Solano County recently posted California Forever’s 2^nd Quarter campaign finance report, Form 460.  It’s 68 pages long, and provides a detailed look inside the billionaire funding and the massive effort to sell the public on the billionaires’ failed ballot initiative.

Contributions

The report details 11 self-funding contributions April-June totaling $5,935,000. In addition, they made non-monetary contributions (staff time, office space & expenses, legal fees and event sponsorships) totaling $1,473,302. Total contributions for the three months – all self-funded – were $7,408,302. This was on top of the $1,850,109 California Forever gave itself in the 1^st Quarter. Yes, that’s a total self-funding of $9,258,411 through the first half of 2024!

Expenditures

California Forever spent most of that money. Expenditures April-June totaled $7,078,688 (plus another $319,455 in as yet unpaid bills). This on top of its 1^st Quarter expenses of $2,008,873, a total outlay for the first 6 months of this year: $9,087,561.

The details revealed on the 60 pages of individual expenditures are mind-blowing. For instance, just take a look at the first page of expenditures, p. 8:

• Acosta Consulting, Sacramento, for literature: $112,500.20
• Angie Wei Consulting, Sacramento, for campaign consulting, 2 payments, both for $20,000
• Grindstone Field Solutions, Sacramento, for campaign workers’ salaries, $140,135.42

That is only the first of 60 pages, with additional payments for each of the above categories.

Another example: see pp. 56-64 for massive amounts spent on “radio airtime and production costs”:

• KCBS-AM San Francisco: payments of  $9,452, $13,636 and $17,106, total around $40K. (and similar payments to many other AM and FM stations in the Bay Area, Sacramento and one in Burbank)
• Pandora Radio: 2 payments of $13,440. Spotify: 2 payments of $13,440 and another of $16,800. Sirius XM: $16,800.
• And 2 whopping payments, $438,537 and $389,662.36 paid to DMA Nielsen of Queensbury NY for “t.v. or cable airtime and production costs.”

Transparency going forward?

QUESTION: Now that the initiative is no longer on the ballot, will California Forever be required by State and/or County law to file another 460 at the next deadline (probably in September sometime)?

QUESTION: California Forever now says they will “apply for a General Plan and Zoning Amendment and proceed with the normal County process for the negotiation and execution of a development agreement.” [County news release 22 Jul 2024]  >>What County department will be overseeing this kind of process? I assume that project documents will be posted on the County website, but it’s not clear to me where. Interested parties will want to be monitoring this process closely.

I’ll be sure to update with answers on the BenIndy if/when I get answers.

Roger Straw, Benicia Independent contributor

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More…

• California Forever on the BenIndy