Referendum won’t go to vote

Citing a legal opinion from Chico City Attorney Lori Barker, City Clerk Debbie Presson will not certify the disc-golf petitions, even though according to County Clerk Candace Grubbs they have sufficient valid signatures. Funny thing is, nobody seems to be unhappy about it.

That’s because the City Council, confronted by a hugely successful referendum drive, reconsidered its decision to remove disc golf from Upper Bidwell Park and on Jan. 6 voted unanimously to keep it there on an interim basis. Eventually an alternative site for the short course will be found, and the long course will be repositioned on the Highway 32 bluff.

“This should effectively end the disc-golf fandango, unless someone out there decides to file a lawsuit,” Lon Glazner (pictured), a leading disc-golf proponent, wrote on his “Commission Impossible” blog.

Barker’s opinion was that every page of the petition should have included a copy of the 300-plus-page Bidwell Park Master Management Plan update. This may be a “ridiculous technicality,” as Glazner puts it, but Presson’s action does avoid an expensive—and seemingly moot—special election.