MISSION VIEJO : Building of City Hall on Ballot After All

After winning a court battle earlier this month over the right to build a city hall without voter approval, the City Council has decided to put the issue on the November ballot after all.

Voters will have a chance to decide whether the city must hold an election before final approval of a city hall building. However, the November measure is advisory and the council would have the last word on city hall plans.

The council’s action Monday comes in the shadow of two telling events--a June special election during which voters decisively turned down an $18-million city hall proposal and a recent poll conducted by the city that showed 90% of the residents surveyed want to approve any civic center proposal.

The council decision drew a positive response from members of the citizens’ group that gathered over 5,000 signatures to qualify a similar ballot question for the November city election--only to see an Orange County Superior Court judge rule the measure invalid.

“It was a good move on their part,” said Norman Murray, vice president of the Citizens Action Committee. “This has some flaws, but it’s a good substitute measure.”

Murray said the “tremendous outpouring of people in favor of voting” on a new city hall registered by the poll, “plus the 75% who turned down the city hall in June probably convinced the council” to approve the November ballot measure.

Council members maintained they opposed the Citizens Action Committee’s measure because it was legally flawed, not because they were against residents voting on a city hall proposal.

Judge Robert C. Jameson agreed with the city’s contention that financing a city hall should be an administrative, not legislative, decision and ruled that certain language in the measure would be confusing to voters.