 |
 |
With 17 days to go before the deadline, Repeal SMART co-founder John Parnell has conceded that his volunteers are not likely to get the number of signatures SMART contends is needed to force a repeal vote. But in a guest opinion piece that will appear in Wednesday’s Press Democrat, he says the group “should hit the 15,000-signature mark” by the Jan. 27 deadline.
So the repeal campaign is offering to pay signature gatherers in hopes of reaching the higher limit. “We are offering a job to anyone of voting age in Marin or Sonoma counties to work as a petition-circulator,” Parnell writes. “We will pay you $1 per valid signature.”
Parnell contends that volunteers average between 10 to 15 signatures an hour. He says his group “would rather spend our money giving temporary jobs to some of our unemployed neighbors, instead of fighting SMART in the courts.”
His pitch is similar to one Repeal SMART has made on its website which offers to pay $100 “per completed signature booklet (95 signatures, 80 percent validity required) submitted by January 25th.”
SMART contends the campaign needs more than 39,000 signatures to force a repeal of Measure Q, the quarter-cent sales tax supporting the commuter train. But Parnell and others argue that under rules established by Proposition 218, the effort would only need 14,902. I’m not so sure Parnell and Mitchell aren’t right about the number. (Why would SMART be exempt from this?) But it’s certain to be ironed out in court unless the campaign comes up with more than 40,000 valid signatures of registered voters, or turns in fewer than 14,000. We’ll find out soon enough.
To read the full Close to Home from Parnell, click here.
- Paul Gullixson
Subscribe by Email
Follow us on Twitter
What a bunch of nonsense. We had the campaign several years ago and the pros and cons of the tax and the project were discussed in lots of public forums and given due consideration. Now that people are actually being put to work, Parnell/Mitchell and their supporters want to stop those jobs from being created. Jobs have been created, and jobs will continue to be created, and we will build infrastructure that will provide options that will be welcomed when fuel prices go over $10/gallon. And we get this for an average of $45 per year in additional sales tax per person. The benefits far outweigh that cost. Decline to Sign.
All the usefull ones think that money grows on trees and have no concept of a 100% increase in cost. Very sad. 30 years from now people will be saying, “Why is the sales tax in Sonoma and Marin Counties 18%?” Because we are too SMART for our own good.
Next, the Repeal SMART people are going to ask for a vote to have the Sonoma County Transit and Santa Rosa City bus dismantled because it cost the citizens too much money from taxes to run them because not to many people ride the the bus.
TJ,
You may want to compare the SMART project to the Golden Gate Bridge. Years from now when people think back to 2011, I suspect the better comparison will be to Solyndra.
The interesting thing is that two other Bay Area projects were also criticized as overly ambitious, a waste of tax payer dollars, and certain burdens to the tax payers. One was the Golden Gate Bridge and the other was BART. Imagine if neither had been built? San Francisco would still be a beautiful city, but would it have the international recognition it enjoys to a large degree because of the bridge? How expensive, time consuming and cumbersome would it be if we had to board ferries to cross from Marin to San Francisco? What would commuters have done if BART could not have picked up the slack after the Bay Bridge was damaged in the 1989 quake and shut for months? What would travel be like in the areas served by BART if all of the millions of daily riders were back on the streets in their cars?
This is a big project, approved by almost 70% of the voters, and one that will positively impact the North Bay by creating direct and indirect jobs, helping the environment by removing vehicles from the roadways and providing an alternative mode of transportation. The value of SMART is not just in the fares it will collect.
Another vote will be a waste of money that could be used to expand and speed the project. It will be unsuccessful, just like the challenges to BART. Thirty years from now, people who are not yet born will be surprised that there were people opposed to SMART, just as I was to find out that similar groups of naysayers were opposed to the Golden Gate Bridge and BART.
“Decline to Sign”
Word for the day!
Turn down the train to tyranny.
why are dumb train supporters so afraid of democracy? i didn’t vote for the train to nowhere, not once, and now the stupidity of this wasteful underfunded project is even more clear. lets have an election so we can really debate the merits!
i have not signed the recall petition though i will and hope to have the time to collect more signatures. just been too busy working. i would love to interact with a dumb train supporter in person. from what i have read, these consist of romantic dreamers, or self interested parties.
