Gillander Hit Piece Number One

John Gillander, the self-described "gadfly" who unsuccessfully attempted to have BEC's non-profit status revoked by the State of California, has ceaselessly pounded BEC in the media and in front of the Chico City Council. Recently, he has distributed flyers around Chico in the form of an "Environmental Alert," which most will readily identify as anti-environmental propaganda. The first hit piece contains many lies and half-truths. The flyer appears in bold, and BEC's replies are indented.

THREATS OF LAWSUITS ARE NOTHING NEW FOR THE BEC

Threats of environmental lawsuits to delay the construction of Chico's new high school are circulating through our community.

Yes they are, and Gillander is circulating them! BEC has not threatened legal action, especially for a project in which the school district as yet to even file for a wetlands destruction permit or file an environmental review impact statement.

Environmental extremists are hoping to tie up Chico Unified School District in a mess of bureaucratic red tape.

Butte Environmental Council, Incorporated [BEC] for the past 15 years has fought, delayed and drove up the costs of development projects in Chico.

Now we the residents and taxpayers are the developers. It is our school projects under attack. The delay costs are coming out of the recently approved 48 million dollar school bond.

It's surprising to almost nobody that CUSD has run into delays with the new high school, given that out of the three southeast Chico sites CUSD considered for the school, they chose the one most impacted by meadowfoam. By choosing that site, CUSD has raised concerns from some regulatory agencies.

If Gillander has a problem with "bureaucratic red tape" that sometimes prevent destruction of habitat and species, then we recommend he take the issue up with the state and federal agencies responsible for enforcing them. BEC doesn’t make or enforce the laws, contrary to what Gillander implies. He may even want to look at the US presidents responsible for protecting wetlands and meadowfoam: Nixon’s signing of the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act, and Bush’s "no net loss of wetlands" enforcement. Of course, it doesn’t serve Gillander’s purpose to bash Republican presidents, when BEC is such a convenient and local target.

A veteran city planner* declared "threats of lawsuits are nothing new for the BEC. They have filed three or four lawsuits against the city and I believe they have also sued the County."

These frivolous lawsuits are called strategic by the environmentalist. Their real purpose is to delay the project. They know time is money, financing costs adding up can bankrupt a developer or send the cost of building a school so high that it can't be completed without another bond passing.

BEC has never sued Butte County. BEC has sued the City of Chico over the following issues:

the Canyon Oaks project, in order to protect the viewshed of Bidwell Park, and BEC joined in a lawsuit the California Pilots Association, John Merz, and the Upper Ridge Coordinating Council (an unincorporated association representing 20,000 people living in the foothills east of Paradise) to protect the Chico Airport and local wetlands from encroaching development.

We'll say it again: BEC, nor another other environmental group we’re aware of, has discussed or threatened lawsuits with regards to the new high school.

I THOUGHT I WAS DOING SOMETHING TO HELP THE ENVIRONMENT

Chico business owners have been contributing goods and services to support BEC's fund raising efforts that are in turn converted in to cash and used to fight construction of new schools.

A local club owner* said "I have been donating gift certificates to those people for years. I never thought to check closely what they really do. By helping them, I thought I was doing something to help the environment. I have kids in Chico schools! BEC will never get another dime's worth of help from me."

Sadly, unsuspecting local business have been supporting BEC's high profile one day fundraisers. Never realizing they were funding year round efforts to devise ways of hurting our schools and their own business. "I was told that my donation would be used to help with environmental education. Now, I find out that "education" meant teaching activist how to fight the building of new schools, to kill jobs and trash the local economy." Said a local business owner* at a recent meeting concerning school construction cost containment.

Gillander's campaign is simple enough: repeat the same lies over and over, until they’re accepted as truth. The lie this time is that BEC is anti-education, which is a bit of a surprise to the four school teachers and one school speech therapist who have served on BEC’s board of directors in the past year.

But don't take BEC's word for it. Here's an excerpt from an article in the Oct. 12 Chico Enterprise-Record:

Mike Weissenborn, Chico Unified School District's facilities planner, said the BEC did nothing to delay Hank Marsh. In fact, he said [BEC Executive Director] Vlamis was "helpful" in dealing with environmental issues around the property. And the district has a "good working relationship" with the environmental group.

It is true that environmental issues have put the city's new high school a year behind on construction. But Weissenborn didn't blame the BEC.

"I don't feel like they're trying to roadblock stuff," he said.

What can I do? Stop supporting BEC. Avoid doing business with BEC's incorrigible supporters. Let the business owners you trade with know that their supporting BEC is hurting our community. Ask them to choose another environmental organization to support.

In the Oct. 12 Chico Enterprise-Record article, Gillander "admits he's trying to undercut BEC's support. Asked if he thought it was working he said 'absolutely'."

*BEC links itself with the violent Eco-Terrorists Movement Earth First! Business owners who have publicly spoken out against the Radical Left in Chico have had their windows broken and their businesses vandalized, others have been the victim of unsolved arson attacks and had their children threatened. We chose not to subject the people who spoke to us about BEC to the possibility of violent retaliation by printing their names here.

Gillander is probably alluding to vandalism that occurred in Downtown Chico at the same time there were heated discussions regarding chain stores such as Wendy's, Starbucks and Chevy's moving in to downtown. There was some grossly-slanted coverage in the Chico Enterprise-Record that made it appear that the vandalism was directed solely at chain stores, when in fact it appeared to be random acts of vandalism that affected chain and local stores alike. This was extensively documented in a subsequent issue of the Chico Examiner.

The bit about "unresolved arson attacks" Gillander refers to is a single arson fire to conservative Chico City councilmember Rick Keene's front porch. Again, the Chico Enterprise-Record played up the arson as the fault of someone from the progressive community. The Chico Police Dept. found the culprit, who, needless to say, wasn't from the progressive community. To quote from a Chico Examiner article on the subject,

"We suspected him from the beginning," said Lara of the man who set the fire. "We connected a gentleman to the fire, a mental health individual who was arrested on for another [unrelated burglary] incident," he continued.

"He acknowledged his participation," continued Lara, "and he had no idea that it was Rick’s house" he had set aflame.

Thoughtful and rational people should be able to see through Gillander’s campaign as a dirty-tricks effort supported by developers to discredit anyone protecting the habitat, wildlife, water and air in this county.

Posted Oct. 12, 1999