Originally Published Friday, January 14, 2000 


Legal advice paying off for Tracy slow-growth faction 

By Bob Brownne 
Tracy Press 

TRACY -- Proponents of the ballot initiative to slow development in Tracy have benefited from the services of two attorneys. 

Opponents of the measure have spent more than $10,000 on a campaign consultant even though they haven't raised any money yet. 

Year-end campaign-finance disclosure forms filed this week at Tracy City Hall reveal two groups will spend the weeks between now and March 7
trying to sway voters' opinions on a measure that would cut by more than half the number of new homes built annually in Tracy. 

The Committee for the Initiative to Amend the Growth Management Ordinance raised more than $17,000 to promote Measure T, which would
cut the residential growth cap in town from 1,500 homes per year to 600. 

More than $14,000 of that is in nonmonetary contributions, including $2,640 worth of staff and clerical support from the Sierra Club reported
previously, and $11,000 in legal services from Tracy attorneys Mark Connolly and Larry Henneman. 

Connolly helped organize the Tracy Region Alliance for a Quality Community, which created the ballot initiative. 

Henneman said their time was for research and preparation for a court challenge to the wording of the Measure T ballot summary. The challenge
was thrown out by a San Joaquin County Superior Court judge. 

Sacramento attorney Charles Bell, treasurer for Tracy Citizens for Responsible Planning, which opposes Measure T, said his expenses and
those of Sacramento attorney Edward Heidig, totaling about $2,400, are listed because they, too, had been involved in the debate over
ballot-summary language. 

He said Sacramento-based Nelson Communications Group, whose services are listed as a $10,100 expenditure, will serve as a consultant in
the campaign against Measure T. Bell said the committee will raise funds between now and March. 

"I understand they're in the process of raising funds, but as of the end of the year they hadn't raised any," Bell said. "It's a local effort, and we're
the experts in campaign law, so we're assisting in their reporting requirements." 

Another group that was involved in the Measure T debate, the Tracy Chamber of Commerce Blue Ribbon Committee, raised more than
$136,000. Contributors were mostly developers and other businesses. The committee has decided to stay out of the issue, however. 

Campaign committees on both sides of the Measure T debate will have to report from whom they get their money -- and how they spend it -- two
more times before the election. Forms filed this week cover income and expenses through the end of 1999.