Yeah, and Lynn Woolsey’s going to go down in flames. FLAMES. It’s obvious by the people writing here in WSC that we have the momentum. FLAMES for that liberal crazy.
Oh, wait. Is this the right forum?
Oh. SMART is going to go down in flames. FLAMES. It’s obvious by the people writing here in WSC that we have the momentum.
Yeah, that’s right.
Since “John Reed” is Lisa Maldonado, we know that the “volunteers” are Union Thugs. Thanks for letting us know. You are hurting yourselves more than you’re hurting the RepealSMART effort.
The police will be called when you are disruptive as you always are. You will turn off more Marinites and Sonoma County people.
The volunteers with the SMART Riders Coalition will be out this weekend to do outreach and public education so that folks who are approached to sign the repeal petition will have the facts about how the SMART train and pathway will create much-needed construction jobs and provide a long-term benefit to the North Bay by providing a regional transit network to supplement the crowded 101 corridor.
We have been compelled to get out and make our case now that the anti-SMART campaign has gone to using paid signature collectors. We have a code of conduct for all our volunteers which requires them to not engage with the petitoners, remain 20 feet away, and to remain calm and peaceful at all times. We don’t want to spend our weekend out in front of shopping centers, but the enormous cost that the misguided and destructive repeal campaign would impose on our community requires that we do our civic duty and make sure that voters have the real facts about SMART.
@ Chris Snyder:
Were you the man being dealt with by the Novato Police Dept?
He was not engaging in free speech. He was harrassing and intimidating an elderly woman as well as others.
If that man had been handing out leaflets or engaging in peaceful discussion, there would have been no problem.
His behavior was that of a thug. Plain and simple.
Chris Snyder, why are you and other friends of SMART so afraid to allow the voters their sovereign vote? It is one thing to campaign against an initiative once it is qualified for the ballot. It is another to try to intimidate people who want to exercise their right to sign a petition to put that initative on the ballot.
Here, for anyone to read, are some posts from a RepealSMART signature collector in Novato who is one of a number being harassed by SMART supporters. http://www.facebook.com/#!/StopSmart
Is this really how SMART allies want to conduct themselves?
@ Dave M
If someone goes out and expresses their 1st Amendment rights by passing out leaflets is that being a “thug”. I love how that word is thrown about everytime a group does not like the position of another the other group is “thugs”. If repeal-SMART folks are out saying falsehoods as I believe they are, then any person should have a right to engage the public and tell their side of the story.
I was told that repeal-SMART was at Costco telling people that SMART would bring “gangs” to the North Bay because of its proximity to low-income housing. Gangs bring murders and drugs and we don’t want that in our community. There are lots of lies being spread out there by Repeal-SMART to scare the public and if people go out and hand out fliers to the contrary I say more power to them. The beauty of Freedom of Speech is that it cuts both ways.
Between the airport expansion and the SMART Train the North Bay has the opportunity to pull itself out of the recession and get people working again. Why would anyone be against this? Having train service is a huge advantage for companies and will bring jobs and families while lowering traffic. I would consider working in Marin and living in Santa Rosa, if I didn’t have to drive 101. The train has left the station and will bring some much needed prosperity.
Check out the comments attached to the Guest Opinion piece about Repeal Smart posted on the main Watch Sonoma County page.
The “Friends of Smart” group is now sending out thugs to harass and intimidate signature gatherers.
PD Editors, please have someone cover this part of the story!
See the Repeal Smart facebook page for complete information. (including pictures of the thug)
Lisa-
You are so incredibly generous with other people’s money.
And so quick to criticize those who dig into their own pockets to support what they believe in.
And oh so quick to resort to that class warfare- as if everyone who disagrees with you must be marginalized by insinuating that they are uber-rich or some other “them”. Divisiveness that is not positive or constructive.
Unfortunate.
@Pablo & Editor
I really do not know where you got your information it is inaccurate. The company that won the bid is a union contractor so their employees are going to be union workers most of them local residents. Local 3 will not be striking the SMART train and pathway project.
