Hours after saying he would pay for a verification, Councilman Carl DeMaio decided not to challenge the disqualification of his proposed November ballot measure that would make it easier to outsource municipal services in San Diego.
"I am appreciative of the thousands of San Diegans who joined our effort to put real fiscal reform on the ballot for a public vote -- and I pledge to continue to work every day to reform our city's finances from inside city government and if necessary through another citizens ballot initiative in 2012," DeMaio said in a statement.
Earlier today, officials with the campaign to get the measure on the November ballot announced they were prepared to pay the $151,000 cost to have a signature-by-signature verification.
The Registrar of Voters announced late Monday that DeMaio's measure failed to gather enough valid signatures to put it on the ballot in November.
A total of 134,441 signatures were submitted, but according to the City Clerk's Office, a 3 percent random survey indicated that not enough of them would be valid.
Backers of the measure needed 96,834 valid signatures to get the measure on the ballot.
The measure, supported by local contractors, would allow San Diego to directly outsource municipal services, bypassing the unions. It would also require that contracts be posted online and mandate that elected officials disclose campaign contributions from contract bidders.
Opponents say the real purpose of the measure was to repeal an ordinance that requires companies that do business with San Diego to pay employees a "living wage."
