From: M Luna To: Debra Black Subject: Fwd: Condemn the Capitol insurrection Date: Tuesday, February 23, 2021 3:28:45 PM
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Hello Ms. Debra Black,
I hope this email finds you and your loved ones in good health and spirits!
I cannot participate in the City Council meeting this afternoon, is it possible for you to read my email below into the record?
Thank you! Margarita
------Forwarded message ------From: M Luna Date: Sat, Feb 20, 2021 at 1:52 PM Subject: Condemn the Capitol insurrection To: [email protected]
Hello City Councilmembers,
I hope this email finds you and your loved ones in good health and spirits.
I’m writing to express my dismay and disappointment at the ongoing silence from our city leadership about the Capitol insurrection on January 6th. Many cities in our area have condemned the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021, but not San Dimas. The latest local two cities are Rialto and Montclair. As elected leaders, I’m sure you believe in the sanctity of our democracy and our democratic electoral process. Your inaction and silence shows your disregard for the important inflection point in our democracy. I urge you to adopt a resolution condemning acts of violence in the United States and affirming support of our democratic process and our Constitution.
While I appreciate your personal public statements, I hope you all understand the impact that it has when it comes from our City Council in unison in making the same statement. You may not believe that it accomplishes nothing locally of substance, and you may be surprised to hear that residents from our local area traveled to Washington DC as well to take part in the actions of January 6th. Just because it happened in DC, does not mean that your constituents were not involved or hold these views. Also, this council took action on a resolution that denounced racism over the summer as national protests were sparked by the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Their murders did not happen in our community and protests did not occur here either. How is this different? We elected you all to represent our voices, so please use them, particularly as your constituents are asking you to elevate them on this issue. I don't see the harm in passing a resolution that denounces the violence of January 6th at the Capitol AND also honors the importance of our democracy and our electoral system - the same system that allows you to currently hold this title.
I will be watching intently to see how you all move forward (or not) on this issue, and will use my vote as my voice in the next election - as I'm sure many of your constituents will too.
Thank you in advance for your leadership on this issue.
Sincerely, Margarita Luna 13 year resident Debra Black
From: Sean Cazares Sent: Monday, February 22, 2021 11:32 PM To: Debra Black Subject: Public Comment on Two State Legislators Attachments: Meet the Advocates for Astroturf “Affordable” Housing.docx; Meet the Advocates for Astroturf “Affordable” Housing.pages
CAUTION: This email originated outside our organization; please use caution.
Hello,
This is for public comment about the two legislators involved in crafting the "affordable" housing bills in the state legislature. This document exceeds the allotted time allowed for public comment so I figured I send it here so it can be public record and for the residents of San Dimas to read (and anyone else for that matter).
The two documents provided are the same, one is just a pages document (compatible with MAC) and the other a docx file.
‐Sean
Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email.
1 Meet the Advocates for Astroturf “Affordable” Housing
By Sean Cazares
In the past couple of years we have seen a slew of housing and zoning bills make their way through the State Legislature. These bills have been crafted to address the most urgent of needs the State of California faces: homelessness. The affordability concern along with zoning and providing funding for homelessness and housing equity initiatives has been the main focal point for members of both houses of our State Legislature and Governor Gavin Newsom to push for.
One bill, presented by Senator Skinner, SB-1079 Residential Property Warehousing, signed by the Governor on September 28, 2020, would allow cities or counties to adopt ordinances to fine corporations and companies that leave residential buildings vacant. The money collected would have to be used for homeless diversion, rent assistance or other affordable housing purposes. Furthermore, it permits cities or counties to take over the companies residential property if it’s been vacant over a duration of time. [1]
Another bill on the issue of housing affordability, introduced by Senators Atkins, Caballero, Rubio, and Wiener, SB-1120 Subdivisions: tentative maps, which died last year in the legislature on the account of inactivity, would’ve made by state mandate zoning to prevent single-family homes from being built and require cities to build duplex housing. [2]
There are many authors or sponsors of bills like these, and articles can be made at length about these legislators but for now there are two who have really caught the public eye, Senators Toni G. Atkins and Scott Wiener.
