War has broken out again over efforts by a billionaire-backed company trying to create a new city in northern California amid fierce local opposition.
California Forever has already sued Solano County landowners who refused to sell their land to the shadowy outfit. Now it’s accusing a land-conservation organization of defamation for returning a donation and claiming it was given under false pretenses.
The Solano Land Trust fired off an email this week blasting California Forever for publicly portraying an anonymous gift from the company’s founder, Jan Sramek, as an official grant for its programs.
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“That characterization is self-serving and grossly misleading,” wrote Nicole Braddock, the trust’s executive director, demanding its name be removed from California Forever’s website.
The name of the trust was removed. But Sramek—a former Goldman Sachs wunderkind who lined up well-known venture capitalists and tech bigwigs to invest in California Forever—also went on the offensive.
“Attempting to defame my wife and I for your own protection by completely twisting the reality of what happened is not the right thing to do,” Sramek wrote to Braddock, demanding that she forward his email to everyone who got hers.
The emails mark the latest skirmish in a battle that has pitted Silicon Valley pooh-bahs against farmers and residents of the agricultural area around Travis Air Force Base.
It began five years ago when a mystery-shrouded entity called Flannery Associates began buying up what would become $800 million in land for unknown purposes.
It wasn’t until this year that the motive for the land-grab was revealed. The investors—including VCs Michael Moritz, Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Stripe co-founders Patrick and John Collison, former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, Cue co-founder Daniel Gross, and Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs—want to build a new city.
The idea did not exactly ignite the local imagination. In addition to unanswered questions about logistical issues—such as where water for a new city in a parched county would come from—many area residents were deeply suspicious of Flannery, which rebranded itself California Forever.
Fueling the bad blood was a $550 million lawsuit that the well-funded company had brought against some farmers, charging they had broken antitrust laws by refusing to sell their land, supposedly to drive up the price.
After a bruising series of town hall meetings and some procedural setbacks, California Forever this week announced it is accepting applications for $500,000 in “community grants” to local nonprofits—which one opponent likened to a legal bribe.
And it announced that Solano Land Trust was one recipient of a grant.
After The Daily Beast wrote about the grants, Braddock sent a note to the trust’s email list on Friday that said it had received “an anonymous donation” from Sramek and his wife at an October fundraiser.
“When donations like this are made anonymously, we, of course, honor the request that the donor remain anonymous,” she wrote. “However, we do not, under any circumstances, accept donations from an individual or entity, anonymous or not, that requires our endorsement, support, favors, influence, or any quid pro quo for the donation. That wasn’t part of our acceptance of this donation or any other donation that we receive.”
She added, “We have demanded that California Forever remove Solano Land Trust from their website and we have returned the funds to Mr. and Mrs. Sramek.”
In his response, Sramek pushed back, saying the donation was, in fact, from the company and that the trust should have realized that from followup emails. He also claimed that he only asked that the donation not be announced during the fundraising dinner, so the controversy over the project would not dominate the conversation.
“As they say, no good deed goes unpunished, and you have now turned this completely against us. This is sad. We never agreed that we could not disclose the grant ourselves—that would be absurd,” he wrote to Braddock.
“We understand that some of your donors are vocal opponents of California Forever and they likely put you under pressure in the last few days. However, we are disappointed at how you handled the situation,” he added.
“We all make mistakes,” he continued. “Provided that you forward this letter to the people you originally emailed so that everyone hears both sides of the story, we will consider the matter closed, and look forward to better things ahead.”
Braddock did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sramek’s claims. She has said the the land trust is waiting to see California Forever’s full proposal for the new city before deciding whether to endorse it.
