Saratoga News
News
Hakone Gardens bills candidates for photo shoot at park's entrance
By Shannon Burkey
The typically tranquil Hakone Gardens is at the center of a political battle after three Saratoga City Council candidates had a photograph taken of themselves standing behind a sign at the entrance to the gardens.
On Oct. 13, candidates Jill Hunter, Marilyn Marchetti and Jim Sorden, who are running on slate together, spent the day taking photos of themselves at various city parks for a campaign mailer they plan on sending to Saratoga residents.
Unaware that there is a fee for commercial photography at the gardens, the three did not think there was a problem with taking a photo next to the Hakone Gardens sign at the entrance to the facility.
However, the Hakone Foundation did not agree, and on Oct. 18 the three slate candidates, several city officials and the other three candidates in the race all received an email from Lon Saavedra, the director of the foundation, stating the photo policy of the gardens and inquiring who the invoice for the candidates' photo shoot should be sent to.
"This was an innocent little thing," said Marchetti. "This was not a professional photograph and we did not go inside the gardens."
But Saavedra said that the photo policy is in place for a reason and the candidates, who were "using Hakone for political purposes, without authorization," should not be exempt from the fee.
According to the California Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation Law, nonprofit organizations such as Hakone Gardens are prohibited from taking any political positions or from endorsing any candidates in a race.
"A ruling could easily be made against the Hakone Foundation if we exempted one group of political candidates from complying with our published policy on fees for photo shoots, thus favoring their political candidacies over the other political candidates by providing one group with special treatment," Saavedra said in an email to the foundation's board of trustees.
For Sorden, it is the way the invoice came to the candidates that he had an issue with.
"If you owe me money I send you a bill. I don't send a bill to your father, mother, brother and sister," said Sorden, referring to the email that was sent to all the candidates and several city officials. "This is the most extraordinary and unusual way to send a bill I have ever heard of."
Councilwoman Ann Waltonsmith said Hakone owes the candidates an apology, and the gardens should be promoting Hakone as a welcoming place.
"They are way out of line. They need to back up," Waltonsmith said.
Vice Mayor Aileen Kao, who also serves on the Hakone Foundation Board of Trustees, said that the policy should be more clearly stated for those wishing to take photos outside of the gardens--like at the entrance sign.
"If the entrance is a chargeable site then residents need to know about that," Kao said.
The three candidates have not paid the fee and are hoping to talk to Hakone about the issue.
"This has gone in a direction that I am not happy with," said Marchetti. "I am more surprised than angered with where this has gone."
