by Ken Gimblin

SACRAMENTO–The anti arena group Sacramento Taxpayers Opposed to Pork or STOP says they now have enough signatures to put an initiative on the Sacramento June ballot to ask voters one question that Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson and other major supporters were trying to prevent, “should (public funds) be used to build a new sports or entertainment facility.” If the count is right according to the Sacramento County of registrar of voters the initiative that all arena and Sacramento Kings supporters feared could be another road block for the new downtown arena plan.

Mayor Johnson has got this far in getting the NBA to keeping the Kings in Sacramento and not allowing the team to move to Seattle, second Chris Hansen who wanted to buy and move the team to Seattle and failed put $100,000 of his money towards a signature campaign under the care of a Los Angeles law firm where workers from STOP collected signatures on the petition to get the question on the ballot.

At first it looked as if STOP would have problems getting it to even pass when it was discovered that Hansen tried to undermine Sacramento by getting signatures to get the question on the ballot. Hansen was even fined for campaign violations $50,000 by the California Fair Political Practices. Then the validity of the signatures were called into question and it looked like a number of the signatures might not be real legitimate registered voters who signed.

Friday turns out after careful cross referencing the registrar’s office counted 22,498 signatures a razor thin margin over the minimum needed 22,026. Johnson has ordered Sacramento City Clerk Shirley Concolino to throw out some of the signatures saying that some of the signatures were erroneous, that some of the signatures are challenged and some believe that a lot of the signatures were not from registered voters in the county also it was pointed out that the names of the backers of the petition were left off the public notice in the June edition of the Sacramento Observer .

“Given the legal stench wafting off these petitions, we beleive it is critical for the city to protect the public by making sure that the flawed petitions are rejected” in a statement from The4000,a committee orgainization that Johnson had established and also is being directed by Kings president Chris Granger.

STOP has said that even though they finished one hurdle about the count being right they are prepared for a legal fight from Johnson and the city over the signatures. STOP lawyer Brad Hertz said that whatever the problems are with the regisrations there isn’t a major problem with those signatures and they will be counted, “We hit the mark and are very gratified, the city clerk still has to validate. We will see what happens there, we have to be prepared for some legal issues.” said STOP co-founder James Cathcart.

Concolino has until Monday January 28th to approve all the petitions and check the signatures. There is no doubt that Johnson will ask Concoline to cross check the signatures again for mistakes, dead people signing, non-registered signatures or false names. Concolino’s office has reportedly already cross referenced the signatures and there hasn’t been a report of misconduct or at least enough to withdrawl petitions so that the count would be reduced.

If the number is accurate and the petition count stands Johnson, the Kings, and supporters of the new downtown arena will have to change their approach and convince voters why public funds would be beneficial for Sacramento building a new sports facility. Most municipalities who want to use public funds to build new stadiums or arenas have a large sector of the community that do not want tax dollars spent on such projects. The Kings would have to almost bend over backwards to convince Sacramento County voters to get the new arena voted in with a question proposed like that on the ballot.

The Mayor’s foundation and legal team must now find a legal loop hole to stop the subsidy question from entering the ballot and again the clock is ticking for Johnson and his team to find a way to stop the question from entering the ballot. Hertz said that the voters have spoken and that all requirements have been met for legal compliance. Both sides have indicated that there will be a show down in the courts over this.

Ken Gimblin is covering the Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors arena developments for Sportstalk radio