Corporate Money Seeks To Undermine Artesia Residents This Election Season

 

Artesia, California - Corporate interests are seeking to undermine the ability of Artesia residents to govern themselves.

National Ready Mix, and allegedly others, have apparently partnered with a San Diego corporate activist attorney called Everview Law to create an initiative to alter Artesia’s residential zones. But that’s not how they sold it to the Artesians: in flyers and in person, petitioners have told residents that the purpose of the initiative is to prevent a sales tax increase. Residents who signed the petition are saying that the company lied to them by saying the initiative was about preventing sales taxes.

National Ready Mix is a successful corporation in Artesia. For years, National Ready Mix has been opposing a housing development bordering its property line, from the developers at G3 Urban. 

Bait and Switch

This bait and switch tactic was successful in convincing enough Artesians into signing the petition and therefore qualifying it to go to election. These Artesians were allegedly told that the petition they were signing was for an initiative that would halt sales tax increases and encourage economic growth. In reality, the initiative changes zoning laws that directly affect National Ready Mix, a large cement producer in Artesia. These “devious” tactics, as they have been described, have reaped confusion and a bit of disgust among Artesia residents, businesses, and city officials.

At the April 8 City Council meeting, three National Ready Mix representatives spoke in support of the initiative, and several residents spoke against it. During their comments, the National Ready Mix spokespersons mentioned nothing about taxes, and instead talked about what a bad idea it was to build residential property next to their plant.

Eric Huff, a local real estate agent and an Artesia resident, said, “Their real goal is to prevent a housing development from being built next to the plant. I urge others in the City to stand up against that plan.”

Carl Fonseca, another Artesian, said "this was one of the most misleading proposals to ever come before this City."

Aside from the title “Artesia No New Taxes Strengthen Our Economy Initiative”, nothing in the initiative language (the actual proposed law) does anything to stop a sales tax increase. Instead, the meat of their initiative reads more like something that should go through the Planning Commission - not a general election.

The initiative only affects Artesia Blvd, and would require a popular vote for every major development or amendment to the Artesia Boulevard Specific Plan. The Specific Plan is the City’s longterm strategy for Artesia Blvd residential, commercial, and industrial zones.

The Petition

In late 2023 and early 2024, individuals hired by Everview Law and by National Ready Mix circulated a petition to Artesians, saying that their signature would help put an initiative on the ballot that prevented sales tax increases and stimulated economic growth. However, the initiative’s language is starkly different. Near the beginning of the initiative, it states that the initiative will merely “help avoid the need to increase taxes.”

The petition continued to hammer on that point, but a read of the actual initiative shows otherwise. This is why so many residents and businesses were upset at the initiative's authors.

National Ready Mix Gives Reasons For Petition, City Council Responds

It can be assumed that National Ready Mix believes that future residents near its plant will generate enough complaints that will result in forcing them to shut down.

George Mendez, the resident who National Ready Mix has been using as leverage in its campaign, said this at the April 8 council meeting. “Housing … and the noise factor from the plant is not a good idea.” Mendez also mentioned that this section of Artesia Blvd was not zoned for residential housing. Mendez also said, “I live here, and would not want to live where I work.”

Steve Lode, National Ready Mix President, repeated the corporation’s intention behind the misleading initiative. “Years ago, Artesia Blvd Corridor Specific Plan was created by your predecessors, who decided to prevent residential housing. Only 15 percent of Artesia is dedicated to commercial and industrial. Worse - you’re deciding to put housing in a place that would damage the City’s revenues.”

Councilman Rene Trevino replied to the sentiment, “Tonight we heard comments that years ago things were this way and things were that way. Well, times have changed. If anyone wants to go to the 99 Cents Store, go quick because they’re closing. That’s retail. The economy is changing. Big box retail is struggling. Amazon and the internet is tearing down the [brick and mortar] companies.”

"I look at other cities," continued Trevino. "Cerritos has malls, In N’ Out, the auto square, all the big stores. Norwalk has the Five Corners, big restaurants, theatres. Hawaiian Gardens has a casino. What do we have? We have each other, and we have our small businesses. Artesia is a thriving town, but we don’t have big box retail. What we need is more residents to come into Artesia, who will support the businesses we already have."

Eye On Pioneer has reached out to multiple contacts within National Ready Mix and to Bradley Johnson, Esq. the founder of Everview Law.

Eye On Pioneer asked National Ready Mix, “Why did National Ready Mix sponsor the initiative?” And also inquired if they could discuss the strategy in gaining signatures for the initiative.

To date, there has been no response to the Eye On Pioneer from National Ready Mix.

For Bradley Johnson, Esquire, the Eye On Pioneer asked, “The petition premises the initiative as an opposition to a sales tax increase. But the initiative itself reads more like a zoning amendment and hardly addresses sales tax at all: What’s the story behind the initiative?”

Johnson has had at least a month to respond, and to date the Eye On Pioneer has received no responses.

If the initiative is nothing more than a zoning proposal, why did National Ready Mix invest so much money to write the initiative to hire solicitors to gain signatures, to print flyers, and presumably to campaign for the initiative when the time comes? Why do they expect the City to pay an additional $10,000 to $15,000 of taxpayer money to place it on the ballot? The answer is simple from an economic standpoint. National Ready Mix thinks this zoning amendment is worth the funding investment of a political campaign.

As resident Eric Huff said, "The initiative is a very misleading tactic meant for National Ready Mix’s own personal gain."

If the corporate initiative wins,  the new law takes away the ability of residents to govern themselves, and instead hands over control of Artesia Boulevard to National Ready Mix. 

National Ready Mix envisions that it will be able to continue conducting business without having to worry about pesky Artesia residents complaining about noise generated from their plant.

According to Councilman Trevino, this is an unfounded reason, and instead advocated for cooperation and conversation. "This initiative is not about taxes at all. It is about a big neighbor that doesn't understand how it can coexist with residential development. There are many ways to mitigate the noise issue: triple-paned windows, a sound wall." said Trevino.

This is a deceptive electoral trick, and an insult to civic life. National Ready Mix is taking advantage of residents' desire for an economic break and essentially manipulating them to support something that will ultimately hurt their community. There's only one winner if this initiative passes - National Ready Mix. That's it. Their petition to put it on the ballot is a cynical example of abusing the democratic initiative process that was intended to promote good governance.