ANAHEIM : Petition Drive for District Voting Fails

Unless the City Council intervenes, a proposal to elect council members by district will not be on the November ballot.

The measure’s proponents conceded Wednesday that their month-old petition drive will fall about 2,000 signatures short of the 10,000 needed to force the proposal onto the general election ballot. The deadline for submitting their petitions and having the signatures verified is Aug. 7, and City Clerk Leonora Sohl said it is probably too late for the verification process to be completed by then.

But petition-drive organizer Matthew K. Bogoshian said his group will continue gathering signatures in hopes of collecting 15,000 by Dec. 6, which would force the city to call a special election next spring to decide the issue.

“We were faced with a short time period when we began our drive, and we realized that,” Bogoshian said. “But we think it will be a lot easier to collect signatures in the months leading up to (November’s) election because that is when people are active politically.”

The measure calls for dividing the city into four council districts beginning in 1994. Each district would elect its own council member, while the mayor, who is a member of the council, would still be elected in a citywide vote.

The possibility that the signature drive might force a special election has prompted Councilman Tom Daly, who opposes the measure, to say it might be best if the council placed it on the November ballot because a special election would cost the city $100,000.

Daly and Councilmen Bob D. Simpson and Irv Pickler blocked an attempt last spring to place the measure on November’s ballot.

Proponents say that passing the measure would ensure that each of the sprawling city’s geographical areas would be given equal treatment and representation. Three of the council’s current members--Simpson, Mayor Fred Hunter and William D. Ehrle--live in Anaheim Hills. Daly lives near downtown, while Pickler lives in the city’s west end.

The proponents also say it would make it easier for a Latino to be elected to the council for the first time. Latinos make up about a third of the city’s population.

Opponents say districts would pit neighborhoods against each other and make it impossible for the council to make tough decisions on locating unpopular facilities. They cite as an example the Orange County Board of Supervisors, which has had long and acrimonious fights over locating both a new jail and an airport. None of the supervisors wanted either project in his or her district.