Toni Atkins: Spousal Conflict of Interest & Big Developer Money
Senator Atkins is from San Diego, California, who serves the 39th State Senate district in Sacramento. Prior to becoming a state Senator, she served as an Assemblywoman for California’s 78th Assembly district from 2014 - 2016. Before redistricting took place, she had served the 76th Assembly district from 2010 - 2012, and was a San Diego City Council member from 2000 - 2008. One of her big issues she has championed throughout her career as a public servant has been affordable housing and is married to Jennifer. [3]
LeSar Development Consultants is owned by Jennifer [4], the aforementioned spouse of Toni, and who also serves on the board of directors for the nonprofit Up for Growth [5], whose “About Us” page states, “Up for Growth is a nonprofit forum that represents a vibrant, diverse and growing coalition of stakeholders who believe that communities should grow for the benefit of every person. Our forum's mission is to improve the quality of life for working families and create communities that are accessible and affordable for all by promoting more housing close to jobs, efficient transportation, and desirable local amenities.” [6]
According to the San Diego Reader in an article titled Not So Forest-Friendly, “Toni Atkins had plenty of food, drink, and travel in 2016, thanks to the multitudinous dollars of special interests. Her personal financial report filed for last year shows she received greater than $100,000 from an outfit called LeSar Development Consultants.” [7] Right off the bat, this should definitely raise red flags to any casual observer. Two married women, one who is part of a nonprofit whose goal is for the promotion of “housing close to jobs” (mixed-use property), who is also the founding CEO of a development consultant agency. The other is a law maker who either writes law or probably has someone else do it for her and she just introduces or co-sponsors them.
To further illustrate the point, in February 6, 2017, James Dehaven wrote a piece in The San Diego Union-Tribute about an affordable housing bill that raised questions about Senator Atkin’s conflict of interest. [8]
This bill, SB-2 signed by the Governor in September 29, 2017, puts a $75 to $225 filling fee on property transfers to generate revenue for affordable housing. He writes, “about a third of those dollars would be set aside to build homes for low-income families and migrant workers” … ” the rest, perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars, could be used for nearly a dozen other purposes—including several that might benefit Atkins’ wife Jennifer LeSar, who runs a pair of consulting businesses that specialize in affordable housing.”
Atkins had worked for a period of time with her wife’s firm as a senior principal for housing policy while as a Councilwoman. Financial disclosures, revealed in the article, have $4 million paid to LeSar’s business since 2010 from nonprofits, affordable housing developers etc… Dehaven writes, “agencies accounted for more than one quarter of the LeSar Development Consultants billings disclosed by Atkins since 2010.”
Though no laws have been broken, you can see the intricate web these development agencies and nonprofits weave in “affordable” housing advocacy and initiatives for Toni’s long political career.
Let’s have a gander at Mrs. Atkin’s campaign finance, shall we? I will reference screenshot examples of recent contributions received dates from 2019 through 2020 [9] and 2017 through 2018 [10] of those who have vested interest in Senator Atkins in the housing industry, other than Jennifer LeSar.
Source: California Secretary of State
Scott Wiener: Big Developer’s Favorite Shill & California YIMBY
Now moving up to the Bay Area, we have California Senate District 11 represented by Scott Wiener. Wiener was first elected to the California State Senate in November 2016. Before running for Senate he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. [11] Just like his colleague, Toni Atkins, housing is a issue that he champions too, with many notable bills introduced, such as SB-50.
