Put the Fair District decision to the voters

The people have spoken, the judge has spoken, and now it is time for

the city to listen.

In August, when the City Council delayed a vote on the

controversial Fair District Initiative Measure until March 2004,

supporters of the plan were outraged.

A whopping 22,000 signatures had been collected -- far more than

the 16,000 required to place an initiative on the ballot. Many

thought the delay was a miscarriage of justice, a ploy by council

members to save their own hides. One resident unsuccessfully sued the

city claiming just that.

But the city didn’t stop with that victory. The council, certain

that the measure violated some rules, filed a lawsuit of its own.

A Superior Court ruling several weeks ago found that the

initiative did not violate the single-subject rule as the city

claimed.

While the council did not listen to the people it represents, it

did listen to the courts and voted last week to let the ruling stand.

The council did the right thing.

Regardless of where anyone stands on the issue, 22,000 signatures

say it should be on the ballot.

While council members may be looking out for what is best for the

city and its residents, they must listen to the residents. They must

trust the people of Huntington Beach to decide democratically how the

city is to be run.

Too often, it seems, residents complain that they are being

ignored by a council that seems to think it knows best.

Council members delayed the vote, they said, because voters

already had enough on their plates in voting for four new council

members. While a judge ruled the council was well within its right to

delay the vote, it was once again, by its members own testimony,

overruling 22,000 Surf City resident’s judgment.

Whether voters pass the initiative does not matter, as long as

they have the opportunity to decide for themselves.