Ron Davis -- Through my eyes

Only a very thin line separates dictatorships, even benevolent

dictatorships, from democracies. The fundamental difference between the

two political philosophies is who gets to make the wrong decision.

To be sure, representative government always contains a dictatorial

element. When we elect our representatives to four-year terms, we

recognize that during that term, the people exercise very little control

over elected officials, who are bound and determined to pursue their own

course of what’s in our best interest, even if it runs contrary to what

we believe to be in our own best interest.

We willingly expose ourselves to the potential that our elected officials

will pursue a course of action that we, as the voting public, may not

wish to pursue. Perhaps, in the great scheme of things, it may turn out

that our elected officials were right, and because of our ignorance or

apathy we made the wrong decision. But, that’s the very essence of

democracy. We believe that there is a higher value in allowing the people

to occasionally or even frequently make decisions which may be wrong, as

opposed to allowing a select few to make all of the decisions.

The only safeguard we have to protect our democracy between elections is

through the process of recall, initiative or referendum. In other words,

the democratic principle is so important to us that we specifically

reserved a right to interject ourselves, midstream, into the political

process to make a decision we deem important.

About 22,000 people signed a petition indicating that they, not their

elected representatives, should make a decision concerning Wal-Mart. More

than 15,000 of those signatures were certified by the County Clerk as

constituting registered voters in the city of Huntington Beach, and by

law, requiring the Huntington Beach City Council to either adopt the

proposed ordinance banning Wal-Mart, or putting the issue to a vote

through a special election. The special election should have been held in

January of 2000, and the only issue on the ballot should have been the

Wal-Mart issue.

It is apparent to me that four members of the City Council have decided

that, in spite of our reverence for the democratic process as furthered

through the initiative process, that process is simply less important

than the council members’ personal agendas, or perhaps their arrogance in

believing that they know best for all of us.

The majority of the council has decided that having a Wal-Mart in

Huntington Beach is in the best interest of Huntington Beach. They have

decided that we might, if given the opportunity through the special

election required by law, wrongly decide that issue. Motivated more by

their desire to win, rather than honor the democratic principles inherent

in the initiative process, they decided that it is better to win on

Wal-Mart than lose on Wal-Mart and validate the principle of initiative

process that we reserved to ourselves as our right.

The proponents of the bond measure for the high schools scheduled their

election on Nov. 9, 1999, because they knew there would be a low voter

turnout, precisely because the school district believed that a

low-voter-turnout favored the proponents of the issue. That was their

right.

Yet when the anti-Wal-Mart folks earned the same right to the same

special election, admittedly with the same edge -- an election separate

and apart of any other elections, and unencumbered by other measures on

the ballot -- government decided that right was somehow now unfair --

unfair because they want Wal-Mart to win.

Thus, the City Council invented another special election so that the

Wal-Mart issue could be consolidated with their election and buried with

other issues on the March ballot.

Worse yet, in their zeal to jury rig the election, they added an advisory

item which is nothing more than a thinly veiled argument in support of

Wal-Mart.

Between now and the next council meeting, I encourage, no, I exhort,

those on the council to consider which is more important.

Do you honor the democratic and constitutional principles you took an

oath to uphold, and allow the people to make what you may consider to be

a wrong decision at the wrong election? Or do you sacrifice those

principles in order that you might accomplish your personal goal of

having a Wal-Mart constructed?

What is at stake is merely a matter of principle -- a democratic

principle or yours.

Ron Davis is a private attorney who lives in Huntington Beach. He can be

reached by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .