American Canyon City

To Whom It May Concern:

I live in a little sleepy little town of around 9,000 citizens that enjoy a semi-rural atmosphere on the northern fringe of Vallejo, Calif. We have no shopping centers, two gas stations, one "Seven Eleven", three restaurants, three small "plant nurseries" and approximately ten other small businesses on the highway 29 thoroughfare which divides our fair city. Yes, many of the business have been here since god created earth, but they were all that could survive this towns meager economy which had been intentionally depressed by the County of Napa and now the City of American Canyon. I think by now you get the picture that there wasn't much development here, but that didn't mean too much to the over zealous Ex-City manager that tried to eradicate the so-called existing blight and start a Redevelopment project which at first included the entire city of American Canyon and every small business in town. Granted he didn't personally start the redevelopment agency, but he picked up the on the original plan which was started by the previous City Manager and ran with it full speed ahead.

Redevelopment got it's start here during the late November and early December months of 1995 with a meager handful of witnesses to spread the word. By January of 1996 the local newspaper called the "Echo" ran an article asking what people thought of the proposed redevelopment agency. Most people still did not understand what he was talking about and therefore didn't pay any attention. I was also one of those sleepy people.

Around February of 1996, I ran another of many revised plans past the Planning Commissioner regarding a project that I had been trying to developed. Again I got the same old treatment which ultimately prevented me from moving forward because of the massive stumbling blocks being placed in my way. I still had not made the redevelopment connection and therefore I asked for an informal meeting with the affected department heads to tell me what was wrong with my proposed plan. Since my property seemed to be zoned correctly and followed the guideline of the General Plan I was confused with the constant delays. The City Manager and Planning Commissioner was at the next meeting but the other department heads didn't show. I was angered but soon realized why I couldn't get anywhere with my project. During this taped meeting at my request and with the Manager's permission, the word "Redevelopment" reared it's ugly little head. When the City Manager first introduced the idea that my property was inside a proposed Redevelopment Project Area and that my land was to be part of a large commercial project, I was dismayed. It didn't take long to finally understand the real meaning and finally why all my attempts to development my property was met with outright hostility and rejection by the City Staff. Obviously the new City Manager had put out the word to stop anything from moving forward until the Redevelopment Agency was fully operational.

In the meantime I lost my financial backing for the project being proposed and almost all other opportunities to develop my land to it's best use. In the mean time I learned everything I could about this horrible new menace to our small community. Within weeks I had gathered many citizens together and organized a citizens group against redevelopment called "R.A.A.", (Residents for Awareness and Action). Within weeks we had our first Town Hall Meeting at which over one hundred fifty people attended. The overwhelming populous was shocked and dismayed at what they heard but the City Manager was unfazed and plodded forward against all odds. He continually ignored all our requests for information until we threatened legal actions against him. Slowly we began getting bits and pieces of Redevelopment information that was suppose to be readily available to the public. At every opportunity he threw road blocks in out way and continued to hold numerous public meeting and ignored every complaint thrown his way. We finally sought outside help from other people who had already "walked through fire". I called all over the State of California and talked to hundred of people with similar experiences and each could tell their own "Horror Stories". I kept asking for anyone to tell about a good project, but no one could really point out a true success.

I lost the financial backing for my proposed project which has caused me huge financial problems. Out of desperation I learned everything I could about this horrible new enemy called Redevelopment. Within weeks I had talked to many citizens and organized public meetings to learn more about redevelopment. We quickly formed a group called "R.A.A." (Residents For Awareness and Action), and shortly thereafter had our first ever Town Hall Meeting. Our organization brought in speakers from every source available to discuss redevelopment and offered the City Manager a forum to convince us of the benefits of redevelopment. At the end of that meeting, it was obvious to all, that redevelopment was not wanted by an over-whelming majority of the citizens who attended that first meeting. After voicing hundreds of objections to the City Manager moving forward with redevelopment, he remained unfazed and plodded forward against all odds of getting the citizens support. Numerous City meetings were held to keep the redevelopment program on tract, time wise, and many false statement were uttered by the City Manager.

By now we realized that the "Government funding" for the proposed $80,000,000.00 plus project was not coming from the Federal Government as stated on numerous occasions by the City Manager, but instead from "Tax-increment dollars". By then it was also obvious that a PAC Committee was not necessarily going to be formed and that Eminent Domain was just around the corner for almost every business on the Highway 29 corridor. Suspecting that fact, we pushed even harder for a PAC Committee to protect our rights under the law , Yielding to our pressure, the City eliminated the Eminent Domain threat from it's proposed Project area. In doing so, even though earlier in the process the City Manager had promised a PAC Committee would be formed, he then stated that since Eminent Domain was not going to be used within the Project area, a PAC Committee was no longer legally required. Therefore, he suggested to the City Council that only an "Advisory Committee" should be formed, which of course has no true power.