Pablo, can you please cite your source? News article? Other? This is very important, and I’d like to read more about it. Thanks!
This just in: Local 3 won’t allow non-union workers to work on the SMART train. They are threatening to strike if the non-union workers who WON THE CONTRACT are allowed to work.
It must be scary and threatening for some to believe that there are people with different political beliefs who recognize the value in finding common ground in regard to our future freedoms, financial viability and rights as citizens and taxpayers of this great country.
It must be really unnerving to find that many of us can disagree on some issues in a civil manner and join forces on matters we do agree on.
This is a strong position- to defend liberty with people of many different hues and backgrounds- diverse individuals supporting each other for the good of all is a powerful force that small minds and hard hearts cannot abide.
Why else would anyone employ the desperate tactic of calling those who want accountability from elected and unelected officials using our money and who oppose waste, fraud and abuse of our tax dollars “haters”, “jihadists”, and, apparently worst of all “Tea partiers”.
I thought these people who are so obviously threatened by the Tea party movement said the Tea party was finished, and had no power in the first place.
Is there no factual, persuasive argument in favor of your cause you can make that you must resort to trying to discredit others with hostile personal atacks and lies?
Tea party participants have not blocked middle class truckers and workers at Ports, caused city’s to employ bulldozers to clean up after them, broken whatever laws they don’t like, had murder, assault, arson or overdoses among people participating at their events, or left babies to fend for themselves while they went around preaching accountability to others as the occupy group has.
They have not harassed people trying to do their banking, taunted or thrown rocks and bottles at police, demanded freebies and special privileges be given to them, or decided they speak for God (or as God) in determining who “good people” are or who Christians are.
They have not tweeted that peaceful, kind and thoughtful people they don’t even know are “haters”.
They have not used taxpayers’ money to spend most of their time viciously slandering and lying about the very people that pay their salary, and defending those that have serious ethics problems.
It seems like John Parnell could do a lot worse than associate with Tea party people.
It is only an effective smear if you believe it is. Scrambling to distance yourself from the Tea party is something that some on the left and right think will keep them from being the victim of a pack attack by their peers. Since the radical left that John thought were his friends and teammates will never allow him to distance himself from this perceived derogatory affiliation, he might as well accept who the friendly, reasonable, patriotic, truthful and compassionate folks really are, and defend their right to speak up, as they have defended his.
“progressives” that preach tolerance will throw you under the bus the second you disagree with them about anything, even if you have towed their leftist line your entire life.
It is a character flaw that is very destructive, alienating even their best supporters.
Keep it up, progressives- you will eventually run out of people willing to take your abuse and still cheer for you, and that will be good for all honest people, and for society as a whole.
The basic FACT.
SMART will not have the ridership to justify the hundreds of millions of costs.
Our Manager makes more than the head of BART for a tiny train that does not exist.
Bus service and road repair will be cut, as the unSMART train will bleed off transportation funds.
Can the proponents do Math ? Or did the last CFO get fired for the truth ?
My brother is a CFO of a fairly big company, and he has a fiduciary responsibility. SMART does not have that protection. They act as though they are responsible to no one !
Competitive bidding ? Where ? Show me.
Where are the thousand jobs publicized ? Show me.
We stop it now, or it fails on it’s own and leaves us with gravel county roads. 85% by definition from the Board of Stupidvisors.
On and on.. Who wants to bike from Petaluma to Novato anyway ? Really…..
Mr Wellington You said NO local jobs were being created by SMART. That has already been proven wrong. It’s also quite obvious that the construction of a railway and surrounding stations, pathways etc will necessitate construction jobs and indeed a million dollar construction contract has recently been awarded by SMART. and the general contractor and subontractors will be hiring local workers. Many of these workers (check the local unemployment statistics) have been out of work for over two years. These are our friends and neighbors who are experiencing serious economic crisis because of the lack of work and who will benefit greatly by the jobs SMART brings. Now these facts may not mean a lot to you, but to those of us in the middle class who do most of the tax paying, goods- buying and rent and bill paying in the world it means a great deal. That’s why we are asking our friends, family and neighbors not to repeal our jobs.
