Rival Accused of Breaking Election Law : Slow-Growth Group Claims Violation

A member of a citizen group sponsoring the slow-growth Quality of Life Initiative has filed a complaint with the state Fair Political Practices Commission alleging that a rival coalition’s activities violate election laws.

Peter Navarro, economic adviser to Citizens for Limited Growth, claimed Monday that the Coalition for a Balanced Environment is violating its status as an educational foundation by taking strong public positions against his group’s proposed growth cap.

“What I am alleging is that they should be registered as a political organization rather than an educational foundation, and that they should not have contributions tax-deductible,” said Navarro, an economics professor at the University of San Diego.

Wrongdoing Denied

A spokeswoman for the coalition, an organization of some of the city’s most powerful institutions that is pledged to raise as much as $500,000 to defeat the Quality of Life Initiative in this fall’s election, strongly denied any wrongdoing.

Sara Katz, a political consultant hired by the coalition, said that the group is similar to the San Diego Taxpayers Assn. or the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce “in that we help shape public policy.”

“We are not a lobbying group such as a political campaign,” she said, “where you take a position on a specific issue and focus all your energies on that issue.”

Organization leaders have stated that they intend to form a separate campaign committee in the future that probably will campaign against the Quality of Life Initiative and for a competing plan placed on the Nov. 8 ballot by the San Diego City Council.

Sandra Michioku, a spokeswoman for the Fair Political Practices Commission, said campaign laws allow members of an educational foundation to disseminate information on an issue but they cannot urge voters to vote in a particular way.

Michioku confirmed that Navarro’s complaint, filed July 29, had been received, but said that she could not offer any opinion on its validity until it has been reviewed by commission staff.

Follow-Up Letter

In that complaint, and a follow-up letter mailed to the commission Saturday, Navarro alleged that coalition leaders Lionel Van Deerlin, a former San Diego congressman, and Herb Cawthorne, president of the Urban League of San Diego, have effectively made public representations that voters should turn down the Quality of Life Initiative. The group’s literature also takes those stands, Navarro said.