Home Ranch signatures to arrive today

Lolita Harper

COSTA MESA -- With an unclear deadline to turn in referendum

signatures looming, opponents of the Home Ranch project have decided to

play it safe and hand over what they have today.

Resident Cindy Brenneman, who is leading the charge to gather

signatures in an effort to put the Home Ranch project to a citywide vote,

said she will turn in the petitions by 4 p.m. today. Brenneman would not

disclose the number of signatures gathered.

“We’re close. It’s going to be close,” she said.

Brenneman, a member of Costa Mesa Citizens for Responsible Growth,

said she would feel more comfortable if she had a reliable answer to when

the signatures were due. Members of the anti-Home Ranch group said they

cannot get a clear answer to whether the 30-day time period includes Nov.

19 -- when the City Council approved the project -- or if they should

start counting the day after.

City Atty. Jerry Scheer has suggested the group assume either today or

Thursday is the deadline for the signatures.

To get a measure on the ballot, Brenneman and her group must turn in

the signatures to the city, which will then hand them over to the Orange

County registrar of voters for an official tally of qualifying

signatures.

Signatures must be from 10% of Costa Mesa’s registered voters. If

there are enough, the item can be put on the ballot for voters to decide

and possibly overturn the council’s Home Ranch project approval.

Members of the opposition said they asked representatives from the

registrar’s office and the city for a specific deadline.

Terry Niccum, a public information officer for the Orange County

registrar of voters, said it is the city’s responsibility to determine

when the petitions should be turned in.

“We verify the signatures, but they set the deadline,” Niccum said.

City Manager Allan Roeder said the city clerk’s office has no state or

municipal code that designates it as the party responsible for

establishing the deadline.

Frustrated by the lack of a clear answer, Brenneman and Paul Flanagan,

the president of the group, addressed the City Council on Monday, asking

for a definitive answer on the deadline.

“Can someone please tell us we’re safe if we get it in by a certain

date?” Brenneman asked Monday.

“You are not safe by taking my advice,” Scheer said, explaining that

advice from the city attorney in cases regarding referendums carry no

weight in court. “The last thing we want to do is lead someone

unwittingly down the wrong path.”

Scheer said the 30 days generally starts the day after action is

taken. In this case, the council voted to approve Home Ranch on Nov. 19,

so the first day would be Nov. 20, Scheer said.

“But you just told me I can’t trust you, so is that true?” Brenneman

responded.

Roeder confirmed Tuesday that Scheer’s official advice was to turn in

the petitions today.

He also said the city attorney’s office warned a possible legal

challenge could get more complicated because of the rehearing request

filed by the local labor union, which was not denied until Dec. 3.

It is an open legal question whether the council’s denial of the

rehearing request constitutes the final action on the issue and thus

extends the deadline, officials said.

But Brenneman said they would not take any unnecessary chances. The

last thing the group needs is for all the signatures to be thrown out

because they were too late, she said.

“We’ll be out there until the last possible minute,” Brenneman said.

“Whatever happens, we feel in our hearts that we were doing it for the

right reasons.”

* Lolita Harper covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)

574-4275 or by e-mail at o7 lolita.harper@latimes.comf7 .