Signatures

Once again, the Weldon Canyon Landfill proponents are attempting to stuff it down the throats of the local inhabitants. Signatures have been collected on a petition that would seek to bypass the Board of Supervisors. Even more disturbing is the manner in which these signatures are being obtained. Recently at K mart in Ventura, a solicitor asked me to sign a petition aiming to restrict donations to political candidates. Almost all people would endorse this measure. After I'd signed that petition, the clipboard was flipped over and I was asked to "sign this one too."

The group hoping to oust Mayor Judy Lazar received the go-ahead Tuesday to begin gathering recall signatures. Residents to Recall Fox and Lazar can now collect signatures to recall Lazar now that city officials have signed off on the organization's petition format. The group had already received approval from the city clerk's office to begin gathering signatures to recall Councilman Andy Fox. Three council members are facing recall in Thousand Oaks: Lazar, Fox and Councilwoman Elois Zeanah.

Campaigns to oust Mayor Charles V. Smith and Councilman Craig Schweisinger failed to gather enough signatures to qualify a recall measure for the ballot. The recall drives, which began last year during a controversy over water rates, originally targeted Smith, Schweisinger and Councilman Frank Fry, who all supported a 100% increase in the price of water.

Organizers of a statewide drive to prohibit gill-net fishing say they have collected more than half the 950,000 signatures needed to qualify the issue for the November, 1990, ballot. Proponents of the initiative to extend a ban on gill-net fishing to Southern California coastal waters said they have more than 500,000 signatures, and they predict that the rest will be gathered by May 6, the deadline to put the measure on the ballot.

A week before the final deadline to submit its petitions, a group formed to recall Mayor Judy Lazar and Councilman Andy Fox announced Thursday it was short of signatures and had decided to call it quits. Residents to Recall Fox and Lazar--which vowed to recall Lazar and Fox after a rival group decided to recall Councilwoman Elois Zeanah--would not be able to gather the 10,169 signatures needed to place a recall measure on the ballot, group spokeswoman Kitty Radler said.

A citizens group collected enough signatures to force a special election on nighttime curfews and a mandatory flight cap at the airport, the city clerk said Tuesday. Petitions submitted by the group, Restore Our Airport Rights, contain the signatures of 15% of the city's registered voters--the amount needed to call a special municipal election, Burbank City Clerk Judie Sarquiz said. Of more than 10,000 signatures submitted, 7,814 were verified, she said.

An Aegean Hills residents' group seeking to be annexed to the neighboring Mission Viejo Community Services District has gathered 532 signatures favoring the plan, 179 more than needed to force a public hearing, a spokesman said Monday.

Slow-growth advocates in Moorpark this week took another step in their drive to overturn City Council approval of a massive housing project in this semi-rural but rapidly expanding town. After a month of going door to door, the Moorpark Committee for Managed Growth has succeeded in collecting 1,199 signatures on petitions opposing the 2,500-unit Mountain Meadows project.

A citizens' group seeking the ouster of three Laguna Beach Unified School District trustees has gathered more than enough signatures to force a recall election, a spokeswoman for the Orange County registrar of voters said Tuesday. School Supt. Dennis Smith said the board will vote May 26 to set a special election between Aug. 22 and Sept. 28.

Moorpark may wind up being the only city affected by a lawsuit seeking to keep Ventura County's Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources initiative off the November ballot due to a dispute over signatures.