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Palace gag: Tense times out at the Cow Palace, where no sooner did directors vow to fight an effort by Daly City to close the old barn than they were ordered by the governor's office to shut up.
That's the word we got from Kevin Patterson of the Coalition to Save the Cow Palace when we left a message for Cow Palace board member Mara Kopp (as in the wife of retired Judge and former state Sen. Quentin Kopp), seeking comment on what has been going on out at the hall as of late. Patterson said Mara Kopp couldn't return the call because the Cow Palace's nine-member board of directors had gotten the call from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's people telling them to zip their lips during talks in Sacramento over the future of the aging venue. State Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, has introduced a bill to have the state-owned land where the Cow Palace sits declared surplus - a move the Palace crowd fears will clear the path for Daly City to demolish the property as part of a redevelopment project it is pushing. Yee's measure hit a sandbar in committee, thanks in part to some very vocal lobbying by Cow Palace supporters, including director Kopp. When Cow Palace reps invited Daly City officials to participate in their own plans to develop the arena's 13-acre parking lot, Daly City Attorney Rose Zimmerman shot off a three-page Public Records Act request for virtually every document the Cow Palace has produced since 1990 - and possibly as far back as the 1940s. Daly City Manager Pat Martel said her office wasn't trying to sandbag the Palace staff during one of its busiest times - the just-concluded 2008 Grand National Rodeo - it just wanted a record of the Cow Palace's shaky finances and failed attempts to develop the land. Cow Palace CEO Walter Haub offered up a no comment when we contacted him both about Daly City's records request and Sacramento's supposed gag order. He referred us to his bosses at the state Department of Food and Agriculture's Division of Fairs and Expositions. Fairs and Expositions spokesman Steve Lyle, in turn, suggested we call the Cow Palace for comment. We explained that the brass there had referred us to him because of the governor's supposed gag order. The next day, Lyle said he hadn't been able to find the answer. But then he added that the Schwarzenegger administration does have a standing "rule that we all live by - if there is pending legislation, we are asked not to comment on it." And in this case, there's seems to be plenty not to comment on - at least until Tuesday, when Yee's stalled Cow Palace legislation is scheduled to be reheard in committee. |
