Legal Update and Chris Hansen Statement

Great news on the arena front as our friend Peter Goldman again has his efforts to block the arena tossed out in court.  I've been candid that I like Peter and actually think he has good intentions but I still wonder how long it will take for him to state as a fact that the MOU is illegal despite repeated and convincing statements by the court that prove otherwise.

At the end of the day the courts prove legality and Peter just wasted gobs of our city attorney and Hansen's time because he thought he was smarter than everybody else in government.  Poorly played Peter.  We won't miss you in this process.

In addtion Chris Hansen agreed to a settlement surrounding his donations to Sacramento anti-arena efforts and issued the following statement:

In conjunction with the proposed settlement with the FPPC, I wanted to take the opportunity to give a more detailed explanation of the circumstances surrounding my contribution to the Sacramento Arena Opposition.

• Prior to the May 15th NBA Board of Governors vote concerning the relocation of the Sacramento Kings, I engaged Loeb & Loeb to conduct background research concerning the viability of a new arena in Sacramento. This research involved an assessment of legal, economic, environmental, and political issues surrounding past and present efforts to build an arena in Sacramento. During this process (and again prior to May 15th), after being approached by Loeb on behalf of opposition members, I agreed that a portion of the funds paid to Loeb could, in the future, be used for political purposes if a broad-based political committee, consisting of other donors and independent of STOP, were established to oppose the effort to build an arena in Sacramento. It was never my desire or intent to either directly fund signature gathering or to be the primary financial sponsor of the opposition's efforts.

• On June 21, 2013, I paid a legal bill from Loeb & Loeb that consisted of all legal fees incurred from March 2013 through May 2013 for the aforementioned background research and my prior commitment of up to $100,000 that could be directed toward the Sacramento Arena opposition assuming that certain conditions were met (a broad based political committee was set up with substantial other donors). On the same day (June 21, 2013), and without my knowledge or consent, Loeb & Loeb advanced $80,000 to GoCo consulting to collect signatures to qualify an initiative that would require a public vote on a new arena. At this time, a broad-based political committee had not yet been established, and I neither directed nor authorized Loeb & Loeb to make this expenditure on my behalf. During this entire process, I never spoke with, emailed, met, or had any correspondence with GoCo, Brandon Powers, STOP or Taxpayers for Safer Neighborhoods.

• Additionally, at the time it made the payment to GoCo, Loeb & Loeb did not inform me of either the payment to GoCo or of the need to file a major donor report. The first time I learned of the payment to GoCo was on August 10, 2013. It was only after a complaint was filed with the FPPC demanding an investigation into the source of the $80,000 payment that Loeb & Loeb informed me that some of my funds had been advanced to GoCo. Again, this was the first time I learned my funds had been directed toward signature gathering.

• After discussing the matter with Loeb over the weekend, I retained separate counsel on August 13. After having just three days to assess the situation with my new counsel, I filed a major donor report on August 16th. It is also important to note, that I was never informed of the FPPC's intent to file a lawsuit on August 15th and had already taken steps to file my major donor report before the suit was filed.

These facts were confirmed by Loeb & Loeb, which is noted in the settlement stipulation.