It's no surprise, folks. By not mentioning the 355 housing units he wants to build, or the terrible commute traffic problems this would create, developer Don Peebles' hirelings collected 4,850 signatures for his awful Rockaway Quarry project. The surprise is that he only collected that number of signatures.

I sure thought they would do better than that. For heaven's sake, four years ago Trammell Crow's plan for 315 housing units was overwhelmingly defeated by almost 6,900 votes.

Twenty-five years ago I was part of a citizen volunteers' effort to gather signatures for Pacifica's Growth Control Ordinance. We were all Pacificans and we certainly were not paid, yet we collected about as many signatures as did Mr. Peebles' employees-- who were shipped in from places like Modesto.

Many of developer Peebles' workers were very aggressive. There have been many complaints about their conduct. They freely used misrepresentations, distortions and even outright lies to trick Pacificans into signing their petitions. The only reason for an election is for Mr. Peebles to build housing, but that's not what his employees told Pacificans.

Obviously, it was a case of "anything goes," and why not? They were paid about $6.50 per signature. Sadly, a lot of Pacificans were played for fools.

It's becoming very clear to me that Mr. Peebles intends to try to buy this election. Look for expensive newspaper ads, flashy mailers and behind-the-scenes manipulations by some slick out-of-town P.R. team.

Developer Peebles has millions of dollars at stake. His campaign is about as honestly "grassroots" as Astroturf, but I have faith that Pacificans will wisely see past his stunts and vote "NO," just as they have done to other profiteering developers who have blown into town in the past.