My city, San Marcos, California is having two Propositions on the ballot for November 4, 2008.

Proposition N. Ridgeline Protection & Management Overlay Zone Approval -- City of San Marcos (Majority Approval Required)
Shall ordinance No. 2006-1258, adopted by the City Council establishing the Ridgeline Protection & Management Overlay Zone, be approved by the voters of the City of San Marcos and be further amended to require ratification by the voters of the City for any future modifications?

Proposition O. General Plan Voter Approval Requirement -- City of San Marcos (Majority Approval Required)
Shall an ordinance be adopted amending the San Marcos General Plan to require voter approval of certain general plan amendments modifying or changing land use categories or designations?

These are citizen initiatives to restore control over changes to the General Plan to the citizens of San Marcos directly. We citizens took this action because our City Council has been approving exemptions to the General Plan over objections by citizens. We citizens want any exemptions to the General Plan to be approved by a majority of the voters, not by the few members of the City Council.

My reasoning for supporting this approach is this. The citizens approved the General Plan by public vote, it stands to my reason that exemptions to that General Plan need that same approval process.

Some people have branded the Proposition N a No Growth Initiative. I would dispute that it is that. We citizens can certainly tell what is a proper change in exemption status to the General Plan and what is out-of-line. The City Council officials are not the only intelligent people in the city, there are plenty of us that can reason as well or perhaps better than they can.

It is well known that the current City Council has publicly stated that it is against Proposition O. I find it offensive that an official elected body is unable to stay neutral in citizen initiatives and instead tries to discredit it and working to see it fail.

I urge all San Marcos, California citizens to vote Yes on both Proposition N and Proposition O, sending a strong message to the City Council that we want control of our city and that they work for us, not the other way around.

Update: 11/05/08 Prop. O rejected by a majority of San Marcos citizens.

Update: 10/31/08 Fairness in the Material World

Update: 10/30/08 Prop. O Campaign (PDF). This explains why a Yes vote on this proposition is the right way to vote if San Marcos citizens want to keep control of growth instead of giving your right away to developers.

Update: 10/26/08 Protect San Marcos website.

Update: 10/13/08 'O' Yes We Can!

Update: 09/29/08 This comment was sent to me in response.

Don