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Ms. Dennis felt Council should wait before making a decision until the leader of the petition drive had time to absorb Ponderosa's request. She did not want to make the decision tonight in regards to rescinding the ordinance. She expressed her concern over the situation and was disappointed the problem had not been fixed sooner. She said she wanted to rescind the ordinance if possible because she did not want to subject residents to a election campaign. She did not necessarily agree with having her decision referended but realized it was the residents' right. She felt the referendum process had been interfered with in a criminal way. Ms. Michelotti felt the community had been violated. She still supported the project, but respected the citizen's right to overturn her decision. She did not agree with the tactics used by Ponderosa. She said it did not matter that there was a lawsuit; she had made up her mind to take action to give the citizens a chance to voice their opinion. She agreed that it would be wise to wait to make a decision. She believed the referendum signatures would be validated and the ordinance could go to the ballot. She felt the citizens needed to be recognized for all the hard work. Mayor Tarver said he was prepared to take action tonight but was advised against it. The process Ponderosa followed to reach this point was a difficult one. He was not trying to justify what Ponderosa did, but Ponderosa had a fight to protect itself. He did not agree with Council taking action to have the referendum process over the holidays and then for Ponderosa to take such a negative position. He felt the developer was running a campaign before there was any reason to run a campaign. He was concerned over the phone calls he has received in regards to the interference citizens experienced while trying to gather signatures. In his opinion it was a violation of their civil rights. He was told that Ponderosa knew what was happening and was going to take action to stop it, but still he received phone calls. He believed Ponderosa had the ability to stop the process at any time. He did not agree with Ponderosa filing the lawsuit. If the petition was thrown out by the judge, Council could not rescind the ordinance, which he wanted to do. He heard Ponderosa say this evening it would withdraw its lawsuit. This would give Council the right to do whatever it felt was appropriate. He commended the accomplishment of the residents in obtaining the signatures, especially over the holidays. He did not want to take any'action until he heard what the community wanted. He mentioned it would be his desire to rescind the ordinance under the Elections Code, which would then require Ponderosa to wait one year. During that one year Ponderosa could work with the neighborhood to bring back something that might work. He requested to continue the item until February 3 until a decision was made by the judge assuming Ponderosa determined not to drop the lawsuit. He indicated if the judge threw the petition out, he would nevertheless initiate a Council sponsored proposition to repeal the ordinance. Ms. Ayala agreed with everything that had been said. She mentioned the election process would be painful for the entire city. She would like everyone to consider this while waiting to see if the petition qualified. She apologized to the petitioners for any hardships they might have suffered. She received a copy of the script and found out the telephone surveyors were not following the script. She also went to a shopping center to investigate and discovered the public Pleasanton City Council 1/20/98 Minutes 11