Santa Ana Proposal Short on Signatures

Backers of a proposal to reorganize Santa Ana city government got bad news Friday: Their petitions for a ballot measure were 15 signatures short.

The same proposal to establish councilmanic elections by ward with the direct election of the mayor was defeated by only 257 votes in the June election. Undaunted by that narrow loss, supporters swiftly began gathering signatures for a measure on the November ballot.

Shortly before 5 p.m. Friday, City Clerk Janice Guy delivered the results of a count by the registrar of voters. The petitions contained 6,273 valid signatures of registered city voters. At least 6,288 were required.

The deadline to place a proposition on the November ballot is Aug. 8. The group would have to collect signatures all over again, after placing a newspaper advertisement and waiting two weeks. State law also requires that the city clerk have 30 days to count the signatures.

The proposal is the work of the Santa Ana Merged Society of Neighbors (SAMSON), a coalition of citizens’ groups that have opposed different actions of the City Council. The proposition itself was written by former mayor Gordon Bricken.

Coalition spokesman Jim Lowman said Friday that he was stunned by the latest setback to the group’s effort.

“We had a 20% safety margin. So I really can’t believe it,” he said. Lowman said coalition members submitted more than 7,500 signatures earlier this month and expected an easy qualification Friday.

Guy said Lowman is entitled to examine the registrar’s count, but that any recount or challenge probably would require a court order.

Lowman said he would go to City Hall Monday morning to begin his review, but he held out little hope of finding an error. “I’m assuming everything was done very carefully,” he said. “So I would say we’re 15 votes short.”

The only real hope, Lowman said, is that volunteers registered about 400 people who signed the petitions. Therefore, those names might not have been on lists at the registrar’s office, he said.

But Deputy Registrar Shirley Deaton said the signatures go through several checks before they are discounted, and errors are unlikely.

City Council members on Aug. 4 will consider a set of similar proposals by a council-appointed Charter Review Committee. The proposals, formally submitted Monday, include ward elections and a directly elected mayor beginning in 1988.

Although the coalition also called for those changes, Lowman said the commission’s method would not take effect quickly enough. “I don’t like the timetable on it, and anyway, it’s questionable whether the council would go along with that,” he said.

Panel Recommendations

Mayor Dan Griset said after the June election that he would call for a proposition on the November ballot establishing only the direct election of mayor. Griset could not be reached for comment Friday.

The commission’s recommendations include increases in City Council salaries up to $800 per month (council members receive $125 per month and the mayor $200), a staff person for each council member and possibly compensation for members of city boards and commissions.

Commission Chairman Gregory Sanders said of the recommendations, “I think the council will probably go for the direct election of the mayor. I don’t know about the others.”

As for SAMSON, Friday’s bad news wasn’t the first or even the second time the grass-roots group has stumbled. In January, the coalition missed a deadline for filing crucial papers with the city clerk and lost 16 days from a tight timetable.

In February, Guy, on the advice of city attorney Edward J. Cooper, rejected petitions because they were incorrectly worded. Only the intervention of Griset prevented an early defeat.

In May, invitations to a fund-raiser featuring Assemblyman Richard Robinson (D-Garden Grove) were mailed before Robinson had confirmed he would be present. He subsequently pulled out, stating that he didn’t want to appear at a fund-raiser for any group while campaigning for Congress.