Time flies when you're having fun.
The public as well as most members never find out about how we help opponents of bond measures. Their interest usually comes when they find out a school or college has put a bond on the ballot and wanes quickly when the election is over.
What quickly became obvious to us by the end of 2016 was that school bond measures are not local in nature. They are organized and executed by a statewide public/private school bonds cartel that
We had just defeated a $208 million local Proposition 39 school bond measure on November 3, 2015. In the aftermath, while checking the election results for Los Angeles County, we found that ours was not the only school bond measure on the ballot. That spurred us to check the other counties. In toto, there were nine school bonds on the ballot around the state in this off-year election.
As we examined the other measures, we found that what we thought was a local instance of not following the law, appeared to be everywhere we looked.
That was the inspiration for this site.
At this point, we still naive, trying to determine who the bad guys were.
In order to attract visitors and, hopefully, members, we started to add content about specific measures that we were aware of.
Kevin Dayton, a guy up in Monterey County, had put together a huge 9-part project called "For the Kids" back in the July 2015. It included a spreadsheet of all the school bond elections since Proposition 39 passed in 2000. We loaded that information mostly for search engine purposes and provided data-driven pages to display it.
We began a project to call every registrar in the state before the filing deadline for the primary election. We were able to put together a more-or-less complete list of school bond measures for the primary election with some detail. We repeated the effort for the general election.
Along the way, we started adding member-only content. The purpose for that was so as to not broadcast to the bad guys the strategies and tactics that we were developing to defeat bonds.
We learned that almost all of the so-called 'taxpayer associations' are fake and just disguises for chambers of commerce, which actually thrive on higher taxes. There are a handful of grassroots taxpayer associations that are still active, but their activities are mostly ineffective. The most well-known statewide association is demonstrably only the side of its president and not on the side of taxpayers except to the extent that it can raise money off its founder's namesake.
In September we submitted testimony (21 pages) to the Little Hoover Commission Hearing on Bond Oversight. Predictably, the Legislature never implemented any of the recommendations from the Commission's report.
It was another off-year, but our membership was slowing growing.
Right after the November election, a new member from remote Trinity County found us. A small school bound had just passed. He wanted to overturn it and knew about a procedure to do it, that we were completely unaware of -- an election contest. That revelation opened up a new area for the site to explore.
As a result the election contest filing, we learned the State Treasurer's office is equally as corrupt as the local government agencies.
In 2017, San Francisco Unified placed a bond measure on the ballot that included $5 million of a $700 million authorization for workforce housing. In 2018, Jefferson Union High (San Mateo County) placed a bond measure on the ballot for $34 million exclusively for workforce housing. Teacher and staff housing is not a school facility under Proposition 39. When we called the San Mateo registrar and spoke to the Chief Deputy, she wanted us to cite the statute that told her it was illegal. Proposition 39 (the constitution) wasn't good enough. It barely passed the 55% requirement. Now school districts all over the state are being convinced by the school bonds cartel that it's legal. No one, especially not Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association ("HJTA"), is going to do anything about it. It's up to some motivated voter or a principled district attorney or the United States Attorney for one of the federal districts in California to put an end to this and put some people in prison.
This was the first year where the amended version of Elections Code section 13119 became effective. The sponsor, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, tried to repeal the change. We were able to publicly shame HJTA into withdrawing the repeal bill. (We were naive.)
This year was a big year for election contests. Twelve members filed 15 election contests to overturn more than $20 billion in school bond and other tax measures. Not all members pursued the filed contests. All those that did went to an appellate court.
From the point of view of voters opposing bond measures, we implemented a system to automatically creative a web page opposing every school bond on the ballot in both the primary and general elections. Unfortunately, potential opponents too often think they are alone and never mount a campaign against a bond measure.
We added a members-only feature that gave access to every school district's entire debt history using the data from CDIAC. It took a lot of work to convert the government database that starts in 1986 to something usable. However, members didn't appear to use it, so we stopped adding newer data.
We delivered notice and demand letters to every county registrar and county counsel that placed a bond measure on the June primary election ballot in March. We followed up in July and August with a hugely expanded (25 pages) notice and demand to every registrar, county counsel, and county supervisor in California. The almost complete lack of response demonstrated that they all know the law on measure elections; they intentionally ignore it.
Four appellate court opinions were rendered on filed election contests. One opinion was published, meaning it has precedential value. That opinion expressly excluded from the opinion our primary issue -- the ballot question containing all the arguments in favor of the measure. That practice by judges is called pretermittur -- a disgusting practice where judges intentionally decide not to decide an issue that is before the court.
Have you ever done made oral an argument to a three-judge panel of an appellate court? Every one those members did that. With appropriate coaching, they were outstanding.
What we learned was that the judges don't know the law. Judges only deal with what lawyers put before them. The lawyers don't law either. It's a sad state of affairs.
At our instigation, a Southern California News Group investigative reported published an extensive article on the inherently corrupt "independent" citizen bond oversight committees.
At our instigation again, one citizen bond oversight committee in a small district in a small county adopted its own bylaws. We wrote the bylaws, which were designed to actually follow the law and perform independent oversight.
We filed a criminal complaint against the Orange County registrar with the recently elected Orange County district attorney. The complaint was ultimately rejected. Apparently the ballots and the voter guides printed and mailed to millions of Orange County voters was insufficient evidence. This was the same district attorney who later (2024) let disgraced Republican Orange County supervisor Andrew Do and his daughter get off with a slap on the wrist for their scheme to steal millions of dollars in COVID relief money.
