There is yet another incarnation of a political action committee that has plagued Livermore for at least a decade.
Friends of Livermore (FOL), a PAC around since at least 2011, morphed into Citizens for a Livermore Central Park (CFALCP) in 2019. Later in 2019, Protect the Central Park Vote, No on P, (PCTP) was formed. Earlier this year, Move Eden Housing (MEH) came into being. Now Take Back Livermore (TBL) started running ads supporting candidates and opposing others.
A “non-political” coalition, Save Livermore Downtown (SLD), has been around for several years and is one of two groups currently embroiled in lawsuits against the city, with the other being MEH.
All these groups share many of the same people, agents and major contributors and employ the same tactics to obscure who is truly funding them.
The common objective of all these groups is to thwart city council actions to complete the downtown plan through lawsuits, referendums and disinformation, while trying to pack the council with candidates who will do the bidding of the principal players.
While there are small contributions made by many to give the appearance of large support for the groups, in reality it’s a handful of people — and two wealthy individuals in particular — who contribute 90% or more of the contributions each entity receives.
Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) 460 filings show that hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions to FOL, CFALCP and PTCP were made by Joan Seppala (publisher of the Livermore Independent), Seppala’s relatives and Jean King.
Seppala, her relatives and King contributed approximately 93% of the total $480,473 raised for FOL Committee 2018, approximately 94% of the total $266,783 raised for CFALCP, and approximately 91% of the total $605,733 raised for PTCP.
MEH’s reported contributions reported Oct. 10, which cover Jan. 1 to June 30, 2022, of $49,070 currently cover only about 25% of the outstanding expenses of $191,884.
The newest committee, TBL, seems to have been formed to support a slate of candidates who will fall in line with the wishes of those behind SLD and MEH. The committee has already spent $125,000.
Based on the patterns established for the FOL, CFALCP and PTCP committees, though, it is reasonable to assume that Seppala and King will cover the remaining expense balances for MEH and TBL once a full accounting of the contributions are made public.
MEH’s expenses are guaranteed to increase over the next few months as the group filed a lawsuit against the city and the city clerk for not processing a referendum for the November ballot.
A ruling handed down Tuesday by Alameda Superior Court Judge Michael Markman in response to the MEH petition ordered MEH to post a $500,000 bond. This is the second such order for the groups for the same reason of delaying the housing development. In November, SLD was ordered to post a $500,000 bond.
Seppala is not named as a petitioner in any of the lawsuits, and she and King do their utmost to fly under the radar through confluence and convolution. Still, in addition to court documents and FPPC filings, there are also too many similarities in the committees and recognizable maneuvering with the FPPC filing timelines to completely wipe away their fingerprints.
The obfuscation starts with a well-oiled and often-used political machine consisting of the same people, key agents and vendors shared by the groups. The political machine is complemented by artful FPPC timeline manipulation and a complex way to pay vendors.
​Under state law, contributors of more than $50,000 or more to a PAC are considered “top contributors,” and their names must be disclosed on campaign advertising. When this group’s major donors have to contribute before an election, the contributions are distributed to not exceed the $50,000.
Additionally, major contributions are typically timed to take advantage of FPPC reporting timelines, so the full extent of Seppala and King’s involvement is concealed until after the relevant election.
This cabal has caused irreparable harm to stakeholders and potential beneficiaries.
Someone hijacked TBL’s URL and now this message appears: “Joan Seppala, please stop trying to buy our elections — Citizens of Livermore”. Let’s hope she takes the hint.
Editor’s note: More information and documentation is available in the digital version of this story on PleasantonWeekly.com
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