="mailto:santaclarakevin@yahoo.com" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409601021143_15214" rel="nofollow" shape="rect" style="color: #336699; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409601021143_15213" style="color: blue;">santaclarakevin@yahoo.com</span></a> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><u><b>√ </b></u><u><b>Deborah Bress</b></u> for Mayor, City of Santa Clara:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <a href="http://www.deborahformayor.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.deborahformayor.com/</a> Email: <a href="mailto:DeborahforMayor@gmail.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">DeborahforMayor@gmail.com</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><u><b>√ </b></u><u><b>Dr. Christine Koltermann</b></u> for SCUSD Trustee Area 2: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409601021143_15382"><a href="http://santaclaraplaysfair.us2.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=b79ff537bb3b32a9d75568cc0&id=7760bef695&e=f77fbdb364" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409601021143_15381" rel="nofollow" shape="rect" style="color: #336699; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409601021143_15380" style="color: blue;">www.chriskoltermann.com</span></a><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409601021143_15385" style="color: black;"> Email: </span></span><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409601021143_15382"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409601021143_15385" style="color: black;"><a href="mailto:chris@chriskoltermann.com" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409601021143_15411" rel="nofollow" shape="rect" style="color: #336699; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">chris@chriskoltermann.com</a></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"> <u><b>√ </b></u><u><b>Dr. Michael Helms</b></u> for SCUSD Trustee Area 3:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409601021143_15373"><a href="http://santaclaraplaysfair.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b79ff537bb3b32a9d75568cc0&id=d4dd81d619&e=f77fbdb364" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409601021143_15388" rel="nofollow" shape="rect" style="color: #336699; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409601021143_15387" style="color: blue;">www.michaelhelms.org</span></a></span> Email: <span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409601021143_15373"><a href="mailto:michael@michaelhelms.org" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409601021143_15372" rel="nofollow" shape="rect" style="color: #336699; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">michael@michaelhelms.org</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>If one Santa
Claran or School District resident will endorse these candidates to
three or more neighbors, we have a real chance to build a Council <u>and</u> a School District which represent residents and taxpayers - not special interests.</i></b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;">As always, we thank you for all of your support.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;">Best regards,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;">William F. "Bill" Bailey, Treasurer,<br />
<a href="http://www.santaclaraplaysfair.org/">http://www.SantaClaraPlaysFair.org</a><br />
<br />
-=0=-<br />
<b>If you are a Santa Clara resident not registered to vote in the November 4th election, <a href="http://registertovote.ca.gov/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">you must register</a>
on or before October 20th. A paper registration is available at the
Office of the Santa Clara City Clerk at 1500 Warburton Drive, Santa
Clara. Telephone the City Clerk at 1(408)615-2220 for more details.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910275426244271797.post-81979514651727668972014-08-03T18:06:00.000-07:002014-08-03T21:40:11.066-07:00Please Save the Date: Northside Branch Library Opens on Saturday, August 9th<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Dear Santa Clarans,</span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I simply couldn't resist:</span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #741b47;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>"The pride and presence of a professional football team is far more important than 30 libraries."</i></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> --Art Modell,</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> late former Browns, Ravens Owner</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Right back at cha, Art:</span></span></i><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Please come out to the Northside Branch Library's opening next Saturday, August 9th, to see one example of the <u>proper</u> business of the City of Santa Clara concluded at last - and Mr. Modell proven wrong yet again.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Sometimes, We the People - taxpayers and residents - do score a win: Recall that this branch library has been promised to Santa Clarans repeatedly since at least 1987.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">After 27 years, it's about time.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It's also worth noting that in 1987 the Santa Clara City Council gave eleven acres to the San Francisco 49ers on <a href="http://santaclaraplaysfair.blogspot.com/2009/08/49ers-stadium-why-are-we-subsidizing.html" target="_blank">a sweetheart lease</a> that yields, even today, only a paltry $26,000 a year into our city's General Fund.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So, there is much to celebrate next Saturday. If you can make it, especially you regular patrons of Central Library, please do come on over.<i> </i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Even on Moreland Drive, the parking will still be a lot easier than it is around <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/49ers/article/Traffic-tech-glitches-mar-1st-event-at-new-5665230.php" target="_blank">Levi's Stadium</a>.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Thanks for your support and best regards,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">William F. "Bill" Bailey, Treasurer,</span></span><br />
<a href="http://www.santaclaraplaysfair.org/"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">http://www.SantaClaraPlaysFair.org</span></span></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">-=0=-</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910275426244271797.post-55660537668327856962014-07-01T00:00:00.000-07:002014-07-01T00:02:59.330-07:00Santa Clara Citizen's Advisory Committee Meeting, Wed., July 2nd: Welcome S.F. 49ers's Manager of Government Affairs<span style="font-size: large;">Dear Santa Clarans,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Santa Clara Citizens' Advisory Committee will meet this Wednesday evening, July 2nd, at 7:00 pm in City Council Chambers.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The guest speaker for the evening will be Mr. Rahul Chandhok, the Manager of Government Affairs for the San Francisco 49ers, who will present on the status of Levi's Stadium and host a question & answer session.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Can you make it? Tell your neighbors, and please come out and ask those questions about the stadium you've always wanted to ask.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Thanks for your support,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">William F. "Bill" Bailey, Treasurer,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">SantaClaraPlaysFair.org</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">-=0=-</span><br />
<br />
<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910275426244271797.post-64383075066541391522014-06-23T23:48:00.002-07:002014-07-19T19:35:36.732-07:00The 49ers' Traffic Jams and Parking: The Last Community Meeting will be held this Wednesday, June 25th<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Dear Santa Clarans north of U.S. 101,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">There is <u>just one</u> Community Meeting left for the public discussion of the traffic and the parking management which will be needed throughout the area near the 49ers' stadium:</span></span><br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-left: 5.4pt;">
<tbody>
<tr style="height: 13.4pt;">
<td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; height: 13.4pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 1.7in;" valign="top" width="163"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Date</span></span></td>
<td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; height: 13.4pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 1.2in;" valign="top" width="115"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Time</span></span></td>
<td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; height: 13.4pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Location</span></span></td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 48.15pt;">
<td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; height: 48.15pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 1.7in;" valign="top" width="163"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Wednesday,
June 25</span></span></td>
<td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 48.15pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 1.2in;" valign="top" width="115"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">7:00-8:30pm</span></span></td>
<td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 48.15pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Santa Clara
Youth Soccer Park</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Conference
Room</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">5020 Stars and
Stripes Drive</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span lang="ES">Santa Clara, CA 95054</span></span></span></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span lang="ES"> </span> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">An NFL event will lead to a stream of easily 20,000 motor vehicles into our city's north side - an SUV for virtually every resident of Zip Code 95054.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The earlier meetings have been attended by maybe a hundred folks each, tops - meaning that only a tiny fraction of people with a stake in the traffic management associated with the stadium have turned out for these meetings.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>How the
multi-city police force parks those 20,000 vehicles over the five hours
before a kickoff - and sends them on their way during the 90 minutes
after game-over - affects every resident of Santa Clara and a great many