Gathering signatures for a buck a pop is one of those jobs Americans won’t do any more–the going rate is $2 to $3. Unfortunately, the anti-Smart forces will not legally be allowed to use undocumented workers for this project.
@Lisa – I spoke with Chris Snyder from the Operating Engineer Local 3 and asked him what the jobs were for the three people — site pickup. So far 3 of the 150 janitorial jobs have one day of work.
Ask Chris Snyder on your next call if the people he sends out have been unemployed for 99 weeks. No? So, it’s not a newly created job?
There are not thousands of local jobs for local people being created. There are some make work jobs. Lisa when you skimp on the details as you tend to to it always draws attention to the fact that the details are damaging to your political bent. Your omissions are the same as a big highlighter.
The railroad is being constructed by people with specialized skills that are already employed. The typical out of work home builder or road construction worker does not have the skills required. In fact the local crew has to pull people from jobs being done elsewhere. Lisa, you believe in the dream version of SMART. It’s okay to dream, but it’s not okay to deny reality and demand the public spend $86,000 per passenger per year so that three guys have a job doing lot pickup at a construction site.
Are you not concerned that the train can’t alleviate the commute? Aren’t you concerned about the waste of money and the lack of utility and the fact that the taxpayers will have to pay 15 million a year over and above the construction costs? It’s not your money right?
I don’t hate the train. I hate corruption. SMART is corruption. The bureaucrats get lifetime employment and benefits. An out of County specialized construction firm gets a windfall of makework projects. A Japanese train maker makes millions. No one else benefits. The public just pays the bill.
John Parnell
I said your cronies were Tea Partiers not you.(You admitted this to me many times and have said they are part of your “diverse” coalition . Is that not true? You lied when you publicly stated that there would be no local jobs provided by SMART and that all the construction jobs would be from out of county. I have referenced a thousand construction jobs and the ancillary jobs of operators, mechanics and other employment created by the economic development.
I am sorry to hear you label my advocacy of Smart and the many benefits it brings as “vitriol ” I advocate strongly for working people and it bothers me to see your disruptive and cynical attacks on a project that was voted on and will bring good pay (unlike your one dollar per signature largess) to people who need it desperately. A As far a You need only look to your own supporters who have called Mr Mansourian “ayatollah” on this very website for vitriol . It’s a shame you didn’t feel compelled to speak up as sternly against that racist and
vicious attack. But perhaps that type of vitriol doesn’t disturb you as much.
Repeal SMART webpage on fb has info about where to find the anti-SMART petitions! I signed one today!
Graeme, You are wrong. I spoke with Chris Snyder from the Operating Engineer Local 3 and he sent people out to work for SMART this week. As the project grows, our local workers will be building it. This is why both the Sonoma and Marin Building and Construction Trades Councils have supported and continue to support SMART. It’s good for our environment and it’s good for local workers. John Bly from the Engineering Contractors Association has said this. Chris Snyder has said this and Jack Buckhorn from the Sonoma Building Trades has said this. But the naysayers continue to lie in their efforts to stop the train.
In addition to the 1000 construction jobs SMART brings, the machinists, train operators and many other workers will be local workers, our friends and neighbors. I leave it to the public to decide who is more trustworthy and accurate in explaining SMART’s vision regarding local jobs. Those of us in the labor movement who see the unemployment figures and know the pain and economic distress in our community, or people like yourself who hate the train and will say anything to repeal it.
Lisa Maldonado – I have noticed that you have spent quite some time today talking about:
- what a liar I am (how exactly?)
- how I’m Tea Party (which you know is untrue), and
- how I’m destroying not just the promised lie of 1,000 SMART jobs; but you have somehow morphed that lie in “thousands of jobs”.?!?
Are you vying for that open PR slot at SMART, or did you just borrow their playbook?
What a serious joke. Why don’t you try writing something that is actually true?
In fact, why don’t you explain to all of us where exactly you found the data that SMART is going to create those “thousands of good, middle class jobs with benefits”.
