There is an effort underway to collect signatures to place a referendum on the ballot to change the way we elect Council Members here in Santa Ana from At Large to Ward Specific. But it may be that we won’t have to go to such lengths after all!
With the recent uptick in cities facing scrutiny over at-large elections, perhaps it’s no wonder that the issue has attracted the attention of the State Legislature. Assembly Member Roger Hernandez of West Covina announced today that he plans to introduce legislation requiring all non-charter cities that have a population of 100,000 or more to hold district-based elections, according to the California City News.
There are 66 cities in California with over 100,000 people as of 2010, though not all are charter cities. Estimates say this legislation, if passed, would affect about 20 cities.
Hernandez noted that in some of these large cities, minorities actually account for a majority of the population, and “yet they lack representation on their city council.” District elections would encourage residents to run for office and increase competition in the elections, according to Hernandez.
For more on the legislation, see here.
Ward Specific City Council elections would remove the stink of Special Interests from City Hall and our Council Members would once more answer to us – the residents of this city. Isn’t it time to bring real democracy to Santa Ana?
Click here to contact Hernandez.
“Assembly Member Roger Hernandez of West Covina announced today that he plans to introduce legislation requiring all non-charter cities that have a population of 100,000 or more to hold district-based elections”
Santa Ana is a charter city – the law will not apply here.
Bummer!
It is sad to see yet another recruit joining the knee-jerk reaction (accent on JERK) typical in Sacramento, imposing a handy ‘shiny object’ solution on a perceived problem, without ANY analysis or comparison, then hammering the corners, as well as any innocent bystanders, to get a better fit, without explaining to all the unsuspecting residents of those cities how many police, fire, or library hours will have to be cut, or taxes raised ( for NO ADDITIONAL BENEFIT) to pay for the commissions, demographers, meetings and court trials to first construct, and then resolve, the inevitable (and continual) disputes over, district boundaries and maps, whose practitioners will now be guaranteed lifetime employment, while the residents figure out how to pay for them. But UN-funded mandates have NEVER bothered the folks in Sacramento who impose them!!! All that could be avoided if cities were to look at the ‘Cumulative’ and ‘Ranked Choice’ methods of voting, which so far pass the CA Court tests for representation opportunity, and have been used successfully (Ranked Choice) in San Francisco ( http://www.sfrcv.com/ )
MORE valid, serious roots of under representation, are LOW TURNOUT and LOW INFORMATION VOTERS, and of course the elephant in the room, INELIGIBILITY due to illeg…excuse me, ‘undocumented’ status. But rather than WORK to remedy these issues (at least the first 2), the supposed ‘easy way out’ of legislation is grabbed first, ignoring the consequences. Salt in the wound is getting it blindly IMPOSED by Sacramento, instead of LOCALLY CHOSEN after educated, thoughtful debate.
Yet, Districts make LITTLE DIFFERENCE to the manipulating technicians, who can JUST as easily write one (AT) LARGE check, as several SMALLER (district) ones. In fact they may SAVE money (That law of unintended consequences, again!) since they can NOW cleverly focus only on control of ONLY a MAJORITY number of districts, instead of CITY_WIDE spending! ALSO, this effectively DIS-enfranchises ‘losing’ voters in the Districts won by technicians, since they NO LONGER have the attention of the remaining (formerly at-large, now ‘other district’) members, if ‘their’ member disagrees with them.
Personally, I will now be watching progress on Rep. Hernandez’s legislation . Its ‘success’ may be my last signal, that, CA election METHODS are now MOOT, since, like former Detroiters, I’ll be voting with my FEET!
To learn more about alternatives, try these-
https://www.verifiedvoting.org/
http://votingmatters.wordpress.com/2008/06/29/new-book-applies-game-theory-to-vote-counting-methods/
http://www.fairvote.org/fair-voting-in-the-united-states#.UrUyu9JDuSo