In the 2019 - 2020 regular session, Scott Wiener introduced SB-50 into the Senate. Many groups were opposed to the bill, ranging from those who lived in small bedroom communities, like in San Dimas, to city-dwellers in apartment housing. SB-50 sought to change, more like loosen, local zoning laws to allow denser housing near job centers and public transportation. [12]
For those in the cities, their concern was and how they saw it, SB-50 as a guise for gentrification efforts pushed by big developers and various special interests, while touting at the same time, it was the solution to solve the homeless and housing crisis. [13] As for Suburbanites, this would force us to put in high density housing in a small city that, in some regards, still has its old Western aesthetic, with buildings below five stories high. Totally out of place and an eye sore like the Avalon Bay project in Glendora on Route 66. [14]
In addition, Senator Anthony J. Portantino issued a statement validating both of these concerns, “my preference has always fallen on the side of incentives for local governments to accomplish goals. There were legitimate concerns expressed from both large and small cities about the scope of SB-50 as it pertained to bus corridors, historic preservation, the definition of ‘jobs rich’ neighborhoods and whether it would increase gentrification and discourage light rail expansion as unintended consequences; all of which justified the pause established today by the committee. [15] And for both sides of the same coin, our concerns weren’t without merit.
Enter the 2016 election cycle when Scott Wiener ran for state Senate. Jacob Woocher, who pens in his piece for the Knock, states that Wiener received $166,650 in direct donations from the real estate industry. On the flip side, Housing is A Human Right calculated that Senator Wiener received $574,276 from real estate in 2016 altogether. [16][17] You can further look into his contributions received between 2019 through 2020 to get a glimpse into who and what was funding his re-election campaign. [18]
YIMBY is an acronym for “Yes In My Back Yard”, it’s the flip side of the NIMBY “Not In My Back Yard” dichotomy. YIMBYs are the counter to the narrow mindset of the naysayers who, to them, would be in opposition toward “affordable” housing and anything in regards to the aforementioned initiatives to provide assistance to the homelessness crisis. Enter California YIMBY. [19]
As grand and notable as this group may sound, there is something more sinister and inauthentic about them. During the Spring of April 2018 a group of grassroots activists and residents held a press conference in opposition of SB-827, a bill that failed in the state legislature and would later become SB-50, denouncing it as a “land-use deregulation bill” that would add “jet fuel to a gentrification crisis that was already decimating San Francisco’s working-class communities.” [20]
Amidst the press conference, a group of young, affluent people, who identified themselves as YIMBYs, stormed the press conference and started to shout at the anti- SB-827 group. The commotion and chaos from this group’s belligerent behavior caused an older member of the anti-SB-827 group to go to the hospital. [21]
Patrick Range McDonald writes in Inside Game: California YIMBY, Scott Wiener, and Big Tech’s Troubling Housing Push, “the YIMBY agenda plays out this way: deregulate as much as possible, an apartment construction boom will follow, and sky-high rents will stabilize and drop since more units have come onto the market”, and that it’s an “old, possibly outdated, supply-and-demand argument.”
Surely, the aforementioned proposal could work right? Flood the housing market with this and eventually it will lead to driving the prices down. Not so, as McDonald further elaborates referencing Zillow Chief Economist Dr. Svenja Gudell’s comments that it would basically require “very high demand at the low end of the market being met by more supply at the high end”, causing an imbalance that would contribute to affordability concerns by renters and seeing apartment construction at the low end needing to ramp up in order for improvement.
Big developers aren’t the only special interest group backing Scott Wiener and zoning deregulation efforts. The Big Tech Lobby also have a stake at pushing, as San Francisco Supervisor Gordon Mar calls, “trickle-down housing” efforts. [22] McDonald revealed Pantheon CEO Zack Rosen’s reasons, the cofounder of California YIMBY, for “Big Tech’s jump into land-use and housing policy.” This effort being far from altruistic and more about the housing affordability crisis being an “‘existential threat’ to the growth of the tech industry.”
Companies from “Google, Facebook, Amazon, Tesla,”…” Lyft, PayPal, Oracle, Yelp, Hewlett Packard, Uber, Intuit, Salesforce”…” have shelled out 564 contributions to Scott Wiener’s 2016 and 2020 state senate campaigns” according to McDonald.
