Commentary: City made signature-gathering too onerous

Our right to petition the government is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In fact, this right can be traced back to the Magna Carta and the right of English subjects to petition the king.

Therefore, it is appalling that our Newport Beach City Council has gone out of its way to throw roadblocks in the way of citizens’ right to gather signatures in our city.

This particular effort to infringe on the democratic process is related to the City Council vote to approve the construction of Museum House, a 295-foot tall, 100-unit luxury condo tower to replace the Orange County Museum of Art.

Personally, I think the luxury tower is a bad idea. With hundreds of residential units under construction in Fashion Island that have not yet been occupied, we have no idea what the impact will be on traffic in our city.

Already we crawl along Coast Highway from Newport Boulevard through Corona del Mar. Gridlock on our streets is becoming more like the Westside of Los Angeles, where I happen to work. And I guarantee you this will not add to your quality of life.

Citizens against the council vote organized to gather the 5,000-plus signatures required to put Museum House up to a vote. And the response of our City Council? It required petition gatherers to lug around a 10-pound book consisting of more than 1,000 pages of legal-size documents for people to “read” before they sign.

Yes, on a recent day a couple of friends and I decided to put holiday preparation aside and walked the streets of Newport Heights, dragging along a roller bag with the petition and its accompanying pages. And this tome isn’t all. We had to act as schoolmarms, instructing everyone wishing to sign to keep exactly in the lines and to abbreviate nothing. An elderly woman signed with shaking hands, worried that her signature would not be accepted as valid.

Whether or not you’re concerned about the possible traffic implications of density, you must admit that this City Council demand is autocratic and undemocratic. Newport Beach citizens are guaranteed the American right to gather signatures without the imposition of ridiculous, artificial restrictions.

KIM JANSMA lives in Newport Beach.