Clerk Illegally Released 3,600 Petition Names

In violation of state law, the Culver City clerk’s office released the names of 3,600 city residents who signed a slow-growth citizens initiative to pro-development forces, who used them to target a last-minute campaign mailer against the measure.

Culver City Clerk Pauline Dolce said Wednesday that she recalled releasing copies of the citizens initiative to Councilman Richard Alexander, an opponent of the measure and supporter of large-scale development projects in the city.

When first asked about the matter by a reporter, Dolce insisted that the petitions were a public record. “I don’t see why it wouldn’t be.”

Later, however, after she had consulted with the city attorney, she said: “I didn’t do anything intentionally. I guess I did something I wasn’t supposed to do.”

Alexander confirmed Wednesday that he requested copies of the petitions shortly after the measure qualified for the ballot in 1988. “I just wanted to see who had been fooled by proponents of the measure,” he said.

When asked if he provided copies of the petitions to opponents of the measure, the veteran councilman, who is retiring next week after 16 years in office, replied “not directly” and then said “not knowingly at least.”

Alexander said the petitions “were kind of kicking around my (council) office for some period of time” and someone could have viewed or copied them. “As far as I was concerned, they were public records received and filed in public session,” he said.

The California Public Records Act says signatures on initiative, referendum and recall petitions are confidential and are not public records. And the state Election Code goes a step further, making it a misdemeanor to misuse the signatures on petitions, punishable by up to six months in jail and up to a $1,000 fine.

State officials say the laws are designed to prevent the names from being used for targeted mailings, fund-raising appeals and retribution.

The election law states that “no one shall knowingly or willfully permit the list of signatures on an initiative, referendum, or recall petition to be used for any purpose other than qualification of the initiative or referendum measure or recall question for the ballot.”

“I didn’t see anything wrong in giving a City Council member . . . a copy of the petitions,” Dolce said, adding that if she had known that it was illegal, “I would certainly not have given it to anyone.”

With the signatures in hand, opponents last week sent out a mailer to the 3,600 people who signed the measure calling for a 56-foot height limit in commercial districts to lessen traffic and other effects of large-scale developments.

The move angered supporters of the initiative, Measure 1 on next Tuesday’s ballot.

Robin Turner, one of the measure’s sponsors, called release of the names “deplorable” and said the city should fire whomever was responsible.

“This just proves that what is happening here is unethical,” said Turner, an outspoken critic of the city’s recent rush to approve the massive Marina Place shopping mall. The embattled shopping center project could be affected by the outcome of Tuesday’s election.

In an effort to block Measure 1, pro-development members of the City Council placed rival Measure 2 on the ballot. The latter would impose less stringent controls on future projects and would exempt already approved projects, such as Marina Place.

“That just proves my point that the people (behind) Measure 2 are not doing it for the betterment of the city but for their own good, and they will stop at nothing to get their own way,” Turner said.’

Attorney Richard Pachtman, a former mayor and supporter of the slow-growth measure, said he will ask the district attorney’s office and the Fair Political Practices Commission to investigate the release of the petitions.

Dorothy Harris, a Culver City planning commissioner and co-chairwoman of the campaign against Measure 1 and for Measure 2, said the last-minute letter was mailed to “all who signed the petition.”

Harris, who is married to former City Manager Walt Harris, said she believed that “the list of petitions are a matter of public record. We have access to them as does everybody. We had all the petitions.”

However, Melissa Warren, spokeswoman for the secretary of state’s office in Sacramento, said the names on initiatives, referendums or recall petitions are to be used only to qualify a measure or recall for the ballot.

The Legislature, Warren said, “didn’t want the names released to groups who were supporting or opposing a measure.” She noted that the petitions would make “a fairly good target list for people who signed a particular kind of measure or a recall against a particular incumbent.”