Furthermore, “California YIMBY contributors Patrick and John Collison have personally sent a total of $26,600 in campaign cash to Wiener. California YIMBY co-founder Nat Friedman has shelled $8,800. California YIMBY contributors Jared Friedman delivered $2,750 and Jeremy Stoppelman handed over $7,700. Other California YIMBY contributors in Big Tech may have forked over campaign contributions to Wiener, but the public doesn’t know because California YIMBY refuses to be transparent about its donors.” The cogs of this political machine of Big Developer and Big Tech money grind along to influence public servants like Wiener, except Wiener is not beholden to the public, but to the private sector in the guise of solving this crisis.
Moving Forward
On February 9, 2021 at the San Dimas City Council meeting, Councilman John Ebiner had brought to the community’s attention about SB-9 Housing development: approvals. [23] When you look up SB-9 on the California Legislative Information website, out of the four Senators who introduced the bill, two of them are none other than Toni Atkins and Scott Wiener. [24] There are other bills related to housing and zoning introduced this year, some renditions of older bills that didn’t pass, and others brand new legislation.
Both these Legislators can’t be trusted with trying to solve an issue that all of California faces with homelessness and affordable housing. They’re too trenched in the back pockets of big developers and special interest groups, that this will ultimately not be the solution to addressing a complex issue, we at the local level in our own cities, counties can address, with the State helping to alleviate the problem with funding and programs for the homeless in need during this pandemic. One size fits all measures causes problems for everyone, especially via state mandates that come in the form of deregulating local zoning laws that small and large cities put in place for a reason. To stop big developers from running amok.
We all have a role in helping a brother, sister, niece, nephew, mother, father, friend, a fellow neighbor, Californian, anyone to help get them back up on their feet and should as Supervisor Mar from San Francisco recommends lead a “robust community-led planning process” and not zoning deregulatory measures through state mandates. We also have a role in opposing bills and organizations from those who come with forked tongues in the guise of helping.
Sources: ======
[1] https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill id=201920200SB1079
[2] https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill id=201920200SB1120
[3] https://sd39.senate.ca.gov/about-senator-toni-g-atkins
[4] https://lesardevelopment.com/
[5] https://www.upforgrowth.org/person/jennifer-lesar
[6] https://www.upforgrowth.org/about-us
[7] https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2017/may/10/radar-not-so-forest-friendly/
[8] https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/watchdog/sd-me-atkins-bill-20170206- story.html
[9] https://cal- access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1393189&session=2019&vie w=received
[10] https://cal- access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1393189&view=received&pa ge=*&session=2017
[11] https://sd11.senate.ca.gov/biography
[12] https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill id=201920200SB50
[13] https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/01/30/californias-controversial- housing-bill-sb-50-fails/4614387002/
[14] https://www.sgvtribune.com/2015/04/23/glendora-begins-review-of-route-66- development-plan/
[15] https://sd25.senate.ca.gov/news/2019-05-16/senator-portantino%E2%80%99s- statement-sb-50
[16] https://knock-la.com/scott-wiener-takes-more-real-estate-money-than-any-other- politician-in-the-california-legislature-713bd9556efc
[17] https://www.housinghumanright.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Scott-Wiener- 2016-State-Senate-Real-Estate-Campaign-Contributions-Source -California-Secretary- of-State-Sheet1.pdf
[18] https://cal- access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1392654&view=received&pa ge=*&session=2019
[19] https://cayimby.org/about/
[20] https://www.housinghumanright.org/inside-game-california-yimby-scott-wiener-and- big-tech-troubling-housing-push/
[21] https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/sb-827-rallies-end-with-yimbys-shouting-down- protesters-of-color/
[22] https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Open-Forum-Trickle-down- housing-won-t-solve-13727879.php
[23] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE8Y5IbL4vM
[24] https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill id=202120220SB9