Signatures Sought for Mall Referendum

Paid signature gatherers will hit the streets today to qualify a referendum aimed at overturning the Ventura City Council’s approval of the Buenaventura Mall expansion.

Petitioners have only 28 days to gather the 6,026 signatures needed to force a July special election.

“It is going to be fairly difficult,” said Eric Lambert, campaign manager for the group backing the referendum drive. “[But] I am confident we can do it.”

Citizens Against the Sales Tax Giveaway qualified an initiative targeting the mall project’s financing plan last fall. The group is pursuing a referendum because the council has already approved the tax-sharing plan targeted by the initiative.

The group used professional signature gatherers paid for by the owners of The Esplanade shopping center to gather more than 14,000 signatures to place the initiative--Measure S--on the March 26 ballot.

Signature gathering cost the Oxnard mall’s owners $31,500, campaign finance reports filed Wednesday showed.

Lambert said the same Agoura Hills firm hired to qualify the initiative will gather signatures for the referendum. He expects the cost will be lower because they are seeking fewer signatures.

The city’s mall agreement calls for the city to reimburse the developer for $12.6 million in public improvements over 20 years, which with interest will total $32 million.

City leaders have harshly criticized referendum proponents, saying their efforts are being orchestrated by the rival Esplanade mall in Oxnard, and that it will cost the city $85,000 to hold a special election.

“That’s probably [the salary of] two librarians for a year,” Councilman Jim Friedman said.

Lambert countered that if the council had held off on its vote on the mall project until after the March election, a referendum would not have been necessary.