Rancho Cordova will switch from at-large to by-district elections after threats of legal action

Rancho Cordova residents: Whether you’ve never attended a city council meeting or you’re a vocal city hall regular, the next few months might be a good time to tune in to your local politics.

One longtime resident even called it the “most consequential event in Rancho Cordova since incorporation.”

The Rancho Cordova City Council, in collaboration with the public, will spend the next three months drawing and deciding on a map to split the city into districts as it transitions from at-large to by-district elections, following the threat of a lawsuit in a June 7 letter. The first public hearing in the process was part of Monday’s council meeting, and hearings will continue into early October.

In addition to deciding how many districts to split into and what areas will be included in each district, the city will also be deciding whether to continue with a rotating mayor system or switch to a directly elected mayor.

Currently, the council consists of five members who are selected through a general election by the entire population of Rancho Cordova. Councilmembers serve four-year terms, and term expirations are staggered so that every two years about half of the seats are up for election. There are not any term limits for the role.

The positions of mayor and vice mayor rotate annually in December, allowing each member to take a turn so long as they remain in the position long enough.

While the mayor, under Rancho Cordova’s current system, does have the opportunity to exhibit a certain amount of leadership, and officially represents the city, they have the same privileges and voting power as any other member of city council.

The letter threatening legal action, sent from attorney Scott. J. Rafferty on behalf of Neighborhood Elections Now, challenged the Rancho Cordova election system by stating that the city’s at-large election process “may be in violation” of the California Voting Rights Act.

The California Voting Rights Act expands on the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, and attempts to address the vote dilution that may be caused by racial polarization in at-large voting systems in the state, like the one Rancho Cordova employs.

Rafferty’s letter said that he and the advocates he was writing on behalf of believe the at-large voting system has “resulted in underrepresentation for large parts of the city.”

He went on to cite the areas where each current city council member lives, noting that Donald Terry, Garrett Gatewood and Siri Pulipati all live in the Anatolia neighborhood, which he said he views as part of “one clear community of interest (and) is entitled to only one council member” after the city is split into districts.

When the city splits into districts, each member will have to live in the district where they were elected for the entirety of their term.

“District elections will ensure that whenever a difficult choice must be made, the council has a representative who is committed and accountable to each affected neighborhood,” Rafferty’s letter reads, in part.

Palmdale, Santa Clara, Modesto and other cities have fought against districting after similar legal cases were brought against them citing the legislation. Almost all of them lost, and all of them incurred high legal fees in the process.

The council chose to not fight the lawsuit, but instead adopt a resolution of intent to transition to district-based elections on July 17, with a 5-0 vote, within the 45-day adoption timeline required by the California Voting Rights Act. The same guidelines guarantee a 90-day “safe harbor” period for the city to go through the district mapping process and involve the public in decision making.

What’s the plan for Rancho Cordova districting?

So how is the council planning to balance taking the time to hear from the community with needing to keep on track for the looming deadline? Here’s the plan:

The city will host five public hearings, the first of which was held on Monday, and two informal community forums over the course of the next two months. Residents will have the opportunity to create maps to submit as proposals for how to split the districts, using either online tools that will be introduced at the first community forum, or paper and pen.

Once the council has decided on the number of districts they’re aiming for, they will review proposed maps submitted by community members, fellow council members and an outside consultant.

Council members will then select a map and adopt it by ordinance. The next election, in November 2024, will put the district map into effect for the first time.

All of the meetings will be held at Rancho Cordova City Hall, but the times vary. The public hearings will be treated as an agenda item during regularly scheduled council meetings.

Although the council is collecting public feedback through the forums, they will be the ones to ultimately vote on which map to adopt. However, if the public is unhappy with the decision, they can use a referendum to put a challenge to the map on the ballot if they gather enough signatures.

“They should know that if they make a decision and we don’t like the ordinance, we will 100% put it on the ballot,” said long-time Rancho Cordova resident Doniell Cummings. “Because that’s the kind of community that we are.”

Many options, many opinions in Rancho Cordova

At the first public hearing on Monday, Doug Yoakam, a consultant for the city, gave a presentation laying out the options and regulations for how to create districts and how the public could be involved in the decision.

