Local News in Brief : Ballot Signatures Recounted

After a laborious review of petition signatures that had been disqualified, backers of a proposal to eliminate much of Carson’s mobile home ordinance said Wednesday that they have enough valid signatures to force a vote on the measure.

City Clerk Helen Kawagoe, however, could not be reached to confirm the claim. Meanwhile, backers of the proposal complained that Kawagoe has raised new questions about hundreds of signatures she previously had said were valid.

Ann Stewart Brown, a Sacramento-based political consultant for the group supporting the measure, said Kawagoe, a mobile home resident, is hostile to the ballot measure. Brown said Kawagoe will be challenged in court if she persists in questioning signatures previously accepted as valid.

Last week, Kawagoe announced that the petitioners had submitted 3,832 valid signatures but were 60 short of the 3,892--representing 10% of the registered voters in Carson--required to put the measure on the ballot.

After the announcement, the mobile home park owners behind the measure, who call themselves Concerned Citizens of Carson, immediately said they wanted officials to recheck the signatures ruled invalid.

If the rechecking validates enough signatures, the measure will go on the ballot during the next regular municipal election in April, 1990, unless the City Council votes to put it on the ballot in November.

A council meeting is scheduled Aug. 9 to consider the matter. A report from the city clerk is due Friday.