La Jolla group counter sues city of San Diego in independence drive

LA JOLLA A nonprofit group seeking to make La Jolla an independent municipality has counter-sued the city of San Diego in an escalating battle over whether to put the issue on the ballot The Association for the City of La Jolla ACLJ informed residents at a Sept population meeting that they ve filed a counteraction seeking to have the city s suit voided That legal action known as an anti-Strategic Lawsuit Against General Participation SLAPP motion was taken in response to a lawsuit brought by the city against the San Diego County Local Agency Formation Commission LAFCO a state agency regulating the creation expansion and reorganization of local executive agencies Grassroots ACLJ s anti-SLAPP motion argues that the city s lawsuit is a meritless attempt to obstruct democratic participation and silence a public-interest effort through costly litigation The city has amended its lawsuit challenging the ongoing effort to detach La Jolla from San Diego The city is maintaining that a regional agency s plans to proceed with the incorporation review process would impose substantial irreparable harm on it due to costs associated with city staff time required to review ACLJ s proposal In a prepared comment ACLJ argued that The city s shifting legal maintains first alleging insufficient ballot initiative signatures and now citing economic inconvenience reveal its true intent to suppress lawful civic engagement This is a textbook development of voter suppression San Diego voters should be deeply alarmed that City Hall is using constituents funds to attack a community-driven process one that just seeks an open and transparent assessment of whether La Jolla could operate as an independent city In the end the decision of becoming a city belongs to the voters ACLJ noted the next step in the formal process for La Jolla to become a new city is to ask Could La Jolla stand on its own A question that has been raised for decades The reconstituted ACLJ board with Diane Kane as its new president and Ed Witt as vice president introduced itself at La Jolla Riford Library with new board members addressing why incorporation is crucial and why they re involved This is truly a community-driven campaign explained Kane This would not have happened without you constituents Kane added ACLJ is hopeful the court will rule in our favor Kane noted ACLJ will have to hire a consultant to conduct a final feasibility document on whether La Jolla could be viable as its own city a process she expects to take six to months She added that the current timeline is to get the question of cityhood for La Jolla on an polling ballot in Witt referred to the adages that freedom is not free and that it takes a village to accomplish population endeavors Of incorporation he pointed out This is our best and I guess last chance to do this Witt pointed out the novelty of ACLJ s efforts This attempt at cityhood for all of us is extremely historical he commented It has never been done before Never has a city in California left a city There have been cities that have left counties But never a city separating from a city This is a big deal Board member Jeffery F Scott talked about why he s involved in the incorporation effort What I bring to the party is financial management he reported To do this right we can t afford to make a mistake This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity Noting her passion is parks and beaches board member Mary Munk stressed there is a long way to go for La Jolla to incorporate adding what s needed the bulk is fundraising dollars to keep the cause going When you look at the numbers we need million to million for a campaign she mentioned pointing out the rules require a achieving incorporation to be revenue neutral The new city of La Jolla will be required to pay several kind of alimony to San Diego she noted Board member Sharon Wampler a biotech scientist has been busy crunching the numbers with ACLJ s paperwork required by LAFCO I ve been here years and I just saw an opportunity for improvement and self-determination and for the society to in fact be better she reported of her motivation for getting involved ACLJ board member and commercial real estate professional Ted Levis disclosed his motivation for joining the group noting he s become frustrated with the city and what it s done and not done for our public Suppressing the voters is not the American way I can t sit around and see that happen