sour grapes smell wrote on Nov 5, 2008 5:40 AM:Campaigning on sour grapes is not effective, you come off too negative and when you do that, you go downhill. Thanks to SMART for helping residents like me see what was trying to passed as NOT SMART!

Oh yeah wrote on Nov 5, 2008 8:44 AM:we can find the total vote count here but not on 8? FRAUD!!!

SAD wrote on Nov 5, 2008 9:05 AM:It all comes down to who had the prettier signs. Obviously the majority of SM citizens didn't even bother to research Prop O. "Gee... the fire fighters are against Prop O so it must be bad." The developers win again.

Bamboozeled wrote on Nov 5, 2008 9:28 AM:Way to go San Marcos. You just got bamboozeled into giving carte blanche to a developer group that could care less about your traffic, overcrowded schools and flipping the zoning on property that their inner circle owns. Extremely short sighted. Strap yourself in for high density high rises and a blight like you've never dreamed. Poor unsuspecting suckers.

Yeah Baby wrote on Nov 5, 2008 9:50 AM:This is a great day for the city and the nation. The city is in good shape and will continue to make progress with the defeat of prop O. We have also put some brain cells and a pair of ears in the white house. Change is here. Thank God!

I feel really proud to be an American today!

--SM Citizen

Yo Skovgard and Wait wrote on Nov 5, 2008 3:29 PM:Now what are you going to do? You have filed lawsuits, submitted petitions and generally done whatever you could, short of handcuffing yourself to buildings, in an attempt to impose your way of thinking onto the citizens of San Marcos. Does the failure of this initiative finally get the message across to you both that the large majority of San Marcos citizens have voted a council into office so that they can make these decisions for ALL of us? Of course, as long as there is a lawyer alive you could waste even more of the taxpayer's time and money trying to use your weak argument to stop this city from progressing.

RCH wrote on Nov 5, 2008 3:51 PM:Greed wins again.

Oh No wrote on Nov 5, 2008 4:18 PM:Oh NO! Another election purchased by your local fire union.

Sold to Developers wrote on Nov 5, 2008 4:29 PM:Dewelopers had to spend $160,000 to defeat a low-budget grassroots campaign of citizens that have nothing to gain but protecting fellow citizens. They ran an amazing, positive campaign and 8000 voters is nothing to ignore. When more people are educated they will vote yes the next time! The opponents spent all that money just to scare people to believe that they wouldn't get fire and sheriff protection, doom & gloom economics, all lies. Abuse of power against citizens reigned over the good citizens supporting Prop O. Don't think for a minute that voters will not learn the truth. The momentum is growing. People WILL take back San Marcos from the developers. Stay tuned, the best is yet to come!

Lydia Romero wrote on Nov 5, 2008 4:36 PM:Why isn't Lydia Romero identified in the photo as our Deputy City Manager? What is she doing workingsoclose to councilmembers? Why was she mis-identifying herself throughout the entire campaign as just a "volunteer" for the city? Staff is still in charge here, not the citizens! Obviously. The Developers & Staff work closely together with our council to make sure all their dirty little back room deal projects get approved. That is why the citizens don't matter. Deals are already made. That is precisely why we need Prop O!

The next time wrote on Nov 5, 2008 5:46 PM:How many times does Ms Skovgart have to try to bring this to a vote? The same amount of times that she has run for council and not won?(is that 3?) We don't want to have you come back yet again. Telling people that the city can approve a toxic dump in their neighborhood was a lie used to get your signature gatherers to retain the signatures of duped people. They now know how dishonest your little "neighborhood protect act" was. Stop, enough already. No on O and good riddance to the sham of an initiative.

To the next time wrote on Nov 5, 2008 7:23 PM:Time to put down the koolaid and clear your head. I worked with Skovgard gathering signatures and NOBODY ever said anything about a toxic dump. How ludicrous can you get?

The opposition are the ones that duped the people, making them think their houses were going to burn down if Prop O was passed. Oh pleeze.....

And traffic going to be WORSE if Prop O passed? That makes a LOT of sense. Absurd.

The Chamber of Citizens will bring this initiative forward as many times as it takes to get it passed. When you have to combat $160,000 worth of developer lies, it's a huge effort. But over 8,000 supporters proved there is a growing force.

You hate firefighters wrote on Nov 6, 2008 12:35 AM:I can't believe the bile I hear spewed by the Yes on O folks. You hate firefighters? The O issue is simple. We can vote for or against the councilmembers we agree or disagree with depending on what they do with our city. So far our mayor and at least three of our councilmembers know what they're doing. We have good leadership and I'm looking forward to what the next few years will bring.