Lest We Forget...Let's Review



10. Home Depot sent paid signature gatherers to S-T in an effort to obtain support for their project. The signature
gatherers misrepresented who they were, what people were signing, and even told our Latino friends and
neighbors that "opponents of Home Depot didn't want Mexicans flooding our area"
(Never mind the fact that this community is 50% Hispanic and enjoys this diversity).

9. Home Depot has continually claimed that they have met with the community, worked with the community,
and have participated in many land use meetings. If "participation" simply means attendance, then this statement
is a near truth. However, their "participation" consisted of sending a single attorney who sat in the back of the
room taking notes. This was not engagement, this was simply monitoring us.

8. Home Depot and/or their representatives created two phony websites. The first was
www.stopracismca.com, the other was www.friendsofst.com.
The stop racism site claimed to be a statewide group "fighting racism" and labeled the basis of S-T opposition to
Home Depot as being against Day Laborers. Oddly enough, the only issue that this statewide group was focused
on was the proposed Home Depot in S-T.  The site was taken down soon after the City Council decision.
The man behind stopracismca.com was Daniel Haro, an "ex-employee" of Home Depot's PR firm.
He has since disappeared as well.


7.  Home Depot bused in paid supporters from outside of the area for three different meetings, including an LA
City Council session. Most of these "supporters" had no idea why they were there, except to get paid. They were
made to wear orange pro Home Depot T-shirts, forbidden to speak with the media, and cheered the Home Depot
representatives after they gave their speeches, exactly on cue.

6.  Members of several business organizations, including VICA, the LA Chamber of Commerce, and the CCA
spoke at the NVAPC hearing and the LA City Council sessions on behalf of Home Depot.
Coincidentally, Home Depot's lead attorney, Cindy Starrett, sits as a board member, or member, of these various
organizations. And as Councilmember Wendy Greuel so eloquently pointed out, none of these spokespeople
bothered to read the the NHDC Appeal, or the Planning Directors decision before spouting their opposition to a
community insisting that the rules be followed. To them, following the rules interferes with business.
Of course, they spoke in favor of Home Depot, and as an associate of Cindy Starrett, Home Depot's attorney,
that was the least they could do.

5. As Home Depot began to sense defeat, they changed tactics to characterize this battle as being about
a local competitor trying to stifle competition. They also accused this competitor of funding the No Home Depot
Campaign. At the August 15 City Council session, Home Depot attorney, Cindy Starrett, interchangeably used the
words " the opponents" and "Do-It Center" to mislead the Councilmembers.


4. Home Depot accused our campaign of "co-opting" the Neighborhood Council, when in fact,
the STNC had come out in the very beginning as being against the proposed Home Depot. Home Depot began to
blur the distinction between the No Home Depot Campaign, the STNC, and a competitor.
Additionally, the STNC was restricted, by City Charter, from filing appeals or challenging any legal actions in this
matter. They served as ardent supporters and helped to promote the cause, but their involvement was limited
to being advisory only.


3. Home Depot culled selected negative survey forms that the STNC and themselves, had sent out in an attempt to
portray the community as one big racist hotbed.  They ignored the fact that the opponents to Home Depot were
made up of multiple ethnicities, and instead accused us of being anti-Latino, anti-immigration, and anti-day
laborers. This was an effort to distract the focus from the factual basis of our case, and an effort to discredit
the many people that worked so hard to stop Home Depot from running roughshod over our town.

2. Prior to and at the August 15th City Council session, Home Depot flooded the Council chambers with
an army of paid lobbyists to exert pressure on the Councilmembers to vote in their favor.
Councilmember Wendy Greuel stated that " I have never seen such an effort in my entire career in politics."
At one point in the proceedings, Councilmember Jan Perry , acting as President of the Council, had to kick the
many lobbyists out from the back room of the chamber, where they were not allowed to be in the first place.
Home Depot spent $600,000 in the first quarter of 2007 to lobby the City on this matter; a record for the City of
Los Angeles.

1. A leaked memo showed the true depths of Home Depots desperation and willingness to manipulate the City
for its own gain.  In this memo, Rick Taylor of Dakota Communications ( Home Depots PR firm) outlined a plan to
"work" a Planning Commissioner to testify on their behalf and meet with the Mayor to solicit his support.
Rick also detailed a plan to pack the Council chambers with paid Home Depot supporters, and to draft an OP-ED
piece for three major newspapers that would falsely be attributed to a Home Depot executive.
The cost for these services? $24,000.
(It is has been confirmed that Dakota Communications has since been fired as Home Depot's PR firm.)


Is there more? Of course.
Stay tuned for Part 2.



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Home Depot's Top Ten Shady Tactics