San Bruno picks district map

Councilmembers agreed on a district formation that most closely follows natural boundaries including highways and major roads, and keeps together neighborhoods including Rollingwood and Pacific Heights, among others. The map was one of 29 submitted for review by community members. The council will hold another meeting March 8 to formally adopt the arrangement.

The city, like hundreds of others across the state, opted to switch to district elections to comply with the California Voting Rights Act. The act requires the votes of minority residents not be “diluted,” something that can happen during at-large elections, according to the law. Switching to districts can in some cases increase equitable representation by empowering constituents with shared interests to elect their representatives of choice.

While other cities have received letters threatening litigation if a switch was not made, San Bruno opted to preemptively begin the process to save the city money and allow more time for deliberation.

With the new system, San Bruno will continue to elect its mayor at-large, independent from the rest of the City Council. San Bruno is currently the only city in the county to elect the mayor separate from the city council; other cities rotate the title between councilmembers every year or every other year.

The arrangement presented a hiccup in the district forming process during the council’s Tuesday meeting. The council last year expressed interest in examining a switch to a five-seat council without a separately elected mayor similar to neighboring cities, something that would require five districts. With that in mind, councilmembers had agreed it would be beneficial to come up with both a four- and five-district map.

The city’s independent mayor arrangement is the result of a 1977 proposition passed by voters and changing the system could require another vote.

But during a nearly four-hour discussion on the matter, Councilmember Michael Salazar pointed out that mapping software made available for the public to submit maps only allowed for four-district submissions, and thus no five-district maps had been submitted.

Given the discovery and an approaching deadline to complete the process, the council opted to move forward only with the four-district map.

“We’re talking about compressing five months worth of public input and consideration and development and discussion into 14 days,” Salazar said, noting the amount of time the council had so far spent on the process. “I don’t think it’s fair to the public, I don’t think it’s fair to the process.”

The city hired a consultant to aid in forming maps. The council had hoped that forming four- and five-district maps concurrently would save money by not needing to repeat the process twice. The city last year estimated the process would cost $100,000.

“It appears that we’re going to be paying for this process again,” said Vice Mayor Linda Mason, who had been most vocal about including a five-district arrangement in the effort during a January meeting.

During the city’s March 8 meeting, councilmembers will also decide the order in which districts will be up for election. The map puts Mason and Salazar in District 3, Councilmember Marty Medina in District 4 and Councilmember Tom Hamilton in District 2.

The first by-district election will occur this November when Mason and Medina will be up for reelection, meaning District 3 and 4 will likely be first up. Hamilton and Salazar will be up in 2024. The mayoral seat held by Rico Medina is up every two years and will be contested in November.

corey@smdailyjournal.com

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