Californians for Property Rights

PRESS RELEASE
March 28th, 2005

Citizens for Responsible Open Space and Californians for Property Rights filed a Validation Action Lawsuit against SMC LAFCo, County of San Mateo, with Midpeninsula Regional Open Space Disctrict as an Interested Party, on November 5, 2004 and are scheduled to appear in court on March 29, 2005 at 9:00 AM, in Redwood City, CA.

The central issue in this lawsuit is over The Right To Vote on the annexation by MROSD by the registered voters in the proposed Coastal Annexation Area. Over 5500 petitions were submitted by CROS/CPR, and of those 1757 were invalidated by SMC Elections Office. SMC Presiding Judge, Mark Forcum, said it raised a red flag when 34% of all protest petitions were invalidated.

SMC LAFCO as the responsible government agency, made several errors:

• A flawed public notification that did not comply with the law

• Flawed instruction to, and monitoring of, the SMC Elections Office resulting in the invalidation of over 1700 petitions.

• Violated the law by permitting MROSD (the applicant) to be the lead agency in the certification of their EIR.

• SMC Elections Office, as an agent of SMC LAFCO, to this day does not have a written standard by which to count a “protest ballot”

In Summary, SMC LAFCO, MROSD and the County of San Mateo did everything they could to deny the people that live in the proposed annexation area from exercising their constitutional right to vote in a critical issue that will affect their lives in perpetuity.

Citizens for Responsible Open Space—see www.voteforthecoast.org

Californians for Property Rights—see www.c4pr.org
Box 282
Moss Beach, Ca 94038

Attorney for Plaintiffs—Mark C. Watson, 650-692-4001, Fax 650-692-4004