SOAR Leaders Say Moorpark Is Trying to Scuttle Measure

Local SOAR leaders on Wednesday accused the city of trying to keep their growth-control measure off the November ballot by slowing down the application process.

“They don’t want it on the November ballot, so they’re doing it to stall,” said Richard Francis, who helped write the Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources initiative.

But city officials denied the accusations, saying they need time to review the wording of the petitions turned in by the group.

SOAR proponents filed a petition containing 3,337 signatures with the Moorpark city clerk Monday. A judge had declared the group’s first petition invalid because of a wording problem.

But the city clerk and city attorney are still reviewing the new petitions and have not filed it with the county registrar’s office for signature verification. About 1,600 valid signatures--or 10% of Moorpark’s registered voters--are needed for the measure to qualify for the November ballot.

SOAR leaders argued Wednesday that the city was purposely holding onto the petitions to miss the deadline for submission to the county elections office.

The group said that every other city in the county that received signatures for a SOAR initiative turned them into the county either the first or second day they received them.

The Moorpark City Council has placed its own growth-control measure on the ballot, one that would allow for the development of the 3,221-home Hidden Creek Ranch project. The SOAR measure would require voter approval for that development.

The deadline for the council to submit the SOAR petitions and its ballot materials is Friday, although Camarillo got an extension to Aug. 20. The county has an Aug. 24 deadline to get all of its ballot materials to the printer in time for the November election.

Moorpark could also request an extension, but the council has not scheduled a vote on such a request. The council is not scheduled to meet again for a regular session until Aug. 19.

Any action taken on that date would be too late to qualify the measure for the ballot, said county elections chief Bruce Bradley.

At least one city official said it was unfair for the SOAR group to be crying foul. The city clerk is holding the signatures for appropriate reasons, said City Councilman Chris Evans.

“Is the city clerk required to certify their petition in two days?” Evans said. “I think it’s way too early for these people to say this.”

Evans said the SOAR group dropped off its petitions on Monday, even though the city clerk informed them that she did not have time to examine them that day.

He said it is valid for the city clerk to take time verifying the accuracy of the petition, considering that the first petition the Moorpark SOAR group handed in resulted in a lawsuit.

A judge declared the first batch of signatures invalid because of a wording problem.

“If it wasn’t for the fact that they are so tied into getting what they want at any cost, they would see that our city clerk is verifying the signatures appropriately,” he said. “Now we’re almost down to a kicking temper tantrum.”

SOAR proponent Steve Bennett asked the council to send the signatures to the county immediately, saying the petitions’ wording could be examined even if the signatures already have been sent in. He also urged the council to schedule a special meeting soon.

If the measure is not on the November ballot, it will cost up to $25,000--or 10 times more than if it is--to place it on a special election ballot later, according to Bradley.

“It’s just arrogant of them to waste taxpayers’ money just because they want to delay SOAR,” Bennett said.