Signature Hunt Planned : Cityhood Drive Stalls in Riverside County

On the eve of its self-imposed deadline for submitting petitions, a committee studying the incorporation of a handful of communities in northwestern Riverside County had gathered only a small fraction of the signatures required to put cityhood on the November ballot.

The Jurupa Study Committee, which has been plagued by clashing personalities and insufficient fund raising, planned to launch an intensive weekend-long effort, however, to gather more than 7,000 signatures.

“We’re still pushing for (the) November ballot,” Karen Shuerger, the group’s co-chairman, said Friday. “. . . I’m happy with the way it’s going now.”

The committee’s consultant, Don King, had warned that the petitions and other requirements should be in the hands of county officials by today to allow enough time for reviews and hearings to be completed for a November vote.

But committee members did not begin receiving blank petitions to circulate until Wednesday, Shuerger said. “I’ve got probably a couple of hundred (signatures) now. . . . We’ll get them over the weekend.”

Seeks Vote This Year

Shuerger hopes officials will help speed the review process, allowing the 26,000 registered voters of Mira Loma, Glen Avon, Pedley, Rubidoux, Sunnyslope, Indian Hills, Jurupa Hills and Agua Manza to vote on incorporation this year.

The committee advertised this week in a local newspaper for area residents to “get involved in your community and earn money too” by circulating petitions for 25 cents per signature. It had planned to hire a private firm but was told by county employees that circulators must be local residents and registered voters, Shuerger said.

State law includes no such requirement, said Frank Johnson, registrar of voters, and Mischelle Zimmerman, executive officer of the Local Agency Formation Commission.

Even so, some area residents question the committee’s ability to pay a private firm’s fees of 50 cents to $1.50 per signature, when it has been unable to pay its consultant.

King, a planner and consultant who last month completed a cityhood feasibility study for the committee, has received only $4,000--less than a third of his $15,000 fee--and has said he will not release the study until he is paid for his work.

Debt Unresolved

Although some committee members have announced that they would personally guarantee King’s fees, the dates that they predicted they would resolve the debt have come and gone with only token payments.

The committee has raised “in actual cash, around $10,000 . . . (and in pledges) another $7,000, a definite $7,000,” Shuerger said. Some supporters also offered to guarantee the costs of collecting signatures, she said.

King’s feasibility study and $1,550 in fees must be submitted to the county with the petitions requesting a vote on incorporation for the 42-square-mile area between the Santa Ana River and the San Bernardino County line.