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Receive a presentation from the Registrar of Voters on the results of the signature verification process as set forth in the Elections Code for the “Rezoning of 17,500 acres of land in East Solano to allow the Development of a New Community” (also known as California Forever) initiative petition and the certified statement of sufficiency of the petition; and Take one of the following actions: (1) adopt the ordinance without alteration, (2) submit the ordinance without alteration to voters at the November 5, 2024 general election, or (3) order a report on the initiative petition to be submitted within 30 days
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Published Notice Required? Yes ____ No _X _
Public Hearing Required? Yes ____ No _X _
DEPARTMENTAL RECOMMENDATION:
The Registrar of Voters (ROV) recommends that the Board of Supervisors:
1. Receive a presentation on the results of the signature verification process as set forth in the Elections Code for the “Rezoning of 17,500 acres of land in East Solano to allow the Development of a New Community” (also known as California Forever) initiative petition and the certified statement of sufficiency of the petition; and
2. Take one of the three allowable actions pursuant to California Elections Code (EC) section 9118:
i. Adopt the ordinance (initiative) without alteration at this meeting, or within 10 days thereafter; or
ii. Submit the ordinance (initiative) without alteration to voters by adopting a Resolution calling for a special election and combining it with the next regular election on November 5, 2024; or
iii. Order a report to be presented to the Board within 30 days, at which time the Board may adopt the ordinance without alteration or submit it to the voters at the November 5, 2024 general election.
COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR/COUNTY COUNSEL RECOMMENDATION:
The County Administrator and County Counsel recommend that the Board order a report be prepared on the impacts of the petition and that it be presented to the Board within 30 days.
SUMMARY:
The ROV received California Forever’s countywide petition with 20,473 signatures on April 30, 2024. The ROV certified a raw count to the proponents of the petition on May 6, 2024, validating the number of potential signatures.
The ROV randomly selected 1,230 or 6% of signatures received to validate - a minimum of 3% is required per Elections Code section 9115. Based on the random sample of signatures verified, 907 were deemed valid, 323 signatures were found insufficient, including 1 which was determined to be a duplicate signature, and 120 that were determined not registered in Solano County, and therefore, not included.
The petition requires 13,062 valid signatures to be deemed sufficient by the ROV. The statistically valid total number of signatures based on the random sampling method is 14,832, which is 113.55% of the 13,062 valid signatures required. The petition is therefore found to be sufficient. A signature calculation worksheet is attached to the Certified Statement of Sufficiency (Attachment A). The signature review process was completed and certified to the proponent on June 11, 2024.
Once the certificate of sufficiency is accepted, the Board of Supervisors has three possible courses of action under Elections Code section 9118: 1) adopt the ordinance, 2) submit the ordinance to the voters, or 3) order a report on the petition. If the Board orders a report on the petition, this report may address the fiscal impact, the effect on the county’s general plan, effect on land use, or any other matters the Board requests to be in the report, as specified in Elections Code section 9111. Due to the magnitude of the scope of the petition, staff is recommending that the Board select option 3 and order a report be prepared and presented to the Board within 30 days.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
The ROV has expended over 700 staff hours processing the petition at a department expense of $22,400.36. The ROV has anticipated that if this measure is to appear on the November 2024 ballot, an additional cost of $744,000 will be incurred to process additional information in the Voter Information Guide, and may have additional expenses for proofing, ballot layout, arguments for/against, publications, and translation services.
DISCUSSION:
General Overview of County Initiative Process
Elections Code (EC) section 9103 provides that proponents of a county initiative petition must file a notice of intention to circulate such a petition with the county elections official along with the full text of the proposed ordinance and a filing fee not to exceed $200. In response, EC section 9105 states that the elections official shall promptly send a copy of the notice of intention and full text of the ordinance to the county counsel, and the county counsel shall in turn send back a ballot title/summary to the elections official within 15 days. The elections official must then provide petition proponents with a copy of the ballot title/summary.
EC section 9110 gives proponents 180 days from the day they receive the ballot title/summary from the elections official to collect signatures. The number of valid signatures required to qualify the petition for the ballot is 10% of the votes cast in the county for all candidates for governor in the last gubernatorial election. Before proponents can begin collecting signatures, EC section 9108 requires that the proponent publish the ballot title/summary and notice of intention in a newspaper of general circulation. Furthermore, proponents must provide proof of such publication to the elections official.
Per EC section 9115, when proponents file petition signatures with the elections official, the elections official has 30 days (excluding weekends and holidays) to check the signatures for validity. For petitions having 500 or fewer signatures, all signatures must be checked. For petitions having more than 500 signatures, the elections official may conduct a check of a random sample of either 500 signatures or 3% of the total signatures submitted (whichever number is greater). There are three potential outcomes of this sample check:
1) If less than 95% of the signatures are found to be valid, the petition is declared insufficient.
2) If more than 110% of the signatures are found to be valid, the petition is declared sufficient.
3) If between 95% and 110% of the signatures are found to be valid, the elections official is granted an additional 60 days (for a total of 90 days from the date the petition was filed, excluding weekends and holidays) to conduct a full review of all signatures submitted.
Per EC section 9115, once signature verification (random and/or full) is complete, the elections official shall notify proponents of the results. If the petition is found insufficient, no further action is required. If the petition is found sufficient, EC section 9115 requires the elections official to submit a certificate of sufficiency with a breakdown of the results of the signature examination to the Board of Supervisors (BOS) at its next regular meeting. The BOS then has three options:
1) Adopt the ordinance outright.
2) Place the ordinance on the ballot pursuant to EC section 1405.
3) Order a report on the impacts of the ordinance to be presented to the BOS within 30 days.
