Justice Delayed
is Justice Denied
Over 20,000 citizens
of Chula Vista have signed petitions to put on the ballot the Elected City Attorney charter
change and/or the General Plan Protection
Initiative which would maintain the historical heights on Third Ave. and
give the citizens the right to vote on any exceptions to the height limits in
the General Plan Update. The citizens want to participate more actively in
their government. Unfortunately the people in power are
intent upon twarting this.
On January 15, 2008 the city clerk
verified that the City Attorney Initiative had qualified for the ballot video 
. She read
the agenda statement. (The entire discussion is on streaming video
at this site. Click on 8 in the Agenda to the right in order to go directly
to this item.)
Councilmen Rudy Ramirez and Steve
Castaneda tried to get this on the June ballot as the signers of the petition
wanted and the agenda stated. The Mayor and Councilmen McCann and Rindone
refused to listen. Did they decide this together before the meeting in
violation of the Brown Act? As soon as the two speakers finished video Mayor Cox (video) immediately proposed
changing the wording to November. Video of part of discussion.
She gave the reason that more people would vote in the presidential election
than in the June election. She said she wanted people to have more time to discuss
this issue. This issue has already been discussed for over a year as the
petitions were circulated twice. Read
a letter by Norma Cazares.
The General Plan Protection Initiative
has also qualified
again for the ballot and will be on the City Council Agenda January 22, 2008.
Item 7 on the agenda deals with this Initiative and again proponents will ask
for it to be put on the next election ballot in June. Will the Council again
delay the people's will and vote to move the election to November?Channel 10 video
It turns out that since this is not a
charter amendment they had to put it on the ballot in June, but many
councilmembers expressed qualms about the initiative. Click
here to go to council video, click on agenda item 7 to see this item.
On February 5 during mayor and council
comments the mayor and Councilman Rindone made it clear that the council would
be putting their own initiative on the ballot in opposition to this initiative.
The Mayor also somehow got the idea to make Third Avenue a model of green
building, which seems quite irrelevant, and in my opinion is an idea that should
be implemented city wide. She also asked the city Manager to find someone to do
an independent financial analysis of the Initiative, which considering the
city's financial situation seems rather irresponsible. Click
here to read the transcribed comments.
Unfortunately this
way of thinking is not only prevalent with the Chula Vista City Council but
also with the three school districts governing the schools in south San Diego,
Chula Vista and National City. Sweetwater Union High School District
(SUHSD), Chula Vista Elementary School District (CVESD) and the County Board of
Education rejected an attempt to allow residents to vote on how school
board members should be elected. An editor of the Union Tribune, Don
Sevrens, explains what happened quite well in this editorial, which appeared in
the Union Tribune on Saturday January 19, 2008.
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U-T EDITORIAL: SOUTH EDITION At
issue was a proposal to change the way school board elections are held in the
two districts. Currently, candidates must run for a specific seat number,
which has no relationship to anything. Under
the proposed change, candidates would run for a seat representing a specific
neighborhood, a portion of the district, but would be voted upon districtwide.
The
change was proposed to encourage geographic diversity. Each neighborhood
would be guaranteed a representative on the board. Chula Vista Elementary is
the largest elementary district in the state yet all five trustees live in
the same Bonita neighborhood. Sweetwater's situation is similar. Change
proponents presented petitions asking the county board to put the issue on
the November ballot. There are three ways to qualify such measures for the
ballot, and this proposal met all conditions for doing so at the discretion
of the county board. Instead,
school district attorneys Bonifacio Garcia and Jack Parham, who don't even
live in the San Diego region, threatened legal action against the county.
Even if Garcia and Parham acted pro bono, the implication was clear: Taxpayer
resources could be used to keep taxpayers from having a voice. County
trustee Susan Hartley voted against the proposal, finding fault with
neighborhood maps attached to the petitions (a non-issue since the county
would be tasked with drawing the actual maps). The number of petitions
submitted met the standard for this option, yet board President Robert
Watkins voted against, saying he preferred signatures of 10 percent of the
registered voters. (What, to make the process even more costly?) There
are a number of ways to conduct school board elections. Most common is the
open election, with say the top two vote-getters of seven candidates elected.
This can pit incumbent against incumbent, something that never happens in the
imaginary seat-number system used by Sweetwater and Chula Vista. San Diego
Unified has a primary to select the top two vote-getters in a neighborhood.
