COM 1056.001 2006-2008 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Petition Initiative and Referendum: Reasons for the Dispute Resolution Panel and Other Guidelines Steps of the Petition Initiative Process: • The Petition Initiative and Referendum process is used after attempts to introduce legislation though the Council or Mayor are unsuccessful. • The goal of a Petition Initiative or Referendum drive is to get the issue on the ballot to let citizens decide. The ballot language should be easy to read, unbiased and objective as possible. The existing charter does not say who is responsible for the ballot language, ballot summary or ballot title. In the past, the County has controlled the process for the ballot language, the ballot title and the ballot summary, because they submit the wording to the Elections Commission and there is not time to dispute the language before the ballot deadline. • The Dispute Resolution Panel would be formed to equalize the process between the county and a Petitioner's committee by resolving disputes quickly. The formation of the Dispute Resolution panel occurs early in the process so that panel members can stay informed to resolve issues quickly. We provided that the 5th member be chosen by the other two panelists so they could decide what type of expertise is most necessary for the fifth member. We felt it was important to leave this decision to the wisdom of the other four panelists. If the panel fails to choose a fifth member the panel can still make decisions. For example, in the future, computers may be used to collect and there may be disputes over the process regarding those issues, in this case, the most valuable fifth panelist could be a computer expert. • The Dispute Resolution panel provides a mechanism for the two sides to seek solutions together. The Dispute Resolution Panel could be used for any contested issue during the process. The following information is included to illustrate the need for the dispute resolution panel, more guidelines and the reorganization of the Article chronologically. The Save Our Lands Citizens Committee Coordinator describes the issues below. The League of Women Voters was not a sponsor or the 2% campaign and had no official position on this issue. 1- The goal of a petition initiative or referendum drive is to get the issue on the ballot to let citizens decide. In the existing charter article, if the county and citizens groups disagree, the only recourse available to the petitioners committee is to go to court. The Save Our Lands Citizens Committee consulted an ex-corporation counsel attorney. He said by the time he prepared the case and got the matter scheduled on the docket, we would have missed the ballot deadline in early September. 2- We submitted the petition forms to the County Clerk, the Elections Commissioner and Corporation counsel. We received the forms back with no comment and assumed that they were according to the law. At the end of the process, we were given the County's version of the ballot language. The County had interpreted our decision not to include 214-2-d, (the "purpose" clause) of the Open Space ordinance, as a deliberate deletion of that part of the ordinance. By removing this clause, 2% of the tax money could have been used for any purpose.