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http://www.latimes.com/news/printeditio ... california

From the Los Angeles Times
Vote Over Immigrant Issue Will Go to Judge
By Ashley Powers
Times Staff Writer

June 6, 2006

The San Bernardino City Council had been set to schedule an election date Monday for residents to vote on a measure that would bar illegal immigrants from renting in the city. Instead, council members voted to ask a judge to rule on the election's legality.

The vote is the latest turn in the controversy over the measure, which also would effectively ban day-labor centers; deny permits, contracts and grants to employers who hire illegal immigrants; and require city business to be conducted in English.

A divided City Council rejected the measure last month, setting the stage for a special election, which the seven-member council was to schedule at Monday's meeting.

Instead, prompted by a letter from Los Angeles attorney Dana W. Reed, the council voted in closed session to ask for a judge's decision on holding an election.

Reed, representing San Bernardino resident Florentino Garza, questioned the formula the city used to determine how many signatures were needed to put the measure on the ballot.

The attorney's argument centered on a section of the city charter that says residents can place an ordinance before the City Council, which if rejected goes to a citywide vote. The charter says the ordinance's author must gather enough signatures to equal 30% of voters "at the last preceding city election at which a mayor was elected."

The initiative petition qualified last month with 2,216 signatures, which is at least 30% of the number of voters who cast ballots in the 2001 mayoral race.

Reed, however, contends that the city should have used February's mayoral runoff as its base for determining how many signatures were needed. Doing so would have required Joseph Turner, an anti-illegal-immigrant activist and the measure's author, to gather 4,771 signatures, the lawyer wrote.

Fearing lawsuits from both sides, the council voted 5 to 1 to consult a judge, with Gordon McGinnis absent and Chas A. Kelley, one of the measure's most vocal backers, dissenting.