As the debate over the proposed secession of La Jolla from the City of San Diego escalates, Mayor Todd Gloria has announced that the City Council has authorized litigation against the San Diego County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO). According to a statement from the Mayor's office, LAFCO's decision to validate previously rejected signatures on the secession petition has spurred significant controversy and legal action.
Behind closed doors, the City Council decided to firmly move forward with filing a lawsuit against LAFCO. This regional planning agency seemingly questioned the integrity of the signature-verification process by accepting 240 signatures that the County Registrar of Voters had denied. These actions have allowed the Association for the City of La Jolla’s petition to barely exceed the threshold needed to advance the secession initiative. As reported earlier this month by FOX 5 San Diego, these contested signatures had been invalidated for incorrect addresses, unverifiable voter registration, or incomplete information.
The Association for the City of La Jolla needed signatures from around 25% of registered voters within their proposed boundaries, a figure upwards of 6,750 individuals, to kickstart the secession process. Mayor Gloria has been outspoken against LAFCO's conduct, asserting that such arbitrary decision-making undermines public confidence and potentially sets a troubling precedent. "This litigation aims to provide San Diegans with the transparency they deserve, hold LAFCO accountable for its arbitrary and capricious decisions, and affirm the Registrar's original certification of insufficiency," said Gloria, as per the City of San Diego’s official website.
