Politics: Meg Whitman's Tale of Woe Is Bull

In a softball interview with Fox News sycophant host Neil Cavuto last May, Meg Whitman explained what it is about the sorry state of things that made her decide that she must “refuse to let California fail.”

Said eMeg: “The first thing we have to do is, we have to streamline government.” And to make it easier for business to grow? “Well, the first thing you do is, we have got to streamline regulation.

“The permitting process, the competing agencies that try to regulate — we built a building in Sunnyvale for PayPal, two-and-a-half years to break ground. We had to hire three consultants to navigate the labyrinth of California regulations.”

... we tried repeatedly to get clarification or comment about any of this from Sarah Pompei, Whitman's spokeswoman, and from eBay and PayPal. Despite many, many phone calls and emails, we got nothing.

... the folks at City Hall in Sunnyvale aren't too happy about Meg slandering their building-permit process. Especially since the PayPal expansion wasn't in Sunnyvale — it was in San Jose.

According to City of San Jose records, which Santa Clara County Supervisor David Cortese, formerly the vice-mayor of San Jose, got his hands on only after submitting a public records request, eBay submitted its preliminary review for a General Plan change (to alter the then-existing height-limitation in the North San Jose Industrial Redevelopment Area) on May 8, 2003.

eBay submitted its actual GP amendment change on June 2. A site development permit was submitted a month later, and environment impact review was circulated starting August 29 and by December 2, when the council considered GP amendments, eBay's development permit was approved.

For those who don't follow city planning, Cortese explains: “It's a huge deal to change the general plan. That's the blueprint for how the city is going to be built out over a 10 to 20 year horizon.” eBay's GP change sped through the process like grass through a goose.

Once the general plan had been changed, it was up to eBay (not the city or any state agency) to develop building plans for the project — adding to their existing facility to accommodate PayPal. eBay didn't submit building, electrical, plumbing and mechanical plans to San Jose until March 2006; fire and haz-mat plans came shortly thereafter. After the typical process of submissions, review, resubmissions and sign-offs, eBay's building permit was approved July 28, 2006 and the final fire approval was made August 21.

We don't know how many consultants eBay hired. Frankly, who cares? And yes, the general plan change was submitted in June 2003 and the building permit was issued in July 2006. That's not just two-and-a-half years — it's three years.

And excessive regulations (and Sunnyvale) had exactly nothing to do with any of it.

For more, see eMeg's Tale of Woe About Paypal Expansion Is Bull, September 8, 2010, at Calbuzz.