I’m truly shocked that someone as vitriolic as yourself runs the AFL-CIO in Sonoma. Maybe if you spent a wee bit more time focusing on real jobs that do actually exist, instead of leading people on about thousands of imaginary jobs, perhaps you might actually help some of your unemployed union members for real, instead of just instilling in them a false hope.
@Lisa – Our local construction trades get no (zero) jobs from SMART. The only local jobs are janitors to clean the stations and bureaucrats. Please tell us about just one local construction job created by SMART.
It’s interesting that Mr Parnell thinks nothing of destroying thousands of good, middle class jobs with benefits for working people by repealing SMART but pats himself and his Tea Party cronies on the back for “helping their unemployed neighbors” by paying them a dollar a signature to repeal the only engine for economic growth our local economy has seen in some time. It really says a lot about how he thinks.
Right now our friends and neighbors in construction trades are hurting badly due to unemployment. This means debt, forclosure and economic uncertainty for many working families. SMART has already started putting people to work and is on track to help rebuild our local economy and future. Make no mistake, workers and the taxes they pay, goods and services they buy and local businesses they support need good jobs with middle class wages to help get us out of a recession. I hope that those of us lucky enough to have a job will remember this and decline to sign this costly repeal. Remember the job you save could be your own.
Every leftist cause from no-nukes to no-war hires paid gatherers.
The leftist rags are full of ads offering to pay unemployed losers to lie to nice normal folks outside the grocery store.
Heck, OWS was paying vermin to squat and defecate outside legitimate businesses and scare away paying customers.
Two can play that game.
What’s sauce for the goose, after all…
What exactly are the legitimate merits of SMART? We have the numerous fake people posting again, so I’m betting SMART is worried because there will be enough signatures.
All you supporters, please tell us… What are we getting? What are you claiming are the benefits of SMART? Nothing anyone has claimed so far is legitimate.
Why can’t any SMART support come up with a single successful commuter rail project in some other city?
@Graeme Nice try, an anti-Obama comment with your anti-SMART hypothesis, but no. LBR points out that other causes, post Acorn, have gotten their signatures; the causes that don’t get the signatures are the ones people don’t like.
I’m betting anti-SMART won’t make it, let’s see what their excuse will be then. Because there will be an excuse, and no one will admit the voters don’t hate SMART as much as Repeal does.
It’s well known that paid signature gatherers do not undergo backround checks for employment. Identity theft and fraud by PAID signature gatherers are the reason no one signs their petitions. I would feel uncomfortable giving my signature and information to any of those characters who work for a buck a signature.
Can someone please let us know locations where they are collecting signatures? I’d love to sign but have yet to find anyone collecting. Thanks to those that support repealing this train to nowhere.
The anti-SMART characters have been forced to go to mercenaries because there are not enough lightly informed voters out there who can be tricked into causing a legal and financial train wreck by repealing the funding for the SMART rail and pathway project. Now they have these guys out in front of supermarkets carrying four petitions for all kinds of causes,desperately trying to get their dollar out of you. They don’t beleive in what they’re doing, but they want that $.
That’s why the supporters of SMART are going out this weekend with flyers and educational material to offer an alternative point of view for folks who are trying to decide on this issue. We owe it to the public to let them know that there is widespread support by business, labor, environmental, cycling, and transit groups for the SMART rail and trail. The forces behind the anti-SMART campaign are deliberately misleading the public about the costs and consequences of their Tea Party anti-government jihad. The public deserves to hear the straight facts from us.
@Graeme – “It has nothing to do with the merits of the Repeal SMART petition.”
.
Funny, other folks seem to be able to get enough signatures for their initiatives… The repeal effort says they have 250 volunteers. If 40,000 are needed, that comes out to 160 per volunteer. At 10 to 15 signatures per hour, that equates to around 11 to 16 hours per volunteer. Doesn’t seem like a daunting task for a group of dedicated volunteers working on something that most folks agree with… So, either the volunteers are not that dedicated, or the the cause lacks merit.
It was okay for Acorn but not for repeal smart?
Because of the fear of all that personal information you must provide getting stolen, it’s getting a lot harder for anyone to gather signatures for any reason. It has nothing to do with the merits of the Repeal SMART petition.