Update Feb. 27, 2012 - Timeline: The Stadium Gameplan Exposed - is located here.
Council votes tomorrow night Feb. 28th to have the City and the Stadium Authority enter into a lease agreement (this is like Santa Clara entering into a lease with itself). This deal would require construction to start within 120 days - the Council majority is ignoring the lawsuit.
Feb. 23, 2012 - The city is suing SCPF to prevent Santa Clarans from having the right to vote.
The 49ers Stadium Company (Stadco) filed a court brief against SCPF and against the Stadium Authority
seeking to have a judge rule that we should not have the right to vote on $850 Million in loans.
We've hired an excellent lawfirm and a brilliant lawyer, Matt Zinn, who is hard at work on defending
our right to vote. Our attorney filed a court brief on our behalf on Feb. 22nd. Here is the link to
the court briefs (The Stadium Authority's lawsuit, StadCo's court brief, and SCPF's attorney's
response.) Our court date is March 5, 2012.
We have a need to raise funds for our legal defense now.
Please see our donate button at the top of this page for Paypal, and our donate button on the right side of this page for checks.
Update Feb. 14, 2012 - By a 5-1 vote, our pro-stadium council members have forged ahead to sign the city
up for $878 Million in construction loans. Councilmember Will Kennedy dissented, saying that the council
should wait until the lawsuit is over before signing construction contracts.
Update Feb. 11, 2012 - By Jan. 17th, SCPF had gathered enough signatures to qualify
for a vote on the $850 million in loans. On January 24 the city refused to certify the
referendum petitions and authorized the city attorney to sue SCPF to declare the stadium
agreements 'not referendable,' therefore taking away our constitutional right to vote.
SCPF hired an excellent attorney.
On January 30 the city filed its lawsuit. The city's brief expressed concern that the
referendum petitions were creating a cloud of uncertainty for the lenders, and the
city asked the Santa Clara County Superior Court for a quick decision. The court set
a date of mid-June for a judge to make a decision, and required SCPF to respond
by Feb. 29th.
On February 6 the 49ers filed with the court as 'a party of interest' to ask the court to
schedule an earlier date. The attorneys (including SCPFs) met with the judge on
Feb. 7. The court granted the 49ers request, altering the schedule so the SCPF
brief is now due on Feb. 22nd. The hearing date was moved up to March 5th.
The 49ers filing states that they wanted a March 5th court date because the ballot
materials for a June election are due by March 9th. If this was a done deal, they
wouldn't be afraid that the judge will send the stadium contracts to the voters.
Why should we get a vote on the DDA? (DDA = Disposition and Development Agreement)
1) What Santa Clarans voted for in Measure J in June 2010 (pie chart on the left from the 49ers Measure J stadium campaign) does not match what's in the DDA (pie chart on the right with $850 million in loans from our Stadium Authority and Zero dollars in financing directly from the 49ers). This does not include the interest payments on the loans, which will be many tens of millions each year.
2) Many citizens voted 'yes' because they thought the stadium deal would help schools. The school district's budget reports that the schools have already started to receive money from the Revelopment Agency property tax kickback from Measure J. (Measure J did trigger an extension of the Redevelopment Agency in time, which gave the schools property tax dollars.) Unfortunately, the RDA kickback money to the schools is small in comparison with the $17 million school budget shortfall last year, and estimated $12 million school budget shortfall this year. The stadium deal, the DDA, gives nothing more to the schools. Here's the link to the school district's budget (see page 2 for the Measure J RDA property tax money information.)
3) Santa Clarans should get a vote on whether or not the Raiders can come here. Raiders games would double the amount of traffic, parking, noise and other impacts. According to Measure J, only the 49ers get to decide on whether to bring the Raiders here. Most voters were not even aware that Measure J can bring the Raiders too.
4) The DDA doesn't fix any of the parking/traffic/noise problems on the north side. No private parking lot owners have signed up to allow their lots to be used-no one knows where 22,000 cars will park on game days. People on the north side voted 'No' on Measure J.
5) And now the city has admitted that the Youth Soccer Park won't be usable by our kids on NFL game days.
6) Goldman Sachs is managing all the financing aspects. We don't want Goldman Sachs to do for Santa Clara what they did for mortgage-backed securities, the debt crisis, international markets, and Greece. Our members tell us that Goldman Sachs helped hide the debt problems in Greece until the problems became overwhelming. That country now has tremendous financial problems.
Here is the 49ers Measure J ballot. Voters did not authorize our Stadium Authority to take on $850 million, or any other amount in loans.
Here are the major problems with the DDA:
The 49ers' Stadium Disposition and Development Agreement (DDA) 'runs' to 421 pages, but it can't hide:
1. The price tag for the 49ers' Stadium is over $1 billion (DDA page 2) (not $937 million from the Term Sheet) and the increase isn't considered a 'cost overrun' paid for by the 49ers. Santa Clara's Stadium Authority will be paying that increase.
2. Stadium Authority debt will be $850 million (DDA page 2.) See our article on how the 49ers Measure J stadium ballot measure and campaign didn't bother to mention the Stadium Authority debt/loans:
http://santaclaraplaysfair.org/index.php/howtheywon
3. The graphic showing the DDA financing does not list any financial contribution from the 49ers. The 49ers are contributing Zero of their own dollars for financing. Recall that the Term Sheet said the 49ers would pay for $493 Million. In the 49ers Measure J campaign citizens were told that the 49ers would pay for > $800 million (and our council members/mayor told us in the media that the 49ers would pay for 92%).
4. The Fixed Ground Rent payable to our city's General Fund is atrocious. In the first year, the 49ers will scoop out a minimum of $130 MILLION - while paying our General Fund $180 THOUSAND (DDA page 3). This is unchanged from the Term Sheet.
5. Our Stadium Authority will lose control of the stadium from August 1 through January 31 (DDA page 86) because it cannot afford to operate it year-round. (DDA pages 6-7).
6. A bled-to-death Redevelopment Agency can no longer issue bonds at 5.75% for the Stadium Subsidy, but it will be taking cash advances of over $30 Million from the 49ers themselves at 8.5% per year (pages 5 and 54). The Supreme Court has just upheld Governor Brown's decision to do away with Redevelopment Agencies. We don't know how Santa Clara is supposed to pay for the $40 Million in Redevelopment dollars promised for stadium construction by Measure J.
7. Stadium Authority debt principal, interest, and operational costs will be far more than $30 million/year. Think about the annual interest that will be due on $850 Million in loans to our Stadium Authority. Then add to that the payments for principal and stadium operating expenses (often at least $20M per year). We're easily talking > $50 million/year to $60 million/year.
8. The DDA contract is with a limited liability company (Stadco) not with the 49ers. All of the risk and liability is on Santa Clara and its agencies.
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