‘Measure F’ Label Riles Airport Foes

There’s obviously a lot in a name, at least to backers of a March ballot initiative designed to stop a commercial airport from being built at the closed El Toro Marine base.

When Board of Supervisors Chairman Charles V. Smith moved Tuesday to designate the initiative as “Measure F,” it prompted howls of protest from the measure’s backers.

“The introduction of this motion shows the disrespect and disdain that Chairman Smith has for our initiative,” said Jeffrey C. Metzger, chairman of Citizens for Safe and Healthy Communities, the petition drive organizer. “There’s no valid county argument to change it to Measure F.”

Metzger and other airport foes contend that the board could have used another designation, including “A,” and that the letter “F” has a negative connotation--as in failure--which could be used by airport supporters to cast the measure in a negative way.

Smith said he proposed the designation to avoid confusion among voters with a previous Measure A, the 1994 pro-airport initiative passed by voters. “I could have used any of the 26 letters of the alphabet, but I chose ‘F’ randomly,” Smith said.

Ultimately, all five supervisors agreed to the “F” designation. But during the debate, Supervisor Todd Spitzer, who with Supervisor Tom Wilson is against the proposed airport, argued that the public expects the board to be impartial about the initiative.

“This [designation] appears to go against the intent of that tenet,” Spitzer said. But he and Wilson acquiesced to Measure F after failing to convince another of their colleagues to change the letter.

“My concern was to get the measure on the ballot in March,” Wilson said. “I don’t care if it’s A through Z. I thought it was interesting that the chair of the board said he picked Measure F out of the air. I have to believe [Smith] was lobbied by someone to change it.”

Metzger showed supervisors a letter he received from the county registrar of voters, which he said indicates that it has been the board’s policy in past elections to designate the first initiative as Measure A.

But Registrar Rosalyn A. Lever said the letter, dated Oct. 27, states that it was a policy of the elections office--not the board--to begin designations with the first letter of the alphabet. The board has authority over county elections.

“I also told [Metzger] that if he desires a particular letter designation, he should request the board to do so,” Lever said.

One political consultant not involved in the initiative campaign said airport foes shouldn’t be too distressed by the designation.

“Was Proposition 13 unlucky?” said Stu Mollrich, whose firm handled the landmark 1978 statewide tax reduction initiative.

The registrar’s office also released the official title and ballot question for the measure.

Its official title is “An initiative to require two-thirds vote for ratification of new or expanded jails, hazardous-waste landfills or civilian airport projects.” The official question to appear on the ballot: “Shall this initiative measure, which would require that no new or expanded jails, hazardous-waste landfills or civilian airport projects could be valid and effective until ratification by a two-thirds majority of the voters voting in a county general election and require that the Board of Supervisors conduct a public hearing in each affected city prior to public approval, be approved?”