By Robert Haugh

Santa Clara Now is the infamous Facebook page that 49ers owner Jed York is behind. They were forced to take down deceptive ads in 2022.

But they’ve never gone away.

Santa Clara Now and York recently started spending money to get the Santa Clara City Council to approve a legal settlement. 

The team wants the public to pay for public safety costs and their gameday VIP buffet.

Last week, Santa Clara City Clerk Hosam Haggag called out the spending on his own Facebook page:

Here’s what Haggag wrote:

49ers corporate meddling in our City frustrates me. It should frustrate you too.

I just saw this ad in my Facebook newsfeed.

The City Council just called for an emergency meeting to meet to discuss the 49er’s settlement offer for a longstanding lawsuit regarding outstanding security costs. 

The 49ers have issued a “final offer” which effectively lets them off the hook for costs in return of “releasing” $18M which belongs to the City to begin with but has been held “hostage” in a legal contingency fund.

They’re running dozens of ads on both Facebook and Instagram through their shell organization “Santa Clara Now” to try to convince the community that this is a good deal.

Haggag said that he’s not familiar with the settlement so he isn’t advocating for or against it.  

He was just pointing out how York and the team are spending money to influence a major City Council decision.

According to Facebook, Santa Clara Now has spent a lot of money advertising on “social issues, elections or politics” since they started the site in 2018.

Much of their advertising campaign has promoted the 49er Five.

The York’s Facebook site’s spending is on top of the millions of dollars that he spent in independent expenditures to elect his 49er-friendly City Council.