Judge Orders City to Count Referendum Signatures

The city must count signatures signed in support of a referendum targeting the Buenaventura Mall expansion, even though many of the names were collected improperly, a Superior Court judge ruled Monday.

Judge William L. Peck reluctantly sided with a political committee bankrolled by the owners of a rival mall that sued the city in April for throwing out nearly one-fifth of the signatures favoring a referendum.

But in doing so, he sharply criticized special interest groups and their political “hawkers” for manipulating the initiative and referendum process for their own financial gain.

“Hiram Johnson would roll over in his grave if he saw how we were doing initiatives and referenda in this state,” Peck scolded. “What was meant to be the voice of the people has become the voice of special interest.”

The Ventura City Council is now faced with the decision whether to appeal the decision or instruct county elections officials to recount the signatures and determine whether the referendum deserves a spot on the November ballot.

Either way, legal gymnastics promise to delay the $50-million project to expand the aging Buenaventura Mall.

A political committee known as Citizens Against the Sales Tax Giveaway filed suit two months ago claiming that city and county officials violated state law when they threw out signatures gathered in support of the ballot measure.

The committee, which has been financially backed by the owners of The Esplanade in Oxnard, is opposed to a tax-sharing arrangement between the city and mall owners.

The group first qualified a measure for the March ballot and later gathered 8,719 signatures in support of a referendum.

At the city’s request, county officials invalidated 45% of the signatures submitted by the referendum backers. About 20% were deemed invalid because the circulators were not properly registered to vote in Ventura.

City officials argued that they were abiding by election law when they instructed county elections officials to set aside signatures collected by paid petition circulators who failed to register as voters in the city.

In handing down his decision Monday, Peck acknowledged that city officials were justified in their actions, but said the rights of the voters should not be impeded by the lack of qualification of petition circulators.

“I frankly am not prepared to nullify all of those properly verified signatures because the circulators were not registered voters,” Peck said. “I say it with some reluctance.”

The law requires that signature gatherers be registered voters in that jurisdiction. But the law does not address what should be done with valid signatures collected by a person who fails to follow the rules.

Attorney Bradley W. Hertz, who represented Ventura City Clerk Barbara Kam in the case, urged the judge to uphold the city’s actions and in doing so send a message to petition gatherers to abide by the rules.

“If we are strict now, maybe we can help the process,” Hertz said.

But Ron Turovsky, the attorney representing the committee, said the signature gatherers had made honest mistakes and their technical errors should not silence the voice of the people.

“This is not something where these people, where the committee, consciously violated the rules,” Turovsky said.

Outside the courtroom, attorneys for the city said the ruling was a disappointment--particularly since the judge acknowledged that city officials were abiding by the letter of the law.

“It is frustrating when the judge says your client did the right thing and you still lose,” Hertz said.

City Atty. Pete Bulens said the ruling does little to help correct an initiative and referendum process that is increasingly being manipulated by special interest groups.

“What is happening nowadays is that the process is being perverted,” Bulens said. “Locally, I think it tells circulators they can do what they please.”

The decision promises to be yet another setback to the planned expansion of Buenaventura Mall, a $50-million improvement project that city leaders are banking on to reinvigorate Ventura’s sales tax revenue.

The mall typically generates about $1.1 million in annual sales tax revenue, but competition from retail outlet malls in Oxnard and Camarillo has chipped away at mall sales.

As a result, an increasing number of mall shops have packed up their merchandise and left. The exodus could result in a sharp decline in sales tax dollars--money that helps pay for a wide range of city services.

As planned, the expansion project would add a second level of shops and two new department stores to the mall. Sears and Robinsons-May have agreed to leave The Esplanade in Oxnard for the improved Ventura mall.

The project has been attacked by the city of Oxnard and Esplanade owners, who have bankrolled the political committee that filed the lawsuit and have launched two ballot measures targeting the project’s financing plan.

A measure on the March ballot aimed at halting the project’s financing plan was soundly defeated by the city’s voters.