Local Ballot Measures

On Tuesday, Denver voters backed a controversial local initiative to require the police to seize the cars of unlicensed drivers; the measure was aimed at unauthorized immigrants. Voters also approved a measure to cut the city council out of the initiative process. Previously, the council had to place an initiative on the ballot after it received enough signatures; now the certification of signatures automatically triggers a ballot placement.

Wondering about the extraterrestrial commission initiative? That wasn't on Tuesday's local ballot.

Not exactly. But the city council in San Diego county municipality of Encinitas, a coastal beach town that grew up and grew rich without losing its essential strangeness, is considering a "sand tax." That is, a ballot measure, if approved in November, would allow for a 2 percent tax on vacation rentals in order to pay for more sand on the beach. A dirty secret of the California beach scene -- shhhh, don't tell too many of your East Coast friends -- is that very little of the sand upon which we play on volleyball in skimpy swimwear showing off our fabulous bodies is natural. Most places have all that beautiful sand trucked in. And the cost of sand, like the costs of raw materials everywhere, is headed up, up, up.

Last week, I hosted a panel in Los Angeles on the use of local land use ballot measures as tools of competition between businesses. Zocalo LA, the panel's sponsor, has now made available audio of the event here.

The panel included the consultants from either side of the Measure B fight in Thousand Oaks (Harvey Englander and Rob Stutzman), Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy co-founder and executive director Madeline Janis, and former Beverly Hills Mayor Steve Webb. And there was a bit of news: Englander, who also represents LAX-area hotels that have been the target of a union organizing effort and of an extension of the Los Angeles city "living wage" law, said his clients there had no plans to put the law -- which has survived court challenges -- to a referendum.

That means the "living wage" extension will take effect, more than a year after it was passed. The impact on workers is less clear. The hotels say that only a small number of their workers make less than minimum wage. Several hundred make minimum wage -- but receive far more when tips are counted. They could end up taking higher salaries but receiving less in tips. And, as with any change in wages, the higher pay might prompt hotel managers to hire or employ fewer  workers.

George Will has a pretty good column this week on how campaign finance laws have ensnared a half-dozen people attempting to fight a local ballot measure on annexation in Colorado.

The LA Times has a pretty good overview of local measures scheduled to be on Southern California ballots in June.

Here's the link to information on a Zocalo LA panel on local ballot measures and business that I'm moderating at the Autry Museum in Griffith Park at 7:30 p.m. on May 27.

Look for a lot of new local ballot measures challenging Wal-Mart expansions in Orange County, California. This story from the OC Register says that the company is planning expansion in the OC, adding groceries to existing discount stores. Grocers and the labor movement, small but growing behind the Orange Curtain, won't be happy, and here's betting they'll be urging city councils all over the county to enact laws to stop it. Wal-Mart has not hesitated to challenge such restrictive laws at the ballot. And labor has been happy to challenge Wal-Mart on the ballot. The winners? Political consultants, who should see a lot of new business. And they won't be spending the money they make at Wal-Mart.