The
MENDOCINO COUNTRY Independent
DDR LAUNCHES INITIATIVE CAMPAIGN TO JAM
THEIR MEGAMALL DOWN OUR THROATS
Who's Behind It:
A specially formed front group Mendocino County
Tomorrow has filed an intent to circulate an initiative to rezone
Diversified Developers Realty land at Masonite in the Ukiah Valley.
Accompanying this document is a 5" thick spiral
bound General Plan Amendment.
If they get enough signatures fast enough, they
could force the board of supervisors to put it on the ballot in
November. If passed by voters, there will be no CEQA review, nor
judicial review of DDR's Mega Mall.
See the Mendocinocountry's Blog for an analysis of
the General Plan Amendment.
The Intent to Circulate as an html document is
available here.
Dummy Group:
The website for this dummy group,
(www.mendocinocountytomorrow.com) identifies its leaders as Danny
Morales, Katie Huerta, Robin Collier, Carol Myer, Ken Marshall and Dave
Clark.
Morales is a drug salesman, Collier is the former
campaign manager of Dan Hamburg's 1998 Green Party run for governor and
former owner of Cheesecake Momma, and Carol Myer has an insurance
office.
What these people are getting is prestige and 15
minutes of fame competing with the Chamber of Commerce. DDR consultants
will run the campaign, keeping these very junior players in the dark.
The FPPC form 410 for Mendocino County Tomorrow
Candidate PAC reveals that the treasurer is Ken Marshall of 381 Lovers
Lane in Ukiah, but the assistant treasurer is Chistopher Skinnell of
2350 Kerner Boulevard, Suite 250 in San Rafael.
DDR has formed a second committee which will
actually make the decisions and provide the campaign funding. This is
called "Citizens to bring Jobs, Tax Dollars, and Local Shopping to
Mendocino County -- a Coalition being Led by Mendocino County Tomorrow
with Major Funding by DDR DB Mendcino LP."
DDR DB Mendocino LP was filed in Delaware in
February of 2007 with headquarters at the Developers Diversified Realty
building in Beachwood Ohio. The street address is listed at 456 B North
State Street in Ukiah, in the Montanos office building south of The
Coffee Critic. The mailing address however is the San Rafeel office of
Mr. Skinnell.
The Treasurer of the "Citizens to bring etc," is
Stan Hoffman at 455 East 500 South, Suite 300 in Salt Lake City. The
assistant treasurer is Jason D. Kaune at the San Rafael office of Mr.
Skinnell, who is also listed as another assistant treasurer. And
additional officers are listed as Joan Allgood and David Weiss at the
Beachwood, Ohio address of Developers Diversified Realty.
Special Election Strategy
As a special election would be decided by those who
vote, and DDR has conducted polls, done mailers and then retargeted
their poll to identify their voters, the rezoning initiative will stand
a very good chance of passage if there were no other measure on the
ballot to attract environmentalists or cannabis identified people.
However, assistant registrar of voters Katrina
Bartolomei says the proposed initiative could not reach the ballot
until the statewide primary of 2010.
If it wins, the DDR initiative would signal a
permanent loss of power for local government in the face of development
pressures from outside. Supervisorial elections, debate over a General
Plan, the UVAP would be irrlevant. We cannot let that happen.
The Voters Union will play a key role in this
campaign, and we are asking you weigh in with your material and active
energy support at this time. RSVP now to volunteer to defeat DDR and
preserve Home Rule.