Judge orders changes
on wording for big-box
store ballot measure
By John Loesing
Acorn Staff Writer

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled last week that the impartial analysis of Agoura Hill’s anti-Home Depot referendum was biased and ordered city officials to delete a 19-word sentence in the voter guide that was described as "highly questionable and probably wrong."

The voter guide that went to press last week contains the pro and con arguments concerning the March 5 referendum and includes City Attorney Craig Steele’s impartial analysis of what the ballot measure means.

Judge David P. Yaffe took issue with a statement by Steele that said the Measure H prohibition on retail stores greater than 60,000 square feet would be ruled "invalid" and "preempted" by state law, and ordered the language be stricken from the voter materials sent in the mail.

Citizens for Responsible Growth (CRG), a group of Agoura Hills businesses campaigning in favor of Measure H said the city "got caught" in an attempt to sway voter opinion.

"There was a paragraph that was in there that was totally wrong and put in there to influence the voters’ minds," said Al Abrams, CRG director.

Yaffe agreed.

"The opinion by the city attorney is not impartial because it seeks to persuade voters to vote against Proposition H because a portion of it is invalid," the judge said in his ruling.

Yaffe said state law, contrary to Steele’s opinion, doesn’t prohibit a city’s ability to grant store-size variances.

Other charges of bias against the city were denied, however.

Steele said CRG objected to his statement that said the 60,000 square-foot limitation in Measure H would apply not just to big box retailers like Home Depot, but to whole groups of stores such as shopping centers.

Yaffe concurred with Steele’s analysis that "the purpose and likely effect of the measure would be to limit the type of retailers permitted in the city to those retailers able to operate in smaller stores."

Agoura Hills officials have long contended that Measure H hurts the city’s ability to attract retail development and new sales tax revenue.

Steele said it was his job to fairly discuss the ballot measure and denied any attempt to influence voter opinion.

"We complied with the what the judge asked us to do," Steele said. "I disagree with the judge respectfully on the one point he ruled against me on ... Ultimately I’ll probably get proved right somewhere along the way."

Agoura Hills City Councilman Don Kuperberg said the CRG also tried to delete language in the city’s Measure H opposition argument, but failed.

"They tried to make all these changes in the opposing arguments that they were false and misleading, and the judge ruled against them totally," Kuperberg said.