also in north San Jose and Sunnyvale</b>. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Please note:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">1. Anyone may attend the meeting on Wednesday evening at the Youth Soccer Park. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">2. You do <u>not</u> need to be registered to vote in order to attend these meetings.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">3. You do <u>not</u> need to be a homeowner to attend. If you rent, you have a stake in this, too.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">From the May 19th meeting, please see the actual PowerPoint slides <a href="http://www.santaclaraplaysfair.org/files/Levis_Stadium_Community_Meetings_(v5).ppt" target="_blank"><b>here</b></a>, and if you have any questions, we urge you to contact directly:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="mailto:MayorAndCouncil@santaclaraca.gov" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mayor Matthews and the City Council</a> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> or </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://scpd.org/index.aspx?page=2817" target="_blank">The Santa Clara Police Department</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Please let us know if we may provide anything else, and thank you for all of your support.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Best regards,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">William F. "Bill" Bailey, Treasurer,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.santaclaraplaysfair.org/">http://www.SantaClaraPlaysFair.org/</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">-=0=-</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Next: More on the June 10th Council Meeting - and a little on the Development Study Session that preceded it.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span> </span><br />
<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910275426244271797.post-74496375753482320852014-06-23T02:47:00.003-07:002014-07-12T19:00:08.728-07:00The 49ers' Stadium Subsidy: Includes our City Parklands, too.<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Dear Santa Clarans,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">As you know, our City Council and our Department of Parks and Recreation are contemplating the placement of soccer pitches on one or both of Jenny Strand and Montague Parks. At the City Council Meeting of last Tuesday evening, June 10th, Santa Clarans and friends of those parks strongly urged that they be left exactly as they are.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Those public comments also gave us a clue to how we got where we are today. One resident lateraled this easy pass right over the dais - <i>'You're not closing the City of Santa Clara Youth Soccer Park, are you?'</i> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Mayor Matthews responded, in essence, <i>'Heavens, no!'</i> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Right answer. However, it was the wrong question.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Of course we're not closing the YSP! The real question should have been, <i>"Why are we moving dedicated soccer pitches into Santa Clara city parks? We <u>have</u> a Youth Soccer Park!"</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">We do indeed. Of course one could try to make a case for additional soccer field capacity elsewhere in the city simply because the Youth Soccer Park is so heavily booked during the season. But please consider that, since the passage of Measure Jed over four years ago, not one word of that has been spoken other than in the promises made
by Jed York to the Santa Clara Youth Soccer League - promises since broken by Mr. York and the San Francisco 49ers.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">There is no motivation for the 49ers - or even for the Santa Clara Stadium Authority, for that matter - to guarantee access to the Youth Soccer Park on an NFL event day. In fact, it is much more in the interest of the 49ers' front office to frustrate soccer park patrons as much as they possibly can, first to drive the offsite soccer pitch development (paid for by us and not by the 49ers) and then to force the city to relocate the Youth Soccer Park altogether (ditto).</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>All so that Jed York can park his VIPs' stretch limos on the grass.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Santa Clarans, the San Francisco 49ers are desperate to keep their names out of this entire affair. It is no accident that the three City Councilmembers who placed themselves on the Ad Hoc Additional Soccer Fields Committee** are diehard 49ers stadium boosters. They're more than happy to run interference for Jed York.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>But <a href="http://www.santaclaraplaysfair.org/">Santa Clara Plays Fair</a> urges that all residents call it for what it is: Coercion by the 49ers which, at minimum, is intended to force soccer matches out of the Youth Soccer Park on NFL game days. The Councilmembers on the Ad Hoc Committee should be working for us on this issue and demanding that the 49ers do what they promised us. They should not be shielding Jed York and the 49ers from the consequences of their own double-dealing.</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">We would truly appreciate hearing from residents on this issue. However, where Santa Clara city parks in your own neighborhoods are concerned, it's much more important that you ask hard questions of our seven
City Councilmembers, particularly since they also comprise the Santa
Clara Stadium Authority. Please contact them at <a href="mailto:MayorAndCouncil@santaclaraca.gov">MayorAndCouncil@santaclaraca.gov</a> .</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In sum: If Santa Clarans are being forced to give up the use of the Youth Soccer Park and multiple city park lands all because of the San Francisco 49ers' parking fiasco, then we're once again subsidizing Jed York and the 49ers by losing taxpayer-supported city services we've paid for but which we will no longer have available.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">We've given Jed York and the San Francisco 49ers quite enough. We most certainly do not owe Jed York what was demanded of supporters of Jenny Strand and Montague Parks last Tuesday night.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">As for youth soccer in our city: We have <u>one</u> Youth Soccer Park. We should not be forced to live with three or four little ones.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>The City of Santa Clara Youth Soccer Park, after all, is where <u>real</u> football is being played.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Thank you for all of your support,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">William F. "Bill" Bailey, Treasurer,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://santaclaraplaysfair.org/">SantaClaraPlaysFair.org</a></span></span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">-=0=-</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Next: More on the June 10th Council Meeting - and a little on the Development Study Session that preceded it.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">**<a href="http://sireweb.santaclaraca.gov/sirepub/mtgviewer.aspx?meetid=1462&doctype=SUMMARY" target="_blank">Agenda Item 12D, City Council Meeting of March 25th, 2014</a></span></span> (Scroll down to item 12D. That's the only place in which the formation of the Ad Hoc Committee is even noted.)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910275426244271797.post-60555656575980532412014-05-31T02:20:00.001-07:002014-07-19T19:36:17.516-07:00The 49ers' Traffic Jams and Parking: Please attend Northside Community Meeting on Monday, June 2nd<span style="font-size: large;">Dear Santa Clarans north of U.S. 101,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Three of the five Community Meetings concerning the management of stadium traffic and parking have been held on our city's north side. They've been well-attended, meaning that about eighty to ninety residents have mostly filled a hundred-or-so seats at every meeting.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">However, there are somewhere between 22,000 and 25,000 Santa Clarans who live in the area of Zip Code 95054, so perhaps only 1% of northside residents have actually seen and heard this very important presentation.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>How the multi-city police force parks over 20,000 vehicles over the five hours before a kickoff - and sends them on their way during the 90 minutes after game-over - affects every resident of Santa Clara and a great many also in north San Jose and Sunnyvale</b>. It might be worth clarifying:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">You do <u>not</u> need to be registered to vote in order to attend these meetings.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">You do <u>not</u> need to be a homeowner to attend.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Anyone may attend either or both of the two remaining meetings.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Santa Clara Plays Fair</b> would like to urge especially that as many Northside residents as possible come to these final two meetings:</span><br />
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<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-left: 5.4pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<tbody>
<tr style="height: 13.4pt;">
<td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 13.4pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 1.7in;" valign="top" width="163"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Date</span></td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 13.4pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 1.2in;" valign="top" width="115"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Time</span></td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 13.4pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Location</span></td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 38.15pt;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 38.15pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 1.7in;" valign="top" width="163"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Monday, June 2</span></td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 38.15pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 1.2in;" valign="top" width="115"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">7:00-8:30pm</span></td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 38.15pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Kathryn Hughes
Elementary School</span><br />
<span lang="ES" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: ES; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">4949 Calle De Escuela</span><span lang="ES" style="mso-ansi-language: ES;"></span><br />
<span lang="ES" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: ES; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Santa Clara, CA 95054</span><span lang="ES" style="mso-ansi-language: ES;"></span></td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 48.15pt;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 48.15pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 1.7in;" valign="top" width="163"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Wednesday,
June 25</span></td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 48.15pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 1.2in;" valign="top" width="115"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">7:00-8:30pm</span></td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 48.15pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Santa Clara
Youth Soccer Park</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Conference
Room</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">5020 Stars and
Stripes Drive</span><br />
