Martinez v. Superior Court

Opinion

RUBIN, Acting P. J.

In this writ petition, we are called upon to address whether the ballot title adopted by the Los Angeles City Council for Measure

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R, consisting in part of a proposed amendment to the city charter to be put before voters in the general election on November 7, 2006, complies with election law. As adopted by the city council, the ballot title to Measure R describes the charter amendment as follows:

“COUNCIL MEMBER TERM LIMITS OF THREE TERMS; CITY LOBBYING, CAMPAIGN FINANCE AND ETHICS LAWS. CHARTER AMENDMENT AND ORDINANCE PROPOSITION_.

“Shall the Charter be amended and ordinance adopted to: change Councilmember term limits to three terms; restrict lobbyists from making campaign contributions, gifts and becoming commissioners; revise lobbyist registration thresholds; require contractors certify compliance with lobbying laws; extend elected officials’ post-employment restrictions; require ethics training; and revise requirements for independent expenditure and campaign contributions?”

Under section 96 of the city’s Election Code, all of the quoted language above constitutes the “ballot title.” For ease of reference, we shall refer to the uppercase portion as the “heading” and the second, longer part as the “question.”

Real party in interest Dan Pasley, a registered Los Angeles voter, objected to the ballot title’s question. Pursuing his objection, he filed a petition for writ of mandate in which he asked the respondent court to order the Los Angeles City Clerk to amend the question to read, in relevant part: “Shall the Charter be amended and ordinance adopted to: lengthen Councilmember term limits to three terms . . . .”

On September 1, 2006 (corrected on September 6, 2006), the respondent court issued a writ of mandate granting Pasley broader relief than he had sought. The court directed the Los Angeles City Clerk to amend both the ballot title’s heading and question as follows:

“LENGTHENING COUNCILMEMBER TERM LIMITS; CITY LOBBYING, CAMPAIGN FINANCE, AND ETHICS LAWS. CHARTER AMENDMENT AND ORDINANCE PROPOSITION_

“Shall the Charter be amended and ordinance adopted to: lengthen Councilmember term limits to three terms . . . ?”