Anti-fracking measure supporters get signatures, and arrest threats.

For supporters of the proposed ballot measure that would ban fracking and new oil development in Monterey County, there is some good news: Over the last month, petitioners gathered more than 8,000 signatures, eclipsing the approximately 7,500 signatures needed to get the measure on the ballot.

The bad news for the petitioners—who have a goal of reaching 15,000 signatures by May 3—is that they are sometimes being threatened with arrest.

In numerous incidents over the past month, petitioners at Costco in Sand City, and at various locations in Monterey, have been approached by police or security guards responding to a complaint. In Monterey, the petitioners have been allowed to remain, but at Sand City’s Costco, police have been firm in making them leave the premises.

On April 8, Andy Hsia-Coron, one of the leaders of Protect Monterey County, the group behind the measure, is in the Costco parking lot to collect signatures. His wife had been threatened with arrest there earlier in the week, but he says after he talked with one of the store’s managers, everything was smoothed out.

“They not only have the right, but they have the responsibility to let democracy flourish,” he says.

Yet later in the day, he was forced to leave the premises after a more senior manager threatened to call the police.

That same day, at the Monterey Peninsula College Farmers Market, two petitioners also fell afoul of authorities. As one of them, Chad Balesteri, gathers signatures in the center of the market for about 30 minutes, numerous passersby thank him for being there.

But he is soon approached by Catherine Barr, the market’s manager, who asks him to leave the market area.

“I’m getting people saying they’re not coming to the farmers market because of this issue,” she says. “I don’t lie.”

In the parking lot, Pacific Grove resident Audrey Doocy says she was kicked out of the market by Barr for being too “aggressive” in gathering signatures.

“I am not an aggressive person,” she says. “I have a very hard time doing this.”

Numerous state court rulings over the past 40 years have affirmed the right for the public to gather signatures in shopping centers with shared parking lots, in that they are essentially town squares. However, Van v. Target, a 2007 ruling, found petitioners could be barred from shopping centers without designated public gathering spaces.

“It’s really up to the property owner,” says Sand City Police Chief Brian Ferrante. “This isn’t something we are enforcing on our own.”