<span lang="ES" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: ES; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Santa Clara, CA 95054</span><span lang="ES" style="mso-ansi-language: ES;"></span></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">From the May 19th meeting, please see the actual PowerPoint slides <a href="http://www.santaclaraplaysfair.org/files/Levis_Stadium_Community_Meetings_(v5).ppt" target="_blank"><b>here</b></a><span id="goog_2041554338"></span><span id="goog_2041554339"></span>, and if you have any questions, we urge you to contact directly:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="mailto:MayorAndCouncil@santaclaraca.gov" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mayor Matthews and the City Council</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> or </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://scpd.org/index.aspx?page=2817" target="_blank">The Santa Clara Police Department</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Yes, the plan for the stadium traffic jams is dynamic and subject to change. But the state that it's in right now is a fair indication of the disruption that Santa Clarans can expect not only on game days, but on non-NFL event days as well.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Please let us know if we may provide anything else, and thank you for all of your support.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Best regards,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">William F. "Bill" Bailey, Treasurer,</span><br />
<a href="http://www.santaclaraplaysfair.org/"><span style="font-size: large;">http://www.SantaClaraPlaysFair.org/</span></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">-=0=-</span><br />
<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910275426244271797.post-74863215522894382792014-04-21T00:53:00.002-07:002014-05-11T12:46:08.290-07:00The 49ers' Blame Game: Pin it on the School District? Oh, sure.<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Dear Santa Clarans:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The spinmeisters of the San Francisco 49ers were out in full force during and after the City Council Meeting of March 25th.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Regrettably, some of those doing the spinning were seated on the dais of our own City Council.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">At about 7:45 that evening, Santa Clara Unified School District's Trustee Board President, Dr. Christine Koltermann, made perfectly clear that there was one single meeting between representatives of the 49ers, and the District Superintendent at the time, Dr. Bobbie Plough, regarding the use of district athletic fields.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>At no time was any proposal brought to the Board of Trustees in public session, and most certainly none with any commitment of 49ers funds, for the simple reason that the 49ers failed to return to the SCUSD at any time after that.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">But it took Councilmembers Mahan and Gillmor less than 30 minutes to misrepresent precisely those contacts between the team and the school district, each essentially claiming that our school district was somehow sandbagging the 49ers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The spinmeisters - on and off of our Council - need desperately to persuade us that Santa Clara Unified is spoiling everybody's fun by denying the use of SCUSD athletic fields by the Santa Clara Youth Soccer League. Not only is that false on its face, it not even what this is about.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Believe it or not, it's about parking stretch limousines:</b> Among the over 20,000 parking spaces the the 49ers now claim they've secured, the team still can't seem to find enough parking stalls for their VIP guests. They're putting the screws to the Santa Clara Youth Soccer Park to give up their use of a youth athletic facility that our tax dollars have already paid for.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">At the time of the March 25th Council meeting, in fact, the team's extortion was much worse: The San Francisco 49ers were actually withholding the very funds they claim they were previously willing to expend for additional soccer fields. They did that to coerce the youth soccer teams into giving up their use of our soccer park on NFL event days. In other words, <i>'give us your soccer pitches, or we won't pay for the ones we promised you when we were trying to get you to vote Yes on Jed.'</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Now, as a result of the San Francisco 49ers reneging on their agreement, <a href="http://sireweb.santaclaraca.gov/sirepub/agdocs.aspx?doctype=summary&itemid=42262" target="_blank">YOU are paying the initial $2,000,000</a> for the development of new soccer pitches.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">To make an unpleasant story short, the press releases we've seen since the March 25th meeting - city and team - could be most charitably characterized as "indignant backpedaling": Due to the uproar over the 49ers' broken promises on the Youth Soccer Park, City Hall has itself now finally stated publicly that the Youth Soccer Park will be accessible and open to the soccer leagues on NFL event days.</span><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">At last!</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">But the question remains: If there was no intent to hand the Youth Soccer Park over to the 49ers during every NFL event, then <b>why wasn't the assurance above given to us residents last September when the 49ers's parking fiasco became public?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">This is nothing more than the 49ers' parking problems, reloaded, and the Santa Clara Unified School District is not responsible for fixing them.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Instead, we urge all residents to demand that our Council - identically our Stadium Authority - force the <u>49ers themselves</u> to honor their commitments to our city's </span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">youngest residents.</span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Thanks for all of your support,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">William F. "Bill" Bailey, Treasurer,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://www.santaclaraplaysfair.org/">http://www.SantaClaraPlaysFair.org/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">-=0=-</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">1. <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/matier-ross/article/Lots-of-oil-in-rail-tank-cars-about-to-be-coming-5341197.php">http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/matier-ross/article/Lots-of-oil-in-rail-tank-cars-about-to-be-coming-5341197.php</a> - scroll down to "Niners vs. Soccer"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">2. Several links to the city's own statements on the accessibility of our Youth Soccer Park are now stale. But a snippet of the coverage in Danville.com follows:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span id="yui_3_13_0_1_1398045131469_17429" style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span id="yui_3_13_0_1_1398045131469_17428" style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"> Dan Beerman,
spokesman for the city, said
it is not true as some have reported that the 49ers
are trying to take over the
Santa Clara Youth Soccer Park ,
beside the $3 billion Levi's
project on Stars &
Stripes Drive near Tasman Drive
in Santa Clara . <br clear="none" />
The city-owned
park, which has two grass
fields and one artificial turf field for soccer and
140 parking stalls, is not
closing and will be open even on crowded days when
the 49ers play football to
68,500 fans on starting this fall, Beerman said. <br clear="none" />
<span style="background-color: yellow;">"The soccer field
is going to stay at the
stadium and is going to be available to play at any
time," Beerman said. <br clear="none" />
"People will be
able to get in and access it
even on (49ers) game days," he said. </span><br clear="none" />
</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=</span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910275426244271797.post-18770337313212616892013-11-19T01:24:00.000-08:002013-11-19T02:40:37.770-08:00City Council Meeting Tues.: The 49ers' Traffic Jams & the TMOP - Part Two<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dear Santa Clarans,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There are some parts of the <a href="http://sireweb.santaclaraca.gov/sirepub/agdocs.aspx?doctype=agenda&itemid=41151" target="_blank">Traffic Management and Operations Plan, or TMOP</a>, that are worth flagging. A short index might help in locating the important parts. Page numbers shown below are <i>document</i> page numbers:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">1. <u>What data</u> is going to be collected, so that we can challenge any spin on the traffic numbers?:</span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">See page 4, Table 2-1 </span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">2. <u>Streets in Zip Code 95054</u> subject to access and/or parking restrictions, "Areas of Parking Prohibitions," and "Measures to Protect Property Owners:"</span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">See list, page 6, Section 2.2.2</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">See page 106, Figure 5.5-3</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">See page 107</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b>→</b> The above is a critical feature of the parking plan. Recall that the 49ers' stadium boosters sold their "plan" </i><i><i>three years ago </i>based on firm guarantees of 'residential intrusion control.' Now, all of that is out the window. <b>If you live close to the 49ers' stadium, the amount of parking enforcement you get will depend on how much enforcement you demand.</b></i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">3. <u>Neighboring properties</u> are expected to be in use during an NFL event. Note the inclusion of the Santa Clara Youth Soccer Park. That's pretty much <i>pro forma</i> at this point, because no one really knows what's going to happen to the YSL:</span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">See list, page 10, Section 2.2.6</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">4. <i>"An illustration of the likely parking facilities for Stadium events is provided in Figure 2-4."</i> <i>Likely</i>? After two years of obfuscation by the San Francisco 49ers on exactly this issue, there should be no "likely," but instead firm letters-of-intent and an exact numerical total of parking stalls. <b>They either have the 21,000 parking spaces they claim, or they do not</b>. To get most of the story:</span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">See page 12, Figure 2-4, for "likely" parking facilities</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">See page 102, Figure 5.5-1, for "Potential" Stadium Parking Program" </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">See page 103, Table 5.5-2, for a count of those "likely" parking spaces</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">5. <i>"As described earlier, the parking program </i>[<span style="color: red;">Over three years after Measure Jed was passed!