Just wanted to clarify what exactly happenened here.
The City Clerk's office, gave us the rules and procedures with respect to the creation, circulation and qualification of this ballot initiative.
We were instructed, as it reads in the City Charter, to gather signatures totaling 30% of the total votes cast for mayor in the last preceding election in which a mayor was elected. We submitted our notice of intent to circulate in October of 2005 and placed our public notice on Nov. 3, 2005.
At that time, the last preceding election was in November 2001 when the Mayor ran unopposed. As a result of that turnout, we only were required to gather 2,216 signatures in 180 days.
We submitted over 3,100 signatures, well over the required number as prescribed by the City Clerk in April of 2006, about 2 months after an intervening mayoral election in February (which was a runoff from the November 8, 2005 vote where no candidate received 50% + 1).
This isnt a situation where we were unable to gather signatures. It is a situation of being told what the rules and processes were by the City Clerk, following those rules to the letter, and still being screwed over by the courts.
Essentially, the Judge interpreted the charter to mean that proponents never truly know how many signatures they need to qualify the initiative until they are ready to turn the signatures in for a vote.
For example, you could start circulating based on an election that was four years ago, have that number readjusted in the current election cycle and then have that number readjusted again if that candidate who was elected were to die before taking office and thus requiring an additional election to fill the vacancy.
I hope that helps to better clear up what is going on in San Bernardino.
Thank you for the reply. I certainly think you have reason to be upset over the judges ruling, however 3100 signatures (2,217 were certified but whatever) seems puny for a city population of 200,000 when an immigration crackdown is supposedly demanded by 70% of American voters.