Council’s Wording for Slow-Growth Initiative Spurs Spat in Carlsbad

Supporters of a slow-growth initiative on the November ballot are up in arms over City Council action this week that they say will hamper their efforts to win votes for the measure.

Leaders of two citizens groups sponsoring the initiative charged Wednesday that the council, by altering wording of the measure’s ballot description, was deliberately attempting to thwart the slow-growth effort.

The council had approved wording for the measure July 15 but took up the matter again Tuesday night, tripling the length of the description in an effort to emphasize the city’s obligation to defend legal challenges to the proposal.

“They’re obviously trying to take every advantage they can to defeat our measure,” said Anthony Skotnicki, one of the initiative’s authors. “By destroying the readability of that ordinance, we’re convinced that they’re being unfair and they’re in fact abusing the power of their office to take an unfair advantage. It will go down as just another attempt to torpedo our initiative.”

Skotnicki said the longer description would confuse residents who are unfamiliar with the initiative and prompt them to cast votes against the slow-growth proposal.

Council members, however, defended the change in the ballot wording, saying it was necessary because several community members had complained that the original description did not properly portray all aspects of the slow-growth concept.

Councilman Claude (Buddy) Lewis noted that the expanded description borrows all of the language used in the original, only adding segments that detail how many dwelling units would be built each year if the measure is approved and the city’s responsibility for defending the proposal against legal challenges.

Mayor Mary Casler agreed, calling the protests of slow-growth advocates “a psychological move” designed to “draw attention” to their position.

“To me, it’s just a political maneuver on their part,” Lewis said. “There’s nothing sneaky about it (the word change). It’s just a simple presentation of what the initiative says.”

Like a majority of the council, Lewis and Casler are opposed to the slow-growth initiative. The council has sponsored a competing ballot measure, which would make residential growth contingent on the expansion of public facilities such as streets, parks and water lines.

While the council’s measure would not restrict growth, it would set a cap on the number of residential units that could ultimately be built in Carlsbad.

As originally worded, the ballot description of the slow-growth initiative reads: “Shall an initiative ordinance be adopted adding Chapter 21.64 to the Carlsbad Municipal Code which would restrict the rate of construction of residential dwelling units in the city for 10 years commencing Jan. 1, 1987?”

The reworded version approved by the council Tuesday says: “Shall an initiative ordinance be adopted adding Chapter 21.64 to the Carlsbad Municipal Code which would restrict the rate of construction of residential dwelling units in the city for 10 years commencing Jan. 1, 1987, to not more than 1,000 units in 1987, 750 units in 1988, and 500 units each year thereafter through 1996, with exceptions for the replacement of damaged or destroyed units and for low-income or senior-citizen projects. The City of Carlsbad shall vigorously defend any challenge to the validity or constitutionality of this ordinance in as much as this ordinance represents the desires of the majority of the voters of Carlsbad?”

City Atty. Vincent Biondo said Wednesday that he drew up the original ballot description from material provided by sponsors of the slow-growth initiative. After the council approved the wording, Biondo said, several citizens complained the description did not properly represent the measure’s full intent.

“The essence of the initiative is numerical limitation,” Biondo said. “Many people felt the description didn’t fairly represent the initiative since the original wording didn’t include numerical limitation.”

The matter was brought up again Tuesday, with the council considering several options on the ballot wording during a 30-minute discussion. At one point, the council even toyed with adopting the text of the entire, one-page initiative as the ballot description.

Finally, the council voted unanimously to adopt the reworded version, despite complaints from Skotnicki, who said the council’s action was motivated by a desire to sink the slow-growth proposal.

Skotnicki said slow-growth advocates probably would not challenge the council’s action in court, largely because the issue needs to be resolved by Friday, the deadline for submitting measures for the November ballot.

“It was just childish politics,” said Nelson Aldrich, one of the leaders of the slow-growth movement. “Some voters don’t have a chance to read the voter’s pamphlet. We wanted something that would be short enough that they could read it and understand it.”

But several city officials said they felt even unprepared voters would be able to understand the new, longer ballot wording.

“It’s still a relatively short and relatively simple question,” Biondo said. “I happen to believe the voters will understand it just fine.”

Councilman Mark Pettine, the lone supporter of the slow-growth initiative on the council, said he was satisfied the new wording would not confuse residents.

“I don’t think the success or failure of the initiative is going to turn on one sentence,” Pettine said. “I think the version that was decided on was a fair summary. People who vote or oppose it will do so on the merits.”