Weldon Canyon Vote Could Set Precedent

Out-of-town con artists are trying to buy our votes for their selfish interests. I am talking about the Weldon Canyon initiative, Measure T, on the March 26 ballot. This measure makes a mockery of our cherished voting rights by voiding the decisions of our elected local officials and by doing away with the Supreme Court’s one-man one-vote principle.

Weldon Canyon is in Ventura County’s 1st Supervisorial District. This district was created by state law as a pseudomunicipality with its own elected advisory council for such matters as zoning and land use. Measure T will ask a vote from all county voters to change the zoning of Weldon Canyon, thus diluting the 1st District’s votes by the votes of the other four districts, a violation of our U.S. Constitution. To illustrate, could voters of Ventura County preempt the voters of the city of Ventura on matters pertaining only to that city? Emphatically not.

Let Measure T pass and a dangerous precedent will be established. No city or county area would be safe from similar monster projects by outside plotters. Let Measure T pass and Weldon Canyon will be a giant dump for refuse from anywhere in the United States. Trash for a privately owned dump is a commodity in interstate commerce, and no local ordinance can dictate the source of refuse. Anyone believing that Weldon Canyon will be for West Ventura County’s trash only should consider the huge sums of money spent by the facilitators of Measure T and the enormous capital outlays for the megadump. Would any prudent entrepreneur invest millions for only west Ventura County trash? Certainly not.

I ardently hope that we, the voters of Ventura County, are alert and will not become part and parcel of this cleverly engineered, precedent-setting takeover by alien interests.

MAGNUS P. STUDER

Ojai