Council Orders Lawndale Initiative to Be Reworded

The Lawndale City Council has decided not to put the original wording of an initiative on the April 12 ballot because City Atty. David J. Aleshire said the measure is unclear and misleading.

The initiative, which would require voter approval of public projects costing more than $1 million, is eligible for the ballot because petitioners gathered 976 verified signatures, more than the 841--10% of the city’s voters--needed to put the measure on the ballot.

‘Defy the Public’

The council rejected the initiative’s wording in a split 3-2 vote Thursday, then asked Aleshire to revise the wording of the measure and submit that at its next open meeting Nov. 17.

The council has until mid-January to decide whether to put a reworded version on the April 12 ballot.

Petition organizer Nancy J. Marthens, who is regarded as a likely challenger in April’s contest for one of four council seats, blasted the council, saying it had chosen “to ignore (and) defy the public” in not putting the measure on the ballot as originally written.

The disputed wording states that the measure “conditions (the) appropriation and/or expenditure of public funds in excess of $1 million for redevelopment or development of public facilities on a mandate of the registered voters of the city of Lawndale.”

In a surprise report, Aleshire said Thursday that the wording on the initiative petition contains “very substantial errors.”

Aleshire said his primary objection is that the initiative would apply to redevelopment and housing authority projects, possibly including the city’s long-sought $2-million senior housing project. The housing authority is an administrative rather than legislative body and is not subject to the initiative process, he said.

Mayor Sarann Kruse and Councilman Terry Birdsall both said they voted against the initiative’s wording because they do not want to imperil the senior project, which would be built with a $2-million federal grant. Councilman Larry Rudolph also voted against the wording.

Won Right to Be on Ballot

Mayor Pro Tem Dan McKenzie and Councilman Harold E. Hofmann favored putting the petition’s wording on the ballot. By obtaining the required number of signatures, the petitioners won the right to put the measure to a vote, Hofmann said.

Aleshire said information on the petition was inaccurate because it suggests that property taxes could be instituted to finance large public projects in Lawndale. The city has no property taxes, and Aleshire pointed out that under Proposition 13, the city could not institute a property tax unless such a measure was approved by two-thirds of the voters.

Aleshire said this inaccuracy is sufficient to invalidate the measure.

He also said the phrase “mandate of the registered voters” is unclear, and that instead it should specify a majority of votes cast in an election.

The council voted 4 to 1, with Birdsall dissenting, to have Aleshire reword the petition. On the theory that the petition drive was actually intended to derail the much-criticized $4.2-million civic center expansion plan, the council Thursday also discussed a measure that would seek voter approval of the civic center project. This measure, narrower in scope than the initiative, would affect only the civic center and not all major public projects.