Goals and aims
Donna Worley intends to circulate two petitions and send the following issues to Patterson voters:
- The proposal: Limit council members and the mayor to a maximum of two terms in office
Worley hopes: To “bring accountability to government”
- The proposal: Limit the number of building permits issued annually to a maximum of 200
Worley hopes: To “give voters control over the ... rate of residential growth”
A city slow-growth measure and City Council term limits could be on the ballot if a local community activist can gather enough signatures.
Patterson resident Donna Worley formally indicated her intent to file a petition Nov. 21 at Patterson City Hall to limit the mayor and council members to two terms. On Monday, she laid the foundation for another petition seeking a measure that would allow Patterson to issue only 200 building permits each year without voter approval.
Worley said she has been an advocate for term limits for years, and she believes that such limits would make local government more accountable.
“Most people are for term limits in any shape or form,” Worley said Tuesday. “I hardly know anyone who isn’t, except for politicians who are sitting in their seats.”
Changes ahead?
Worley’s term limits proposal would keep the mayor’s term at two years and council members’ terms at four years. A representative could serve no longer than 12 years if the measure is implemented — eight years as a council member and four years as mayor. The mayor and council members may now serve unlimited terms.
Under the proposed measure, anyone who was appointed or elected to fill the remaining term of a departed council member or mayor would be considered to have served a full term.
Separately, the slow-growth proposal would pertain to all homes except low-income housing, which the state requires the city to build.
Any decision to issue more than 200 building permits in a single year would have to be specifically approved by voters.
Worley noted that Patterson has no growth limits and stressed that the city grew by 19 percent in 2005, when it issued 899 residential building permits. She said the city has not kept up with services such as schools, storm drainage, sewer systems, water and police and fire protection.
“The City Council is clearly not protecting the quality of our community,” she wrote in her proposed petition.
Worley compared the proposed ballot initiative with a measure approved by the city of Tracy, which limits residential building permits to an average of 600 annually.
City Attorney George Logan said Worley must collect the signatures of 10 percent of Patterson’s registered voters for any measure to appear on the ballot. If that happens, he said, he will review the content to ensure it is legal.
Community activist
Worley has become known locally recently for speaking in favor of the 4,800-acre PCCP West Park industrial park proposed for the Crows Landing Air Facility.
“I am politically involved wherever I am,” she said.
She said she came to Patterson to rest and study for her teacher’s credential.
A few newspaper articles found online indicate she has been active in Southern California politics in the past.
The April 12 edition of the Malibu Surfside News reported that Worley had spoken in favor of plans to build a liquefied natural gas terminal near the coast of Malibu.
An Aug. 13 article in the San Bernardino Sun stated that Worley had drawn the ire of the Rialto City Council after she mentioned she had heard talk that the council might need to be recalled because groundwater contamination had not been cleaned up. The Goodrich Corp. had previously sued the city to get it to clean up the mess.
The article said Worley described herself at the meeting as a concerned citizen, but a councilman there accused her of working for Goodrich Corp. and said she lived in Burbank.
Worley said that was a matter of the “pot calling the kettle black” and said politicians often make accusations about grassroots organizers to silence them.
She said she has become active in touting the proposed West Park development because of the promise of new jobs.
“I’m a supporter of a development that will give jobs to our graduating (high school) seniors,” she said.
West Park’s plans include an inland port at the former Crows Landing naval airfield that would connect to the Port of Oakland via short-haul rail. Its proposal has received preliminary support from the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors but opposition from the Patterson and Newman city councils, the West Stanislaus Fire Protection District and the Patterson Unified School District board.
Arousing suspicion
Some local residents and city leaders this week were suspicious of Worley’s motives.
Patterson Councilwoman Annette Smith said Monday by phone that she thought Worley might be working for West Park.
“I see this as a tactical move, so that (West Park developer Gerry) Kamilos has a brain-dead council at his feet when it comes time for his project to go rolling down the track,” she said.
Patterson Mayor Becky Campo said she was not sure what Worley’s intentions were with the petition, but she, too, had her suspicions.
“It’s easy to guess she’s in Kamilos’ camp, trying to discredit us,” she said.
However, Kamilos said Tuesday he had never even met Worley, and he thought the growth-limits measure might not be a good idea, noting that the city is in the process of updating its general plan.
“It seems to me an initiative like this is premature,” he said. “Why not let the (city of Patterson’s) general plan be updated?”
Worley said she is not affiliated with West Park and had just learned how to pronounce Kamilos’ name for the first time Tuesday.
She said she is ready to gather signatures for her petitions and hopes to get the two measures on the ballot as soon as possible.
“I’m just going to be knocking on doors,” she said. “This is a small town.”
To reach Jonathan Partridge at the Irrigator, call 892-6187 or e-mail him at
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And this woman wants to educate our kids and yet she can't even pronounce a simple name like Kamilos?