Pasadena : Group Drops Ballot Drive

Citizens for Representative Government has abandoned its plan to place a far-ranging reorganization of Pasadena City Hall on the November ballot. Leaders of the grass-roots group said this week that they will wait instead for city officials to act on the matter when the recommendation of a City Charter Study Committee is made early next month.

To qualify for the November ballot, the group had to collect about 6,000 signatures by 5 p.m. Monday. That deadline passed without the organization submitting the necessary signatures. Ozro Anderson, who together with Bill Pompey began soliciting petition signatures in April, said that his group will not disclose how many signatures were collected. “If they know everything that we know, then they don’t have to take any definitive action,” Anderson said.

The group had proposed replacing the city manager’s position with a directly elected mayor and making the appointive offices of city clerk and city attorney elected positions. Anderson said that if city officials do not place the issue of changing city government on the ballot themselves, his group will renew its petition drive for the next election.