Tonight the City Council voted to accept the city staff’s recommendation to push out the ‘49ers Stadium vote until 2009. There were several arguments for and against moving the vote to next year, and I can’t say that I had a firm position either way.

For moving the vote out to 2009:

  • It will give the city more time to think about the project and prepare.
  • It will give the proponents of the stadium more time to send out pro-stadium propaganda. (Yes, we can see where this is going.)

Unfortunately, much of the support for moving the vote out amounted to attacks against the people opposed to the Stadium, support for builders and plumbers, and optimistic economic outlook without planning or justification. So much so that it is easy to forget the support these people had for city staff and the money and jobs they are sure the Stadium will bring, or has brought already, in some cases.

For keeping the vote this year (November 2008):

  • There will be greater voter turn-out during the November elections due to the other elections in progress at that time.
  • After over one-and-a-half years of deliberation, a vote sooner rather than later would waste less time and money.

Unfortunately, much of the support for putting the Stadium up for vote this year was actually just anti-Stadium sentiment , or even fear-mongering (at least they didn’t attack the people in support of the Stadium). That kind of negates the purpose of putting it to a vote in the first place. Proponents of the Stadium seem to feel that accepting the staff recommendation to move the vote out essentially finalizes the Stadium for Santa Clara. The people against the Stadium seem to feel that greater numbers of voters equates to killing the Stadium deal. I would remind both sides that getting something on a ballot is no guarantee of support either way, as the people at Save BAREC learned. The vote will decide.

What is surprising is that the EIR for the Stadium is already in progress. City Manager Jennifer Sparacino admits that the project plan for the Stadium is not complete, yet CEQA has already begun? That doesn’t make sense. The Notice of Preparation (NOP) and Scoping Meetings have not occurred, but the EIR is being done anyway. After this was pointed out, Ms. Sparacino acknowledged that there would be Scoping Meetings in the future, but she neglects to remind the audience what the Scoping Meetings are for and why they should come before the start of the EIR: Scoping Meetings are held to solicit comments on the scope of the EIR. This means that residents can give input on what they think the EIR should cover, or, more directly, bring up specific issues related to the key environmental areas of concern they want addressed in the EIR. This is before the EIR is completed. Once the scoping issues are brought up, the company performing the EIR work will then have a set of concerns they can focus on as they are creating the EIR. (I stole most of that from something I wrote earlier).

As someone who would normally be neutral on the timing of the Stadium vote, the actions of city staff certainly do not give me reason to support their recommendations. They admit to using much of their own time — during “working lunches” — to discuss the Stadium issue to minimize cost, and ignore the fact that the ‘49ers would recompense their time if they bothered to track it. They seem very eager to push this project through, and graciously, at their own expense — except that it isn’t really their expense, it’s ours.

The fact that they are not open with the true cost of this project, are not being transparent in their actions, and have allowed an accelerated EIR without requiring the proper processes makes me nervous. Not about the Stadium, but our city staff. The Stadium will be good or bad depending on how we use it, or do not. Sneaky city staff? No use for them in a Mission City.

If the city wishes to serve the residents, it must remain open and honest with them and balance any propaganda from outside businesses with objective — and real — facts and figures, taking into account not just preferred futures, but also worst-case scenarios. You can spin the economy any way you want to, but banks will not be fooled.