At a special meeting last night, Sonoma’s City Council approved a resolution of intent to transition from At-Large elections to District-Based elections for City Council. The vote was unanimous, with Jack Ding absent.
The resolution was prompted by a perceived threat of potential litigation over the California Voting Right Act (CVRA), a measure passed in 2001 and signed in 2002. The act was intended to improve the political representation of minority groups with a city that were perceived as unable to gain appropriate positions of power.
City Attorney David Ruderman noted that there is nothing in the act that exempts small cities, and brought attention to the City of Healdsburg, which recently decided to transition to By-District elections due to it receipt of a demand letter from a Malibu-based attorney bringing such actions throughout the state. A fee up to $30,000 is attached to the receipt of a letter of demand, but it can be avoided by the city acting to implement District-Based elections prior to the receipt of any such letter. He added that there is no evidence that the city’s current At-Large system violates the CVRA.
The matter was the subject of a previous closed session of the City Council, which is allowed under the Brown Act when the city is subject to a threat of litigation. As of this time, however, no legal action against the city has been filed, nor any letter of demand received. The action by the council is therefore preemptive.
California has a total of 482 incorporated cities, approximately 185 of which use District-Based elections, some of which made the change from At-Large in response to litigation, and others to preemptively avoid it. The decision by the City of Sonoma is in that latter category. The CVRA prohibits the use of an at-large electoral system if it “impairs the ability of a protected class to elect candidates of its choice or its ability to influence the outcome of an election” (Elec. Code, § 14027.). This law has led more than 185 cities in California to transition to a district-based voting system for their councils, whether by choice or through litigation. No city, Ruderman advised, has successfully defended itself from a legal action undertaken under the CVRA. Information about implementing district election can be found on the website of the League of California Cities.
Both Mayor John Gurney and Councilman Ron Wellander expressed criticism and frustration with the costly effect of CVRA litigation threats on small cities. The current City Council members live in different areas of the city; Farrar-Rivas and Gurney on the East Side, Lowe and Wellander on the West Side, and Ding on the North Side.
It will cost the city up to $50,000 to engage a professional demographer, whose job it will be to determine the outlines of each district. Once that has been accomplished, a series of public hearings will be held before the City Council takes a final vote on whether to implement the By-District election procedure.
By Larry Barnett
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