City Council Seeks Court Ruling on Initiative  

In tonight’s closed session, the Chula Vista City Council voted 4 to 0, with Councilmember Steve Castaneda not present, to authorize the filing of a legal action regarding the citizen initiative petition on allowable building height limitations.

The lawsuit will be brought by outside counsel James Lough on behalf of the Chula Vista City Council in San Diego County Superior Court, within the next seven days.

The issue raised by the lawuit will be a legal question of whether the proponents of the building height initiative properly published notice of the initiative prior to circulating the petition for voter signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot.

Lough told City Councilmembers that the question before the court will be, “Was it published properly? He added, “It’s a simple case as election cases go.”

The Chula Vista City Charter incorporates the provisions of the California  Elections Code as they relate to initiative powers.

California Elections Code section 9205 requires that the notice of intention and title and summary of a proposed initiative must be published in a newspaper of general circulation adjudicated as such in the City.

On October 6, 2006, the City Clerk’s Office received documentation from the proponents of the initiative that notice was published in La Prensa San Diego, a newspaper of general circulation, printed and published in the City of San Diego, County of San Diego.

The lawsuit will be brought in sufficient time to give the City Council direction on how to proceed prior to the June 2008 election, Mayor Cheryl Cox said on behalf of the Council.

June 2008 is the next general election in the City.