The June 3, 2015 letter gets right to the point. It starts out, “We have received complaints from Latino citizens and voters…that the use of an at-large city council election system results in Latino vote dilution and prevents Latino voters from electing candidates of their choice.” The letter threatens legal action absent a satisfactory response from the city.
A letter such as that, if sent to Gilroy by MALDEF, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, would snap folks to attention like an officer on deck.
Gilroy has not received that letter. Yet.
It was sent to the mayor, city council, city attorney and city manager of Garden Grove, population 175,000, where about 37 percent of residents are Latino.
On the surface, the two cities appear quite different. Gilroy has 53,000 residents, but about 58 percent are Hispanic and nearly 80 percent of Gilroy school students are Hispanic.
But both cities face, or will face, the force of a law that is rapidly changing how Californians elect city councils, school boards and community college trustees. Scores of cities and governing bodies are affected, including Morgan Hill and Gavilan College in Gilroy.
It’s the California Voting Rights Act of 2001. The law was designed to protect the rights of minority communities to elect officials that will represent their interests.
The solution has been for cities and others to drop longstanding at-large election formats and switch to district elections.
In the former, candidates run citywide and voters choose from among all candidates.
In the latter system, cities, school boards, etc., are divided into sections or districts, and candidates run in and are elected from those districts. There are variations on this theme, but that’s the gist of it.
Gavilan Community College just voted to switch to district elections after using a hybrid form of the at-large system for nearly a century.
Reports of successful legal challenges or threats of litigation to end at-large elections in other college districts were enough to move Gavilan’s trustees to action.
“In my opinion, we decided to spend money for Gavilan programs and projects rather than see an award of fees to lawyers,” trustee Walt Glines told the Dispatch.
“Also, I think district elections as described in the California (law) are the way to go.”
The Morgan Hill Unified School District also will switch to district elections, spurred on by a local activist group.
So, what about the Gilroy City Council? And the Gilroy Unified School District, for that matter?
Unlike Garden Grove, where MALDEF says it has been at least 60 years since a Latino sat on the city council, Gilroy’s council and school board have had Hispanic members for years.
Right now, about half of the city council is all or part Hispanic, for example. Is that good enough? And does it matter, for example, where they live? Is there a representative from the city’s mostly Hispanic east side?
During a city council retreat several years ago the topic was discussed, but nothing came of it.
Recently, the council doubled the amount of money candidates can accept and spend on campaigns, which might make it tough for those without deep-pocket supporters to pay for filing fees, let alone run a viable campaign.
So do the higher campaign spending limits make the system a little less fair?
Four city council members responded to a Dispatch survey about the subject of the election format. They were Mayor Don Gage and members Perry Woodward, Cat Tucker and Roland Velasco, the latter two Hispanic or part Hispanic.
The consensus seemed to be that while Hispanics are well represented on the council, and have been for years, and that state law is not being broken, it might be a very good idea to take a close look at all issues involved in the at-large vs. by-district debate—and change things if that’s the better way to go.
We agree that looking into the issue is a good and necessary first step.
