Hansen behind STOP $$$

Dale Kasler ‏@dakasler 23m
Hansen says he never authorized Loeb law firm to finance anti-arena signature gathering.

Now that could bring the rumors of Maloofian tomfoolery back into the picture...

Maybe, but I think it ends here. I actually think Loeb just fell on the sword for their client. I'm sure they got some fiscal incentive. Hansen's statement was a PR attempt to undo his disaster of a move. I only care if he makes good on his effort to retrieve the signatures. He could play further games by saying he tried but failed to get them back.
 
Just going to roll out my 2 cents on the big picture.
The NBA made their decision to stick with Sacramento and we all know the arena situation was a big factor. They went to great lengths to make sure Steinberg was committed to the bill for the CEQA review. There had to be some assurance that the 7-2 council vote block was in stone. They anticipated there would be a petition and how that would be handled. So we all agree here that none of the actions are a surprise other than Hansen's name popping up.

So going forward, I think the council is locked into approval the next vote for the arena agreement. Depending on the EIS completion, it's a done deal. Petition, vote, whatever, it won't matter. I think the council votes stand up even if they are challenged in court.
 
Maybe, but I think it ends here. I actually think Loeb just fell on the sword for their client. I'm sure they got some fiscal incentive. Hansen's statement was a PR attempt to undo his disaster of a move. I only care if he makes good on his effort to retrieve the signatures. He could play further games by saying he tried but failed to get them back.

True. It's strictly a PR move. But the move will be meaningless unless he actually get's the signatures back. Now that he has put it out there, Sacramento citizens, businessmen and politicians will call him on it if he doesn't really go out there to get the signatures back. Either way, I would think there is some kind of legal recourse to not allow those signatures to count in the end.
 
True. It's strictly a PR move. But the move will be meaningless unless he actually get's the signatures back. Now that he has put it out there, Sacramento citizens, businessmen and politicians will call him on it if he doesn't really go out there to get the signatures back. Either way, I would think there is some kind of legal recourse to not allow those signatures to count in the end.


I almost want the sigs to stay out there because it would be easier on Sac. Once the sigs are put into play THEN we could question the legitimacy.
 
How is this tax based as claimed by STOP? It is money derived from parking lots that might have essentially no business during the periods of time when the money is used. I suppose this has already been discussed but given that video on TV where signature solicitors were saying that taxes would go up, I think the continued use of the word "tax" is disgusting. If it costs us the Kings, I'd like the address of the members of the STOP group. Don't they have something better to do. That's merely to see if they are citizens of Sacramento, of course.

Hansen better fight for these signatures. He is hurting a city and will derive no personal benefit. It may have not been intended that way but that's what may result. I can't believe he gives a crap. He's so far above the average basketball fan that he doesn't need to care.
 
On Napear's radio show just now State Senator Pres. Pro-tem Darrell Steinberg said that his bill (SB 743) cutting red-tape for getting new arena underway asap will most importantly forbid "any lawsuit" to slow down construction. Thus, getting "shovels in the ground" sooner rather than later is next big goal. The bill passed by legislature overwhelmingly now awaits governors signature. Steinberg said that "an imminent threat to Sacramento" is why he pushed so hard. By that he was underscoring out of state attempt to take the only professional team in California's capital away and loss of jobs (old and new), re-vitalization of city downtown core, etc. He says Gov. Brown will sign it into law as he has promised him that much.
 
On Napear's radio show just now State Senator Pres. Pro-tem Darrell Steinberg said that his bill (SB 743) cutting red-tape for getting new arena underway asap will most importantly forbid "any lawsuit" to slow down construction. Thus, getting "shovels in the ground" sooner rather than later is next big goal. The bill passed by legislature overwhelmingly now awaits governors signature. Steinberg said that "an imminent threat to Sacramento" is why he pushed so hard. By that he was underscoring out of state attempt to take the only professional team in California's capital away and loss of jobs (old and new), re-vitalization of city downtown core, etc. He says Gov. Brown will sign it into law as he has promised him that much.

:eek:

http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SB743

That is a heck of proposed statute. So much going on I may have missed it, but thing is it seems primarily angled at environmental review/eminent domain etc., not at stopping an initiative challenge to the funding mechanism.
 
Well.....let the games begin. I'm still not convinced Hansen really cares or will make an effort. What does publishing a letter asking STOP not to use the signatures really do?