The council first has to decide into how many districts it will split Rancho Cordova; options range from four to nine.

If the city chooses an even number of districts, it will default to a directly elected mayor, who could live in any one of the districts, and would be voted on by the entire population of Rancho Cordova annually. If it chooses an odd number, the council will continue with the rotating mayor system that is currently in place.

Either way, the mayor will not have special powers on the council, but will retain the same status that Rancho Cordova’s mayor has now, with the same voting power as any other council member.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, the majority of community members said that they wanted to split the city into five districts, although some wanted to move to seven districts, and one person wanted three. Most members of the public who spoke at the meeting were also in favor of keeping the rotating mayor system.

Many people referenced feeling rushed by the quick decision process, and wanted more time to form an opinion about the number of districts and mayor system that they preferred. Matt Cummings, who has lived in Rancho Cordova since before it became a city in 2003, said of the districting process: “This is the most consequential event in Rancho Cordova since incorporation.”

Council members expressed a variety of opinions at Monday’s meeting, although all ranged from five to seven districts. Mayor Linda Budge and Vice Mayor David Sander were in favor of a directly-elected mayor, council members Pulipati and Terry were in favor of a rotating mayor, and Gatewood was undecided.

In the end, the council decided to wait until its next formal meeting to decide on the number of districts, citing a desire to hear from more community members before making their final decision. However, members did narrow down the options to five, six or seven districts based on their own opinions and public feedback during the meeting.

Is the Rancho Cordova community being reached in time?

Maria Chacon Kniestedt, the communications director for the city of Rancho Cordova said that postcard invitations with information about the times and dates of the hearings and community forums were sent out to every resident with a mailing address.

Some attendees said they came after receiving notice via the postcard this weekend, while some said their cards were delivered on Monday or hadn’t yet arrived.

Other members of the public who attended the meeting said that they knew about the district creation meeting because they are included on email lists about city politics, or that they read it on community social media app Nextdoor.

Fayzah Mughal, a member of the public who spoke at the hearing, said that she feels notification of the hearings has been “inadequate.”

“What are we doing to go out into the community on this very tight timeline to really pull from the community that should be engaged, and traditionally has not been engaged?” Mughal said. “They are the very reason for us having these conversations in the first place.”

Councilman Gatewood said that he didn’t feel that he had heard from enough people yet to know what his stance was on the number of districts. He also said that he will be holding open hours at city hall in the coming weeks, that his inbox will be open and that he would be willing to grab coffee with citizens who are unable to make it to the meetings. The city council meetings will also have a Zoom option. The community forums will not, but they will be recorded and posted online later.

“I’m coming to every single one of the meetings,” Doniell Cummings said. “And I’m bringing as many of my neighbors as I can.”

Amateur cartographers: How to join the map-making process

If community members are interested in participating in the process by submitting maps for consideration, they have a few options for how to do so.

For those who don’t have reliable internet access, or the internet-averse, there is a map template posted online with area population counts included that residents can print out and use to hand draw lines where they believe the districts should be split. Keep in mind that, legally, the population of each district must be roughly the same. More information about population targets is included on the map.

Community members can also submit any other form of hand-drawn map, so long as it identifies street names.

For those who aren’t into mental math, there are online tools that residents can use to draw their maps that will help you to automatically add up population counts, including Davis’s Redistricting App to draw maps and Interactive Map Review to compare maps, look up specific locations and zoom in on map boundaries.

Instructions on how to use these tools can be found at drawranchocordova.org/draw-a-map, and an introduction to using the mapping tools will be part of the first community forum on Thursday.

The maps, whether paper or digital, can be submitted via email to districts@cityofranchocordova.org, or paper maps can be physically turned in to the first-floor receptionist at city hall. Include a picture or scan of the map if it is paper, and a URL link to your map otherwise. The website notes that it is helpful for participants to submit written comments with their map describing why they made the districting choices that they did.

The deadline for maps from the public to be considered at the Aug. 29 public hearing is Aug. 18. Maps may then be revised or updated, or community members can submit new maps, with a final deadline of Sept. 7.