Scare Tactics on Ridgeline Initiative

The self-serving remarks of Jim Olmstead (“The Best Legislative Route to Protect Laguna Niguel’s Ridgelines,” Letters, Dec. 2) are not surprising. Olmstead is merely parroting the “official” line of the present Laguna Niguel City Council, because he is a political appointee of that regime.

Olmstead and the City Council are apparently in need of a refresher course in civics. The initiative process in California provides the people the means to enact appropriate legislation when their elected leaders either refuse or fail to do so.

By the time Olmstead and the City Council would get around to proposing legislation to protect the remaining ridgelines in Laguna Niguel, there would be nothing left to protect!

Let us set the record straight once and for all. The ridgeline initiative is an attempt to preserve our remaining ridgelines from further development.

Further, the scare tactics being used by big developers notwithstanding, the seizure of private property by any governmental body without due compensation is clearly unconstitutional.

But that is for the courts to decide, not the City Council or the city attorney, or anyone else for that matter. The Election Code is quite clear on this matter.

When an initiative has qualified by virtue of obtaining the necessary signatures, as has the ridgeline initiative, the City Council has but two options, namely: adopt the initiative, without alteration, as a city ordinance; or call a special election for the purpose of submitting the initiative to a vote of the people.

By refusing to allow the people of Laguna Niguel our constitutional right to vote on this initiative, the City Council has violated the civil rights of each and every citizen in Laguna Niguel.

EDDIE ROSE, Laguna Niguel