Sizing Up Measure F

Let the voters decide. Measure F, the Safe and Healthy Communities Initiative, restores fairness to county planning. It gives voters, not county bureaucrats, the final decision on major taxpayer-funded projects that impact our quality of life. Before supervisors can build an airport, toxic dump or large jail within one-half mile of homes, they will be required to disclose fully the environmental impacts, hold public hearings and let the people decide.

Over 192,000 voters signed petitions to put Measure F on the March 7 ballot. They did it because the county’s bankrupt planning process has wasted tens of millions of taxpayer dollars, ignored legitimate community concerns and needlessly divided the county.

Our opponents have filed four unsuccessful lawsuits attempting to keep Measure F off the ballot. They failed because Measure F transfers power legally from the politicians to the people.

Big money is being spent to try to block the initiative. Politicians are worried because they know that voters are fed up with county tactics. People want to express their own choice in future decisions. Special interests want to build an airport at El Toro at any cost. If voters have a choice, they will stop this multibillion-dollar pet project with its special deals for labor unions and controversial financing arrangements.

Opponents claim that the people already have approved plans for an El Toro airport. But we’re only just beginning to see an airport plan. Costs are nearly doubled, environmental impacts are worse and economic benefits of the airport are less than the county previously claimed. The project is overbudget and behind schedule. We don’t even know which communities will be under the flight paths, because that has yet to be decided by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Three supervisors have squandered nearly $50 million developing various schemes for creating our very own Inglewood in the heart of Orange County. They have split the county in the process. No wonder a Los Angeles Times poll found that 65% of the people want another vote on El Toro. The only way to give people that vote is to approve Measure F. Otherwise, three supervisors can spend whatever they want to build El Toro--or expand John Wayne--without any voter choice in the matter.

Measure F also protects residents from construction of nearby jails. Opponents have seized on this provision in a cynical attempt to mislead voters, claiming that Measure F makes it difficult to build needed jails. The truth is that Measure F only restricts jails with 1,000 beds or more within one-half mile of homes (Measure F, Section 6B). If county planners want to build or expand a mega-jail closer than one-half mile, Measure F says that the impacted city or the voters must approve the project.

Beyond the one-half mile limit, the county is free to build any jail it needs. Sheriff Mike Carona has been working with local leaders to identify sites for the county’s future jail needs. On Nov. 19, 1999, he wrote, “I remain extremely confident that we will, together, be able to arrive at an acceptable solution.”

Measure F is democratic. A yes vote gives us the same two-thirds-vote protection against threats to quality of life that Proposition 13 gives us against tax increases. Our American tradition often requires this high standard of approval for government actions that seriously impact the people. A no is undemocratic because it maintains the status quo, with no voter choice, and leaves three supervisors free to permanently damage the quality of life in Orange County.

Measure F is a straightforward measure that you can read on-line at https://www.safe-and-healthy.org or call (949) 768-4583 for a copy.

Politicians and the special interests that finance their campaigns want control over major land uses in the county. The question facing voters as they cast their ballot on Measure F is whether the politicians or the voters will have the final word. The county’s planning record over the past five years makes it clear that the right answer to that question is yes on Measure F. Give the voters the choice.