SEAL BEACH : Agreement Reached on Ballot Wording

After a day of lengthy negotiations, three City Council members agreed Thursday to make minor changes in ballot arguments related to the controversial Hellman Ranch development to partially settle a lawsuit filed by the city clerk.

“Our objective is simply to dispose of this,” said Thomas J. Feeley, attorney for council members Marilyn Bruce Hastings, Gwen Forsythe and Frank Laszlo, who support Measure B-91, a ballot measure that would advise the council on what residents would like to see constructed on the Hellman Ranch property. But remaining in dispute are arguments filed by the council minority, Mayor Edna Wilson and Councilman Joe Hunt, who could not be reached by their attorney Thursday afternoon to approve suggested changes. Wilson and Hunt support Measure A-91, which would clear the way for Mola Development Corp. to proceed with its $200-million plan to build homes on the Hellman Ranch property.

City Clerk Joanne M. Yeo last week legally challenged arguments submitted by both sides on the two June ballot measures. Yeo said that some of the statements could be construed as misleading the public.

In addition, some of the arguments used names of individuals and corporations without their consent, which could have led to further litigation, according to Ivan Stevenson, Yeo’s attorney.

Attorneys for both sides said they have procedural and technical objections to their opponents’ actions, but Superior Court Judge Robert D. Monarch said it is important for both sides to reach a compromise.

“The only people who will ever make out if you don’t, and I don’t say this by way of criticism, are the attorneys,” Monarch said, noting the approaching April 12 printing deadline for ballot arguments.

In addition to the remaining points in Yeo’s petition, there is another legal challenge to ballot arguments filed by Hastings, Laszlo and Forsythe.

That suit, filed by Hunt and Wilson last Friday, disputes some statements in their proposed ballot arguments, including claims that Measure A-91 will “place housing on hazardous earthquake faults” and will “violate the city’s noise ordinance.”

The changes agreed to by Hastings, Forsythe and Laszlo primarily consisted of removing names from the arguments and word substitutions, such as changing will to could.