</span>]<i> has not yet been finalized for event day use of off-site parking facilities.":</i></span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">See page 101 </span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">6. Page 5 does show the totals of patrons and their estimated arrival and departure rates. <b>But note that estimated 18,818 vehicle trips does not include the 1,740 vehicle trips made by some 2,900 stadium employees on an NFL game day. </b> For the straight story on those additional trips - and the parking stalls needed to accommodate them:</span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">See page 99</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">7. <u>Business Owners</u>: If you refused to agree to the 49ers' offsite parking demands, then you're now on your're own. Please see the last sentence in the following paragraph:</span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">See page 104, "Areas of Parking Prohibitions"</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">► In sum, considering how long we've been waiting for it, the Transportation Management and Operations Plan should have (1) a rock-solid description of a fully-formed Parking Overlay District, and (2) at least some indication of the makeup of the NFL event-day multicity police force needed to squeeze the 49ers' traffic jams into parking spaces. Unfortunately, it contains neither. <i>Residents on Santa Clara's north side, in particular, should have serious concern over what this plan fails to make firm.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you need any additional information on the TMOP, we'll be happy to answer any questions we're able to. What we don't know, we'll find out.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We welcome your commentary as well - but comments you have on the TMOP should also be directed to the <a href="mailto:MayorAndCouncil@santaclaraca.gov" target="_blank">Mayor and the City Council</a>. Please let them know what you think. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thanks for all of your support,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">William F. "Bill" Bailey, Treasurer,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.santaclaraplaysfair.org/">http://www.SantaClaraPlaysFair.org</a></span></span> <br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">-=0=-</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910275426244271797.post-53806455872680621352013-11-17T20:29:00.001-08:002013-11-17T21:51:08.979-08:00City Council Meeting Tues.: The 49ers' Traffic Jams & the TMOP - Part One<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Dear Santa Clarans,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The 49ers Stadium's <a href="http://sireweb.santaclaraca.gov/sirepub/agdocs.aspx?doctype=agenda&itemid=41151" target="_blank">Transportation Management and Operations Plan, or TMOP</a> comes before Council this Tuesday evening, November 19th. These 150 pages will directly impact Santa Clarans and Sunnyvale residents living north or U.S. 101. <b>Santa Clara Plays Fair</b> encourages all Santa Clarans, <i>but in particular those of us in Zip Code 95054</i>, to examine this plan carefully.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This will give you a fair idea of the traffic jams that you can expect during events at the 49ers' stadium.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">First, see the report's page 5 and note that the total number of vehicle trips on an NFL game day is recycled from the 2009 Environmental Impact Report. At that time, the San Francisco 49ers and their stadium boosters needed desperately to low-ball the count of vehicle trips so that any traffic plan here would "show well" compared to Candlestick Park.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">If you believe that figure - 18,818 vehicle trips - then maybe the 21,000 offsite parking spaces (<i>the parking spaces that the 49ers now swear they have</i>) will be enough to accommodate those vehicles. If the intersections are cleared a little sooner, fine - but none of this is going to reduce those game-day traffic jams in any way.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Of greater interest to Santa Clara residents, particularly on our north side, will be 'Residential Intrusion Control.' See page 6 of the report, Section 2.2.2, for a list of streets with "Event-related vehicle access" restrictions. <b>At the very least, if you are a resident of the Agnews area on Santa Clara's north side, your own street should be on this list.</b></span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">But what the City - and the Stadium Authority - are really willing to do to prevent residential parking from being swamped with game-day parking has been dialed back quite a bit since 2009. See in Section 5.1.1 on report page 29 the four numbered bullets at the bottom of the page: <b>Basically, you will get parking enforcement on your street not because it's the right thing to do, but only if you speak up about abuses by 49ers' fans. </b>Those game-goers will be trying to evade the parking fees in the much-vaunted "Offsite Parking District."</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Frankly, if we're dealing with game-goers who've spent $2,000 to $20,000 on stadium PSLs, they should have no quarrel with paying $40 to stow the Escalade while they're at the game. If they do have a problem with that and if they insist on jam-packing your own street so that you can't park in front of your own home, that will speak volumes about the regard that the 49ers' fan community truly has for the team's new home.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Can you attend the City Council Meeting this Tuesday evening? If you are a resident concerned about the game-day congestion generated by the 49ers' stadium, you can express those concerns when the TMOP is taken up. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Please come to Council Chambers, 1500 Warburton Drive, at 7:00 pm on Tuesday evening. If you cannot attend, please email your written comments directly to the <a href="mailto:MayorAndCouncil@santaclaraca.gov" target="_blank">Mayor and the City Council</a> .</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Tomorrow: A little index for the TMOP.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Thanks for all of your support,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">William F. "Bill" Bailey, Treasurer,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://santaclaraplaysfair.org/">http://www.santaclaraplaysfair.org/</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">-=0=-</span></span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910275426244271797.post-85821827325722373752013-09-24T18:21:00.001-07:002013-10-06T17:00:51.921-07:00The 49ers' Parking Spaces and Evicting the Youth Soccer Park, Part Two<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Dear Santa Clarans,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">From the Council/Staff/Advisory Committee Meeting of Thursday, September 12th, we first learned of the depths of the San Francisco 49ers' parking-space fiasco, thanks to a Santa Clara resident who attended. The <a href="http://www.santaclaraplaysfair.org/files/20130912_Santa_Clara_Council_and_Staff_Work_Study_Session_Soccer_Park.pdf" target="_blank">"Feasibility Study of Facility Alternatives" for the City of Santa Clara Youth Soccer Park</a> told us all that we needed to know:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The 49ers can't get enough parking spaces to accommodate the jammed traffic their games will cause - and by golly, someone's going to pay for that.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Namely, all of us, eh?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The 49ers and their stadium boosters were desperate to
portray themselves as "partners" to our city - and they were quite happy to use the glow of a nearby youth athletic facility to
help them in selling Measure Jed to Santa Clarans. But once the stadium was a lock based on those false claims of "synergy," what happened to the Youth Soccer Park was of no concern to those folks.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Essentially, "synergy" went out the window two years ago. The 49ers' attitude now is that the Youth Soccer Park has served its purpose. It must go.</i></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">If the 49ers' boosters want to make that claim, fine. But the expenses of moving the soccer park will range from $8,000,000 to $12,000,000.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">What are we going to use for money?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Well, a misleading Facebook post by former Councilman Kevin Moore invites us to fall for the following line: That the 49ers themselves <i>might</i> just pay for the damage they're causing - <i>out of the goodness of their hearts!</i> Unfortunately, that latter part is completely untrue.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In fact, when I researched this last week, it turned out that the <u>first</u> part of Mr. Moore's claim is actually partly true and more so than he knows: <b>The San Francisco 49ers are actually liable for precisely this relocation expense.</b></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The proof of that lies in the Rezoning and Tentative Subdivision Map requests from the 49ers themselves which were authorized by Council vote on November 9th, 2010. Specifically, see <a href="http://sireweb.santaclaraca.gov/sirepub/agdocs.aspx?doctype=summary&itemid=28884" target="_blank">RESOLUTION NO. 10-7785</a>, the fourth item: </span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">On page 5-of-39, Part G tells us that we'll have: "<i>...use that will be substantially equivalent to ones previously acquired for the public <b>in that the public will continue to have access to the Youth Soccer Park Facility</b>,... </i>" [<b><i>Emphasis</i></b> is mine.] </span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">But on page 16-of-39, we then read in Item E1: "<i>If relocation of an existing public facility...becomes necessary due to a conflict with the applicant's new improvements, </i><b><i>then the cost of said relocation shall be borne by the applicant....</i></b>" [<b><i>Emphasis</i></b> is mine.]</span></span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In other words, <b>the 49ers have already agreed to cover the expense of evicting and relocating city property</b> they think is just too close to their stadium.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">If this is still true (I invite City Staff to supply corrections), then it's time for our Santa Clara City Council to step up and insist: <b>The San Francisco 49ers are to either honor Item E1 above or they are to leave the City of Santa Clara Youth Soccer Park alone.</b></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The 49ers are making the former Redevelopment Agency pay off like a slot machine. They'll collect $16,200,000 in property tax money from our Successor Agency's Oversight Board in 2014 alone**. The team can afford to do what they've promised.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">And not out of the goodness of their hearts.</span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Thanks for your support,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">William F. "Bill" Bailey, Treasurer,</span></span><br />
