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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2002 Volume 1, Issue 254 FREE Santa Monica Daily Press A newspaper with issues Ballots are big bucks for signature gatherers BY CAROLYN SACKARIASON $20,000, which then contracts with peo- Daily Press Staff Writer ple to hit the pavement and collect the required amount of signatures for a ballot There she was, panhandling for regis- initiative. It’s a fairly common practice in tered voters at $1.50 a pop — in an Santa Monica, where most of the signa- upscale neighborhood, no less. ture gatherers are paid based on how One recent afternoon a woman sta- many registered voters they get to sign a tioned herself in front of Pavilions on petition. To get the petition signed, organ- Montana Avenue, asking people to sign a izers have long known, they need to petition for an initiative that didn’t make “buy” voters’ signatures. it on this fall’s ballot, but is eligible for a During the city’s controversial minimum special election early next year. wage debate two years ago, signatures were For every signature that she gets by a reportedly fetching up to $25 each. registered voter, the woman will receive And that’s not all. The woman in front $1.50. She’s being paid indirectly by the of Pavilions said she was receiving $2 Homeowners for Voluntary Preservation, for every person she could register as a a committee made up of homeowners Republican. fighting to protect their property rights The California Republican Party refers from Santa Monica city government. to such activity as the “Bounty program.” The committee so far has paid a firm See BALLOTS, page 6 Consumer group says one Andrew H. Fixmer/Daily Press gas grade could curb prices Before (above) Caltrans began a “beautification” project along the Santa Monica freeway, lush green trees lined its sides. Now residents are faced By staff and wire reports with a barren lunar landscape devoid of vegetation. A Santa Monica-based consumer pro- tection agency has found that Californians could save billions of dollars if oil com- Residents say Interstate panies were forced to offer only a single grade of gasoline. A law requiring stations to offer only 10 facelift is an eyesore one grade of gas with an octane of 87 or 88 “would greatly reduce the ability of oil BY JOHN WOOD New trees and other decorations were companies to create price spikes” by arti- Special to the Daily Press planted in their place, along with a new ficially lowering supplies of the most automatic irrigation system. But less than A botched effort to spruce up Interstate sought-after gas, said the study released a year after the $850,000 project began, 10 between Fourth Street and Cloverfield last week by the Foundation for Taxpayer many of those new plantings began to die, Boulevard in Santa Monica has turned the and Consumer Rights, which has offices apparently because of a lack of water. once-green corridor into a brown lunar on Ocean Park Boulevard. A California Department of landscape. By eliminating underused premium and File photo Transportation spokeswoman said the mid-grade varieties, the state could free A report says Californians could save big if only And those who live next to the freeway general contractor for the project, Tapuz storage space for a public fuel reserve that one grade of gas were offered at the pumps. want it fixed. Enterprises, Inc., had defaulted on the job, “It was like a virtual forest,” said could be used to cushion higher future in place. and Caltrans was at the tail end of getting prices, according to the two-year study. Richard Martin, 56, a writer who has a new contractor. California’s clean air regulations have lived on the south side of the Santa “Rather than drill in the Arctic, let’s required refiners to make costlier clean- She couldn’t confirm whether anyone Monica Freeway at 21st Street for six clean the pumps of the 50 percent of high- air formulations of gasoline. But the study was tending to the area in the interim, but years. “Then Caltrans or the state or some er-octane fuel that is not used,” Jamie concluded “inflated refiner profit mar- added that the new contractor would be genius decided that this rich greenery was Court, executive director of the founda- gins” are really to blame for most gas paid from bonds that Tapuz held. no good, that it was going to die in the tion, said in a statement. price hikes in the state. “They were not doing the work that next 20 years or something, so they tore About 95 to 97 percent of California cars “West Coast gasoline refiners have they were contracted to do,” said out every last leaf.” could use the single grade and motorists manipulated supplies to keep gasoline Caltrans’ Chief of Public Affairs Deborah And nothing has grown in the once whose vehicles need higher octane could prices artificially high,” the study alleged. Harris. But she said she didn’t know why lush hillside since. use additives, the study argued. John Felmy, chief economist with the Tapuz had stopped work on the project. Two state bureaucracies and an errant The study, conducted by a gasoline American Petroleum Institute, denied the The Department of Labor Standards industry consultant, concluded that allegation. landscaping contractor played roles in the upheaval, which began in the spring of Enforcement said the Encino-based con- Californians could have saved about $2.8 “The oil industry has been the subject of tractor, who also operates the Gali billion for gas last year, or about 16 cents dozens of investigations over the years, and 2001 with the removal of 35-year-old a gallon, had its recommendations been they all have exonerated us,” Felmy said. trees from the freeway’s embankments. 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