California
As the contentious debate rages over California’s Proposition 8, the U.S.
The Mount Shasta City Council will discuss approving a ballot measure asking voters to approve the charge of an add-on sales tax to support the libraries at their regular board meeting tonight.
Earlier this week, the city of Beverly Hills thought it had put a halt to efforts to put a two-hour parking initiative on the March 8 ballot. That outcome is no longer clear, thanks to a California Court of Appeal decision. A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled Jan. 4 that Measure 2P, which would require Beverly Hills to increase its free parking period to two hours at most city-owned lots, should be removed from the ballot. But the Court of Appeal late Thursday granted an emergency stay of the earlier decision.
An initiative petition proposing to fold the El Segundo Fire Department into Los Angeles County fire operations has been deemed “sufficient” for the ballot. City firefighter and resident Bryan Partlow in November submitted a 409-page petition to the City Clerk’s Office calling for a vote on the issue. In August, the City Council essentially shelved plans for a merger - even though it had backing from the firefighters’ union, Fire Chief Kevin Smith and other city employees who believed it would save money and improve the department from a safety standpoint.
A Beverly Hills initiative that would have mandated two hours of free parking in city lots was ordered removed Tuesday from the ballot by a judge. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ann I. Jones sided with city officials against a group of businesses led by medical office owner G&L Realty Corp. In her ruling, Jones called the voter initiative “impermissibly vague and clearly invalid.” She agreed with officials that the initiative, known as Measure 2P, improperly directs the Beverly Hills City Council to enact legislation, rather than act as an ordinance itself.
The Merced City Council decided Monday night to go to the ballot with a half-cent sales tax measure for 10 years, with the date of the election yet to be determined. A few council members voiced concerns about whether city staff could handle a June ballot date for the measure. City officials say the tax measure might be the only way to raise revenue for the city’s general fund that would prevent layoffs of police officers and firefighters.
From Ballotnews.com:
Democratic State Assemblyman Mike Gatto has introduced a handful of proposals to the California State Legislature to would put a variety of new roadblocks in the state’s voter initiative process.
The Ridgecrest City Council appointed three new members of the Planning Commission during its meeting Wednesday evening and gave its consent to place two qualified initiatives on the next regular election ballot – to change the process so that mayor is elected directly by voters and implement term limits for council members.
After 10 years of discussion and 24 draft ordinances, the residents of Berkeley will soon be able to vote on a new open records law. On Tuesday December 14, the Berkeley City Council will vote to place the “Berkeley Sunshine Ordinance,” a citizens’ proposal to make Berkeley city government more transparent, on the November 2012 ballot.
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Why does a fellow who’s the executive director of the Greenlining Institute want to red-line democracy?
In a special session Tuesday, the City Council unanimously agreed to put a three-hour free parking measure on the March ballot to compete with an existing two-hour proposal. As reported last month, the city was required under state law to allow the two-hour parking initiative a spot on the ballot after proponents gathered enough signatures for it to qualify.
When calling for restrictions on the voter initiative process, initiative opponents often pull out the tired old argument that citizen initiatives lack the amount of deliberation and consideration that is said to accompany the traditional legislative process. Because they have committee hearings, legislators make better laws - or so the story goes.
Although it approved an initiative allowing voters to decide the fate of free parking at city-owned lots, the City Council is taking legal action to invalidate the measure. “The city will file a lawsuit within the next few days requesting that the court invalidate the measure and remove it from the March ballot,” City Attorney Larry Wiener told Patch, adding that he is “hopeful” the judge will side with the city.
A group of Napans aiming to give city residents the power to reject future housing developments in the city’s rural outskirts say they are a few hundred signatures away from qualifying their initiative for the ballot, but some people are questioning their methods. A handful of locals living near a bucolic area south of Imola Avenue between Foster Road and Golden Gate Drive filed the so-called “Right to Vote” initiative with the city in May.
After blogging yesterday about traffic enforcement cameras in Ohio, a reader pointed me to this excellent breakdown of red-light and speed camera votes around the country from TheNewspaper.com. According to the article, the cameras have never survived a public vote: they usually lose by margins of two-to-one.
Among the five additional communities to ban cameras is Houston, Texas - America’s fourth largest city: