A petition for a stricter ban on retail pet sales has been rejected by the city of Del Mar because the proponent is not a resident of the city, according to a city staff report posted this week with the Jan. 21 meeting agenda.
The petition would have banned retail sales and other transactions involving arachnids, birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and fish. It would have bolstered the city’s current law, which only specifies dog, cat or rabbit.
Normally the City Council would have the option to adopt the regulations in the petition themselves or call for a ballot measure to allow residents to decide.
But since the sole proponent, Bankers Hill resident Amit Dhuleshia, does not live in Del Mar, the city clerk is not going to certify the petition and the council won’t decide on it.
“It is disappointing, especially after the strong we received from the residents of Del Mar,” Dhuleshia said in an email. “I will carefully review the legal justification provided by the city attorney and attend the meeting on Tuesday. I hope that, in the near future, the City Council will take the initiative to bring this ordinance forward, either by ing it themselves or by voting to place it on the ballot.”
The city received a notice of intent to circulate the petition in May 2024. Dhuleshia said he asked about a residency requirement and was referred to the state elections code, which did not seem to indicate that there is one.
But during the Jan. 6 City Council meeting, city staff said there is case law that does a residency requirement and wanted more time to look into it. The city attorney’s office had been investigating over the last couple weeks.
“While the California Elections Code does not require a proponent of a local initiative to be a resident or elector of the city in which the initiative is proposed,” the newly released city staff report says, “case law and the local initiative power under the California Constitution authority appears to the opposite: that the proponent must be a resident. The rationale is that proponents who propose amendments to local laws should be of the political community that will be impacted by those laws.”
Del Mar Mayor Terry Gaasterland said during the last council meeting that if city staff decided against proceeding with the petition, she would be open to adopting the regulations in the petition through the city’s internal process for adopting a local ordinance.
According to the city staff report, the council will be able to review that potential ordinance during a goals and priorities workshop that will be held in February or March.
