The Half Moon Bay City Council has delayed deciding on a new redistricting map and instead wants more public opinion on two potential map options following concerns about the process and the favored 504c map.
“Their direction was to get more public input from the entire community, but more specifically, the residents who will be specifically affected by the two maps that are under consideration. Those residents will be notified of the new maps being considered, and they will be given an opportunity to educate themselves and weigh in on the process,” City Manager Bob Nesbit said.
The council in January voted to move away from its four-district elected mayor system to a five-district model with an annual rotating mayor just a few years after choosing its current design. However, it decided at its Feb. 15 meeting to delay a final decision while seeking additional public input.
The city is still operating with five districts and a rotating mayor and has never had four districts before because it has not yet switched over. The switch hadn’t happened yet because the council agreed to a transition over several years. Redistricting is done every 10 years with new census data. Half Moon Bay was redistricted in 2018 over threats of litigation under the California Voting Rights Act. It is transitioning again because of new 2020 census data that requires it to redistrict again just a few years later. Changes in state law criteria factored into the council reconsidering a change. All five current councilmembers live in separate districts, meaning none will have to run against each other if the city goes back to five districts.
The council voted 3-2 at its Jan. 19 meeting to bring a five-district 504c map back for final council adoption based on the preference of the Redistricting Advisory Committee, a seven-person citizen committee that came up with several map options for new council election boundaries. However, the council at its Feb. 15 meeting decided to delay a decision and reconsider map 503b as an option, a finalist before the council chose 504c and get more public outreach from the Canada Cove and the Alsace Lorraine neighborhoods. Map 503b is still a five district map but puts Canada Cove in district four instead of stretching it to fit in District three.
“I think it best complies with the law. I think it results in the least impact on an existing district. It’s contiguous, compact and we don’t need to re-engineer it to do all those other things. It’s cleaner. It looks more legal,” Mayor Debbie Ruddock said.
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Questions remain about where those neighborhoods will go, such as if the Canada Cove neighborhood will go in the downtown district or with the Ocean Colony district in the south. Vice Mayor Deborah Penrose was not in favor of the 504c map and felt District 3 was too stretched and did not fit into the criteria. She noted the city had time until April to find out what Canada Cove wanted and suggested having more public input.
“My issue is solely what makes the most sense for the city, and also the issue of allowing the public to speak up and give their opinion,” Penrose said.
Both Penrose and Ruddock also had concerns about map 504c, the favored map of the majority of the council. Ruddock was worried about the lack of public input and the process of picking the map 504c. She also worried adoption of the 504c map would put the city at risk for litigation. She wanted to use the time between February and April to reconsider options. The city must complete redistricting by April 17, or a court would draw the map.
The city will come back to the council on March 15 for another first reading of the ordinance and map selection.
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