South San Francisco keeps its district map

The city finds itself in a complex situation due to its partially completed transition to district representation started four years ago. The council is required by state law to reexamine its map given the release of 2020 census data, despite the map having been drawn relatively recently. Maps would ordinarily be redrawn every 10 years.

“I know we have this opportunity to potentially look at it this second time around … I’m just really concerned about the timing,” said Nagales.

The council over the course of several recent meetings explored numerous potential changes to the map, like shifting boundaries to better maintain communities that could have shared interests within a single district. But the council ultimately opted it was not worth the potential confusion as residents could still be getting used to the existing arrangement.

A demographer hired by the city confirmed the existing map meets all state law requirements, like population deviation between districts.

South San Francisco is among hundreds of other cities across the state to make the switch to district-based elections in recent years, spurred by potential litigation related to the California Voting Rights Act. The act requires the votes of minority voters not be “diluted,” something that can happen during at-large elections, according to the state law, which builds on the idea that district elections can increase equitable representation by empowering constituents with shared interests to elect their representatives of choice.

Prior to 2018, the city elected its five members of the City Council at large, meaning each resident got five votes, one for each member. Under district-based elections, residents get just a single vote with which to elect one member of the council to represent the district in which they live. The title of mayor and vice mayor rotates annually among councilmembers.

Councilmember James Coleman and Mayor Nagales, representing districts 4 and 2 respectively, were elected in 2020. Vice Mayor Nicolas and Councilmember Mark Addiego, currently representing the entire city (having been elected prior to the city transition to district elections), will be up for reelection in November, and will need to run within the districts in which they live. Addiego lives in district 5, Nicolas lives in district 3 and Councilmember Eddie Flores lives in district 1. Flores was appointed in 2020 to fill a vacancy and was not assigned a district; he will continue to serve at-large until 2024.

corey@smdailyjournal.com

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