SAN DIEGO — Former San Diego city councilmember Scott Sherman has filed a court petition seeking substantive changes to a proposed ballot measure that, if passed, would tax owners of additional homes that sit empty for more than half the year.
In the writ of mandate obtained by CBS 8, former mayoral candidate Sherman claims that San Diego City Attorney Heather Ferbert’s impartial analysis of Measure A, also known as the ‘Empty Homes Tax,’ is false and misleading. Sherman also named City Clerk Diana Fuentes for her capacity as the city’s elections officer.
In the legal challenge, Sherman’s attorneys argue that everything from the ballot title to the City Attorney’s analysis is flawed because there is no clear definition of an “empty home.”
“The subject homes are not necessarily ’empty’; rather, Measure A defines ’empty’ by the number of ‘vacant’ days, with ‘vacant’ undefined. This use of ’empty,’ with an artificial definition inconsistent with the plain meaning of ’empty,’ is both false and misleading,” reads the Writ of Mandate…