La Jolla’s push to secede from the city of San Diego can continue, after the successful appeal of a San Diego County decision to reject some signatures on petitions backing the effort.
The Local Agency Formation Commission, according to San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, overturned the county Registrar of Voters’ Certification of Insufficiency of the secession petition.
LAFCO, he said, accepted appeals on more than 240 signatures despite their “not meeting the Registrar’s clear signature-validation standards.” That number is key, because according to an April 16 count from the Registrar’s office, the La Jolla effort had fallen 218 signatures short of the 6,750 that were needed.
Gloria, in a statement, called LAFCO’s decision “outrageous.” The city, he said, will “issue a formal Letter of Objection and continue to explore the legal options available.
“The city sat in on the proponents’ appeal of their signature submissions and has serious concerns about the exceptionally broad interpretations made by LAFCO staff to overrule the ROV on hundreds of signatures,” he said.
He went on to explain why the city formally objected to many of the staff’s interpretations, including, he said, accepting names that did not match registered voter data, or included incorrect addresses and ZIP codes or incomplete addresses. Some, he described as “illegible submissions already rejected by the Registrar.”
Proponents want to pull the 8,371 acres that make up well-to-do La Jolla from San Diego and allow the coastal community to incorporate as its own city. They seek greater control over their local issues and desire a stronger voice at the state level.
LAFCO received notice that supporters would circulate petitions to separate from San Diego almost a year ago. The commission expected a draft fiscal impact analysis report from the proponents, the Association for the City of La Jolla, addressing whether La Jolla could obtain cityhood and be economically sustainable on its own.
As far as the petition, proponents met a December deadline to collect and submit signatures from 25% of registered voters. But in March, the Registrar announced that the association had collected 5,723 valid signatures, short of the required 6,750.
Supporters were granted 15 more days to make up the difference, a period that concluded April 1.
A new review began the next day, this time of 1,514 new submitted signatures. According to an April 16 letter from the Registrar to LAFCO, 6,532 signatures were verified as valid between the first and second submissions from proponents – still leaving the effort shy of the necessary 6,750.
In total, the Register recorded 9,309 signatures, 2,777 of which were “found not be valid.”
Ultimately, for La Jollans to successfully leave San Diego’s jurisdiction, they must persuade the rest of the city. The issue must be presented to voters and they need approval from both their own community and those throughout the city to secede.
According to the April figures from the county, the city of San Diego has 846,503 registered voters.
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