By Jondi Gumz
Measure D, the Greenway initiative on the June 7 ballot, is sparking a very expensive campaign with more than $700,000 raised as of April 23 to influence your vote — your vote on the future of the rail corridor from Davenport to Watsonville.
Yes Greenway, the grassroots coalition that wants to railbank the largely unused rail line and build a trail on it for people on bikes and on foot, has raised $318,286 this year, adding to $140,375 raised last year.
No Way Greenway, which wants to keep building a trail next to the rail line and hopes passenger rail will be feasible some day, has raised $165,699 this year, adding to $91,110 raised last year.
Yes Greenway has spent $160,134 this year, and reports $272,361 cash on hand.
No Way Greenway has spent $127,890 this year, and reports $111,504 cash hand on hand.
The largest donors to Yes Greenway are:
- Rowland Rebele, Santa Cruz, philanthropist & retired publisher, $28,000.
- Julie Packard, Soquel, director, Monterey Bay Aquarium, $25,385.
- John “Bud” Colligan, Capitola, formerly with Apple & Macromedia CEO, now angel investor, $25,072
- J. Miles Reiter, Watsonville, Driscoll’s CEO, $25,000.
- Karen Hargrove, La Selva Beach, retired, $25,000.
- Lloyd Tabb, Santa Cruz, founder of Looker, $25,000.
- Bill Simpkins, retired, philanthropist, $25,000.
- Guy Kawasaki, Santa Cruz, author/podcaster, worked for Apple, $25,000.
- Robert Stephens, Aptos, retired from Elkhorn Ranch in Moss Landing, $25,000.
- John W. Ballard, Santa Cruz, retired, $25,000.
- Alex Webster, Santa Cruz, retired, $25,000.
Bud Colligan pointed out no donor has given more than 6% of Yes on D’s total $458,000 raised.
“So when I hear about “big money,” it’s quite illustrative to actually look at the numbers and see that the largest donation to Yes on D is $28K by Rowland Rebele,” he added.
The reporting rules do not require donations less than $100 to be reported individually.
“Our number at the end of the last reporting period 4/23/22 was 651, with a median donation of $52,” he said.
For 2021, Marilyn Calciano, Yes Greenway Steering Committee member, call the contributions “broad and reflective of the whole community.”
Yes Greenway leaders chose Sutton Law Firm of San Francisco for their expertise in legal and treasurer aspects of elections.
Bud Colligan explained, “They handle elections in many different cities and counties. YES Greenway wanted to hire someone for a ballot measure with experience to ensure the campaign was fully compliant with all elections laws and disclosures.”
Colligan voiced frustration that 300 Yes Greenway yard signs have been stolen. He sees new signs saying “Finish the Trail, Keep the Rail” lacking the required Fair Political Practices Commission number and who paid for them.
The Yes campaign hired Santa Cruz graphic designer Lisa Orsini and had Santa Cruz resident Isabella Kraus on staff. Ads appeared in the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Literature was printed at Community Printers and Sentinel Printers, both in Santa Cruz, with mailings via Maverick Mailing of Santa Cruz. EffectTV, a division of Comcast, was tapped to reach local TV audiences. Office expenses were paid via Stripe, and the campaign took advantage of Lookout Local Santa Cruz, Facebook and Twilio.
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No Way Greenway Top Donors
The top donors are couples, and some worked at Apple:
- Dan Dion, Santa Cruz, retired from Apple, $35,000, and his wife Jill Dion, Santa Cruz, retired, worked at Apple, $20,000
- Mark Mesiti-Miller, Santa Cruz, retired engineer, $25,000, and his wife Donna Murphy, Santa Cruz, retired from UCSC, $24,999
- Sally Arnold, Santa Cruz, consultant, former chair of Friends of the Rail & Trail, $13,000, her partner Christine Weir, Santa Cruz, retired, worked at Apple, $10,000
- Val Cole, Santa Cruz, retired, worked at Apple, $20,000
- Roaring Camp, Felton, $13,310
- Linda Wilshusen, Santa Cruz, retired from RTC, $3,500; her husband Rock Pfotenhauer, Santa Cruz, co-chair, Bay Area Community College Consortium, $2,500
- Greg Larson, Santa Cruz, consultant, former city staffer, $5,000
- Ralph Alpert, Santa Cruz, retired, $4,000
- Friends of the Rail & Trail, $3,221
- Pamela Davis, CEO, Alliance Member Services, $3,000
Most donors are from Santa Cruz County, but this year, some 60 supporters contributed from Los Gatos, Saratoga, Menlo Park, San Jose, Bremerton, Washington, Orono, Maine, Potomac, Maryland, and Geneseo, N.Y., to name a few.
No Way Greenway retained San Francisco-based Terris Barnes Walters Boigon Lester/Clean Sweep Campaigns as campaign consultant and Miller Maxfield of Santa Cruz for campaign strategy and a website.
The campaign paid Oakland-based FM3 $35,000 for a voter survey and got a data subscription from Political Data of Long Beach, plus a text messaging service from Toskr, doing business as GetThru.
Complete Digital of Washington DC created digital ads. Campaign materials were printed at Community Printers in Santa Cruz, Cornerstone Displays of Novato and Pacific Printing of San Jose. Carolyn Livingston of Santa Cruz was hired for campaign services.
In October, the California Fair Political Practices Commission began an investigation into Friends of the Rail & Trail after a sworn complaint alleged the organization was not following Fair Political Practice Commission requirements on campaign disclosure and advertising disclosure.
No Way Greenway campaign spokesman Matt Farrell said the issue with Friends of the Rail & Trail “was a clerical error that was quickly resolved.”
As of May 12, the investigation remains open, according to the FPPC.
Farrell alleged Greenway Capitola is the subject of an ongoing investigation into financial reporting from the 2018 Measure L campaign in Capitola.
“I’m not sure that has anything to do with this campaign,” Bud Colligan of Yes Greenway responded. “The complaint was filed by the opponents of Measure L, the campaign was notified by the FPPC, and we never heard from them again.”
He expected the matter to be long settled but the FPPC communication director said it remains an open case.
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To view the campaign reports, go to https://public.netfile.com/pub2/Default.aspx?aid=SCCO, enter Greenway, and you’ll have a choice of Yes or No to review. You can also review Form 497, required when donors give $1,000 or more or more in the 90 days before an election.