Grand Jury Finding: Lack of Accuracy and Impartiality on Ballot Measure Questions
Alameda County Grand Jury points to Piedmont as an example –
Piedmont Measure TT was identified by the Grand Jury as problematic. Piedmont’s City Council, responsible for the ballot question language, proposed an increase to the city’s real estate transfer tax. The measure was rejected by voters by 48% yes to 52% no.
The question placed on the Piedmont ballot read as follows:
“Shall the City of Piedmont, to be in alignment with neighboring East Bay Cities, increase the real estate transfer tax from $13.00 to $17.50 per $1,000 of transfer price, generating $948,462 annually until ended by voters, to provide general tax revenue for city services and to repair and maintain city facilities including police and fire stations, parks, and recreation facilities, and other city infrastructure, be adopted?”
The Grand Jury stated:
“Piedmont’s Measure TT recited a list of possible expenditures, including ‘to repair and maintain city facilities including police and fire stations, parks, and recreation facilities, ‘ yet none of these expenditures was required by the proposed ordinance. That such spending might occur does not make the question an accurate and impartial synopsis of a measure, which may not result in any additional spending on the mentioned repair and maintenance. Piedmont’s measure also included the statement that a purpose of the measure was ‘to be in alignment with neighboring East Bay Cities.’ The grand jury did not see how this statement related to a description of the measure or to its purpose.”
The Grand Jury Report notes Ballot Questions [Language found on ballots asking for a yes or no vote] often fail the accuracy, transparency and impartiality requirement.
Several key points:
- Alameda County Grand Jury investigation focused exclusively on the accuracy, transparency and impartiality of ballot questions.
- Ballot Questions are required by law to be Brief, Accurate and Impartial.
- Ballot Questions suffer from a “proponent’s bias.”
- Ballot Questions fall short of what voters have a right to expect in terms of transparency and impartiality, even when satisfying minimum legal standard.
- The Grand Jury declined to prosecute violators, instead urging governments to improve their behavior within the requirements of the California Elections Code.
Click the link below to READ the full 2020-21 Alameda County Grand Jury report: http://grandjury.acgov.org/reports.page?
Thanks for publicising the Grand Jury’s work. Sadly, in this era of declining local news coverage, important Grand Jury investigations into local governments’ performance doesn’t get the public’s attention needed to bring about corrections.
“To be in alignment with neighboring East Bay cities”. Specifically Council was referring to Oakland and Berkeley which, to be honest are, not comparable cities for Piedmont. And if alignment is what the City is after, shouldn’t it lower other taxes?
The Grand Jury’s recommendation is actually to set up a citizen’s review panel to rate proposed ballot language in advance of future elections. There is little benefit from criticizing the ballot language of a few selected jurisdictions unless something meaningful can be done about it in the future. A state legislative fix is highly unlikely. The proposed review panel can be accomplished under existing state law.