Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : CITIES : Petition for Santa Ana Election Reform Fails

After voters narrowly turned down a June ballot measure to establish Santa Ana council elections by ward and directly elect the mayor, proponents began collecting signatures to put the issue on the ballot in November.

But on Friday, the latest effort failed too. The proponents were 15 signatures short of the 6,288 required to put the issue before voters again, City Clerk Janice Guy said.

The proposal is the work of the Santa Ana Merged Society of Neighbors, 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 was stunned by the latest setback.

“We had a 20% safety margin,” Lowman said. “So I really can’t believe it.”

Lowman said that he will review Monday the count of valid petition signatures conducted by the Orange County registrar of voters office, but added that “I’m assuming everything was done very carefully. So I would say we’re 15 votes short.”

The deadline to place a matter on the November ballot is Aug. 8, and the group would have to begin collecting signatures all over again after placing an advertisement in a newspaper announcing the effort.

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