Contra Costa County begins counting Richmond anti-rent control petition signatures Oct. 5

Contra Costa County begins counting Richmond anti-rent control petition signatures Oct. 5

By Lynda Carson - October 6, 2015

Richmond - According to Councilmember Gayle McLaughlin, on Oct. 5, Contra Costa County began counting signatures from the petition that blocked renter protections in Richmond from taking effect on September 4, 2015.

The petition that blocked renter protections from taking effect in Richmond was turned in on September 3, 2015, and the California Apartment Association announced that they were behind the petition blocking renter protections in Richmond.

People in Richmond are anxiously awaiting to find out if enough valid signatures were turned in with the petition blocking renter protections, including rent control and just cause eviction protections.

According to sources, Paul Olson of Olson and Associates was hired to find people to collect the signatures for the petition that was backed by the California Apartment Association (CAA), to block renter protections in Richmond from taking effect.

Paul Olson payed X amount of dollars to have each of the signatures collected for the petition. Apparently, Paul Olson was payed by the California Apartment Association (CAA) to collect signatures for the petition, but I have not verified this. Calls and emails sent to Paul Olson, of Olson Associates, regarding this story have not been returned.

In a statement on Oct 2, by Eileen Ray, of Discovery Petition Management Company, in Sacramento, she stated that Paul Olson contacted Alex Arsenault of Somerville, Massachusetts, to manage the petition drive for the petition that blocked renter protections from taking effect in Richmond, for the CAA.

Alex Arsenault set up an office in Richmond from March till September, 2015, and hired 2 people to manage the petition management office in Richmond, that was used to manage several petition drives, including the anti-rent control petition of the CAA.

Apparently, Alex Arsenault did not have a permit when setting up shop in Richmond, and according to Alex Arsenault he is not licensed in Massachusetts, or in California as a petition management company. Apparently, he does not have a permit or business license in Massachusetts to run a petition management company there, or in California, and I could not track down an employee identification number for himself.

Alex Arsenault claims to only be a consultant - the sole proprietor of his signature gathering operations, and petition management operations. He claims that he is not operating a business, even though he sets up petition management operations to collect signatures for petitions in different parts of the country.

Alex Arsenault also claims that Paul Olson payed him to run his operation to collect signatures through Eileen Ray, of Discovery Petition Management Company, in Sacramento.

A search of records with the Secretary of State does not turn up any records for Discovery Petition Management Company, which is run by Eileen Ray out of a three story house in Sacramento.

Eileen Ray, of Discovery Petition Management Company, claims that Paul Olson hired Alex Arsenault, even though Alex Arsenault claims that Paul Olson payed him through Eileen Ray, of Discovery Petition Management Company, to manage the petition drive in Richmond.

Additionally, Eileen Ray also claims that Paul Olson hired Chris Brentlinger of Bay Area Petitions to collect signatures for the anti-rent control petition of the CAA in Richmond. According to the records with the Secretary of State, there is not a listing for Bay Area Petitions in the state of California. Calls and emails sent to Chris Brentlinger of Bay Area Petitions have not been returned.

Eileen Ray, of Discovery Petition Management Company, also stated that Paul Olson is extremely angry at Therrence James, a signature gatherer.

Apparently, recently Therrence James who is a signature gatherer (independent contractor) collecting signatures for Alex Arsenault, stood before the Richmond City Council and gave testimony that he was instructed to lie to people about the petition, as a way to trick them into signing it.

Eileen Ray stated: “If you are following up on a tip from Therence James or complaints he made to the Richmond City Council I would suggest you find out more about him and the situation. Therence claims he was told by Alex to approach the public saying the Rent Control petition was in favor of rent control. That quite simply is not true and Alex has written proof that Therence was instructed to follow the talking points and signed a document stating that he would not misrepresent the petition.  It is standard procedure to have circulators sign acknowledging the fact that they received and read a copy of the talking points. I believe Alex has a copy of the document that Therence signed stating very clearly that the petition was a referendum against the rent control ordinance passed by the City Council and that he promised to only approach voters saying exactly that. Since there is a document proving that Therence promised not to lie about the petition and since he stood up in front of the Richmond City Council and stated exactly the opposite he has put himself in a position to deal with legal action.”

Numerous complaints have been made by Richmond residents claiming that they were told that the petition they were signing was in support of rent control, and that they were tricked into signing the petition.