Hansen looks even more foolish by saying people were using his money to fund political ventures without his knowledge or consent. And now he can't keep the signatures he paid for from being taken from him eVen though they are legally his. How good of an NBA owner would he really have been if he loses control of people that work for him so easily? Hansen is either very weak or a cold blooded liar. I'm not even upset with STOP. There is no STOP without Hansen.

This is still Sacramento vs Hansen.
 
"This is Sacramento vs Hansen." I agree. "Hansen is either very weak or a cold blooded liar." Ditto! That's why strategy for us should be to continue to go after him relentlessly. As long as the heat remains centered on him as "Poster Boy" there's some chance that STOP people will have to eventually discard 18,000 petition signatures (or whatever exact number is) long before they're challenged in court. Even if it goes to the ballot box, if it's dramatically shown, publicized widely, that this out-of-state slimeball was behind the effort, later apologized, but ultimately lost control of STOP forces - hopefully voters of the city finally whack STOP once and for all. But we have continue big time pressure!
 
Last edited:
Hansen better fight for these signatures. He is hurting a city and will derive no personal benefit. It may have not been intended that way but that's what may result. I can't believe he gives a crap. He's so far above the average basketball fan that he doesn't need to care.

No personal benefit? He thinks he is next in line for the team
 
No personal benefit? He thinks he is next in line for the team
That isn't going to happen. Hansen might get a team someday but there is no way in hell the NBA allows it to be the Kings, even if the whole arena thing blows up because of Hansens donation. That storyline would make Sonicsgate look like Bambi...and you can bet the NBA doesn't want that kind of publicity.

But seriously, who are these people. I've yet to meet a single person who is against an arena in Sacramento. Even people i know who couldn't care less about the Kings understand an arena would be good for the city, and losing the team would be terrible. I myself am fairly conservative and against excessive taxation and wasteful spending... but we aren't talking about building a giant red rabbit inside of an airport. Were talking about something that thousands of people are emotionally attached to. All that being said.... This project DOESN'T raise taxes.... it's essentially self funding. You have to be a sadist bastard to run this organization.
 
That isn't going to happen. Hansen might get a team someday but there is no way in hell the NBA allows it to be the Kings, even if the whole arena thing blows up because of Hansens donation. That storyline would make Sonicsgate look like Bambi...and you can bet the NBA doesn't want that kind of publicity.

But seriously, who are these people. I've yet to meet a single person who is against an arena in Sacramento. Even people i know who couldn't care less about the Kings understand an arena would be good for the city, and losing the team would be terrible. I myself am fairly conservative and against excessive taxation and wasteful spending... but we aren't talking about building a giant red rabbit inside of an airport. Were talking about something that thousands of people are emotionally attached to. All that being said.... This project DOESN'T raise taxes.... it's essentially self funding. You have to be a sadist bastard to run this organization.


I would agree that it would be hard for me to fathom the NBA allowing him to get the team now that he's been outed as the one who is potentially the reason for killing this deal. Just pointing out that his initial sights was on our inability to get an arena deal done by 2017 due to his antics, allowing the NBA to take the team with Seattle sitting as the next market. He still might delusionally think this will be the case even as it has come to light that he is the chief anti-arena sponsor

I also agree that from my perspective the arena would pass a public vote, in fact I personally am not overly concerned about the signatures because of my belief
 
:eek:

http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SB743

That is a heck of proposed statute. So much going on I may have missed it, but thing is it seems primarily angled at environmental review/eminent domain etc., not at stopping an initiative challenge to the funding mechanism.
You are right. It has nothing to do with any initiative process, only lawsuits over the environmental review.

Its just bad news that STOP has possession of and will use those Hansen paid for signatures. Is suppose Hansen could sue, but I doubt he spends the money to do so. I wonder if he really tried to keep the signatures? (Having my doubts.)
 
Chris Hansen is sticking to his plan. He may succeed. I don't believe he has ever given up hope of bringing the Kings to Seattle. Guess we're going to have to hope that deeper pockets and bigger hitters will prevail in an initiative campaign.
 
Chris Hansen is sticking to his plan. He may succeed. I don't believe he has ever given up hope of bringing the Kings to Seattle. Guess we're going to have to hope that deeper pockets and bigger hitters will prevail in an initiative campaign.

There is absolutely NO WAY the NBA would give Hansen a team if this continues. I have to believe there are discussions going on right now between various parties to make sure Hansen understands just how ugly this looks to the NBA. Hansen could tie those signatures up in court for years should he choose to file suit to do so. It just might come to that...
 
There is absolutely NO WAY the NBA would give Hansen a team if this continues. I have to believe there are discussions going on right now between various parties to make sure Hansen understands just how ugly this looks to the NBA. Hansen could tie those signatures up in court for years should he choose to file suit to do so. It just might come to that...

