Briefly in the news

A rebuttal to a ballot measure that would prohibit rent control in

Huntington Beach was filed Monday afternoon and will appear next to the

measure on the March ballot.

President of the Golden State Mobile Home Owner’s League, Inc., Steve

Gullage, turned in the rebuttal to the Huntington Beach City Clerk at

3:30 p.m. Monday.

“It’s notifying voters that the passage of the bill is going to open

doors to increased rents without any city recourse to protect renters,”

Gullage said.

The rebuttal comes after Gullage voiced his displeasure at a recent

City Council meeting regarding the circulators of the petition.

His argument concerns two sections of the petition in which it is

stated, “All signers and circulators of this petition must be registered

voters in the City of Huntington Beach.”

Gullage claims that 91 out of 100 petitions were circulated by

non-Huntington Beach residents, in direct contrast to what the petition

said.

“These people perjured themselves in two places,” Gullage said. “They

lied, stating they were registered voters.”

Gullage asked the City Attorney Gail Hutton to declare the petition

invalid, but she refused, issuing a statement to the City Clerk that

referenced the Supreme Court’s decision in Buckley vs. American

Constitutional Law Foundation.

In that 1999 decision, the Court ruled a Colorado statute

unconstitutional that required all circulators of a statewide petition to

be “registered electors” of the state.

California followed suit in 1999 when Secretary of State Bill Jones

and Attorney General Bill Lockyer issued letters to all statewide county

elections officials declaring that petition circulators need not be

registered voters, and instructed the officials to “cross out” any

statements on the petition relating to the circulator’s status as a

registered voter in a particular jurisdiction.

“We see no reason to disagree with the secretary of state and the

attorney general,” Hutton said in a statement.

She goes on to deny the argument that signers of the petition signed

“only” because they thought the circulators were city residents.

“It defies reason to believe that a voter would read the entire text

of the petition, and then sign it because the circulator was a city

resident, instead of signing it because the voter supported the petition

itself,” Hutton said in the statement.

Gullage agreed that the circulators residency or voting statusdid not

change the context of the petition, but was upset by what he alleges were

lies.

“It did change the atmosphere,” Gullage said.

Without sufficient time and funding to go to court, Gullage will now

concentrate his efforts in the coming months on getting renters on his

side to defeat the measure in the March elections.

He plans on educating renters by posting flyers and speaking to

different groups.

“We have to rally renters in Huntington Beach, or else they’re going

to be victimized,” Gullage said. “We don’t have the funds to do excessive

advertising, so we must do it through word of mouth, getting down in the

trenches.”

Gullage plans on trying to enlist help from the Department of Fair

Housing.

Members of the community watchdog group Huntington Beach Tomorrow,

including the group’s President Dave Sullivan, a former councilman and

Surf City Assemblyman Tom Harman, Mayor Pro Tem Debbie Cook and

Councilwoman Connie Boardman have voiced their support of Gullage’s

efforts.