San Bruno seeks input for switch to district elections

The city is among many others across the state to make the switch, spurred often by potential litigation related to the California Voting Rights Act. The act required the votes of minority voters not be “diluted,” something that can happen during at-large elections, according to legal precedent. Switching to districts can in some cases increase equitable representation if communities with similar ethnicity and socioeconomic standings are grouped together.

“We can think of each district as being a collection of neighborhoods and communities,” said Kristen Parks, a districting consultant hired by the city. “What we don’t want to do is to draw these districts right though the middle of neighborhoods or communities that reduces their ability to elect representatives to the council.”

The city held its second public hearing this week and will hold four more in January, February and March seeking public input on the process.

The districts must follow certain criteria; population size between districts must not deviate by more than 10% and districts must be continuous, meaning there can be no “islands” or points of the same district that do not touch each other.

“When we draw districts we try to draw them in a logical fashion,” said Parks. “You do have freeways and other natural dividing lines, you do have some distinct neighborhoods, that’s going to be the focus.”

Districts decided on will remain as drawn for at least 10 years, with changes allowed every decade following the release of new census data.

San Bruno is the only city in the county that elects its mayor independent of the City Council, though Half Moon Bay is moving to a district system with a separately elected mayor in November 2022. Other cities rotate the title between councilmembers every year or every other year — meaning the title is largely symbolic. The arrangement means the four instead of five districts are needed because the mayor will continue to be elected at-large and not represent the entire city.

Councilmember Linda Mason earlier this year suggested the city adopt a rotating-mayor system. No action has been taken pertaining to the idea, but Mason did question whether the city should draw a map to include five districts as well.

The current districting process, which includes the hired consultants, is estimated to cost the city more than $100,000. Mason suggested combining the efforts could save money.

“What I don’t want is to get to next year and now we’re not going to move forward on any potential changes on the districting because now we’re going to be spending another $100,000 for a new district map,” said Mason.

Councilmember Tom Hamilton and Vice Mayor Marty Medina agreed the option should be explored. The city’s independent mayor arrangement is the result of a 1977 proposition passed by voters and changing the system could require another vote, possibly to take place in 2022.

Either way, a map with four districts will first be necessary.

Members of the public are encouraged to submit their own district maps, and a community workshop will take place on Nov. 1 to demonstrate district mapping tools.

Go to districtingsanbruno.org for more information.

corey@smdailyjournal.com

(650) 344-5200, ext. 105