The Lane County Board of Commissioners wants more authority to challenge proposed ballot measures. Under current law, governments and citizens can challenge initiatives before they go to voters on what’s called the single-subject rule.
The majority of the board gave the go-ahead to add more reasons to preemptively challenge a measure. Commissioner Jay Bozievich says some citizen backed-initiatives get passed and then end up in court. That’s what happened with an anti-GMO measure in Josephine County.
Bozievich: “It got on the ballot and passed and then was immediately overturned in the courts and lots of money was spent on both sides and also by the county and if we’re in bad fiscal shape, Josephine County is [in] much worse than we are.”
Bozievich says expanding the county’s ability to challenge a measure before it’s passed would save time and money. But Ann Kneeland with Community Rights Lane County, which is sponsoring three county initiatives, says the proposal is unconstitutional.
Kneeland: “I think they are trying to authorize themselves to be able to interfere with the peoples’ initiative authority so that they can pull initiatives that they don’t think should go to the ballot.”
Kneeland says citizens have initiative petition rights protected by the state constitution. Bozievich says he doesn’t want to infringe on those rights. But he and 3 other commissioners support the idea of expanding Lane County’s ability to challenge measures before they’re on the ballot.
