STOP's Mistakes
It’s been a while since I last posted a message on KingsFans.com
I’ll address a few things.
STOP has made many mistakes.
City Charter
We know a few of them such as how the city charter gives the council the authority and power to make a decision on the non-binding arena term sheet as well as to voting on it to make it binding. There’s no taxes or new taxes so there’s that.
Does anyone remember the city council meeting that was held on Feb. 9, 2012?
If not here’s what the Bee reported…
“With Sacramento’s arena negotiations entering a pivotal stretch, the City Council came within one vote Tuesday night of derailing the project before knowing what the plan would look like.
By a 5-4 margin, the council rejected a request by Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy to ask voters in June if they approve of a nascent plan to lease the city’s parking to a private operator. Mayor Kevin Johnson and other arena supporters are counting on such a parking lease to raise about half the money needed for the $387 million arena.
The unexpectedly close vote left many of those involved wondering whether there would be support on the council for a parking lease, or whether it would become a politically radioactive issue for a council entering an election season.
A June vote on Sheedy ’s ballot measure would have come after a March 1 deadline imposed by the NBA for Sacramento to devise a plan for a new arena, or risk losing the Kings. Arena supporters said it also would have shown the league there is limited support for the project at City Hall."
If that vote by the council had passed, you can only imagine what could have happened.
Deadlines
On May 29, 2013, STOP notified the city clerk’s office that it intended to gather signatures. The city attorney’s office had two weeks to write a ballot summary before STOP could begin collecting.
On June 13, 2013, the ballot summary was made official but Camacho told KCRA 3 they were reconsidering the special election because it would cost the city $1.5 million. Camacho also said the short time frame to collect signatures was difficult.
STOP missed their own deadline for the special election in December 2013 because they were reactive instead of proactive.
On July 10, 2013, Tab Berg told KCRA 3 they had collected “well over 10,000 signatures” but “not quite 30,000.” Tab said they planned on submitting the petitions in August. Keep in mind Chris Hansen’s money was being used for nearly a month.
At a recent city council meeting it was said the council would vote in April 2014 and the bonds to be sold in May 2014 with the arena opening in fall 2016 for the 2016-2017 NBA season. This has been public information for quite some time but it was funny to watch the reaction of Craig Powell during that meeting. It was like he was just learning all of this information for the first time and became very angry that their vote was being taken away.
The key here is STOP was working on their own deadlines instead of the city’s deadlines.
STOP is also asking for two votes. One is should the registered voters of the city of Sacramento have a vote on the arena spending and if that passed then another vote would take place months later down the road. Basically they’re trying to delay the project just as Michael Edwards said on video to us this past summer.
STOP has no one to blame but themselves for their own stupidity.
More Mistakes
I can’t say what the other mistakes are but I can say I have proof and I have been sitting on this since last summer. I have also checked with a few folks in the know to validate what I have and if what I am told is correct then STOP is in a world of hurt.
If what I have is proven to be true then I’ll show my cards once it is made public. If not I’ll share what I have at another time.
The fight is not over so I hope that you can join us for more good times at City Hall along with the arena debate, etc.
We also have a look back at 2013 on our web site at crowndowntown.org
It begins with January 2013 –
http://www.crowndowntown.org/2013/12/22/2013-a-year-in-review-part-2
Finally 2008-2012 here –
http://www.crowndowntown.org/2013/12/21/2013-a-year-in-review-part-1
Looking forward to our bright future.