Opposition to an at-large mayor rises in Belmont

However, some residents are against the at-large mayor and support delaying a decision and holding more public meetings. Jennifer Lien, a Belmont resident, is spearheading a push to move to five districts, which she believes is more equitable and allows for more representation. She supported a map similar to the current Belmont Mid-Peninsula Water District’s map that divides the city into communities with more common interests and smaller districts to give political power to overlooked neighborhoods and ensure equal power among seats. She also felt an at-large mayor could open the city to potential future legislation and unfairly give one district two representatives.

Coralin Feierbach, former Belmont mayor and councilmember, criticized the council for zeroing in on four districts and an at-large mayor so early in the process and rushing through before the public became informed. She cited the rushed public input as reason enough to extend the March 8 meeting and instead have at least two more open meetings before deciding. She called the situation a circumvention of the public process.

“We don’t need an elected mayor. We need five districts where there’s a person that is elected from that district that represents the district, just like they have with the Board of Supervisors, the city of San Mateo, and other cities,” Feierbach said.

In a Feb. 26 letter to the Belmont city attorney, Shenkman stated he had not agreed to any at-large mayor plan or provided an opinion one way or another on whether a case could be made if the 4-1 systems violates state law. He said there was still time to adopt a five-district map. He was willing to discuss reasonable timeline extensions if needed.

“It may be that the Belmont City Council desires to adopt a 4-1 system, and it has the authority to do that. But, if it’s going to do that, it needs to deal with any political consequences and public pushback on its own; we will not be the council’s political cover,” he said in the letter.

He further stated that while the council has the authority to adopt an at-large mayor system, even one at-large councilmember is still considered an “at-large method of election.” Of the three maps being proposed, he found the proposed Maps B and C were superior, with Map A inappropriately combining “a large disparate area to the historically underrepresented area around CA-82 and US-101, likely relegating that underrepresented area to further underrepresentation.”

City Attorney Scott Rennie did not respond to requests for comment and Mayor Julia Mates declined to comment.

Belmont is holding a special meeting at 5:30 p.m. March 8 to discuss the issue, with time to go into the 7 p.m. regular meeting scheduled if more time is needed. People can go to belmont.gov/our-city/city-government/meetings-agendas-minutes to learn more about watching the meeting online and to get more information.

curtis@smdailyjournal.com

(650) 344-5200 ext. 102