They run system-wide in the general. County
trustee Nick Aguilar, who voted for the proposed change, said there was no
compelling reason not to put it on the November ballot. He called the
rejection “abhorrent” and “undemocratic.” Fitting
adjectives, those. And why are two school districts so afraid of allowing the
public to speak? We
hope the proponents don't give up. If they recirculate new petitions without
maps, trustee Hartley, if she is a person of her word, would be honor bound
to vote for the proposal. Obtain signatures of 10 percent of the registered
voters and forget about trustee Watkins – he will simply be an irrelevant
obstacle to the democratic process. This
issue is really about community empowerment. Sadly, neither South Bay
jurisdiction has it. Would
it be acceptable for all five county supervisors to reside in Rancho Santa
Fe? Or for eight La Jolla residents to comprise the San Diego City Council?
Hardly. Neither should geographic isolation be acceptable in the Sweetwater
and Chula Vista districts. |
The people who circulated the petitions want
to try again, but they only have one week to collect a thousand signatures on
each of two petitions to get it on the November ballot. This petition is for the SUHSD and this one is for the CVESD. This is a summary of the petitions. As Mr. Sevrens
says, "This issue is really about community empowerment." This is the
e-mail sent out by the supporters of the Initiative:
The Coronados <akcoronado@cox.net> wrote:
From: The Coronados <akcoronado@cox.net>
Subject: School Board Petitions: NEED NEW SIGNATURES!
Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2008 12:55:17 -0800
Hello everyone,
You may have heard by now that the Petitions
for Trustee Areas for
CVESD and SUHSD were rejected (board voted 3 against 2) by the County
Board of Education (Committee on School District Organization) at
their January 9, 2008 meeting. The main reason for the County
Committee's rejection was a legal technicality regarding the proposed
maps for the proposed trustee areas (the petitions had sample maps
attached that were never intended to be the official maps for use by
the County Office of Education, but this created confusion for some
members of the County Committee). HOWEVER, this is NOT THE END of
our movement!
WE CAN TRY AGAIN WITH YOUR HELP! WE HAVE ONE WEEK TO COLLECT A NEW
SET OF SIGNATURES!
ATTACHED HERE are the NEW petitions (one for each school district)
with NO proposed maps. The Office of the County Superintendent of
Schools will be responsible for creating the official maps of the
trustee areas (if South County voters approve the establishment of
such trustee areas at an election).
We are running out of time to get this onto the November 2008 general
election ballot!
IF YOU WANT TO SEE THIS ISSUE PLACED ON THE BALLOT, PLEASE PRINT THE
ATTACHED PETITIONS AND COLLECT AT LEAST 10 OR MORE SIGNATURES FOR
EACH PETITION FROM YOUR NEIGHBORS, FRIENDS, RELATIVES, PEOPLE OUTSIDE
GROCERY STORES AND RESTAURANTS, AT YOUR CHARGER FOOTBALL PARTY THIS
WEEKEND, ETC...MAKE SURE SIGNERS ARE REGISTERED VOTERS LIVING WITHIN
THE CHULA VISTA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DISTRICT AND THE SWEETWATER UNION
HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT!
THIS IS OUR LAST CHANCE TO TRY TO SEE THESE PROPOSALS PLACED ON THE
BALLOT THIS ELECTION YEAR! THIS CANNOT HAPPEN WITHOUT EACH ONE OF
YOU (PLUS A FEW OF YOUR FRIENDS) PRINTING AND SIGNING THE ATTACHED
PETITIONS!
We need to collect at least 1,000 signatures by Sunday, January
27th! This means WE NEED YOU to get at least 10 or more signatures
on EACH petition (separate petitions for the 2 school districts,
CVESD and SUHSD)!
Thank you for your interest in YOUR COMMUNITY! Just e-mail us when
you're finished collecting the signatures, and we can pick them up
from you or give you our address to drop them off.
E-mail us if you have any questions...leave your phone number if you
want us to call you! (See instructions below.)
Sincerely,
Alice Coronado
PETITION INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Print ALL THREE attachments: 1) Summary of Issue; 2) CVESD
Petition; 3) SUHSD Petition.
2. Each petition has space for only 5 signatures...please try to
complete AT LEAST 2 COPIES OF EACH PETITION (10 signatures for each
school district)...don't forget to complete and sign "Declaration of
Circulator" at bottom of each copy of the petition.
3. Please FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO ALL YOUR SOUTH COUNTY CONTACTS!
THANK YOU!