$31,000 Spent on Drive to Put Project on Ballot

The referendum drive that is expected to place the fate of a proposed large commercial office project at Santa Monica Municipal Airport before the voters next year didn’t come cheap.

Santa Monicans for the Public Trust, which organized the drive, spent nearly $31,000 to collect about 9,000 signatures in two weeks. Nearly half of that went for postage. Because of the short time available, petitions were mailed to all 56,000 registered voters in the city. A spokeswoman for the group said about 70% of the signatures collected were returned by mail. If 5,600 signatures are verified by the county registrar, the City Council is expected to place the matter on the ballot rather than reverse its approval of the project.