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  1. #1
    Senior Member Skip's Avatar
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    POLL: SHOULD ESCONDIDO'S RENTAL ORD. PUBLIC VOTE : CLOSED



    Should Escondido's rental ordinance be put to a public vote?

    Yes (90 Votes, 85%)

    No (15 Votes, 14%)

    Not sure (1 Votes, 1%)

    http://www.nctimes.com/

    RELATED STORY

    http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/05 ... _14_07.txt

  2. #2
    Senior Member Skip's Avatar
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    Escondido council weighs idea of public vote for rental law

    By: PAUL EAKINS - Staff Writer

    ESCONDIDO -- After voters in a Dallas suburb overwhelmingly approved a law prohibiting landlords from renting to most illegal immigrants on Saturday, Escondido City Council members had mixed opinions Monday on whether a similar public vote here ever would be feasible.

    Local legal experts, on the other hand, agreed Monday that whether such a rental ordinance is passed by a public vote or by a city council, as was the case in Escondido last year, the law still could face court challenges by opponents who question the law's constitutionality.

    Voters in Farmers Branch, Texas, passed a law requiring landlords to check most tenants' immigration status before renting to them, making it the city the first to do so through a public referendum, according to the Associated Press. The law was approved by a vote of 68 percent to 32 percent in final, unofficial returns, the Associated Press reported.


    The Escondido City Council in October approved a similar law in a 3-2 vote that fined landlords for renting to illegal immigrants, as have other cities across the nation. However, the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups challenged the Escondido law in court, a federal judge temporarily blocked the ordinance, and the council eventually abandoned it in the face of a potentially costly legal battle.

    Councilman Ed Gallo said Monday that having a public vote on a rental ordinance would make it "absolutely more acceptable and probably more defensible because this is what the public wants, not what the politicians want."

    Gallo has said he would like to rewrite the city's rental ordinance to make it more legally defensible and then bring it back to the council. But he said Monday a public vote might be a better way to go.

    "It kind of makes you wonder if that's where we should have started," Gallo said.

    However, Councilwoman Marie Waldron, who instigated the city's rental ordinance last year and also has said she wants to revisit it, said a public vote wouldn't be necessary.

    "We're dealing with legal and illegal issues," Waldron said, adding the city wouldn't ask the public to vote on whether "it's acceptable to run a red light."

    Mayor Lori Holt Pfeiler, who was one of two council members to vote against Escondido's rental law last year, said Monday she wouldn't support a public vote on a similar law because immigration remains a federal issue that the federal government must resolve.

    "City governments are not going to be able to solve this problem," Pfeiler said.

    Gallo and Waldron said that if Escondido were to have a public vote on a rental ordinance, the law probably would be approved, based on the number of e-mails they had received in support of last year's ordinance.

    David Blair-Loy, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial Counties, which had challenged Escondido's ordinance, said Monday that any law, regardless of how it is approved, can be challenged if its constitutionality is in question.

    "The constitutional standard is exactly the same whether it's adopted by city council or by popular referendum," Blair-Loy said. "If it's unconstitutional for the city council to do it, it's just as unconstitutional for the people to do it by referendum."

    Jan Joseph Bejar, an adjunct professor at the University of San Diego school of law and an immigration attorney, agreed.

    "The bottom line is that an ordinance is unconstitutional," he said. "It's irrelevant who passed it."

    Bejar said the situation would be similar to Proposition 187, a 1994 state law approved by California voters that was designed to deny illegal immigrants social services, health care and public education. That law's constitutionality was challenged in court, it was temporarily blocked by a judge, and the state eventually dropped its appeal of the case.

    On top of that, a bill making its way through the California Assembly would prohibit cities from creating laws that require landlords to check on their tenants' immigration status and would prohibit landlords from asking about their tenants' immigration status. That bill was created by Assemblyman Charles Calderon, D-Whittier, in response to Escondido's rental ordinance.

    Meanwhile, city leaders in Escondido and other communities that want to fight illegal immigration are keeping their eyes on the city of Hazleton, Pa., which has led the way nationwide in creating municipal immigration laws. Hazleton is in a legal battle over its new law that punishes landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and businesses that hire them.

    The outcome of that court case will determine Escondido's next step, Gallo said.

    "Everybody's waiting to see what happens on Hazleton," he said.

    -- Contact staff writer Paul Eakins at (760) 740-5420 or peakins@nctimes.com.

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    http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/05 ... _14_07.txt

  3. #3
    Senior Member CCUSA's Avatar
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    Should Escondido's rental ordinance be put to a public vote?

    Yes
    (94 Votes, 85%)

    No
    (16 Votes, 14%)

    Not sure
    (1 Votes, 1%)
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  4. #4
    MW
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    Should Escondido's rental ordinance be put to a public vote?
    Yes
    (112 Votes, 83%)
    No
    (22 Votes, 16%)
    Not sure
    (1 Votes, 1%)


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