BY SARAH ROSS

SALEM- In a decision released Tuesday morning, Marion County Circuit Court Judge Mary James denied a motion to allow Petition 50 signatures rejected by the Secretary of State’s Election Division to be reconsidered.

“The failure to demonstrate likelihood of success on the merits requires denial of petitioners’ motion,” wrote James in her opinion letter.

In a hearing Monday, the judge heard arguments from the Secretary of State’s Office saying that even if all of the 12,974 signatures thrown out were reinstated, that still did not give the petitioners enough signatures to be approved for November’s statewide election.

James noted that history demonstrated that “as valuable as Oregon’s electors’ constitutional right to sign initiative petitions is, a right that Oregon courts respect, it is a right that is subject to the responsible regulation by another constitutional officer, the Secretary of State.”

“The Court is mindful of the perception that denying petitioners’ relief may be viewed by some as muffling the voice of otherwise well-intentioned electors who signed these petitions,” said James. But she added, “That discomfort does not relieve the Secretary of State, or the court for that matter, from the responsibility to apply the proper standard of review.”

Initiative Petition 50, also commonly referred to as the redistricting petition, would have put the state’s redistricting process in the hands of a panel of retired judges, if passed in November’s election.

As it stands, that process lies with the Oregon Legislature after the completion of the U.S. Census. If the Legislature is unable to accomplish this task, as it has since 1961, then it becomes the responsibility of the Secretary of State.

Sponsors of the petition had collected and turned in 114,000 signatures to the Secretary of State’s Office, 79% of which were verified. The remainder was thrown out, putting the total count of signatures at just under 92,000. To make it onto the statewide November ballot, an initiative petition needed to have at least 110,358 verifiable signatures.

Spokesman for the Secretary of State’s Office Don Hamilton responded to the outcome, saying that even if all of the signatures were added, they still wouldn’t qualify.

“They were unable to prove that those signatures were critical to qualifying for the ballot,” said Hamilton. “And the judge also said that they were unable to prove that there was any irreparable harm.”

Hamilton also added that lawsuits are not at all uncommon during petition season.

“I don’t think it unusual considering the timing of all of this. There’s been a decision that’s been made and the court is a remedy that they have,” he said.

Ross Day, Executive Director of Common Sense for Oregon, the group that led the effort on gathering signatures, said he was not happy with the judge’s ruling.

“We spent a lot of time and effort trying to get the measure to qualify, and to have a set of signatures thrown out really for no reason, other than the arbitrary decision of the Secretary of State, doesn’t make me too happy,” said Day.

He added that there is without question a problem with the verification process.

“We had 13,000 signatures thrown out, and we still don’t really know why they were thrown out,” he said. “We had rules that were enforced that we had no idea were even in existence until they applied them this time around.”

Day noted that while the group is looking at all of their options for further legal action, he wasn’t sure if they’d move forward on an appeal.

“At some point, we need to focus on the task at hand, which is hopefully changing the way that redistricting occurs so that the politics are taken out of the process,” he finished, adding that this could include trying for something in the next cycle or preparing something for 2021.

Secretary of State Brown has until August 1 to verify and finalize signature counts in preparation for November.

BY SARAH ROSS

NEWBERG- A lawsuit filed against the City of Newberg over an initiative petition ended at the Yamhill County Circuit Court on Tuesday, requiring the City to approve the petition which they have rejected numerous times.

Hank Grum joined forces with Common Sense for Oregon, a conservative advocacy group, to file suit against the city after five similar initiative petitions were rejected by Dawn Wilson, the Elections Officer for Newberg.

Grum’s last petition, called the “Tax and Fee Responsibility Amendment,” would have put on the ballot an initiative requiring the City to put all proposed increases on taxes, fees, or other charges to be brought up for approval by Newberg voters.

Wilson turned down the petitions, saying they did not meet the Oregon Constitution’s one subject rule, which mandates that all petition initiatives revolve around a single subject.

As ruled by the Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Easterday, Grum’s petition did discuss a single topic, “the mechanism for increases in taxes, fees, or any other charges adopted by the council.”

“They are all actions by the city to generate revenue,” wrote Easterday in Tuesday’s opinion letter.

The final issue with Grum’s petition was whether or not the proposed initiative was legislative or administrative in nature, affecting whether it was the type of proposal that should be brought to the voters.

Easterday decided that because the petition was intended to change the legal framework of whether the City Council could impose taxes and fees, rather than how the fees and taxes are carried out, it is indeed legislative.

She went on to add, “The fact that the conduct of the City government may be seriously hampered if the petition went forward by changing the process in which taxes, fees or any other charges could be increased is not an issue that the court may consider in its analysis as to whether or not the petition is legislative or administrative.”

Ross Day, Executive Director of Common Sense for Oregon and the attorney that represented Grum, said he was not surprised by the ruling, saying, “The law is pretty clearly on our side.”

Day added he wasn’t sure why the City took the position that it did, but he thinks “this will end up being an expensive lesson for the citizens of Newberg.”

“This case is important because it guarantees that the city charter is the people’s city charter,” said Day. “Otherwise, had the City prevailed, citizens of Oregon would have been severely restricted on their ability to amend their own city, and probably even county, charters.”

Newberg’s City Attorney Terrence Mahr was not able to be reached for comment.

However, Tom Sponsler, the attorney representing the City of Newberg, said he was disappointed with the ruling because he thought the “eloquence would carry the day but apparently didn’t.”