Signed petitions that would force the city of Elk Grove, California to schedule an election to possibly overturn the city’s decision to allow a mall owner to sell land to the Wilton Rancheria have been turned in to the city clerk’s office.
Petitions from an unnamed group with 14,800 signatures were turned in on November 21. If the names are certified that would be more than enough to give the voters a chance to revoke the city council’s October 12 vote that let the Howard Hughes Corp. out of its development agreement with the city so it could sell 35 acres to the tribe, which wants to buy the land and put a casino there.
The city’s population would require that at least 8,900 signatures be valid for the election to be scheduled—probably next June.
Normally voters have no chance of preventing an Indian casino from being built, since that is usually completely up to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. However, in this case, the tribe wouldn’t be able to get the land without the city’s permission—which the petitions seek to reverse.
The proponents of the petition—and who they are remains a mystery—had 30 days from the time they filed their intention to gather the signatures. Some 600 residents have told the clerk’s office that they want to remove their signatures, which they consider were acquired under false pretenses. Once the petition was filed, however, they were no longer able to withdraw their names.
One of those people, Julie Cassella, told the Elk Grove Citizen that she was fooled into signing the petition in front of a supermarket. “It’s kind of deceptive, because I want the casino and I signed the petition,” she said. “So, the people that are having you sign the petition do not really know the agenda. He goes, ‘Here, if you want the casino, sign the petition.’ And I did. So, they’re very misleading and deceptive in how they’re getting you to sign the petition.”
Tribal Chairman Raymond “Chuckie” Hitchcock has claimed that the Sacramento Region Business Association has been leading the effort to get residents to take back their signatures before the petitions were finally filed.
“Wilton Rancheria supports Region Business in the effort to block petitioners who are here to destroy our Elk Grove mall,” said the chairman.
The Association has filed a complaint with the California Fair Political Practices Commission claiming that the petitions conspired to hide information from people they were trying to sign up. The Association has also filed preliminary papers to run a political campaign if the measure makes it to the ballot.
