Sides brace for legal battle over millionaire petition

Wednesday, May 31, 2006 | 7:21 a.m.

A petition drive that organizers hope could make every Boulder City resident a millionaire will wrap up this week, setting the stage for a legal battle by the city to keep the measure off the November ballot.

The Coalition to Protect the Future of Boulder City announced Tuesday that it had collected about 925 signatures on its ballot initiative to sell 107,000 acres of Eldorado Valley and divvy up most of the proceeds among the city's residents.

The group, which started its petition drive on April 21, expects to have more than 1,000 signatures when it concludes the drive on Saturday, Sherman Rattner, coalition co-chairman, said.

The petitions will be submitted next week to City Clerk Pam Malmstrom, who said it would take at least a week to verify the signatures. The group needs the signatures of 692 registered voters in Boulder City to qualify for the fall ballot.

City Attorney Dave Olsen said the city would wait for the measure to qualify for the ballot before filing any lawsuit to stop it. Olsen has consulted with attorneys to represent Boulder City, but the City Council has yet to authorize any legal action.

"We are not going to let people vote on this unless it's appropriate to do so," Olsen said.

The ballot measure calls for selling the 107,000 acres and giving 90 percent of the proceeds to the city's residents, with the remaining revenue being used to fund a highway bypass, erase the city's debt and cover other expenses.

In any lawsuit, Boulder City is likely to argue that residents lack the authority to sell city land and give themselves a cut of the proceeds. Under the city's charter, all land-sale proceeds must be spent on capital improvements, Olsen said.

Boulder City officials also contend that only about 10,000 acres are available to be sold for development, not 107,000 as specified in the ballot measure. About 85,000 acres are off-limits because of a 50-year easement with Clark County for a desert tortoise preserve, officials said.

"We don't want to see the land sold, and it can't be sold," Mayor Robert Ferraro said.

Rattner, though, accuses city officials of hypocrisy, noting that some are willing to sell Dutchman Pass land to fund a freeway bypass. Allowing any development in the city-owned portion of Eldorado Valley will open the floodgates to more development, Rattner and others argue.

Any move by Boulder City to file a lawsuit will be met with the group's own lawsuit to protect its First Amendment rights, Rattner said. The ballot question's legality should be decided after the election, he contends.

"They are going to try and negate the will of the people, but they don't have any legitimate reason for legal action," Rattner said. "It should be offensive to any American when governments use power to oppress the First Amendment."

Olsen, however, said state Supreme Court rulings have specified that the time to test a legality of an issue is before it is placed on the ballot.

Opponents view Rattner's proposal as an attempt to defeat a city-sponsored ballot measure calling for a three-way land swap involving the city, a developer and the federal government.

Rattner's group responded by arguing that Boulder City residents should decide now whether Eldorado Valley should be protected, and if the answer is no, then residents should at least profit from the land sale.

The city's ballot measure may not go before voters, however, because of Boulder City's inability to reach a deal with the developer over a swap that would allow the city to prevent the construction of 3,800 homes near its border.

Although Olsen said he remains confident the city will keep the "millionaire" measure off the ballot, he also offers a lawyer's caveat:

"Once you go to court, you turn it over to an unknown commodity - the judge."