Marin IJ

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

 
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