49ers Stadium: A Yardstick for the "Term Sheet"

Some Stadium Facts: It took over two years of secrecy with SIXTY-EIGHT closed-session meetings, not to mention spending $1.1 million of RDA money on consultants' fees.

But your City Council has finally set a date for a public session so that we can see the 49ers' stadium "term sheet".

At last.

This public session will be held on Tuesday evening, June 2, 2009, at 7:00 p.m. in City Council Chambers. Santa Clara Plays Fair urges as many residents as can possibly attend to be there - and that they make themselves heard.

Even if real numbers are going to be hard to come by until that City Council Meeting is held, there is a yardstick by which all Santa Clarans can "measure" the term sheet. That yardstick is the statement of "Guiding Principles", passed by City Council unanimously on January 9, 2007:

http://santaclaraca.gov/pdf/collateral/January_9_Agenda_Report_re_Proposed_49ers_Stadium.pdf

See page 4 and note the very first Guiding Principle: "No use or obligation of General Fund monies of the City of Santa Clara."

That means: There must be NO loss to the General Fund of any kind. Not only must a stadium deal not cause direct debits to the General Fund - but the stadium must not stop payments to the General Fund that we're entitled to.

That's another way of saying: Don't just look at the General Fund; look at the payments it is lawfully entitled to from the Redevelopment Agency, as well as any payments from a Stadium Authority we might choose to create. The General Fund should show only net gains.

Santa Clara Plays Fair urges all Santa Clarans to hold our City Council to the same standards that they agreed to over two years ago, and that they evaluate any "deal" with the San Francisco 49ers against these Guiding Principles.

Owing especially to the serious fiscal challenges that our City - and we ourselves - are facing - we shouldn't be settling for anything less than that.




Thanks for your support,

Bill Bailey, Treasurer,
Santa Clara Plays Fair