Report to Mayor and City Council
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Special Orders of the Day
SUBJECT:
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CONTINUED PUBLIC HEARING (PUBLIC HEARING NO. 8) 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: CONSIDERATION OF DEMOGRAPHER'S RECOMMENDED MAPS, REVIEW OF POTENTIAL ELECTION SEQUENCING, DISCUSSION OF POSSIBLE PUBLIC WORKSHOPS, AND REVIEW OF POTENTIAL DATES TO APPROVE BALLOT MEASURE FOR MARCH 3, 2020 CHARTER AMENDMENT (CITY COUNCIL)
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I. SUMMARY
This public hearing is a continuation of the October 1 public hearing, and the recommendation will be to continue the public hearing after discussion to November 5 to be able to consider additional maps created by the second demographer, NDC, and any additional maps created by the public using the enhanced Public Participation Kit created by NDC.
Tonight, the City Council may revisit the four maps created by the original demographer, Compass Demographics, the three original Draft Maps plus an additional map (Map 1T) based on input received by City Council on September 17. Additionally, Council did discuss on October 1 several issues related to election sequencing, i.e. once the Council has selected a map they then must also select which districts stand for election in 2020 and which stand for election in 2022 (Exhibit 19).
Finally, this staff report revisits the City Council discussion on the possible dates for adoption of the Council Districting Ordinance would still allow for District elections in November, 2020, and the milestone dates for approval of a ballot measure to propose a charter amendment on the March, 2020 ballot.
Background
On May 22, 2018, the City received a letter from Shenkman and Hughes, PC, 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) of 2001. Shenkman asserts that the ...
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