Report to Mayor and City Council
Tuesday, June 18, 2019
Special Orders of the Day
SUBJECT:
Title
PUBLIC HEARING NO. 3 RELATED TO CHANGING FROM AN AT-LARGE TO A BY-DISTRICT SYSTEM FOR ELECTION OF CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS, PURSUANT TO THE CALIFORNIA VOTING RIGHTS ACT (CITY COUNCIL)
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I. SUMMARY
The third public meeting on district voting was noticed as a public meeting for tonight’s agenda. The second noticed public hearing on district voting was held on June 13, 2019. That meeting was continued to this evening. Since both noticed meetings are on the same subject matter, both matters will be heard simultaneously this evening.
Tonight is the third public hearing in the matter related to by-district voting in Carson. The law requires a minimum of two public hearings during this initial process. Two public hearings were held May 21, 2019 and June 13, 2019, respectively,
In order to move from at-large elections to by-district voting the City needs to establish both the data necessary to complete the process as well as a timetable for meeting state and federal requirements for the transition. The City has selected Compass Demographics, Inc. to assist with this process. The principal of the firm, David Ely, will lead tonight’s discussion.
Like the second public hearing, the discussion will surround the composition of maps and solicit public input on what to consider when preparing the maps. This third public meeting allows an additional opportunity for the residents to comment and ask questions. Draft maps will not be drawn this evening. They will be drawn by the demographer in consideration of the community’s input. All documents pertaining to districting are available on the city website. In addition once the demographer’s community “toolkit” is available for community use, a link will be placed on the city website to allow residents to utilize it.
II. RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
TAKE the following actions:
1. REPORT out on results of Public Hearing No. 2 held on June 13, 2019, and further DISCUSS the process of moving towards a voting by-district system.
2. CLOSE the public hearing.
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III. ALTERNATIVES
TAKE another action the City Council deems appropriate.
IV. BACKGROUND
WHY IS CARSON CHANGING THE ELECTION PROCESS?
On May 22, 2018 the City received a letter from Shenkman and Hughes, PC of Malibu demanding that the City Council elections transition from the current “at-large” method to “by-district” in order to conform to the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA). Mr. Shenkman asserted that the City of Carson is in violation of the California Voting Rights Act of 2001 because “racially polarized voting” occurs in the city.
A by-district election process means voters within a designated Council electoral district elect one City Council member, who must also reside in and be a registered voter of that district. The City of Carson currently elects City Council members through an at-large election process, which means that each voter elects all members of the City Council. The Mayor would continue to be elected at large.
Who creates THE district boundaries?
The by-district process will be transparent, accessible and participatory to all residents of Carson. A professional demographer has been hired by the City to create proposed district boundaries. A public electronic “tool kit” will be available for the public to draw and submit maps. Residents are able to provide input on boundaries, suggested criteria for creating boundaries, beyond what is legally required. Draft maps will be posted July/August 2019 for public view and comment. The city will hold a minimum of two additional public hearings to receive input on the draft maps. The dates of these hearings have not been set yet; however, when they are the City will continue to make this a public process. There will be a review period and a deadline for members of the public to submit input on the draft maps, or even their own draft maps generated using the toolkit described above.
HOW ARE DISTRICT BOUNDARIES DETERMINED?
Many factors may be considered, but population equality is the most important. The districts should be as close to the same size by population as possible. Other factors include:
• Preserving “communities of interest”
• Districts should strive to be compact
• Districts must be contiguous
• Districts should have visible (natural and man-made) boundaries
• Districts should include respect for past voter selections
• Districts should plan for future population growth
WHAT ARE COMMUNITIES OF INTEREST?
A community of interest is a neighborhood or community that would benefit from being in the same district because of shared interest, view, or characteristics. Possible community features or boundary definitions include:
• School attendance areas
• Natural neighborhood dividing lines such as roads, hills, or highways
• Areas around parks and other landmarks
• City borders
• Shared demographic characteristics, such as:
§ Similar levels of income, education or linguistic isolation;
§ Ancestry (not race or ethnicity)
§ Languages spoken at home
§ Single-family and multi-family housing units
PROS AND CONS OF BY- DISTRICT ELECTIONS
PROS
• Each geographic area of the city is represented
• Viewpoints that might not be citywide can be represented
• Minority candidates (racial or political) have a better opportunity to be elected
• It will likely cost less to run for City Council since citywide campaigning is not required
• Each voter has a specific Council member to contact for assistance
• Voter’s choice is simplified with less candidates to learn about
CONS
• Council members may represent only the interests of their districts, not the whole city
• Candidates may be elected with few votes
• Council members may have divergent views, may conflict with each other
• District lines have to be reviewed and possibly redrawn after each census and significant annexation
• Depending on staggered terms, not all voters may be voting each election, reducing overall turnout
Attached is a proposed schedule of events related to changing from at-large elections to by-district voting elections. After the maps are drawn, two more public hearings must be held and then the maps are finalized. Then an ordinance is introduced and adopted. It is anticipated that a special election would be held in March 2020 for the voters to consider an amendment to the City Charter establishing by-district voting. The first by-district elections for the City Council would occur in November 2020.
V. FISCAL IMPACT
No specific financial impact from the holding of this public hearing.
VI. EXHIBITS
1. Proposed schedule of events. (pgs. 4)
Prepared by: Lisa Berglund, Assistant to the City Manager