While the League of Cities and the California Redevelopment Association, CRA, promote high cost conferences with instruction on how to “take” your property they cannot match the value received by every attendee at Saturday’s 14th annual MORR, Municipal Officials for Redevelopment Reform, Conference.
As reported previously this years event was held at the Marriott Hotel across the street from the Ontario Convention Center which, ironically, is the site of the CRA conference that is going on now. That’s as close as we care to be. While they teach elected officials on how to steal our property with “bogus declarations of blight,” we advise attendees on how to protect their businesses, homes and farms when they are “not for sale.”
We were honored to have documentary director, executive producer Philip Klein join us from Kansas City. Phil is the producer of Begging for Billionaires, The Attack on Property Rights in America. www.beggingforbillionaires.com Note: The CD was shown at the conclussion of the conference at no charge.
On the rear jacket of his 87 minute CD it reads in part: “you’ll learn the tricks and schemes city leaders use to snatch property from their most vulnerable citizens. Harassment, intimidation, media manipulation and hush money are all part of this dirty game. And for all their misdeeds, developers reap millions in tax credits and government subsidies before paying off their servants in City Hall with generous campaign contributions designed to keep them in power and at their disposal”
Value! We provided five, that’s right. Five very successful property rights attorney’s participated in this all day information activity where they made themselves available to help anyone with a property rights concern “free of charge.”
Not playing favorites let’s list them in alphabetic order:
Keynote speaker Scott Bullock, Senior Attorney at the Washington, DC based Institute for Justice. Scott (and Dana Berliner) represented Susette Kelo in that famous case that has become known around the world where they presented arguments on her behalf before the U.S. Supreme Court.
John Eastman, former Dean of Chapman Univ. Law School, and candidate for Attorney General. In 2006 John saved the Filipino Baptist Church in Long Beach, CA from their redevelopment agency bulldozer by getting the city council to terminate its eminent domain proceedings and Resolution of Necessity.
Robert Ferguson, attorney-at-law Claremont. My first experience with Bob is when we were mutually advising thousands of home and business owners in Lake Elsinore over 10 years ago. He hasn’t missed a beat and is currently representing Friends for Fullerton’s Future in a current redevelopment fight.
Tim Sandefur, who is not a stranger to MORR, is the principle attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation. Tim is author of Property Rights in the 21st Century.
Chris Sutton, attorney-at-law from Pasadena, has assisted more victims and potential victims than I can list here. Chris is a charter associate of MORR/CURE since its formation in 1996. One of his property rights success stories that I am familiar with was Rod’s Grille in Arcadia.
Martha Montelongo, a guest blogger here at the Juice, and an event speaker, was multi-tasking as she also conducted live interviews of our speakers out in the hall. See photo. Martha is a Digital Talk Radio host.
And the salmon lunch was not too shabby either.
Note: the 2010 edition of the RUG should be available by July 4th.
Hollywood’s own, John Walsh attended and spoke at the MORR conference. John is a Democrat, renter, transit rider, and opposes the injustices of Redevelopment and Eminent Domain for private gain.
John. With over two dozen speakers on Sat. I decided not to list them all.
John Walsh is very animated. I always look forward to hearing him at our annual southern CA events. I saw John in the car with Bob Blue and Ziggy as they arrived. Although they each spoke you will notice that I did not mention either one of them either.