Another Town Hall Meeting occurred and by then we were working frantically to educate the City Councilmen who were making the everyday decisions on our very lives. Slowly but surely two City Councilmen began to question some of the actions that were being forced down everyone's throats, even there's. Finally we got the City Manager to reduce the size of the original project down to about one quarter it's original size. By then, the "Highway 29, Redevelopment Project Area" was going full steam ahead. Hundreds of people stood up in opposition of this Redevelopment Boondoggle, but the majority of the City Council still said they were listening to the voice of the "silent majority, who incidentally, never attended a City Council Meeting". Actually in all fairness there were a few supporters of this Plan, but we later found out that all of these people would receive a direct benefit from the plan. Incidentally the new project area was now going to cost the City of American Canyon $29,000,000.00 +-, or to be more realistic $3,222.22 per every man, woman and child in American Canyon plus interest in tax-increment dollars for the next thirty years plus. The citizens of American Canyon City did not want to allow the mass destruction of the entire Highway 29 corridor, but instead opted to allow economic development to occur, without redevelopment.

By then the R.A.A. group was asking for the right to vote on whether or not a Redevelopment Agency should even exist in a City that didn't have anything to redevelop. Our argument was clear, the citizens felt that they were deprived of reasonable participation during the formation of the Redevelopment Agency. Granted the citizens had not fully understood the redevelopment issues and had not attended the City Council Meetings, therefore allowing the Redevelopment Agency to be formed. Everyone felt the City should have done more to inform the citizens before taking such an important action. Of course by that time the thirty day referendum period had passed.

In the later part of 1995 the R.A.A. group with many other citizens participation gathered enough signatures for an Initiative to be place on the March 1996 Ballot giving the right to the citizens to finally decide once and for all if they truly wanted a redevelopment agency. The signatures were verified and the Initiative was to be placed on the March ballot. Within days the City of American Canyon filed a Writ of Mandate against this action and we were dragged into court to be admonished. How dare the citizens of American Canyon choose to exercise their rights! A decision was forthcoming, which as anticipated, supported the Cities legal argument that this was not a "Proper subject for the initiative power". We rebounded by saying that this issue was going back to the Appeals Court but not in Napa County. Thousands of dollars and hundreds of man hours later we finally got the case back in the Appeals Court which had agreed to review our case.

The City of American Canyon was obviously concerned about the Appeals Court decision to review our case, so they did something quite intelligent. They publicly offered American Canyon citizens the right to vote on whether or not they wanted the "Highway 29 Redevelopment Project", which kept the door wide open for any future project. Much to R.A.A.'s dismay the City of American Canyon then sent arguments to the Appeals Court stating that the vote issue was now "Mute" and as expected, the Appeals Court ruled in their favor. We still respectfully disagree with that decision because our suit was not based on the right to vote on a specific project. We obviously knew that we could use the 30 day referendum period following the final approval of the Highway 29 Redevelopment Project, if that was our sole purpose. R.A.A.'s actual appeal was based on our rights to vote on whether or not to have a "Redevelopment Agency". We still feel that the City took away it's citizens right to vote on this very crucial issue.

At that point, our only tactic was to wait for the Highway 29 Redevelopment Project to be finally approved and then, use the referendum process to force the vote. I know the City had publicly told it's citizens that they would have a binding vote, but no one believed that the City Council could legally give away it vested voting authority. On the day the vote was taken to proceed with the project, the City Council voted 3 for, and 2 against. I suppose the 3 Council members were still listening to the so-called "Silent Majority".

Again we encountered all types of delays by the City Manager who with-held every bit of information necessary to file our referendum papers so we could collect signatures. With less than 20 days to gather signatures and print "all documents" relating to the project, we were still able to qualify the referendum and get on with our daunting task. Again the people responded overwhelmingly against redevelopment and we had the required signatures in record time. The signatures were verified and the City of American Canyon was finally forced to let the people legally vote on the Highway 29 Redevelopment Project, but nothing else. It's interesting to note that I personally had heard many times from the pro-redevelopment City Council members that if the project was voted down by the citizens of American Canyon, then for all intent and purposes the Redevelopment Agency was dead. Because of those comments I asked them to promise publicly that if the project should be voted down, they would agree to dissolve the Redevelopment Agency immediately. The Council was so sure of a Victory that they publicly jumped at the bait. That was their fatal mistake because the R.A.A. group already knew that it this Highway 29 Project would not pass! I'm happy to say that we overwhelmingly defeated the Highway 29 Redevelopment Project by 69.8%.

Now what's the purpose of all this rhetoric? Simply this! Without the right of "Referendum", the American Canyon's citizens" would have been refused their rights to be heard on the Highway 29 Redevelopment Project and ultimately the Redevelopment Agency. I know that many people would argue that our voices were heard, but the truth is, we spoke obviously to the deaf ears of four misguided individuals that put their needs and aspirations above their own constituents who clearly said no. We should not and can not give away any of our citizens rights.

It's scary to think that one misguided now Ex-City Manager and three now Ex-City Councilmen nearly got away with destroying the City of American Canyon's citizens right to enjoy economic development after waiting 50 years plus to "Control their own destiny".

Please, I implore you to support fully the passage of AB 923, because no reform on earth will protect the right of your citizens more than doing away with redevelopment in it's entirety! There are too many miss guided individuals who abuse their power at every level to allow this type of out-of-control State Agency to continue!

Sincerely yours,

Donald E. Colcleaser, Councilman
1-707-554-6580

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