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As a longtime Santa Cruz resident, I’m deeply troubled by how Measure C was put on the ballot.
Mayor Fred Keeley and city officials used taxpayer money to conduct polling and message testing, then “handed off” that data to a housing advocacy group so it could appear as a “citizen initiative.”
At a public meeting on May 9, the mayor even said the quiet part out loud: “We hand off the bond measure to them … Combination of a March ballot measure. Path to a lower threshold.” In plain English, that means they found a way to dodge the two-thirds voter requirement for special taxes.
This kind of maneuvering erodes public trust and exposes our city to lawsuits—just like the soda-tax debacle.
We can fund affordable housing without breaking the rules. Measure B does that: It’s citizen-led, transparent and legally sound.
Candie Noel
Santa Cruz