Victorville City Council considers maps for voting districts in switch to election system

Three proposed draft maps of voting districts were presented to the Victorville City Council as its members work to change their current election system and avoid a potentially costly lawsuit.

Although the council didn’t officially decide on any one plan during a special meeting Tuesday, the maps gave an idea of what Victorville might look like for future candidates running for elected office.

The city is switching from an at-large election system — where all residents living within city boundaries can vote for a candidate running for an open council seat — to a by-district model.

Under districts, voters living in specific geographic areas cast a ballot for a candidate who also lives there.

The decision came in response to a letter received in August from attorney Scott J. Rafferty — representing a group called Neighborhood Elections Now — who argued that Victorville’s at-large system was violating the California Voting Rights Act by “diluting the influence of Latino voters.”

The CVRA, passed in 2001, bans the use of an at-large election “if it would impair the ability of a protected class, as defined, to elect candidates of its choice or otherwise influence the outcome of an election,” according to the bill.

More than half, or 55.5%, of Victorville’s population of around 131,000 are of Latino descent, according to U.S. Census data.

Although staff disagreed with the assertion given there are two Latinas and an African-American serving on the council, they said winning a battle in court was unlikely.

City Attorney Andre de Bortnowsky advised the council in September that all public entities that have tried to fight an allegation of a CVRA violation “have either lost or have agreed to make the transition” to district-based elections, with some cities spending millions in litigation.

That month, the council signed off on a resolution to switch to districts that also started a clock on a deadline to complete the transition by Dec. 26 or face a lawsuit.

In October, the city hired a demography firm, Redistricting Partners, and have since held two public hearings and three community outreach meetings to gather public input about the makeup of the five districts.

Tuesday’s meeting highlighted three plans that the firm had come up with:

• Plan A would have two majority minority Latino districts which are defined by the Voting Rights Act as districts where a racial minority makes up 50% or more of the population

• Plan B would have three majority minority Latino districts meeting the minimum criteria at roughly 50%

• Plan C would have two districts where a majority of the population are renters

Most of the council members appeared to favor Plan A as the less likely to be legally challenged in court.

Peter Mitchell, owner of Redistricting Partners, said that though Plan B featured three Latino majority districts, it could be questioned whether they’d fulfill the intent of voting rights acts.

“One group, the Dolores Huerta Foundation, has taken to calling these ‘fantasy majority minority districts’ because they don’t have the effectiveness of being able to help the Latino community elect a candidate of choice and they’re majority minority just on paper,” he said.

Mitchell also added that the compactness — meaning lines do not bypass nearby population in favor of more distant population — of the districts in Plan B could be challenged as well.

All council members, except Blanca Gomez, agreed that Plan C — which had no majority minority districts — wasn’t an option.

They also seemed concerned with some maps dividing neighborhoods, such as Eagle Ranch, and suggested tweaks to draft maps were in the future.

Time constraints are looming, however.

A timeline on Redistricting Partners’ presentation shows that the council has a public hearing scheduled next week on Dec. 8 where they will have to choose a final map to meet the Dec. 26 deadline due to procedural requirements.

Adoption of a district map mandates two subsequent hearings later that month: One to introduce and approve an ordinance and another to have a second reading of that ordinance.

To see the proposed district maps and provide input, click here.

Daily Press reporter Martin Estacio may be reached at 760-955-5358 or MEstacio@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DP_mestacio.

This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Victorville council considers voting district maps