Covina just says no

Dan Abendschein reports that the city will not allow an argument against a utility tax measure in election material because the information did not meet a deadline.

COVINA - Despite the county's willingness to accept a misfiled ballot argument on a utility tax measure, the city will not allow the argument on election material sent to voters, officials said Tuesday.

The argument would have been placed on the sample ballot for the June 3 election, which is mailed out to voters. If the opposition argument to the measure is not on the sample ballot, only a pro-tax argument will appear.

Covina City Manager Paul Phillips said he did not plan to put a request on Tuesday's City Council agenda.

"I am not going to recommend to the council that they take any action on this issue," said Phillips.

His reason for not allowing the argument on the ballot is because it would be unfair since the group supporting the measure would not have a chance to write a rebuttal to the argument, a right allowed in the state election code.

Further in the story, it states:

County officials initially said that there was no way the argument could be included on the sample ballot. But at Tuesdays's Board of Supervisors meeting, acting County Registrar Dean Logan said that the choice is the city's.

"If the city were to direct us to put the argument on our sample ballot by our printing deadline we would do that," Logan said. The deadline, he said, is Friday.