I would think at this point that even Hansen has to be against those signatures being used. I would think that even he knows he isn't getting this team after this stunt, so the signatures will only be working against him, because if he does kill this arena deal he is 100% out of the NBA club. The best thing for him would be for this to blow over and for him to exit gracefully with the arena on course
 
There is absolutely NO WAY the NBA would give Hansen a team if this continues. I have to believe there are discussions going on right now between various parties to make sure Hansen understands just how ugly this looks to the NBA. Hansen could tie those signatures up in court for years should he choose to file suit to do so. It just might come to that...


I'm coming a late to this thread, so if this has been brought up before, I apologize. Not being an attorney, and knowing that politics and lying seem to go hand in hand, couldn't you bring suit to throw out a vast majority of those signatures if you could show proof that they were gotten by false representation. I know that Crown Downtown has videos of them telling lies in order to get signatures. Also, whats to stop someone from the city council getting a court order to return those signatures to Hansen, and then asking Hansen to sign it? As I said, I'm not an attorney, but wouldn't that be a great way to put Hansen on the spot. If he refuses to sign, then he shows his true colors. Probably not possible, but I like the idea..
 
I'm coming a late to this thread, so if this has been brought up before, I apologize. Not being an attorney, and knowing that politics and lying seem to go hand in hand, couldn't you bring suit to throw out a vast majority of those signatures if you could show proof that they were gotten by false representation. I know that Crown Downtown has videos of them telling lies in order to get signatures. Also, whats to stop someone from the city council getting a court order to return those signatures to Hansen, and then asking Hansen to sign it? As I said, I'm not an attorney, but wouldn't that be a great way to put Hansen on the spot. If he refuses to sign, then he shows his true colors. Probably not possible, but I like the idea..

Yes. This was even discussed on the evening news (forget which station). Another option is to call for the city clerk to independently verify EACH signature, which will cost the city about $3 each. There is every reason to believe what could be a significant number of those signatures were obtained from people who aren't city residents.

The whole STOP campaign is a farce regardless of how you look at it. Those people aren't interested in a vote. They're interested in maintaining the stagnant status quo of downtown Sacramento. They do not want "outsiders" coming into their town and taking over. They would rather to continue to see urban blight than to have a vibrant exciting downtown. It's pathetic. I truly believe that if it ends up with this going to a vote, the STOP people are not going to be pleased with the result, especially when the full truth is known. The arena proponents are going to have pretty deep pockets to make sure the public is well-educated on the issue.
 
Strikes me that the easiest way to hit back, is to find a way to hit them in their wallet. I mean personally hit the people behind the Stop project. Find a way to bring suit against the individuals and drag them into court. Lets see how they respond when confronted with legal fee's and a court case that could drag out for years if done properly. Its easy to sit outside and throw stones when no one is throwing back. But when you start getting hit, you start to rethink things. So far, these jerks behind Stop have no skin in the game, so they have nothing to lose. We have everything to lose! So we need to find a legal way to make them pay a price.
 
I'm sure there are many motivations for people of the STOP mentality and the conversation could get very political. I think in short, the little man thinks the rich man is getting too many breaks and this is yet another sign of it. They overlook all the benefits to the little man but that's not unusual. This whole area has always been xenophobic and resistant to the type of change that would drag the area into the 21st century. It's a long standing mentality. When I moved here in 1977, I called it the largest small town I have ever seen. At that time, I saw it as a positive. If being a big town means higher crime, etc., that's one thing. If it means FUN, jobs, etc., that's another. I see a possibility of this area of being big time with all the good things that go along with that. So much of this depends on what is built around the arena.

STOP is a personification of a long standing area mentality and because if that we cannot afford a vote. So says I. Hansen needs to fight for us.
 
http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=257813&sf17365126=1

As it stands now, the Sacramento City Clerk's Office will be rejecting every single signature that the STOP, or Sacramento Taxpayers' Opposed to Pork, campaign has gathered. According to California election laws, those trying to get an initiative on a ballot through petition must publish a notice of intent in a local newspaper.

STOP did that.

However, what the group failed to do is file proof of that publication with the city, according to Sacramento City Clerk Shirley Concolino. As of now, she cannot accept any signatures, including the 18,000 collected using funds from Seattle investor Chris Hansen. She did say that she'll probably waive the deadline and accept the proof of publication, because that's what a judge would likely decide if it goes to court.
 
Back
Top