SANTEE RESIDENT FILES COMPLAINT IN COURT

Man alleges former council member violated state act

Santee resident Dan Bickford has filed a complaint in Superior Court alleging violations of the California Political Reform Act by former City Councilman Stephen Houlahan, his “Houlahan for Mayor” committee, environmental activist Van Collinsworth and Collinsworth’s group, Preserve Wild Santee.

The complaint, filed on Dec. 8, asks the court to order Houlahan and Collinsworth to immediately amend their financial disclosure statements to reflect where they spent their money and on behalf of what candidates and measures that appeared on the Nov. 3 ballot.

Houlahan, who was elected to the City Council in 2016, was unsuccessful in his 2020 bid to unseat Mayor John Minto. Collinsworth oversees the environmentally based political action group Preserve Wild Santee, an entity he co-founded with Robin Rierdan in 1994.

“We just want to know, really, what their finances are being used for and what are the roles they play,” said Bickford, who will be sworn in as a Republican Party County Central Committee member in January.

Bickford said that HomeFed Fanita Rancho, LLC, the backers of the 3,000-home Fanita Ranch development, is “footing the bill” and providing money for the lawyers, San Francisco-based attorneys James R. Sutton and Nichols L. Sanders of The Sutton Law Firm, PC. “I found a sympathetic ear in HomeFed,” Bickford said of the developer, which since 2019 has been under the umbrella of Jefferies Financial Group Inc., a New York firm.

Bickford said he has been frustrated for years with Collinsworth and Preserve Wild Santee and says that he believes that since 2018, their financial statements have not been transparent. He said that voters in the city should be privy to actual transactions and expenditures by Preserve Wild Santee, which he said are not being fully or accurately reported.

In the complaint, Bickford said that Preserve Wild Santee “produced numerous political advertisements, including but not limited to signs, door hangers and online advertisements” and spent money supporting various issues and candidates “but did not disclose the expenses for these advertisements or activities on its campaign reports.”

“They’re reporting x numbers of dollars to the printer for items, but not saying what they were in support of or against,” he said. “That needs to be reported.”

Also in the complaint, Bickford said that Houlahan “controlled” Preserve Wild Santee” by acting jointly to make expenditures with, and/ or exerting significant inf luence over Preserve Wild Santee.

It also claims that between Jan. 1 and Oct. 17, Preserve Wild Santee spent nearly $30,000 on political expenditures “yet failed to publicly disclose which ballot measures and/or candidates those funds supported or opposed.” Bickford said that such information is required to be disclosed on Schedule D of a Form 460, and that Preserve Wild Santee had not completed a Schedule D since 2018.

When asked why he didn’t take up some of these allegations with the Fair Political Practices Commission, which typically deals with these concerns, Bickford said that he and other Santee residents had taken up other issues with the FPPC during the recent election cycle, but were disappointed in the response — or lack thereof — they received.

“We didn’t have too much success with the FPPC with other complaints we made to them,” Bickford said. “Even though we showed that there was some issues, they didn’t take it up. It didn’t seem like there was anything else that could be done with the

FPPC.”

Bickford said he wants to see the financial relationship between the entities and three measures on the November 2020 ballot.

Those were Measure N, which passed, and will require the City Council to reach out to voters for approval of any development that deviates from the city’s general plan, and two competing term limit measures, Q and R.

The citizens initiative Measure Q, which failed, was pushed by Collinsworth and Houlahan, sought to restrict members of the City Council and the mayor to three consecutive four-year terms. Measure R, the city’s response to term limits, did pass. It establishes a limit of three consecutive four-year terms for City Council, regardless of which of four districts in Santee is represented, and has a limit of two consecutive four-year terms for mayoral service, separate from and in addition to the term limit for City Council service.

For more than two decades, Preserve Wild Santee has been involved in several legal challenges with Santee and the City Council related to the environment, growth and development. Most notably, Preserve Wild Santee has fought to stop the development of Fanita Ranch.

The Santee City Council in September voted 4-1 to move forward with the latest Fanita Ranch plan. Houlahan, who was on the City Council at the time, cast the lone no vote. However, he and Collinsworth and others working for or with Preserve Wild Santee were successful in gathering enough signatures on a referendum to let voters decide whether to overturn the council’s decision.

The City Council must either repeal its decision or submit the plans for Fanita Ranch to the voters at either the November 2022 election, or hold a special election.

A hearing has been set for Aug. 13.