Resort District group’s main backer is Disney

Disney has worked hard not be the public face of a coalition of businesses and community groups fighting for a housing-free Anaheim Resort District. But behind the scenes, Disney is the coalition’s checkbook.

The latest campaign finance reports show that the entertainment giant has poured $2.1 million into the year-old coalition called Save Our Anaheim Resort District, or SOAR. The group’s nearly 10,000 other members have contributed less than $2,000.

“The records demonstrate that the will of this group is clearly driven by the Disney Co.,” said Cesar Covarrubias, a housing advocate with the nonprofit Kennedy Commission. “It’s essentially a coalition created to protect Disney’s interests. Disney doesn’t really want to be involved in the dialogue, so they created an organization to carry their message.”

Coalition leaders say it’s no secret that Disney is the group’s main financial benefactor.

“We’re very fortunate Disney has continued to be our partner,” said Todd Ament, SOAR’s co-chairman and president of Anaheim’s Chamber of Commerce. “A lot of what happens in Anaheim is more important to Disney than anyone, so it makes sense they would be heavily involved financially.”

But, Ament said, the coalition acts independently of Disney, which has been adamant that the area be reserved for tourist-related uses such as hotels, time-shares and restaurants.

“We have 30 executive members that make decisions for what this coalition does, not Disney,” Ament said. “We have one goal, protecting the Resort District. That also happens to be Disney’s goal.”

SOAR board member Stan Pawlowski said Disney executive Chris Lowe is an advisor to the steering committee but not a decision-maker.

“Chris gives his opinion, but he doesn’t dominate the meetings,” said Pawlowski, an Anaheim banker. “Disney’s got a hell of a big investment and he’s there to protect his investment.”

SOAR was formed in March 2007 to prevent a 1,500-unit condo-apartment complex, and others like it, from being built near Disneyland and California Adventure. Disneyland President Ed Grier appeared at the group’s initial news conference along with several former and current City Council members as well as elected officials from around the county.

That day, Grier said the ballot initiative would “ensure the resort will remain a world-class destination and it puts the residents in charge of the future.”

Since then, Disney officials have had little to say publicly about the housing debate that has embroiled Anaheim and they declined comment for this story, referring all questions to SOAR.

In taking over the public discourse, representatives of SOAR have driven home the need to protect the Resort District by touting a study that shows it covers less than 5% of Anaheim’s land but generates 54% of the city’s general fund revenue.

Much of the group’s time and energy have been spent promoting and gathering signatures for two anti-housing ballot measures, a referendum and an initiative. The referendum was removed from the ballot when the condo-apartment project it was fighting died.

The initiative is scheduled to appear on the June ballot. But after a majority vote of the steering committee, coalition members began asking the City Council to enact the policy into law so taxpayers could be saved $250,000 in election costs; the council will vote on the matter Tuesday. Coalition officials said two random samples of 600 registered Anaheim voters showed more than 80% approval ratings for the initiative.

“We’re in a different place than we were a year ago with the state budget crisis,” said Annette McCluskey, a SOAR spokeswoman. “The fact that we could save the city a lot of money was important to us.”

A recent SOAR news release put the coalition’s membership at just short of 10,000. McCluskey said coalition members sign up through pledge cards. Name and address are required; a financial contribution is not.

“They told me I wasn’t compelled to give money,” Pawlowski said. “But they said, ‘To make it official, we’d welcome the contribution.’ ”

Pawlowski, one of only a handful of members to contribute money, wrote a check for $250. Tom Daly, Anaheim’s former mayor and an original SOAR member, said he had never seen group leaders ask for donations.

“I’ve been in meetings where people were willing to open their checkbook,” Daly said. “I’ve not written one, but I will if necessary.”

Most of the money Disney has invested in SOAR has been spent on political consultants, petition-gathering and public relations. Shirley L. Grindle, an Orange County political watchdog for three decades, said Disney’s financial commitment was extraordinary.

“I’ve never seen that kind of money spent on a city initiative in Orange County,” she said.

The other side opened its checkbook, too. SunCal Cos., the Irvine-based developer that wanted to build the 1,500-unit housing project, gave $700,000 to the Committee to Protect and Defend Anaheim, the group’s entire budget. SunCal stopped funding the group and fighting the Disney-backed initiative when its housing project died in the fall.

Daly, who has been involved in city politics for more than two decades, said he has never seen a coalition in Anaheim as “deep and broad-based” as SOAR.

“We’ve got neighborhood leaders from the east to the west to the Anaheim Hills, chamber of commerce members, historic district folks. . . . People are coming from everywhere to support this cause of protecting the resort,” he said.

Daly said he was convinced SOAR would have come into existence even without Disney’s financial support.

“If Disney wouldn’t have put the money up front, other people would have,” he said. “There is fire in people’s eyes. There’s pride in the Resort District.”

Pawlowski believes local hotel and restaurant owners would have stepped up in place of Disney to make “sizable contributions.” But he admits their pockets wouldn’t be as deep as Disney’s.

“Could we raise a million? I’m not sure,” he said. “To raise $1 million today would probably take you a full year.”

It’s unclear whether the group will stay together after June -- when the initiative would be on the ballot if the City Council doesn’t enact it outright -- but Pawlowski hopes so.

“We could be called upon again to decide who we want to elect on the City Council,” he said. “If we stay together, we’ll probably have to do some funding on our own.”

david.mckibben@latimes.com