Riordan’s Reform Measure Drive Hits Snag

Mayor Richard Riordan’s petition drive to create a government reform panel has hit a snag as the number of valid signatures needed to qualify the measure for the April ballot are falling short.

While the petition’s backers are confident the measure will eventually qualify, it could be delayed from appearing on the April ballot--a development that could damage the measure’s chances of passage in the future.

Election officials by Thursday had verified 69% of a random sample of signatures submitted by Riordan and his supporters--short of the 71% needed to qualify--with about 10% of the sample group remaining to be checked, said Kristin Heffron, chief of the city’s election division.

If the measure does not qualify based on the random sample, state law requires election officials to verify at least 197,000 of the total 303,000 signatures by next Friday--a difficult if not impossible task, election officials say.

State law gives the city 30 working days to verify petition signatures. But it is unclear what would occur if election officials cannot meet the Friday deadline.

Riordan and his supporters, however, are not giving up hope, saying the measure can still qualify in the next few days based on the final thousand or so random sample signatures.

“I think it’s so close now it could go either way,” said David Fleming, a Studio City attorney and Riordan ally who helped lead the campaign.

But even if the measure fails to qualify based on a check of the random sample, Rick Taylor, campaign manager for the petition drive, said the measure would probably qualify based on a check of all 303,000 submitted signatures.

“We are one or two percentage points away from qualifying based on a random sample,” he said. “Clearly, we can qualify on a full count but the question is can they qualify it by the deadline.”

The measure would appear to have a better chance of passing during the citywide April election because Riordan can campaign for it at the same time he is running for reelection.

Also, any delay in launching Riordan’s reform panel gives a competing reform committee appointed by the City Council more time to establish itself, making it harder to justify a second panel.

Riordan--a former venture capitalist with a personal fortune of about $100 million--funded the $400,000 petition drive out of his own pocket, saying the city’s governing charter was out of date and needs a complete overhaul. He said the charter dilutes authority, making City Hall inefficient and inaccessible.

If Riordan’s measure qualifies, voters would be asked to create a 15-member citizens panel to rewrite the 71-year-old charter.

Council members have opposed the effort in part because the citizens panel would work independently of the council, and because some fear Riordan plans to “stack” the panel with supporters who will want to increase the mayor’s authority.

Under pressure from Riordan and his supporters, the council appointed its own citizens advisory board to study charter reform. The group, which answers directly to the council, met for the first time last month.

Riordan joined Fleming and other supporters at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles on Oct. 30 to announce that his campaign had collected 303,000 signatures to create the reform panel.

The campaign needs 197,000 valid signatures to qualify but Riordan and his supporters submitted an extra 103,000 to cancel invalid or duplicate signatures. Nearly all the signatures were collected by a professional petition firm.

But the reform effort has run into some hurdles due to legal questions over how and when voters would elect members of the reform panel. One day after submitting the signatures, Riordan and his supporters filed a federal lawsuit, asking a judge to clarify the legal questions.

Within a week, the City Council instructed city lawyers to fight the lawsuit, arguing that the state Legislature--and not a federal judge--has the jurisdiction to clarify the legal questions. Riordan and Fleming blasted the council, calling the move a delay tactic.

To verify the petition signatures, election officials began by checking a 3% random sample or about 9,000 signatures. The signatures must come from registered voters living in the city of Los Angeles.

The city’s Heffron said the 69% figure already verified can increase if a higher percentage of the remaining signatures is verified. But she said the percentage can also decrease if election officials find duplicate signatures.

The county’s election division is verifying the signatures for the city at a cost of about $1.31 per signature. The cost of verifying all 197,000 signatures would be $258,000.

City Clerk J. Michael Carey said state law imposes no penalties on the city for failing to verify signatures within 30 working days after the petition is submitted.

But he said the council also has a Dec. 18 deadline to instruct city lawyers to draft measures for the April ballot. The council must vote by Jan. 3 to put those measures on the April ballot.

“Ultimately, I think a court would have to decide which ballot this would go on,” he said.