In what appeared to be an effort to assassinate his character, Eileen Ray stated that Therence James must have been self medicating himself when he stated that he was told to lie about the petition, while she mentioned that Paul Olson was very mad at him for going public. But, then she also stated: “There probably were a lot of people who did not understand the petition, and that there may have been a number of people who lied about the petition. Who Knows what people are really saying out there when collecting signatures,” Eileen Ray said.


Additionally, Eileen Ray said: “I want to be very clear about this. It is never in the best interests of any petition management company to have circulators misrepresenting the issues. And we try very hard to prevent that. We do have a tendency to give people who are willing to work a chance and often it kicks back on us. In this case it seems to be affecting people who weren’t even involved in the rent control petition or even in Richmond signatures drives.”


Alex Arsenault verified that Therence James worked with his office in Richmond, but stated that he had problems with the quality of his work, which was below industry standards. Arsenault also said that around 20 people in total were involved with the petition blocking renter protections in Richmond. Eileen Ray stated that Arsenault hired around 30 to 40 people for the anti-rent control petition.

In Brief: According to Eileen Ray, Paul Olson was the principal involved in the petition to block rent control in Richmond, and that Paul Olson of Olson Associates contacted her and Chris Brentlinger, to get them involved in the petition. Eileen also said that she contacted Alex Arsenault and Chris Brentlinger to get them involved in the petition.

Eileen Ray claims to be a subcontractor working for 4 major petition management companies in California, and that an attorney must have been involved to write the petition that was used to block renter protections from going into evict in Richmond.

Eileen Ray, of Discovery Petition Management Company, which is not listed as a company in California, also said that she pays around $6.00 per signature on petition drives.

Alex Arsenault said that he started paying signature gatherers $6.00 per signature to collect signatures for the petition to block renter protections in Richmond, and raised it to $8.00. Then eventually he payed people as much as $12.50 per signature with money from Paul Olson, that was payed through Eileen Ray, of Discovery Petition Management Company.

David Spero was concerned about people blaming Pacific Petitions, Inc, which is dissolved, for the mess that occurred with the Richmond anti-rent control petition which many people claimed that they were lied to by signature gatherers, as a way to trick them into singing the petition.

According to David Spero of Pacific Petitions, Inc., which is now dissolved: “The consultant (whose name I don't know) hired by the California Apartment Association hired Olson and Associates to coordinate the petition drive. They contracted with several petition companies to help them. Among those was Discovery Petition out of Sacramento, and Bay Area Petitions out of Santa Cruz. Bay Area Petitions was who I turned my business (Pacific Petition Inc.) over to more than 5 years ago. The owner of Discovery is Eileen Ray. The owner of Bay Area Petitions is Chris Brentlinger.”

David Spero said: “Discovery had 2 or 3 other petitions in Richmond (I think by some developer). They collected probably about 90% of the signatures on the anti-rent control effort. They brought in Alex Arsenault from Massachusetts to run their drive and I believe he brought in some folks from Massachusetts, in addition to many other folks from outside the bay area. So when reporters ask them who they work for, they are not going to say "I work for Alex from Mass." They are going to say something different. Like conveniently a company that is no longer in existence. I wish I had been more"with it" and had gone up to richmond and gotten witnesses and then I could have sued, and gotten money, and would have gladly split it with housing rights folks. On the Bay Area Petitions front, a couple of things. Chris Brentlinger is a lefty, but unlike me, believes in carrying every petition out there, even ones he strongly disagrees with, feeling that the petitioners can sort it out. And just about all of his petitioners did’nt work on it, because they live in the bay area and have some political feelings. Since taking over the business, Chris has occasionally hired me to help him out when I am in California. So occasionally, I have handled a few petitioner turn-ins. Due to work and stress load, Chris hired me to take a couple of turn-ins of petitioners signatures in September. There were four statewide petitions out (prescription drug prices, minimum wage and revenue bonds and also condoms on sex workers). Two of the petitioners handed in the richmond petition with the state wides.”

People needing renter protections in Richmond are still holding on to hope that the petition will be challenged somehow, or that there will not be enough valid signatures collected for the petition of the California Apartment Association, that has blocked renter protections from going into effect on September 4, 2015.

Lynda Carson may be reached at tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com

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