Out of Hand CB58 Lawsuits

Ok, this is getting ridiculous on both sides. Marc Norman is claiming that he has submitting over 9000 signatures to be reviewed by the Board of Elections. Norman is hoping that the BoE will validate at least 5000 of those and put CB58 on the ballot as a referendum for 2010. Fine.

Now, we have Greenburg Gibbons that is trying to halt the process in court with two separate filings.

Greenberg Gibbons, meanwhile, has filed two court challenges, one calling for a judge to review approval by the Board of Elections of the form of the referendum petitions, the other claiming the signature gathering process violated state and local laws.

So, Gibbons's challenge was met with response from Norman's group, HCCO.

In court papers, the group argues Greenberg Gibbons does not have standing to challenge the board of election's decision.

Under the law, the company and its CEO Brian Gibbons do not qualify as "aggrieved parties" who can challenge the Board of Election's decision approving the format of the petitions, the court papers state. Greenberg Gibbons also failed to give any specifics about how the referendum petitions might have been flawed.

If you'll remember the WCI Condominiums controversy, as Doug Miller does, then you'll see the irony of trying to use the standing debate against the developer.

I'm on record as saying if Norman and his group can get 5000 verified signatures, then we're having a referendum. It is up to the BoE to determine if that happened or not, and if the signatures were gathered in a legal fashion. Do we really need to clog the courts with lawsuits that presume the Board of Elections is incompetent? Do we need lawsuits with no specific claims of aggrievement that challenge the system? No. Let the BoE do its work.

Gibbons Has Filed Court Appeal to Referendum Process

Marc Norman's comments in the Howard County Times make me wonder about the role of sensationalism in his efforts.

"This effort on behalf of the developer we believe is clearly meant to intimidate, impede and deter the citizens' rights and movement toward referendum," Norman said.

Intimidate? Over a grocery store's square footage? You gotta be kidding me.

Gibbons did file a legal challenge to the current threshold for petition signatures. Really, they shouldn't be doing that now. When you begin any game, you begin knowing what the rules are when you start and that you can't change them during the game when it is convenient. Otherwise, Chris Webber's phantom timeout in the National Championship game against North Carolina could have been allowed.

This is the kind of ridiculousness that gets in the way of real resolutions to tough problems.