<a href="http://www.santaclaraplaysfair.org/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Santa Clara Plays Fair.org</span></span></a><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">-=0=- </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">**Click <a href="http://sireweb.santaclaraca.gov/sirepub/agdocs.aspx?doctype=agenda&itemid=40446" target="_blank">here</a> . Then open "Resolution 2013-07." <i>The rakeoff to the 49ers, January and July of 2014, is shown in the rightmost column of the table on page 27-of-31.</i></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Then, check out how much we'll end up paying the team after that...BB</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910275426244271797.post-1386303806408339142013-09-23T15:04:00.001-07:002013-09-24T22:43:32.375-07:00The 49ers' Parking Spaces and Evicting the Youth Soccer Park, Part One<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Dear Santa Clarans,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">When the 49ers' Stadium Boosters on our City Council voted to allow a 14.5-acre stadium on a 17-acre parcel, what on earth did they expect would happen?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The San Francisco 49ers can't seem to stiff-arm enough
businesses in the Great America corridor into the "parking district"
needed to accommodate more than 20,000 autos. No surprise there; without being privy to any of the discussions, we can just guess what the lot owners' lawyers are asking the 49ers:</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">"<i>You're mixing drunken fans and flammables on our private property. Who's liable when a deadly assault or a fire or explosion occurs? The 49ers assume all liability, right? Or, the Santa Clara Stadium Authority has us covered, right?</i>"</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Well - probably not, and probably not. Or, the lot owners could be holding out for a much bigger slice of the parking-stall fee payments than the 49ers' are willing to part with. Guess.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Back in 2011, in any event, we residents were informed in our own Council Chambers - by the 49ers themselves - that we were not even entitled to know how many parking spaces they had secured by the first round of their letters-of-intent.</span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Only in the last couple of weeks have we learned that the 49ers are short by 5,000 parking spaces.</b></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>What? </i>In a Council Meeting of several years ago, former Councilman Kevin Moore, indignant that anyone would challenge his 49er-booster claims of 'more-than-enough' private parking stalls, stalked off the dais and returned to chambers some moments later with his famous two-by-three-foot storyboard showing "tens of thousands" of parking spaces surrounding the stadium site.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>No problem</i>, he and the four other 49ers' boosters on our Council assured us.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Well, yeah - there <u>is</u> a problem: Please note that the Stadium Authority, identically our City Council, approved the <a href="http://sireweb.santaclaraca.gov/sirepub/agdocs.aspx?doctype=summary&itemid=34133" target="_blank">Non-Relocation Agreement of March 15, 2012</a>. On page 12/23, note that the San Francisco 49ers have the power to break this agreement if 20% of the parking spaces are unavailable to them.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">While it's unlikely that the 49ers would do that at this stage, it's the deal-making by our own City Council=Stadium Authority that actually gives the team a perverse incentive to tank the NRA above if they ever decided to use the parking issue (or mustard stains on more than a fifth of the stadium's seats) as an excuse. But that isn't even the most deplorable part of this fiasco.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>We've now learned that the 49ers are demanding that the City of Santa Clara Youth Soccer Park be <u>evicted</u> so that the 49ers can pave it over for the parking stalls they're unable to squeeze out of the business owners on Great America Parkway.</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">A note to the suits in the 49ers' front office: The best you can do is maybe 1,300 spaces by forcing out this vital City of Santa Clara youth resource.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">It should not even come to that. This has an easy solution:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">First, to former Councilman Kevin Moore: </span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Please dig out that old 2-by-3 piece of foamcore with your much-vaunted "tens of thousands" of parking spaces. </span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Give it to the 49ers.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Problem solved.</span></span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Second, to the Santa Clara City Council=Stadium Authority:<i> </i></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The City Of Santa Clara Youth Soccer Park does more for the young people of our community than the San Francisco 49ers ever will. <i>The YSP should not be made to pay a thing for the poor planning which caused the stadium parking fiasco - no matter how many hot dogs you tell us we're going to sell.</i></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></b>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Thanks for all of your support,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">William F. "Bill" Bailey, Treasurer,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://santaclaraplaysfair.org/">SantaClaraPlaysFair.org</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">-=0=-</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Tomorrow: What will we use for money?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910275426244271797.post-38102259351370045932013-03-20T01:25:00.002-07:002013-03-20T22:24:51.209-07:0049ers' Stadium Subsidies: Making our General Fund Whole<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Dear Santa Clarans,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">If you caught Tuesday evening's Stadium Authority Meeting Agenda posted last Friday night and it<span style="font-size: large;">s </span>media coverage<span style="font-size: large;">, </span>you would have seen <span style="font-size: large;">a total </span><span style="font-size: large;">capitulation in our </span>Stadium Authority's bid to host Super Bowl L or LI.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Miami, a metropolitan area of 5.5 million, pushed back on some of <a href="http://santaclaraplaysfair.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-nfls-extortion-of-santa-clara.html" target="_blank">the very demands that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made of Santa Clara when he visited us back in January</a>. Miamians said that they weren't going to give up any of their hotel taxes in order to host a Super Bowl.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Those negotiating for our Stadium Authority sprang into action. As both the Agenda Report from Friday and the local news coverage made clear, those in charge of our bid to the NFL said that Santa Clara would leave all of that, plus waivers of the Youth/Senior Ticket Fee and the Off-site Parking Charges on the table for the NFL to snatch up.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">But those hotel taxes are still a part of an $11 million revenue stream<span style="font-size: large;"> vital</span> to our city's General Fund. No one on our Stadium Authority and City Council had any business even considering such a thing. T<span style="font-size: large;">uesday</span> evening, I presented this one slide before the Santa Clara Stadium Authority and the City Council:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0Wr1Aj-UGis/UUlgC7_SaHI/AAAAAAAAAD0/gSLY5Sb7DIg/s1600/CC_5D1_070109_Guiding_Principle_1_Slide_5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0Wr1Aj-UGis/UUlgC7_SaHI/AAAAAAAAAD0/gSLY5Sb7DIg/s400/CC_5D1_070109_Guiding_Principle_1_Slide_5.JPG" width="400" /></a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">After all, a promise is a promise<span style="font-size: large;">, <span style="font-size: large;">e</span></span><span style="font-size: large;">ven if Council made it over six year<span style="font-size: large;">s ago.</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">At any rate, </span>I learned shortly after this, in Chambers, that <span style="font-size: large;">during the day on Tuesday, </span>the San Francisco Super Bowl Host Committee finally stepped up where the NFL itself would not. There is now at least an agreement in principle that our city's General Fund <span style="font-size: large;">will </span>lose nothing because of what still remains a rather pathetic cave-in to the NFL's demands.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">I was impressed but not terribly surprised that the Bid Committee and City government could move that fast. As it turns out, I was required by the City of Santa Clara <a href="http://santaclaraca.gov/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=1462" target="_blank">Policy and Procedure Manual</a> to submit the slide above in advance to City Hall so that it could be checked for compatibility with the equipment in Chambers. This I did at 1:18 am Tuesday morning, a good seventeen hours in advance of the Special Session.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">For whatever reason today's events unfolded the way they did, this resident is grateful. But why bother? 350 hotel rooms in Santa Clara, let for a week with the 9.5% Transient Occupancy Tax waived, could amount to a mere $30,000 to $50,000 in losses to our General Fund.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Well, we've had no<span style="font-size: large;"> Fourth of July </span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">fireworks display in Central Park in 2011 or 2012 because our </span></span></span>City's Government has lacked the $65,000 to $80,000 needed for<span style="font-size: large;"> i<span style="font-size: large;">t. </span></span>A resident learned that the City was spending about $10,000 to provide Santa Clara Police escorts for the 49ers on our dime.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Now, staffing the new Northside Library will cost the General Fund about a million dollars a year, and if we choose to finally rebuild the International Swim Center, we'll stretch to provide the $700K per year it will cost to operate it (See the 2012-13 City Budget <a href="http://santaclaraca.gov/ftp/csc/pdf/2012-13-Annual-Budget.pdf" target="_blank">here</a> , pp. III .) </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">In other words, $50K here and $50K there, and in no time at all, you're talking real money.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>But the real reason why Santa Clara Plays Fair took this up was that <a href="http://santaclaraplaysfair.blogspot.com/2011/03/49ers-stadium-subsidy-promise-is.html" target="_blank">the promise above had already been broken by our City Council two years ago, nearly to the day</a>.</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">It was on March 15, 2011, that the Council voted the very SB 211 amendment which would take $19.5 million out of our General Fund over time by a diversion of RDA money. It may be called an irrevocable act on behalf of a now-defunct RDA. But it was still done in order to grease the subsidy of Jed York and his stadium, and it is very much a real General Fund loss - as today's giveback almost was.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Two years ago, by the way, "<i>make our General Fund whole</i>" were exactly the words of <b>Santa Clara Plays Fair. </b>Tuesday evening in Chambers and in the media, we were grateful to learn that City Staff agrees with us.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Thanks for all of your support,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">William F. "Bill" Bailey, Treasurer,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://santaclaraplaysfair.org/">SantaClaraPlaysFair.org</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">-=0=-</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910275426244271797.post-75073031539840479112013-03-02T16:49:00.004-08:002013-03-03T02:04:23.718-08:0049ers' Stadium Subsidy, Schools Money in One Pot - Who Knew?<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Dear Santa Clarans,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the wake of the dissolution of Redevelopment Agencies in California, every city has its own story, no doubt about it. In a nutshell, this is ours:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Our former RDA couldn't subsidize the San Francisco 49ers to the tune of that original $42,000,000 without extending its own authority to hand your property taxes over to the team. But our Council did just that in February of 2011 when they first proposed abolishing the debt-incurrence time limit for our RDA. This was the so-called "SB 211" amendment.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">
