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Petition awaits judge's ruling
MEASURE: The act would keep the city of San Bernardino from running day-laborer centers.


10:00 PM PDT on Friday, June 23, 2006
By CHRIS RICHARD
The Press-Enterprise

A judge will decide Monday whether backers of a controversial San Bernardino city immigration initiative gathered enough petition signatures to qualify the measure for a public vote.

In making his ruling, San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge A. Rex Victor must determine whether the benchmark for the needed number of signatures should be a 2001 mayoral election with a low turnout, or a heated February race that drew twice as many voters.

At issue is local resident Joseph Turner's City of San Bernardino Illegal Immigration Relief Act, which would prohibit the city from operating day-laborer centers, require private centers to ensure that day laborers are authorized to work in the United States, and empower police to seize the vehicles of anyone soliciting undocumented immigrants for day labor.

The measure, the first of its kind in the country, has attracted widespread publicity. Some local leaders, including San Bernardino Mayor Pat Morris, have denounced it as racist and unconstitutional.

At a hearing Friday, Bradley Hertz, an attorney for initiative opponent Florentino Garza, said City Clerk Rachel Clark should have told Turner the required number of signatures might change after the February race.

But ultimately, Hertz said, Turner made the legal challenge possible himself.

"Everyone knew there was going to be a ... runoff," Hertz said. "All he had to do was turn in the signatures prior to that election."

City Attorney Jim Penman said Clark applied methodical procedures, similar to the steps followed by other elections officials throughout the state, in telling Turner how many signatures he needed to get his measure on the ballot.

"If (Garza's) argument is correct, it will be impossible for the city of San Bernardino to have petitions circulated and collected," Penman said.

Turner started collecting San Bernardino voters' signatures in November. Citing San Bernardino's charter, Clark said Turner had to submit petitions signed by city voters equaling 30 percent of the total ballots cast the last time San Bernardino elected a mayor.

At the time, San Bernardino's last mayoral election was in 2001, when former Mayor Judith Valles ran unopposed. Some 7,385 people cast ballots.

In April, Turner submitted petitions with 3,124 names, and the county registrar of voters stopped counting at 2,217 verified signatures -- one more than the minimum required to meet Clark's standard.

But earlier this month, as City Council members prepared to set an election date, Garza's attorneys threatened to file suit. They said the correct standard should have been the February election that was held while Turner was circulating his petitions. In response, Penman requested the legal ruling that Victor is expected to deliver Monday.

After Friday's hearing, both sides said they thought they'd made the stronger case.

Turner said Penman had "taken some hotshot lawyers to school" with a basic lesson in electoral law and common sense. Garza noted that the judge pressed attorneys on both sides on whether Clark could have set her own cut-off date, setting the lower standard before the February election and the higher standard after it.

The proceedings in Victor's courts were well-mannered, with activists on both sides of the issue listening quietly. But they clashed in a hallway outside the courtroom.

First, Turner shouldered his way through a news conference by Armando Navarro, a UCR professor and coordinator of the National Alliance for Human Rights. He stopped a few feet away to field questions of his own.

Navarro shouted at Turner, calling him a racist. Turner said Navarro seemed nervous about the outcome of the case. Activists on both sides jostled one another.

After a few minutes, sheriff's deputies charged with courthouse security cleared the hallway.

Reach Chris Richard at 909-806-3076 or crichard@PE.com