San Bruno councilmembers, San Mateo-Foster City trustees moving to district elections

With the decisions, the agencies are among most recent in San Mateo County to adopt the system requiring officials to approve an electoral map dividing their jurisdiction into wards, where candidates must live and seek support from voters within those borders. As it stands, the highest vote getters win elections regardless of where they live.

San Mateo-Foster City

The district Board of Trustees was compelled to adopt the shift after receiving a letter from an attorney Scott Rafferty threatening to sue and force the school system to take on the by-district system.

It has become increasingly common for attorneys and social justice groups to leverage state voting laws to force public agencies to abandon at-large elections, with claims that the by-district system is more inclusive.

State election law heavily favors district elections, under an assumption that it lowers the barrier to entry for candidates because campaigns are cheaper to run across smaller geographic areas. Additionally, it empowers traditionally disenfranchised communities by assigning an elected official responsible for representing their interests, advocates claim.

School board President Ken Chin acknowledged those sentiments while expressing his support for the district’s decision.

“In my mind, it is positive — not only for the district but for the community as a whole,” he said.

Chin suggested the shift will lower the barrier to entry for those interested in running for the school board but cannot afford a campaign spanning across two cities.

Additionally, he expected the district system will yield greater representation on the board for communities which may have previously felt shut out of the district’s political process.

“For the community, hopefully it will build a stronger connection between elected officials and their constituents,” he said.

Though the decision was ultimately prompted by the district receiving the threat of legal action, Chin said he believed the shift was inevitable. To that end, he said the district had previously discussed the transition because so many other local agencies were making a similar move.

“The writing has been on the wall for every jurisdiction in California, so it wasn’t a matter of if, it was a matter of when,” he said.

Looking ahead, Chin expected that work should start soon to get community input on potential map configurations, as officials expect to rapidly advance through the process.

Ultimately, he expected that the district will have an electoral map adopted by the end of the year and the new system will be effective for the 2022 elections.

As the process unfolds, Chin said he will be focused on assuring potentially disenfranchised communities are empowered through the shift.

“How we structure it to make sure that those who have been marginalized and haven’t had the representation they deserve — making sure the district allows their voice, that is important,” he said.

San Bruno

Councilmembers agreed to hire a consulting firm that will help officials navigate the process of introducing district elections, following officials formally adopting the shift last year.

National Demographics Corporation will lead the effort to move away from at-large elections, and also look into an opportunity for San Bruno to shift from being a general law city to a charter city.

General law cities are bound by state regulations regarding municipal operations, while charter cities allow local officials greater authority to adopt specific policies and regulations.

As part of the election shift, officials will also examine whether the San Bruno City Council should be expanded from five positions to seven. The discussion follows previous direction from councilmembers who previously agreed to investigate abandoning the city’s independently elected mayor, in favor of rotating the post among councilmembers like most other cities in San Mateo County.

austin@smdailyjournal.com