Gilroy college moves fast on historic election change

GILROY—Gavilan Community College trustees in Gilroy approved new demographer-drawn election districts Tuesday, the school’s first, taking into account concerns about fair representation raised by Hispanic groups, board chairman Walt Glines confirmed.
After months of debate, trustees approved Plan 4 before the Gavilan board, which was a recommended draft from demographer consultant Jeanne Gobalet.
Groups such as the League of United Latin American Citizens(LULAC) and MALDEF, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, had their own recommended district lines, and some of their issues are addressed by the adopted plan.
“It includes quite a few elements suggested by LULAC/MALDEF, which suggested an original and then revised plan,” Glines wrote in an email to the Dispatch, Hollister Free Lance and Morgan Hill Times.
LULAC and MALDEF are long-standing, national Hispanic civil rights organizations.
Bowing to what they believed was an inevitable outcome and what was the right thing to do, and fearing expensive litigation if they failed to act, college trustees earlier this year agreed to an historic change from at-large to district elections for the school, whose attendance area includes San Benito County, Gilroy, San Martin and Gilroy, about 27,000 square miles. At-large elections had been the college district’s method of election trustees for nearly 100 years.
Moves to district elections have occurred statewide in recent years to comply with new laws passed to ensure equal representation for minority and under-represented communities.
For Gavilan, that means Hispanics. The student population is 58 percent Hispanic. The college last week received a $2.6 million federal grant to improve Hispanic achievement and college success as a federally designated Hispanic Serving Institution.
Glines noted that several more steps must occur in the district elections process, but Gavilan expects the new voting districts to be in place well before the November 2016 election.
Under the new system, candidates must live in the district they seek to represent and only residents of the district can vote for its candidates. Under the old, hybrid at-large system, the college’s geographic footprint was divided in three, with representatives from San Benito County, Gilroy and Morgan Hill. Voters cast ballots for candidates residing in any or all three areas.
With Gavilan College’s new district lines, three of the five districts will include Latino majorities, according to Glines.
He suggested the board’s decision came earlier than expected.
“I anticipated the final decision likely would be made in November. Obviously I was wrong,” he said.
To read the report with the district descriptions, go here.
 Gilroy Dispatch Editor Jack Foley contributed to this report.