Jan Sramek—Jan Sramek personally led years-long deception of Solano County officials about California Forever's true intentions
From 2017 to 2023, Sramek led California Forever's strategy to secretly acquire over 50,000 acres of Solano County farmland through subsidiary Flannery Associates. He personally assured county officials the land would be used for agricultural purposes including olive farming and long-term farmer leases, while planning to build a new city of up to 400,000 people. The deception was only revealed when the New York Times exposed the scheme in August 2023. U.S. Representative John Garamendi described the community as 'very angry - by the secrecy, by the duplicity, by the attack on family farmers.'
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate Transparency | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Deceptive Lobbying | +toward | secondary | -0.50 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.664 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.59)
Evidence (1 signal)
Solano County report and NYT investigation documented Sramek's years-long deception about land use intentions
A Solano County report confirmed that California Forever representatives told the county the land was for agricultural purposes, while the NYT exposed Sramek's true plan to build a new city. Sramek's CV was updated to show he had been CEO since 2017.