Brown: No new flood tax election
By Rob Rogers
Marin Independent Journal
Article Launched:08/07/2007 05:06:47 PM PDT
Marin supervisors are moving ahead with a Ross Valley flood control
fee, despite expected legal challenges to a controversial mail-in vote
in which 21 percent of those voting were disqualified.
The county board backed a decision by Supervisor Hal Brown to let the
hotly-contested election stand, despite demands by critics that it be
declared invalid and a new vote held.
"I suggest that we absolutely stay the course," said Brown, who has
championed the flood control program. "I don't want us to look back 10
years from now and say that we missed out on a great opportunity there."
The flood fee won by 65 votes, but if ballots that were disqualified
because voters failed to sign them were counted, the fee would have
been rejected by 147 votes. The measure would cost the average taxpayer
in Fairfax, Greenbrae, Kentfield, Larkspur, Ross and San Anselmo $125 a
year.
San Anselmo attorney Ford Greene, who paid for a recount of the
disqualified ballots, said he was not surprised by Brown's decision,
and that he planned to file suit against the county Wednesday or
Thursday.
"The suit will argue that the county failed to provide instructions
warning voters that failing to sign their ballot would invalidate their
vote É and that if the measure passed, and a person failed
to pay the tax, the county could place a lien against their property,"
Greene said. "A consumer is entitled to more notice when buying a car
than was provided by the county on this flood fee vote."
In addition, members of the Marin United Taxpayers Association said
they were consulting with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, and
would decide whether to file a suit of their own by Thursday.
"The voters were denied a secret ballot," said Basia Crane, a Kentfield
resident and member of the organization. "The way in which they
designed the ballot was not clear."
Brown, noting controversy about the election, said last week that
supervisors could scuttle the flood control ordinance it passed on July
17.
On Tuesday, about a dozen Ross Valley residents urged him not to do so.
"We could do the election over, which would not solve the problem,"
said San Anselmo resident Jack Olive. "We could change it to a regular
tax election, which wouldn't solve the problem either. Or we could go
ahead, follow the good work that's been done so far, and proceed with a
serious flood mitigation program.
"Everyone's property values are going to be improved by this program,
so let's get on with it," Olive said.
Many Ross Valley residents and other critics have argued that a
requirement to sign the election ballot itself may have confused some
voters, causing 1,678 - or more than 21 percent - of the 8,059 ballots
cast in the election to be discounted because they were not signed.
"There has been a lot of controversy, with people suggesting that the
20 percent of people who did not sign were disenfranchised because
their votes were not counted," Brown said. "But 80 percent got it
right."
Several Ross Valley residents agreed.
"We need a remedial program of literacy in Marin County," said
Greenbrae resident Brian Patrick Cahill. "If you can't read and you
don't understand the issues, then you shouldn't vote."
However, Louise Mathews of San Anselmo, a critic of the election,
argued that many residents never received the ballots needed to vote.
In addition, she said, apartment dwellers whose rents will be raised as
a result of the flood tax should have been allowed to participate in
the election.
"Fix this flood vote. Make it decent. Or out you go!" Mathews told
Supervisor Brown.
Kyle Keilman, whose Terra Linda home is far outside the Ross Valley,
argued that the controversy surrounding the election should invalidate
its results.
"This project feels like Florida in 2000," said Keilman, a former
mayoral candidate in San Rafael. "It feels like somebody tried to pull
a fast one on the voters. On behalf of all who are affected by this,
you should start fresh."
Brown argued that the county had undertaken an extraordinary effort to
alert Ross Valley residents to the election, with mailings, newspaper
ads and community meetings.
Many of the residents attending the supervisors' meeting Tuesday
agreed, saying that something needed to be done to protect the Corte
Madera Creek basin, which has flooded 14 times in 50 years.
"We can't make the problem go away completely, but maybe we can make it
so that instead of 40 percent of the town being flooded, only 10
percent would," said Larkspur resident Gary Schaeffer. "I voted
legally. I support the vote. And I say we move forward."
Although the board took no formal vote on the issue, both Supervisors
Susan Adams and Charles McGlashan backed Brown's decision not to
revisit the flood tax vote.
"Low-lying areas must work together to finance mitigation," Adams said.
San Anselmo Town Councilwoman Barbara Thornton agreed.
"We need to move forward, so that the work that is so important can be
done," Thornton said.
Contact Rob Rogers via e-mail at rrogers@marinij.com
|