The Glendale City Clerk’s Office announced today,  Thursday, that the Rent Stabilization Ordinance that had been filed with the City on March 20 had submitted 11,164 signatures (872 petition papers) to the City Clerk’s Office on Monday, Oct. 2. 

After judiciously reviewing the submitted petitions, the City Clerk has determined that the petitions are deficient and invalid due to following reasons:

Title & Summary Missing. Petitions submitted do not contain in each section the ballot title and summary of the city attorney. The text of the measure is also not included anywhere in the Petition. CA Election Code §9203 requires that the text of the measure must be circulated.

Declaration of Person Circulating: Per CA Election Code §9209, Petitions submitted must contain in each section the declaration of the circulator.  Seven hundred and seventy two pages were submitted without a declaration of the circulator.

White-out & Cut off Sections: A number of pages submitted had sections that had pages pasted and glued atop another page and sections which had been “whited-out” then filled in again. These acts raise questions about the voter’s intent and the contents of the Petition presented to each person who agreed to sign. It is unclear whether the California Election Code sections 104 and 9209 relating to the declaration of the circulator were followed. The number of signatures where parts are cut off and glued together equaled 571. There were 86 instances of whiting-out of information. 

The number of signatures is not the sole determining factor for rejecting the Petition and each of the above stated grounds is a separate and unique basis for the deficiency of the Petition submitted.

“Our office has carried out its ministerial duty in ascertaining whether the procedural requirements imposed by the legislature and the State of California were satisfied by this process, and in this case, they were not,” stated City Clerk Ardy Kassakhian. “The citizens who initiated this petition certainly have the right to try again and must comply with all requirements of the CA Elections Code when they do.” 

For more information regarding the Rent Stabilization Ordinance Petition, contact the Glendale City Clerk’s Office at (818) 548-4000 or visit www.glendaleca.gov.