In August we documented the newly appointed Secretary of State's criminal act to rig the Newsom recall election.
From the time we learned of the California Association of Bond Oversight Committees (CABOC, formerly CaLBOC) we've been at loggerheads with its board of over its training surrounding the delusion that the Brown Act applied to oversight committees. In September we were invited to a board meeting on Zoom where the board addressed our objection and agreed not to pursue that training. In January 2023, we learned that the board had reneged on the agreement. Consequently, we published the article that we were holding back attacking CABOC and its training. As of early 2025 CABOC has ceased to exist. Everyone concerned about the fraud that masquerades as bond oversight should read the entire article and its suggested Additional Reading links.
For the November general election, we teamed up with the state chair of the California Libertarian Party in August to file arguments against (and one in favor) 52 local measures in 16 counties. Almost all made it into the county voter guides. We won one challenge in court and "convinced" three county registrars, who initially rejected the arguments because they didn't like our point-of-view, into accepting the arguments as written after a little discussion with their county counsel. The result was that our arguments and rebuttals, both of which castigated the registrar and its corruption, were printed in official county voter information guides that were mailed to over 10 million voters -- for free.
It takes a lot of work to find a contestant for an election contest. We found one who contested two elections in San Mateo County. We were able to force the San Mateo County Superior Court to actually follow the procedures set out in Division 16 of the Elections Code. We filed the contest on March 29. The trial was held in the morning on April 18. Everything beyond that was paperwork. We believe that this was the first election contest in the last 100 years that was actually conducted according to the rules. Unfortunately, the contestant ultimately withdrew the appeal.
We wrote a treatise on the horrific Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act voter-initiative. It covered every aspect of the abject failure of HJTA to counter the theft of the trillions of dollars in local measure taxes that Proposition 13 (1978) forced onto the ballot. We even got a cease-and-desist letter from one of its corrupt lawyers. Despite its president's continual whining, you, the people, dodged a bullet thanks to the California Supreme Court.
We followed up the 2018 letters in August with a third letter, a Stanson Notice, to every county registrar and county supervisor. We delivered a separate Stanson Notice to every county treasurer. These notices incorporated the 2018 letters by reference, but went to the heart of the criminal behavior, as determined by the California Supreme court, with respect to local measure elections.
We created a new page on the site that deals with voter-initiatives. The impetus was HJTA's series of mediocre filings called "Local Taxpayer Protection Act to Save Proposition 13." The initiatives we select follow are each related to laws that effect elections or taxes. For also file public comments with the attorney general's office for each of the selected statewide measures.
We have also created a series of initiative-related and corruption-related stand-alone blogs.
It all depends on you.
"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root, and it may be that he who bestows the largest amount of time and money on the needy is doing the most by his mode of life to produce that misery which he strives in vain to relieve." Henry David Thoreau
There are thousands of people all over the state who keep themselves busy with activities that are akin to the whack-a-mole arcade game. These people, good-intentioned though most of them are, never attack the root of the problem. They appear to go from one bright shiny object to the next.
It's safe to be inconspicuous in a group of people who lament the same things year after year.
There are two projects that we have worked on in the past. One is something we started back in 2009, but had to put on the back burner. Another is something that every single person with a conscience and moral clarity could accomplish without participating in a single minute of what passes as activism these days.
Each of these projects takes an army. Not one army for each, but one army for both.
"Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all." George Washington
There is a simple first step. It takes, literally, less than a minute to do. It's only for those with the discipline required.
"He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot, will be victorious." Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Sun Tzu emphasizes the importance of maintaining secrecy in strategy, stating that one should not reveal tactics to the enemy through words, actions, or spies, as this allows the opponent to develop effective countermeasures.
He advises that leaders must exercise discipline to keep their plans hidden, ensuring that their cards remain close to the vest rather than being flaunted for all to see.
This preservation of secrecy is essential for achieving victory, as it enables the use of deception and surprise, which are central to successful military strategy.
The principle is reinforced by the idea that the supreme art of war lies in subduing the enemy without fighting, which requires careful concealment of intentions and capabilities.
If we can't form the army (huge numbers are not required), neither project will proceed. "Many are called, but few are chosen." Matthew 22:14
As you can tell, we've done a lot of work over the years. We do it because every single one of your local government agencies in every county are corrupt to the core. It's about standing up to the bald-faced corruption.
The party that is out of power is out of power for a reason. Its goal is always to get elected. When elected, its goal is to get elected again. It has no principles and no spine. It's content to always be the lesser of two evils.
Over the years, we coached or assisted local activists in opposing many local school bond measures. Sometimes the measures failed, sometimes they passed.
Many of our members over the course of time, especially those who were more active, gave up and left California. It's difficult to expend personal blood, sweat, and tears against corruption that most people agree exists. Complaining is the limit of most people's involvement. We suspect that this is directly connected to the wide array of available social media where people can complain to their heart's content and feel that they are activists.
Doris Day once expressed the widespread acceptance of one's fate in her song, Que Sera, Sera. She wasn't singing about the people who get things done. Those who agree with the song's philosophy end up with the scraps from their slave master's table.
What are you willing to do? Let us know.
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