POP needs MONEY

POP needs $20,000 to pay our legal fees. We are out of money despite your generosity. Please help! Our cause was meritorious, 2166 of you voted to reject 100 condo-like units at the Ritz-Carlton Residences.POP needs your help to pay what we owe; money needed to win the law suit forced on us by Five Star. POP remains mobilized in an effort to safeguard the values of the Town of Paradise Valley. To review: Five Star Development sued the Town of Paradise Valley in an attempt to overturn the petition signed by over 900. The petition called for a vote of Town residents on whether Five Star should be allowed to build Ritz-Carlton high-density housing on 105 acres northeast of Lincoln and Mockingbird. It was necessary for POP to intervene in the case because the Town Council did not want the referendum to succeed, making them look foolish. Our brilliant election law attorney, Lisa Hauser of the renowned firm of Gammage and Burnham, won and Five Star lost the law suit; the victory cost POP over $41,000 in well spent legal fees. Prop. 411 was approved.Preserve Our Paradise (POP) spent only $17,204 for advertising. $21,000 has already been paid to the lawyers to defend the rights of the voters of ParadiseValley to exercise our constitutional privilege. But, POP still owes Gammage and Burnham $20,323.The opposition spent a total of $222,936 for advertising. This does not include the unknown amount spent by Five Star Development in legal fees to sue the Town. All of the money spent by the opposition came from Five Star Development and its president, Jerry Ayoub, while all of the money spent by POP was donated by individual residents of our town.We understand that these are poor economic times. We also understand that there are many things which take priority over POP's bills. We are hoping, however, that you will all dig in a little deeper and help out. While the developer's deep pockets won the day, POP made quite an impact on the way the Town will act in the future. The evidence is that the firm, never-to-change-its-mind Five Star Development has already asked and received permission to lower its density from 100 units to 88. We have made a difference. Please help us by giving whatever you can toward the legal fund. POP acted on your behalf, please support our action.Five Star spent about $51 per vote while we spent about $8 per vote. They out spent us by 13 to 1. We did not lose, sadly the votes were bought and won by Five Star and their high-priced PR flacks. Let us not forget that 2166 Town residents share our thinking, more votes than were cast for any of our Town Council members. By the way, we estimate President-elect Obama spent about $7 for each of his nearly 67 million popular votes.POP is alive and well and will stay that way to represent your issues to our Town Council and to spread the good word.Once again, POP needs your help to pay off $20,000 debt to our lawyers.