GARDEN GROVE : Drilling Foes Miss 1 Petition Deadline

A group promoting an initiative to ban oil and gas drilling in central Garden Grove has missed one deadline for qualifying the measure for the November ballot.

City Clerk Carolyn Morris had set a May 31 deadline to allow Garden Grove GOO (Get Oil Out) to submit petitions to get its initiative before the voters this fall, but no petitions were turned in Thursday.

Two city councilmen, J. Tilman Williams and Robert F. Dinsen, along with businessman Bruce Broadwater, submitted a proposed initiative in late April that would “prohibit the drilling of oil and gas wells within 800 feet of any church, school or residential property.” Those restrictions would effectively bar Chevron Oil USA from drilling on its site at Nelson and Pearl streets near the downtown area.

Last summer, Chevron sought drilling permits from the City Council but was turned down on a 3-2 vote. Opponents of drilling, however, claimed that an initiative was needed because a new City Council could reverse the earlier vote and grant the permits.

According to Morris, valid signatures representing 10% of the registered voters in Garden Grove, or about 5,700, need to be submitted.

“We said May 31 because of the various time frames that the (different agencies) can take,” she said. “For instance, the county can take up to 30 days to certify the signatures. The City Council can take up to 30 days to study the initiative.”

The process could take less time, but meeting the May 31 cutoff date would have guaranteed a spot on the ballot. In any case, “everything must go to the county by Aug. 10.”

With one deadline missed, the fate of the initiative is uncertain.

“Well, I don’t know,” Williams said. “I’ll have to meet with the other two guys (Dinsen and Broadwater) and see what their thoughts are.”