Point by point, Mr. Knapp is really showing the remarkable depths of his imagination. One must wonder: where is he getting this nonsense? ECOS does not support any Sac City councilmembers or have ties to any of them. We have no involvement in electoral politics or election campaigns. Several councilmembers have donated to ECOS and to Sac Earth Day over the years but there's never any quid pro quo. Ray Tretheway ran for and was elected president of the ECOS board of directors back in the 1980s or early 90s. He resigned almost immediately when he started to feel some heat because ECOS was too aggressively opposed to new development. Longtime Sierra Club activist Vicki Lee took over the presidency after Ray jumped ship and Vicki stayed put for several years. Ray's support for more sprawl in Natomas has been opposed by ECOS every single step of the way. We can't be at every council hearing. Apologies to Mr. Knapp for missing the opportunity to set the City straight on their allocation of federal stimulus dollars. I'm sure if ECOS had shown up, everything would have turned out just fine because, gosh, those councilmembers sure always listen to us! David Mogavero has been doing green and affordable infill development in Sac longer than anybody. For Mr. Knapp to take potshots at Mogavero because he has "worked with" a big sprawl developer like Horton is just silly. Uh, Jim, I guess you're perfect and never associate with anybody who isn't pure as the driven snow? In terms of habitat protection, ECOS strongly opposes any mitigation proposal that involves land banks in areas separated from the development and the development impacts. We have never supported habitat banks in Sutter, for example, to mitigate impacts of development in Sac County. Precisely the opposite in fact. We have steadfastly opposed such proposals! If Jim had bothered to read any of our comment letters, he would know this. Oh, and that petition drive and ballot measure. Great idea. We'll get right on it. Any chance Mr. Knapp wants to lead the effort? We'd love the help. You see, we're a bit stretched thin. These days we're down to one full-time paid staff and we can barely afford that.

You win the prize Jim. In my four years as Ex Dir at ECOS, I've never heard a more ludicrous set of claims about my organization. Mr. Knapp - I don't know who you are or where you get your "information" but I think you need to put down the kool aid. Your comments on ECOS are completely inaccurate -- basically one big distortion. I also wish you had the decency to contact me or someone else at ECOS directly instead of taking cheap baseless potshots at ECOS on the Sac Press blog about this upcoming Sustainability Forum. I'm the Executive Director of ECOS and the fact is that ECOS is strongly opposed to and fighting ALL annexation efforts by cities and counties in our region. We have sued the City of Sacramento for attempting to expand further into the Natomas Basin (the Greenbriar project). We aggressively challenged the City of Sacramento's General Plan update on a range of issues -- including the fact that it calls for annexation and development of new areas to the north, and east of the city. Every time the City or County of Sacramento looks to expand development in Natomas, we fight it. We are challenging Elk Grove's attempt to expand by 10,000 acres into the Cosumnes River flood plain. We are aggressively challenging the County of Sacramento's disastrous Gen'l Plan update which also contemplates vast new acreages of greenfield development. We are working w/ a range of groups from across the region to challenge sprawl proposals from Yolo to Yuba to Sutter to Placer to El Dorado. I mean, ECOS has done more to challenge sprawl than any other group in the region. Have we always been successful? No. Why? Because too many of our electeds are tied to the developers who fund their re-election campaigns. Oh, and our "ties to politicians"?! Huh? Most politicians around these parts either can't stand us or just suffer us because we're constantly challenging their land use and planning decisions. But there is at least one thing on which we agree -- that the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) violations occurring across our region are extreme and entirely unacceptable. So Jim - where are you getting your information? Or do you just like making stuff up? Why don't you actually contact me at ECOS - execdirector@ecosacramento.net or 444-0022 - and we can have a one-on-one chat. Or come to the Forum next Monday and we can meet in person. Graham Brownstein Executive Director, ECOS