Protect Anaheim Response To Disney Signature Turn-In
Posted by: Jubal | 05/21/2007 4:43 PM
Following is a statement from Committee to Defend and Protect Anaheim spokesman Frank Elfend regarding Disney's turning in this morning of approximately 22,000 signatures to qualify its referendum:
We are not surprised by the 21,000 raw signatures submitted to the City today, once we learned that The Disney Corporation was paying in excess of $10.00 per signature. We believe that the reason The Disney Corporation chose to submit their signatures several days before the deadline was because they were aware of the steady growing numbers of Anaheim residents who had requested their signatures be withdrawn from the Referendum Petition.
Conversely, over the last few months, over 18,000 Anaheim households have shared their support for the City Council’s action in approving this project, and concurrently voicing their disapproval of The Disney Corporation’s heavy handed tactics.
[Full disclosure: I'm a member of the consultant team for the SunCal project]
Mr. Ayer registered as a Republican to be electable in an interim election with no incumbents. He did...
So how much was SunCal paying per signature? Because while Anaheim residents were out gathering signatures as SOAR volunteers, EVERY signature gatherer from SunCal that I met was paid, and from out of town. Anaheim voters were THANKING ME for giving them a chance to sign that referendum! On the SunCal side, signers of their petition were not required to be registered voters, or even legal Anaheim residents, and they were not required to tell the truth about what folks were signing. Makes those 18,000 signatures SunCAl gathered pretty insignificant, and in the end, irrelevant. A popularity poll vs. a legal referendum. And still we finished with an excess of signatures and ahead of schedule. Sends a clear message to developers, that our General Plan is not for sale! But thanks for playing.
On the SunCal side, signers of their petition were not required to be registered voters, or even legal Anaheim residents...
They weren't required to be registered voters because the Protect Anaheim petition wasn't about qualifying an initiative. Apples and oranges, amiga.
and they were not required to tell the truth about what folks were signing.
The petition was brief and clear. It takes all of a minute to read and is easy to understand.
SunCal played a game and lost this round!
I live two cities away from Anaheim and your team's petitioners asked me for my sig, they stressed that it was important to "stick it to big business", "teach Mickey a lesson". By the way when asked they admitted they were being paid and were themselves from out of town. If this is the kind of support SunCal has, this fight won't last long!
What was SunCal thinking when they took on Disney?
A couple of questions that I think needs to be answered: 1) Why does SUNCAL want this property so badly?
2) Were they really going to build? or develope the plans and sell them to another developer?
3) After they paid for the Land, The Consulants, Plans, and everything that goes with developing a housing track what would the net gain have been?
4) Why were they willing to spend all this money?
Just asking?