Despite the Save San Onofre Coalition (SSOC) winning a
15-year battle to protect San Onofre State Beach from a toll road development,
and settling a lawsuit
to codify permanent protection of the park, the City Council of San
Clemente and the Reserve Management Corporation filed lawsuits to undo
our historic settlement.
Clearly, these lawsuits are disheartening. However, what is even more concerning is that
for the past year a false narrative has been circulating around San Clemente about
SSOC’s lawsuit
settlement with the Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA). In July of
2017, rather than sitting down with SSOC to learn more about the Protective
Agreement secured to save San Onofre State Beach, the San Clemente City
Council chose to perpetuate flat-out misinformation. As recently reported, the public learned the City Council hired a PR firm. Upon reading a memo from the PR firm, we learned the City Council spent taxpayer funds to drive a mistruth
that SSOC took a $30 million payout during the settlement negotiations.
SSOC did not receive a $30 million bribe, or any other
amount of money. Not even a $1.00. As clearly stated in the Settlement
Agreement, $28 million was set aside by TCA in a conservation fund to be spent
on mitigation if the TCA builds any project that impacts the area’s
environment. This money is held by the TCA and can only be used on conservation
efforts such as habitat restoration, land acquisition, and other activities
that preserve and restore San Mateo Creek and its watershed. None of the funds
in the conservation fund has ever been, nor ever will be, paid to SSOC or its
members organizations.
Not only is the narrative that SSOC took a huge payout patently
false, but unfortunately it is coming directly from elected officials and staff
at the City of San Clemente. Starting in March of 2017, San Clemente City Councilmembers
introduced the idea that SSOC took huge sums of money from the TCA. Following these
misstatements, we attended a later City Council meeting and asked them to
correct their misstatements. To this day, no such correction, even in light of
black-and-white text proving otherwise, has been made. Instead, city officials
continue to perpetuate this knowingly false narrative. This video
shows the misinformation being espoused from the dais and SSOC testifying to
set the record straight (this was from nearly a year ago!).
While it is a shame that SSOC was subject of a false
narrative, drummed up by a taxpayer-funded PR campaign, the most disturbing element
is that San Clemente residents were fed misinformation by their own elected officials.
Hiring a PR firm was not the misdeed. The misdeed was engaging in a misinformation
campaign that pitted neighbor against neighbor. Rather
than sit down with SSOC and engage in constructive dialogue, city officials chose
to misrepresent the protective agreement SSOC won in a 15-year-long battle to
protect San Onofre State Beach.
San Clemente residents, how are our city’s elected officials
using our tax dollars? Why did the City Council and staff knowingly spread
false information? To find out more about the importance of protecting the Park
read the resources we have here.
The SSOC is comprised of 12 national and local organizations
representing millions of Californians with Staff members and constituents living
in South Orange county and San Clemente.
