Santa Clara Plays Fair Continues Battle Against Stadium
By Robert Haugh

Though a majority of Santa Clarans voted and approved the proposed 49ers stadium in 2010, members of Santa Clara Plays Fair continue fighting against the 68,500-seat stadium project, having gathered a total of approximately 11,000 signatures over the past several weeks.

The organization is attempting to appeal the City Council’s "recent decision to encumber a city agency with $850,000,000 in loans to construct a football stadium for the San Francisco 49ers or to place the referendum on the ballot."

At the City Council/Stadium Authority’s January 24 meeting the Council/Stadium Authority voted 5-2 to reject the referendum petitions, because they have failed to meet the requirements of California election law.

The City Attorney had "previously notified the petitioners that the referenda were deficient because the contested actions are administrative in nature and thus not subject to referendum."

Council members Will Kennedy and Jamie McCleod were the lone dissenters on the vote to reject the referendum petitions.

The Council/SA voted to move forward with the Disposition and Development Agreement and Joinder Agreement at the December 13, 2011 Council meeting.

After turning their referendum petitions into the Santa Clara City Clerk’s office on January 18, gathering over 11,000 total signatures on two petitions, the City Clerk’s Office prima facie check of signatures yielded 5,474 and 5,591 potentially valid prima facie signatures.

Following this, the signatures then were transferred to the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters Office, of which, a summary by City Clerk Rod Diridon, Jr., states the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters "indicates sufficient signatures were gathered on both petitions."

According to the City Clerk’s office, voter registration at the time the resolutions were attested to was 44,791, which requires 4,480 signatures to qualify for the ballot.  The Registrar of Voters’ office random sample verification of 500 signatures indicated that the Referendum against Resolution 11-16 (DDA) has 5,082 projected valid signatures, 113.5 percent of the required number to qualify for the ballot, while the Referendum against Resolution 11-17 (Joinder Agreement) has 5,142 projected valid signatures, 114.8 percent of the required number to qualify for the ballot.

Preliminary estimated costs for a potential June 2012 election cap off at around $4 million.

It is expected that members of SCPF will file a lawsuit against the City regarding their decision to deny the referendum petitions.