Legally, It’s Inconclusive

There apparently is no legal obligation to follow through with an initiative once signatures have been gathered to put it on the ballot, state and county officials said Friday.

That means that if negotiations between the Board of Supervisors and certain supporters of the proposed countywide slow-growth initiative succeed, the effort to put the measure on the ballot could probably be dropped with no legal ramifications.

But what if some slow-growth leaders want to submit the signatures and others do not? Then a decision might come down to lawyer Gregory A. Hile. As treasurer of Citizens for Sensible Growth and Traffic Control, the group circulating petitions to get the slow-growth measure on the June ballot, Hile is the officially registered proponent of the slow-growth initiative and so would decide whether the signature petitions would be submitted.

Hile said Friday that he took out the petition in his name at the registrar of voters office and therefore was personally “on the line.”

Melissa Warren, assistant media director for the secretary of state’s office, said state law is clear that there is no obligation to follow through on efforts to put statewide initiatives on the ballot. The secretary of state’s office titles and summarizes initiatives before proponents can gather signatures.

“There’s absolutely no requirement that you turn in anything,” Warren said.

Of about 650 initiatives that have been summarized and titled since 1912, Warren said fewer than 200 have qualified for the ballot.

“Of those--with some of them, proponents didn’t bother to pursue or didn’t get enough signatures,” she said.

She said if proponents want the initiative to appear on the ballot, of course, there is a deadline for valid signatures that must be met.

“But say you’ve gathered your signatures, and in the meantime the Legislature passes a law doing exactly what your initiative would do,” she said. “You don’t have to turn in those signatures at this point.”

No Legal Obligation Seen

Orange County Counsel Adrian Kuyper said he saw no legal obligation requiring petitioners to collect signatures, and he also doubted that there was an obligation to turn in signatures once they have been gathered.

“But I can’t rule it out,” Kuyper said. “That would be between the signer and the circulator, and neither one is my client.”

Laguna Beach lawyer Belinda N. Blacketer of Laguna Greenbelt Inc., one of the groups backing the slow-growth initiative, raised one possibility for a court challenge if someone wanted to try to force submission of signatures to the registrar.

She cited a state law prohibiting a person from taking money, things of value “or advantage of or from any person, firm or corporation” in an effort to stop an initiative effort.

It is possible, she said, that “the thing of value or advantage could be interpreted to mean that developers or the county are getting something they wouldn’t if the initiative was put on the ballot and passed.”

‘No Definitive Case Law’

She added: “There is probably somebody out there who would try to use that provision against us if we didn’t turn them in, and the interpretation of the law is open. There is no definitive case law on it.”

She said it is her intention that the petitions be submitted to the registrar of voters.

According to Blacketer, the petitions are being held for safekeeping by a member of Orange County Tomorrow, the coalition of liberal and conservative activists that drafted the ballot measure.

Under law, they must be turned over to Hile, she said.

About 60,000 of the 66,000 signatures needed by Feb. 9 to qualify the initiative for the June ballot have been gathered.