California Forever’s Petition
Notice of Intention
On January 17, 2024, proponents of an initiative that would amend the County of Solano General Plan and add sections to the Solano County Code to rezone ±18,600 acres to allow for the construction of a “New Community” in eastern Solano County filed a notice of intention to circulate an initiative petition. The notice of intention included the full text of the initiative and a $200 filing fee which was submitted to the county elections official at the Solano County Registrar of Voters Office (ROV). On January 29, 2024, the proponents filed a revised initiative and officially withdrew the original initiative. On February 14, 2024, the proponents filed another revised initiative and officially withdrew the prior one. (The February 14, 2024 Notice of Intent to Circulate Petition is attached as Attachment C.) The self-entitled “East Solano Homes, Jobs, and Clean Energy Initiative” proposes to amend the County’s General Plan and Zoning Code to rezone approximately 17,500 acres to allow for the construction and development of a “New Community” in eastern Solano County. (The submitted initiative is attached as Attachment D).
Ballot Title/Summary and Legal Notice
On February 14, 2024, the ROV formally requested that the County Counsel provide a ballot title/summary of the proposed ordinance within 15 days. County Counsel did so on February 29, 2024. (Ballot Title and Summary attached as Attachment E). The ROV in turn furnished the ballot title/summary to the proponents and informed them that they had to collect a minimum of 13,062 valid signatures (10% of the 130,619 votes cast for governor in the November 8, 2022, General Election) and submit them within 180 days of acknowledging receipt of the ballot title/summary in order for the petition to be found to be sufficient. ROV further informed the proponents that they could only begin collecting signatures after publishing the notice of intention and ballot title/summary in a newspaper of general circulation.
On March 7th, 2024, proponents provided official proof of publication that they published the notice of intention in the Daily Republic (Proof of Publication attached as Attachment F).
Initiative Petition
On April 30, 2024, proponents filed 20,473 raw signatures on 1,159 petition sections. The ROV accepted the petition and began carefully reviewing each section for accuracy and compliance with state law.
ROV Verification Methodology
Election Code section 9115 allows for a minimum random sampling of 3% of the signatures submitted. Following this code section, the ROV created two separate random samples of 3% of the signatures, divided the samples among two separate teams working independently (1,230 signatures total). Once completed, the teams switched samples, and performed the review a second time. Each body of work was reviewed by two different Election Coordinators (supervisors) and that work was subsequently reviewed by the Registrar and Assistant Registrar of Voters. This process allowed the ROV to minimize any concerns for human bias, provided a high-level of cross-check of staff work, and gives a high-confidence that the results of the review are repeatable. The ROV combined the results of the two 3% samples into one group total of 6%, double the amount required by Election Code, as shown on the signature calculation worksheet (Attachment A).
On June 11, 2024, the ROV completed the check of the random sample, finding 907 signatures to be valid and 323 to be invalid. A full breakdown of disqualified categories can be found in the signature calculation worksheet (Attachment A). Based on these results, ROV extrapolated that approximately 14,832 total signatures were valid, or 113.55% of the 13,062 required. Since this number was greater than 110%, the petition was deemed sufficient without needing to conduct a full review of all 20,473 signatures.
The ROV notified the proponents of the sufficiency of their petition on June 11, 2024 and is now submitting a certificate of sufficiency with a breakdown of the results of the signature examination to the BOS for further action as required by law.
Options for Action
Pursuant to EC section 9118, the BOS must now take one of three actions:
1) Adopt the ordinance, without alteration, at today’s meeting or within 10 days of today’s meeting.
2) Submit the ordinance, without alteration, to go before the voters by adopting a Resolution (Attached as Attachment B) calling for an election and combining it with the next statewide election on November 5, 2024.
3) Request a county agency (or agencies) to prepare a report on the impact(s) of the initiative measure as set forth in EC section 9111(a), including any or all of the following:
• Its fiscal impact.
• Its effect on the internal consistency of the county’s general and specific plans, including the housing element, the consistency between planning and zoning, and the limitations on county actions under Section 65008 of the Government Code and Chapters 4.2 (commencing with Section 65913) and 4.3 (commencing with section 65915) of Division 1 of Title 7 of the Government Code.
• Its effect on the use of land, the impact on the availability and location of housing, and the ability of the county to meet its regional housing needs.
• Its impact on funding for infrastructure of all types, including, but not limited to, transportation, schools, parks, and open space. The report may also discuss whether the measure would be likely to result in increased infrastructure costs or savings, including the costs of infrastructure maintenance, to current residents and businesses.
• Its impact on the community’s ability to attract and retain business and employment.
• Its impact on the uses of vacant parcels of land.
• Its impact on agricultural lands, open space, traffic congestion, existing business districts, and developed areas designated for revitalization.
• Any other matters the Board of Supervisors request to be in the report.
The report must be presented to the BOS within 30 days of the Board’s ordering its preparation, or by July 23, 2024, which is the last regularly scheduled BOS meeting available to receive the report. After receiving the report, the BOS would then have to either adopt the ordinance without alteration or place it before the voters (as described in options 1 and 2 above, respectively).
Since the environmental impacts and financial feasibility of the new community have not yet been analyzed, and given the scope and scale of the proposed new community, staff is recommending that the Board order the report to be prepared and presented to the Board at the July 23, 2024 Board meeting analyzing, at a minimum, those elements described in EC section 9111 above as well as any other matter the Board directs to be included.
ALTERNATIVES:
The California Elections Code offers the Board of Supervisors three possible options which are listed above. The Board must select one of them.
OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT:
County Counsel has reviewed the notices, certificates, and methodology by the ROV before publication. If the Board requests an additional report, other county agencies will be involved in its preparation as directed by the Board.
CAO RECOMMENDATION:
APPROVE DEPARTMENTAL RECOMMENDATION