Westminster : Pamphlets Delayed by Dispute Over Statements
County officials were ordered Wednesday to delay printing a pamphlet for Westminster voters until a judge can rule in a dispute over the accuracy of statements about a ballot proposal to regulate rents in mobile home parks.
Proponents of the ballot proposal filed a lawsuit questioning the accuracy of statements that opponents made about the effects of the measure.
Superior Court Commissioner Ronald L. Bauer set a hearing for Monday on the suit, filed by Theo Newtson and J. Hugh Shaw.
The argument against the proposal in the voter pamphlet was signed by Westminster Mayor Pro Tem Charles V. Smith, Mayor Joy L. Neugebauer, council member Frank Fry Jr. and Crystal Wadsworth, identified as president of the Westminster Chamber of Commerce, according to the lawsuit.
Attorney R. Richard Farnell contended that the opponents made “grossly false, misleading and inaccurate” claims that the proposal would lower property values, worsen the city’s financial problems and create an expensive layer of local government bureaucracy.
Bauer ordered county election officials to halt publication of the voter statements until Superior Court Judge Tulley H. Seymour considers the case.
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