Laguna Beach Police, Firefighters and Mayor Sue Kempf Among List of More Than 100 Laguna Beach Residents Opposing Controversial Ballot Measure
LAGUNA BEACH — Citizens for Laguna’s Future is the grassroots organization of Laguna Beach residents, small business owners, police, firefighters, and local leaders committed to defeating Measure Q on the November ballot. If approved, Measure Q would require a costly, citywide election for virtually any new public or private project, and Measure Q’s impact would cost taxpayers millions, cutting critical funding for police and fire, and stunting the financial viability of Laguna.
“Simply put, Measure Q won’t just block larger developments which no one wants,” said Sue Kempf, Mayor of Laguna Beach. “It would trigger a citywide election to approve a coffee shop, pizzeria, or South Laguna’s desperately needed new fire station. We’ve already been a low-and-slow growth town for decades and maintained a world-class, small-town charm. Measure Q aims to fix a problem that doesn’t exist and will likely kill many small businesses in the process.”
Measure Q qualified for the ballot via the citizens’ initiative process, meaning the City Council had to place the measure on the ballot exactly as written. As a result, the measure could open the City up to legal vulnerabilities. If the City were to be sued by deep-pocketed developers, Laguna Beach taxpayers would have to foot the bill.
“Measure Q would be detrimental to the City’s emergency preparedness,” said Tom Gibbs, Vice Chair of the Laguna Beach Emergency Disaster Preparedness Committee, “because there is no exemption for public projects, it would needlessly tie-up, delay, politicize and make far more expensive critical life safety infrastructure including the urgently needed South Laguna Fire Station 4, and its costs and lost revenues to the City would result in less funds for firefighters, police and disaster preparedness.”
Tom Padden, President of the Laguna Beach Firefighters Association said, “The Laguna Beach Firefighters Association adamantly opposes measure Q as it would hamper the ability to upgrade our city’s critical infrastructure including fire stations. Please join us in voting NO on Measure Q.”
“I strongly urge residents to vote NO on Measure Q. This initiative will have real negative consequences for our community if passed. Measure Q’s stated purpose is to regulate large new developments, but it goes far beyond this. It’s 18 pages of complex and in some cases ambiguous and inconsistent provisions will require City public safety projects and many small projects to go to a vote” said Mayor Pro-Tem Bob Whalen. “Measure Q is not the right approach for Laguna.”
For more information about the No on Q campaign, please visit www.CitizensforLagunasFuture.com.