The claim at the time was that this would enable the RDA to issue low-interest bonds to pay back cash advances from the 49ers. Click on Agenda Item 6B <a href="http://sireweb.santaclaraca.gov/sirepub/mtgviewer.aspx?meetid=963&doctype=SUMMARY" target="_blank">here</a> to see the video and get the reports. The same claim was made when the SB 211 amendment was finally passed on March 15th, 2011. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Now, fast-forward to the City Council meeting of June 7, <u>a mere eighty-four days later</u>. In that meeting,<i> surprise!: W</i><i>e learned that there was no way that the RDA could possibly issue any bonds at all</i>. The RDA would be stuck paying the 49ers for their "Agency Advance" at an interest rate of up to 8.50% - using our property taxes to do it.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">S</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">ee page 5 of the "Committee of the Whole" report</span></span></span> <a href="http://sireweb.santaclaraca.gov/sirepub/mtgviewer.aspx?meetid=1021&doctype=SUMMARY" target="_blank">here</a> :<span style="font-size: large;"><i></i></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">By the time of the dissolution of the RDAs with AB 1x 26, the San Francisco 49ers had managed to suck over $10,000,000 out of our RDA. But now, both the remaining subsidy for Jed York <u>and</u> property taxes to support Santa Clara Unified Schools have ended up in the same, identical "Redevelopment Property Tax Trust Fund," or RPTTF. The Oversight Board of the Successor Agency is responsible for payments from that fund.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">A majority on that Oversight Board - and the California State Department of Finance as well - have rightly refused to recognize the stadium subsidy to the 49ers as equal to needed funding for SCUSD schools.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
Well! Furious that they cannot bleed that last $30,000,000 out of our property taxes, the 49ers are suing the Oversight Board - <b>and they've gotten the courts to stop payments to any other Agencies until they get payments to themselves. </b><i>One original estimate (5/3/2012) actually called for the Oversight Board to pay the 49ers more than $52,000,000 over time!:</i></span></span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wlsiw2mZLQw/UTLJzGXowuI/AAAAAAAAADg/j9bgk7anvN0/s1600/ScreenShot125.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="25" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wlsiw2mZLQw/UTLJzGXowuI/AAAAAAAAADg/j9bgk7anvN0/s400/ScreenShot125.bmp" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">How on <span style="font-size: large;">earth did a plum paym<span style="font-size: large;">ent to a millionaire NFL team owner end up in the same p<span style="font-size: large;">ot </span></span></span>as the money we need to educate our children? By what arrogan<span style="font-size: large;">t stretch of entitlement </span>do the 49ers<span style="font-size: large;"><i> </i></span>justify holding the entire RPTTF hostage<span style="font-size: large;"> and in </span><span style="font-size: large;">making the<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span>Oversight Board responsible for acts of Sacramento?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Ask a 49ers Stadium Booster - if they voted for Measure Jed on June 8, 2010, then they voted for exactly the outrage above.**</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">We'll know more on March 22nd, when <i>49ers v. Oversight Board</i> is heard in the Sacramento Superior Court. Please stay in touch, and ask questions. What we don't know, we'll do our best to find out.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Thanks for all of your support,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">William F. "Bill" Bailey, Treasurer</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">-=0=-</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>49ers v. Oversight Board</i>: Case 34-2012-80001192 may be searched <a href="https://services.saccourt.ca.gov/indexsearchnew/CaseType.aspx" target="_blank">here</a> . Pull down for "Civil," check "CCMS," then enter the case number. Smile.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">**If you do ask a 49ers Stadium Booster, please don't settle for any weasel words. That "Agency Advance" was amply covered in the June 8th, 2010, language for Measure Jed, §7.4(c). I'm reading my <span style="font-size: large;">old </span>Sample Ballot <span style="font-size: large;">now </span>as I write this<span style="font-size: large;">. It was one of a myriad of reasons I voted a fl<span style="font-size: large;">at "NO" on Measure Jed then.</span></span></span></span><br />
<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910275426244271797.post-18517271594797823482013-01-10T22:54:00.003-08:002013-01-11T01:57:06.239-08:00The NFL's Extortion of Santa Clara<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Dear Neighbors,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">We Santa Clarans <span style="font-size: large;">are sin<span style="font-size: large;">king </span></span>the Santa Clara Stadium Authority $950 MILLION in debt to subsidize Jed York's stadium for him. We're settling for miserable jobs, atrocious economic activity and massive traffic jams<span style="font-size: large;">, and that's </span>even after we've given in to the 49ers' demands again and again.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Our reward? A <a href="http://santaclaraplaysfair.org/index.php/dda" target="_blank">DDA</a> and a joinder agreement even worse than the previous proposal. When we collected 5,500 petition signatures to put the $950,000,000 subsidy on a ballot after it increased from $114,000,000, Santa Clarans were told that they would not be allowed to vote again.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Now, get this: <b>The NFL itself has gotten into the act</b>. Their demands, from the <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/southbayfootball/ci_22350058/santa-clara-weighs-super-bowl-financial-terms-imposed" target="_blank">Mercury News' coverage of late today</a>, include:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>'Give us the stadium, the Youth Soccer Park, and the surrounding parking for less than the going rate.' </i></span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Just a minute: The 49ers would pay us even <u>less</u> during a Super Bowl than they would during Regular Season play?</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>'Give us part of your hotel tax receipts.'</i> </span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">A revenue stream absolutely vital <span style="font-size: large;">to</span> our City's General Fund, tapped by the NFL? In no time at all, Roger Goodell's demands on our Transient Occupancy Tax, or T.O.T, will exceed th<span style="font-size: large;">at</span> pathetic little Ground Rent paid by the 49ers.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>'Waive the California Sales Tax on Super Bowl ticket sales, and give our VIPs a break on anything they buy while they're here.'</i> </span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">So someone paying a thousand bucks for a football ticket gets to stiff us for $90<span style="font-size: large;">.</span> Who on earth do Roger Goodell and Greg Aiello think are going to pay those taxes? With Sacramento in the shape it's in, try to imagine the likelihood that the same State Government that shoved <a href="http://santaclaraplaysfair.org/index.php/sb43">SB43</a> down our throats is actually going to forgive those taxes. In fact, you can bet your bottom dollar that the State will hold Santa Clara responsible for any taxes we waive. </span></span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The spinmeisters will <span style="font-size: large;">soon </span>be out in force<span style="font-size: large;"> </span>telling us that the Lea<span style="font-size: large;">gue and the <span style="font-size: large;">49ers are </span></span>doing this for our own good - <i>"Gosh, think of all of those cheeseburgers you're gonna sell!"</i><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Please don't fall for any of it - the NFL's demands boil down to simply this:</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i><b>'</b></i></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Give us <u>even more</u> breaks for our millionaire team owners and their hanger-on guests, or we won't won't even look<span style="font-size: large;"> at your </span>Super Bowl bid.'</i></b></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Santa Clara
Plays Fair <span style="font-size: large;">urges Santa Clarans to watch the actions of <span style="font-size: large;">the </span>"stadium <span style="font-size: large;">boosters" on <span style="font-size: large;">our City Council </span></span>care<span style="font-size: large;">fully. As we lea<span style="font-size: large;">rn more, we'll share it as soon as we can.</span></span></span> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">There is only one word for <span style="font-size: large;">the actions of the National Football League, </span>and Santa Clarans should repeat that word early and often<span style="font-size: large;">:</span> <b><i>This is extortion.</i></b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> </i> </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Please, Santa Clarans: Tell our <a href="mailto:MayorAndCouncil@santaclaraca.gov" target="_blank">Mayor and Council</a> :</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">NOT ONE PENNY MORE.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Not for Jed.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Not for Roger, either.</span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Thanks for all of your support,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">William F. "Bill" Bailey, Treasurer,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Santa Clara Plays Fair</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910275426244271797.post-75804137038095618092011-12-11T10:43:00.001-08:002011-12-11T13:15:23.682-08:0049ers' Stadium Subsidies: "Let's go on a spree with the city's credit cards!"<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Dear Santa Clarans,</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">We're already getting some diversionary spin on the outlandish debt which five City Councilmembers and the 49ers want to pile on the Santa Clara Stadium Authority. Let's look at two of them, one unimportant, but the other one vital to the fiscal health of our city.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;">The first bit attributes to our group some imagined false focus on the increase in the total construction costs of the 49ers' stadium. Well, yeah, it has increased from $937,000,000 to $1,020,000,000 (That's $1.02 BILLION). That's an unadjusted increase of about 9%, but (maybe) 2-4% in "June, 2010 Dollars".</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;">For us, that's not the real story.</span><br />
