What D. Norman called lack of transparency would be, in fact, a crime called: “Intentional interference with prospective economic relations” and includes as a cause of action: “timing alone may be sufficient to prove causation” (https://www.justia.com/trials-litigation/docs/caci/2200/2202.html). In non-legalese, one’s business plans are one’s business. Was the blueprint of the new iWatch posted on the internet a year ago? Apparently, he finds it appropriate to emulate the distortions and worse of The Ione Valley Land Air and Water Defense Alliance (LAWDA).
LAWDA is a LLC (Limited Liability Corporation), just like Newman Minerals. Where does LAWDA’s money come from? They seem to have unlimited funds. Who paid for their petition gatherers? Unlike organizations such as the Foothill Conservancy or Friends of the River that have frequent fund raising events, paid memberships and required 401(3)c funding records on the internet, the true nature of LAWDA is unknown. Apparently D. Norman’s concept of transparency applies to only one side of the equation. This sounds like a definition other than "democratic".
He asserts that it is some sort of subterfuge that part of the former Howard Ranch may become home sites. Aside from a business’s legal right to keep their plans private, homes would only be built if there is a demand for them. And if people want to live in that area, that is their right. Traditionally, Americans have called this freedom. Unless D. Norman was born in Amador County, he freely chose to move here. Why should others be denied that right?
Another area that bothers Mr. Norman is that the capital for Newman Ridge is coming from outside the county. Completely ignored is the obvious. There is not enough capital here to finance this venture. We don’t even have a locally-owned bank in Amador County. At one time most people invested locally. This proved to be disastrous since often local people’s life savings and their entire community got wiped out when a local industry went under. Advocating this lack of investment diversification today would cause a financial adviser to lose their license. Also, capital could not easily move to where it was needed. For this reason the Federal Home Loan Bank Act was passed in 1932 to provide for “…home mortgage funding on a nationwide basis…”
While he takes issue with the out of county origin of the published petition that he cites, he ignores that the signers are local, unlike like LAWDA’s moveon.org petition that requires a world atlas to understand. He ignores that the andesite to be mined is a different substance than at the other local quarries. His mentions of possible water and traffic problems have all been already litigated and refuted so many times I hardly need to repeat them even if D. Norman needs to reread them. But while I feel obligated to rebut these recent assertions, I am very pleased he has written this since I now have a better understanding of the “progressive viewpoint”. It really means viewpoint and little else.
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