Cisco Systems sued, accused of blocking foes' referendum effort

Cisco also is gathering signatures for petitions in support of the office complex, which would make room for 20,000 workers. PLAN said Cisco unfairly offered signature gatherers more money and prohibited them from working for both campaigns.

PLAN volunteer Brian Grayson, a former San Jose planning commissioner, charged that Cisco had no point to its signature campaign other than to disrupt the referendum effort. PLAN must get the signatures of about 30,000 registered voters by Dec. 12 to get the referendum on a citywide ballot in San Jose.

"Why they would make a concerted effort to prevent this from even getting on the ballot, I don't understand, if they feel so strongly they have such a great plan," Grayson said.

The organization's suit, filed in Santa Clara Superior Court, asks that the Internet equipment company be prevented from interfering in PLAN's petition drive.

Cisco spokesman Steve Langdon said the company has no intentions of disrupting the bid for a referendum, but has every right to seek support for its new campus. Langdon called the suit "a clever way to try to prohibit us from trying to gather support for our project."

"They may be disappointed with the results thus far, but they shouldn't try to stop us from gathering signatures, too," he said.

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