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The real story is that second bit of pap: The utterly false claim that the 49ers and the NFL are somehow contributing "revenues" for the stadium. They are not. They are instead heaping an additional $520,000,000 worth of loans onto the $330,000,000 already down to the Santa Clara Stadium Authority.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">That's public debt, and it's public money.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://santaclaraplaysfair.blogspot.com/2011/12/49ers-stadium-subsidies-49ers-get.html">This</a></b> should never have happened. But there is a hard number of true out-of-pocket 49ers' contribution that the team, the NFL and their financiers can't hide: The 49ers sent us to the polls last June with their own bought-and-paid for 'citizens' initiative.' At the time, they "estimated" that they would be contributing $493 million toward a one-billion-dollar stadium.</span><br />
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Eighteen months later, <a href="http://santaclaraplaysfair.org/index.php/dda">our "business partner" now wants to pay only $152 million</a> </b>- and they want a Santa Clara Agency to service $850,000,000 in debt for a stadium that only benefits the team and the NFL.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>You're entitled to ask the question: Why are the 49ers now paying only a mere 15% of the total costs of their stadium?</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Why are they not paying the 53% they told us when we went to the polls last June?</b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.santaclaraplaysfair.org/">Santa Clara Plays Fair</a> urges our City Council to take this DDA back to the drawing board. The 49ers should at least be paying for their own stadium themselves, if they insist upon grabbing up all of the NFL Revenues.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>They also owe Santa Clara MUCH more in Fixed Rent payments to the City's General Fund - <a href="http://www.santaclaraplaysfair.org/files/Ground_Leases_and_49ers_NFL_Revenues.pdf">a miserable $180 THOUSAND in the first year is unacceptable</a>.</i> </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Finally, they should most certainly be turning exclusive control of the Second Team Sublease over to our own Stadium Authority. They shouldn't be calling the shots on the Second Team - we should be.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The five 49ers' Stadium Boosters on our City Council are letting the San Francisco 49ers go on a spree with Santa Clara's credit cards. That's simply not the answer - not for our city, and not for Santa Clarans.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Please: <i>Come to City Council Chambers this Tuesday evening, December 13, at 7:00 pm - and speak out against the outrageous stadium subsidy.</i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Demand more from the San Francisco 49ers.</i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
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<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
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<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Thanks for all of your support,<br />
Bill Bailey, Treasurer<br />
<br /><br />
-=0=- </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Any materials you find here in the blogs of Santa Clara Plays Fair and Stadium Facts may be forwarded to anyone, anytime.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"></span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910275426244271797.post-88196048106123454832011-12-04T23:02:00.001-08:002011-12-05T00:36:23.861-08:0049ers' Stadium Subsidies: The 49ers get Cafeteria-style financing from Santa Clara<span style="font-size: large;">Dear Santa Clarans,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">From Friday evening, you were given 96 hours to review the <a href="http://sireweb.santaclaraca.gov/agdocs.aspx?doctype=agenda&itemid=33040">421-page Draft DDA on the City's website</a>. We've gone through it as thoroughly as we can. It's complex, but an analogy might help clear the air about what it really means:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">You've engaged a partner to help build a new home. Your business partner controls nearly all of the negotiations with the architect and the General Contractor, so your partner's design demands come first.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">You also thought that you and your partner were going roughly "halves" on the total construction cost of $937,000.00, with $444,000 down to you and $493,000 down to your partner.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">You now learn that the cost to build is now a million and change.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Worse, at the eleventh hour, your partner is shoving much more of his cost onto your $444,000 line of credit. He has the unmitigated gall to tell you that, since he doesn't drive, and because he eats out and shaves at work, <i>he isn't going to pay for the construction of the home's garage, kitchen or bathrooms.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">So, after four years of dickering, your partner says that he's only liable for $152,000 of the cost of a $1,020,000 new home. He expects you to pay the other $850,000 - and he still expects to take 30-minute showers, set the thermostat to 78 degrees and use your microwave oven and flat-panel TV.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Sound bad? It gets worse: Multiply the dollar amounts above by 1,000 and that is <u>exactly</u> what the San Francisco 49ers are doing to us right now. What the 49ers are saying is, <i>"We'll pay for the locker rooms and our
Team Store - but we don't use the rest, so we're not going to pay for it."</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">We must have missed something. The 49ers will take well over $130,000,000 out of that <u>whole</u> stadium every year - but they won't pay for the bleachers, seats or club lounges that paying fans will be using? Consider the billions they will gross from a stadium we're paying for, <b>and then ask yourself why the total net present value (NPV) of their payments over forty years into our city's General Fund remains at a mere $8 million.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">What's even more pathetic than the lousy $8 million: The five 49ers' Stadium Boosters on our elected City Council actually give every indication that they're going to agree to the 49ers' outlandish "cafeteria-style" financing - even though it's much worse than the 49ers' own Measure J from last June.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>It should be clear now why the 49ers' "J" put no limit of any kind on Santa Clara Stadium Authority debt.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Santa Clarans, <i>please demand more. </i>See the <a href="http://www.santaclaraplaysfair.org/">SCPF homepage</a> for details on the Study Sessions this Tuesday and Thursday - and for contact information for Mayor Matthews and the City Council. It is vital that you make your views on the massive stadium subsidy known.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Especially since that subsidy has more than doubled in eighteen months.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Not even Measure J justifies that.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Thanks for all of your support,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Bill Bailey, Treasurer</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">-=0=-</span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910275426244271797.post-87301283885293890982011-11-22T00:47:00.000-08:002011-11-22T01:01:38.988-08:00Subsidizing the 49ers: That $10 million We Don't Have is just the Tip of the Iceberg<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Dear Santa Clarans,</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Very shortly, our City Council will have met behind closed doors with the San Francisco 49ers exactly ONE HUNDRED TIMES since May 1, 2007.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Publicly, however, there's been </span><span style="font-size: large;">only four </span><span style="font-size: large;">years' worth of total hype about the stadium's financing. In early December, at least some preliminary <span style="font-weight: bold;">Disposition and Development Agreement</span>, or DDA, for the massive subsidy of the 49ers' stadium, will finally come before Council. Can you residents, ratepayers and taxpayers attend some or all three of these meetings at City Hall, and speak out against the 49ers' Stadium Subsidy?:<span class="yiv64534088yshortcuts" id="yiv64534088lw_1321605675_1"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1321939627_2"> </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<ul><li><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="yiv64534088yshortcuts" id="yiv64534088lw_1321605675_1"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1321939627_2">Tuesday, December 6th, 2011</span></span>: "Council Committee of the Whole" Study Session I</span><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="yiv64534088yshortcuts" id="yiv64534088lw_1321605675_2"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1321939627_3"> </span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="yiv64534088yshortcuts" id="yiv64534088lw_1321605675_2"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1321939627_3">Thursday, December 8th, 2011</span></span>: "Council Committee of the Whole" Study Session II</span><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="yiv64534088yshortcuts" id="yiv64534088lw_1321605675_3"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1321939627_4"> </span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="yiv64534088yshortcuts" id="yiv64534088lw_1321605675_3"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1321939627_4">Tuesday, December 13th, 2011</span></span>: Public Hearing, City Council Meeting</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></li>
