Councilmembers elected from neighborhoods will be more accessible, accountable and responsive. With this reform Measure, future Santa Cruz Councilmembers will be elected directly by their fellow neighbors -- not political machines.

Neighborhood district elections allow individual candidates to personally visit the homes of voters during a campaign, listen to their neighbors, and respond to their specific concerns. Residents will have easy and equal access to their representative at City Hall. Fair representation for all Santa Cruz Neighborhoods will be guaranteed.

This explains why voters in progressive cities like San Francisco, Berkeley, Watsonville & Salinas elect their city councils by district. Greater community participation and increased voter turnout are the result of saying YES to Neighborhood district elections.

Your YES VOTE will…

• Give each neighborhood a responsive voice in city government.
• Ensure that local issues are more important than partisan causes.
• Make councilmembers directly accountable to their neighbors.
• Lower campaign costs and empower more people to participate.
• Increase the diversity and quality of representation.

The City of Santa Cruz has become too large to enable candidates to meet all the voters. Unfortunately, this has led to candidates depending upon expensive political mail and slate campaigns run by professional consultants. The high cost of the current "at-large" system prohibits working people from winning office without the substantial financial backing of Special Interests.

Over 8,000 of your fellow citizens signed petitions to put Neighborhood district elections on this ballot. They clearly support grassroots democracy. We encourage you to ask your neighbors which councilmember election system serves your needs best.

Please feel free to contact us to ask questions, volunteer, or review the proposed seven neighborhood-based districts. Visit our website at www.santacruzneighborhoods.com or just call us at 458-4953. Thank you.

The claims made above are the OPPOSITE of what would happen if this measure passes:

• Increased Voter Turnout? Berkeley is the only other city mentioned above that requires run-off elections, proposed by this measure for Santa Cruz. Those December elections have a huge drop-off in voter turnout – exactly the opposite of the claim above.



• Lower Campaign Costs? Only 432 people voted in last year's district election in Watsonville. The winner spent over $10,000, more than seventeen times as much for each vote as the winner in the last city-wide Santa Cruz election – exactly the opposite of the claim above.



• Directly Accountable Councilmembers? Right now seven councilmembers are directly accountable to each neighborhood. If this measure passes, only one will be accountable to each neighborhood. This grants the other six the freedom not to be accountable – exactly the opposite of the claim made above.



• Neighborhood Empowerment? These proposed districts were drawn in private by a small group. They lump part of the Upper West Side with UCSC, and spilt the Circles, Seabright and Beach Area – exactly the opposite of the claim made above.



• Professional Consultants? The only out-of-town professional consultant reported to have been used in a Santa Cruz city campaign recently is the mid-county political operative advising this measure's supporters – exactly the opposite of the claim made above.

We all support diversity, community participation, accountability, lower campaign costs, and increased voter turnout. This measure accomplishes none of these goals. Please vote NO.