Sacramento arena proponents make desperate weekend robo-calls

Broken down by household, every single homeowner in Sacramento will be tagged with a cost of $5,200. I know I don’t have an extra $5,200 in my pocket — especially for a sports arena, which benefits few.

What the &%$@!

“We wanted to make sure to get out the message to voters…, and we wanted to go directly to the voters in their houses,” Joshua Wood, Executive Director of DowntownArena.org, bragged to CBS 13 news.

Voters For A Fair Arena Deal sent out an email providing information about the phone call code violation, after receiving many emails and phone call complaints about the DowntownArena.org robo-call.

Wood is apparently boasting his organization’s culpability in over 110,000 violations of Public Utilities Code section 2874(a). 

That code section says:

2874. (a) Whenever telephone calls are placed through the use of an automatic dialing-announcing device, the device may be operated only after an unrecorded, natural voice announcement has been made to the person called by the person calling. The announcement shall do all of the following:

(1) State the nature of the call and the name, address, and telephone number of the business or organization being represented, if any.

(2) Inquire as to whether the person called consents to hear the prerecorded message of the person calling. ”

Voters for a Fair Arena are gathering signatures to petition the city to allow this to be on the ballot.

“Voters for a Fair Arena Deal,” was formed amidst unanswered concerns about the pubic cost of the current arena subsidy plan, which will require payments of $25 million per year for 27 years after the initial 8 years of “interest only” payments.  The state recently prohibited school districts from using similar long-term “capital appreciation” bonds.

The robocall by DowntownArena.org was not preceded by an unrecorded, natural voice announcement, nor was any inquiry attempted by DowntownArena.org to gain consent from the recipient, as required by the statute, according to Voters for a Fair Arena.

Each violation of PUC code 2874 is punishable by a fine of up to $500. “In just one day alone, DowntownArena.org willingly committed enough violations of the code to be subject to over $50,000,000 in fines,” Voters for a Fair Arena reported.

DowntownArena.org has ramped up their intimidation campaign over the past few weeks as the deadline to submit signatures for a ballot initiative to allow the residents of Sacramento to vote on the arena approaches closer. Besides making illegal and intrusive calls to half of Sacramento, DownArena.org agents have been following campaign volunteers who are trying to give residents the final say over an arena subsidy and badgering those who have already signed and simply want their day at the voting booth.

I was at a local grocery store last week, and saw people in front of the store, collecting signatures for a petition to build the arena.

There is no petition to build the arena. The City Council already voted to allow the arena to be built. This was merely an attempt to be misleading and confusing.

Thug tactics