</ul><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Time: 7:00 pm Location: City Council Chambers, 1500 Warburton Drive</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="yiv64534088yshortcuts" id="yiv64534088lw_1321605675_0"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1321939627_1">Santa Clara</span></span> Plays Fair</b> urges Santa Clarans to attend as many of these meetings as possible - and to speak out.</span></div><div id="yiv64534088yui_3_2_0_26_1321595062909637" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">So, what's a DDA, and what's a Term Sheet?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The DDA is the binding Development Agreement, which places massive amounts of public subsidies - and control over the stadium itself - in the hands of the 49ers. The Term Sheet of June 2, 2009 is its predecessor document --- which gives away the store to the 49ers:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">1. The wretched Ground Lease with the City pays only $180 thousand the first year any stadium opens - but the 49ers will easily gross over $130 million in television rights and luxury box rents that same first year. Not a penny of those "NFL Revenues" benefit our city or its agencies - it all goes into Jed York's pockets.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">2. We voted away any right to sublease to a 2nd NFL team - and we gave that exclusive right to Jed York and the 49ers.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">3. It's unlikely that the Santa Clara Stadium Authority can generate enough revenue to operate the 49ers' stadium for them year-round - so, on June 7th, City Staff acknowledged that the Stadium Authority will probably give up control of the stadium for six months of every year. Calling the 49ers's stadium a "municipal stadium" is simply inaccurate - virtually every development we've seen since Measure Jed merely proves how little control we have over "our" stadium.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">4. We were assured that the team would be paying 'substantially' more than the pathetic $5 million a year that the Stadium Authority was supposed to get originally - but we won't know what the 49ers will be paying until the Study Session Agenda is issued, probably on Friday evening, December 2nd.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">5. The $10,000,000 in Stadium Authority money voted for "make-ready" work this last Tuesday? The Stadium Authority does not even HAVE $10 million. It <u>may</u> have most of the $4 million that it got from the RDA after our Council "parked" that four mil with the 49ers themselves - but the remaining $6 million will have to be borrowed from the 49ers themselves, with interest payable. Make no mistake; this is the start of a perpetual cycle of indebtedness for at least one Santa Clara agency.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">It's become quite clear over the last seventeen months that the "deal" with the 49ers has only two purposes: To saddle Santa Clara's agencies with all of the stadium debt - and to give the profits, power and control to Jed York and the 49ers.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">If you can speak out on December 6th, 8th and 13th - will you tell our City's leaders that <a href="http://www.fieldofschemes.com/news/archives/2011/11/4726_santa_clara_spe.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span class="yiv64534088yshortcuts" id="yiv64534088lw_1321605675_11">the 49ers are not paying nearly enough for their own stadium</span></a>. ? <span style="font-style: italic;">Public debt IS public money.</span> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Before they sign any legally binding "deal" with the San Francisco 49ers, the five 49ers fans seated on our City Council owe us Santa Clarans a much better deal that Measure Jed gave us over a year ago.</span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Nothing is stopping Council from fixing a horribly bad stadium deal - but they'll have to stand up to the San Francisco 49ers in order to do that.</span></b><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Thank you for all of your support,<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">William F. "Bill" Bailey</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></span></div><div id="yiv64534088yui_3_2_0_26_13215950629091443" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span id="yiv64534088yui_3_2_0_26_132159506290954" style="font-size: large;">Treasurer</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span id="yiv64534088yui_3_2_0_26_132159506290954" style="font-size: large;"><span class="yiv64534088yshortcuts" id="yiv64534088lw_1321605675_12"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1321939627_13">1(877)703-4300</span></span> </span><br />
<br />
<span id="yiv64534088yui_3_2_0_26_132159506290954" style="font-size: large;">Please visit our blogs at:<br />
<a href="http://www.santaclaraplaysfair.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span class="yiv64534088yshortcuts" id="yiv64534088lw_1321605675_13">http://www.santaclaraplaysfair.blogspot.com/</span></a><br />
<a href="http://stadiumfacts.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span class="yiv64534088yshortcuts" id="yiv64534088lw_1321605675_14">http://stadiumfacts.blogspot.com/</span></a><br />
<br />
-=0=-</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910275426244271797.post-84098667780121925492011-10-12T23:34:00.000-07:002011-10-13T00:04:46.355-07:0049ers' Stadium Subsidies: Sorry, they're not for you, Mark.<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Dear Santa Clarans,</span></div><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Gosh, will he or won't he? Check out the pop press for the latest speculation on why Jed York will/won't agree to take on Mark Davis and the Oakland Raiders as his tenant.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">That's the way the question should be phrased, because Jed York has far more power over the Raiders - and over Santa Clara - than any of us have over him.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The rule that never changes is a very straightforward one: <i>It's about the money, and it's never about the football.</i> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">More than a few heirs of millionaire NFL team owners have learned that the hard way, as they've inherited fat assets with bare-bones cash accounts. The children of Georgia Frontiere (St. Louis Rams) and Jack Kent Cooke (Washington Redskins) know exactly how this works. They ended up selling controlling interests in their teams so that they could pay off inheritance tax bills for tens of millions of dollars that were due in mere months after the passing of the majority owner.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">A Santa Clara stadium, with Jed York as his landlord, doesn't really solve that problem for Mark Davis.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Also, the subsidy that Santa Clarans are going into debt to pay? It's up to at least $500,000,000 and will likely end up being much more than that. Other than giving the Raiders a place to play, the subsidy - as well as that sublease - benefit the 49ers far more than it will ever benefit the Raiders. Or us.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Note also that the 49ers will be making sure that any stadium they're in will be geared to market their brand - not Raiders jerseys. The sale of NFL gear is big business, and all of the profits from those bobble-headed dolls go into the pockets of the 49ers (and not to a single Santa Clara agency). It doesn't pay Jed York to have any brand-dilution going on <a href="http://santaclaraplaysfair.blogspot.com/2011/06/2-subsidizing-san-francisco-49ers-one.html">in a stadium he controls</a>.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Silly fan emotionalism doesn't mean a thing in any discussion of the Raiders' future (It certainly doesn't in any discussion of <u>our</u> futures). When millionaire NFL team owners do </span><span style="font-size: large;">that thing that </span><span style="font-size: large;">they do, it may be an accidental sop to one fan constituency </span><span style="font-size: large;">or another </span><span style="font-size: large;"> - but that is never the priority for the millionaire NFL team owners who are really calling the shots.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">It's about the money. <i>Always is.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Thank you for all of your support,</span></div><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bill Bailey, Treasurer,</span></div><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Santa Clara Plays Fair.org</span></div><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">-=0=-</span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910275426244271797.post-56306299092785694142011-10-09T14:16:00.000-07:002011-10-11T22:32:00.126-07:0049ers' Stadium Subsidies: A Cult of SecrecyDear Santa Clarans,<br />
<br />
<br />
This writer asked at the July 5 meeting of the City Council and Agencies that any dollar amounts taken in by the Santa Clara Stadium Authority in the sale of stadium Personal Seat Licenses, or PSLs, be public information. Santa Clarans in Chambers that evening, plus television viewers on Channel 15, were told by City Staff that this is confidential information - even though those PSLs are being sold by a Santa Clara City Agency and not by the 49ers.<br />
<br />
Some months ago, I asked in Chambers that the dollar amounts actually committed to in any Letters of Intent for the parking overlay on private lots be disclosed publicly. Santa Clarans were denied that information also. But what was most disturbing on that occasion was that we were refused not by our own City Staff, but by Lisa Lang, VP of Communications for the San Francisco 49ers - <i>who had no business even speaking for the Stadium Authority.</i><br />
<br />
A few weeks ago, <a href="http://www.firstamendmentcoalition.org/2011/10/california-santa-clara-withholds-49ers-stadium-security-report/">CalAware petitioned City Hall for the release of the public safety report for gameday security</a> in a billion-dollar-stadium paid for mostly by us.<br />
<br />
And <i><u>they</u></i> were refused.<br />
<div style="color: purple;"><i>(A correction --- Neither <b>CalAware</b> nor the <b>First Amendment Coalition</b> were refused this report because they were not the ones who requested it. But you can still follow the trail in the link above to find out just who that shy party was. We might even find out why the source of the original request is mentioned virtually only in the last sentence. Thanks to several members of <a href="http://www.santaclaraplaysfair.org/"><b>Santa Clara Plays Fair </b></a>for pointing this out. -- BB, 10/11/2011)</i></div><br />
This is a big deal. After the shootings, beating and parking lot brawl at Candlestick Park on August 20th and September 18th, we as residents are absolutely entitled to know that, of 160 police officers handling a massive traffic jam of over 20,000 vehicles, some portion of them will be protecting members of the public, and in particular residents on the north side of our city.<br />
<br />
The refusal of the Stadium Authority even to tell us how they're going to protect us during NFL events at a stadium we're paying for simply isn't acceptable. The 49ers - and the NFL - have no business telling us what we can and cannot see.<br />
<br />
The use of the Closed Sessions of our Council and our Agencies to conceal this as well as the true costs of the stadium subsidies from us is simply another nail in the coffin of open government. We have a culture of secrecy that's rapidly becoming a cult.<br />
<br />
Surely, the All-American City deserves much better. Will you please speak out? <a href="mailto:MayorAndCouncil@santaclaraca.gov">Contact the Council directly</a> .<br />
<br />
<i>Demand more.</i><br />
<i><br />
</i><br />
<br />
<br />
Thanks for all of your support,<br />
<br />
Bill Bailey, Treasurer<br />
<br />
-=0=-Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1