The City of La Palma has announced that city voters, beginning in 2024, will be electing their city council members by district elections rather than the current at-large system.
The move, though now official, is not a shock to most La Palma residents, or at least those paying attention to city affairs. The Council has been transparent with its citizens since receiving a registered notice earlier this year.
After much consideration, the city Council voted to give final approval to a district voting map last week at its Oct. 4 meeting, paving the way for a new electoral chapter for the city.
“On March 9, 2022, the City received a certified letter from attorney Kevin Shenkman, from the law firm of Shenkman & Hughes, on behalf of Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, alleging that the City’s current at-large election system violates the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA),” said a press release posted to the city’s website Oct. 10.
After receiving the letter in March, the city almost immediately notified the public and began holding discussions in public session, even if they did not like it.
And although the transition is now final, it has not come without misgivings expressed by city officials.
“This whole thing bothers me so much,” said Mayor Michelle Steggell during a meeting earlier this year at which the issue was discussed.
“I am just so unhappy with this,” she said, “and I want that to be on record.”
“We’ve never had a problem,” the mayor continued, “not one person has come to the city council to say, ‘I am not being represented,’” she said. Steggell is termed out and is not a candidate for re-election in November.
Despite the objections, Shenkman’s letter nevertheless claimed the city’s at-large elections were “disenfranchising Latinos” and it demanded that La Palma make the transition to by-district elections. The city even posted a copy of Shenkman’s letter to the city’s website.
Currently, the city’s five council members are elected at-large, meaning any qualified voter living within the city limits can qualify to run for one of the five seats on the city council.
Under the by-district system, a map of the city has been marked up into five separate geographic districts, each comprised of a similar number of voters (see illustration). Candidates, beginning in 2024, can only qualify to run to represent the Council district in which they live.
La Palma gave little thought to opposing the move, citing among other factors the massive legal costs city taxpayers could be exposed to if they chose to fight the allegation in court.
For cities like La Palma, who voluntarily inform the court that they will transition to districts, legal fees are limited to $30,000, Shenkman has said. Cities that fight the CVRA end up paying millions in legal costs, said Shenkman, noting that not a single city that has opposed the transition to districts has yet won in court.
La Palma City Attorney Ajit Thind exchanged emails with Shenkman to request 90 days, which was ultimately granted by Shenkman.
Since then, the city has been working with Dr. Justin Levitt, the Vice President of National Demographics Corporation, the same firm utilized by the City of Los Alamitos when they switched to district voting.
“With NDC’s assistance, the City set up a website to allow residents to draw maps, based on the legal criteria, learn about the transition to by-district elections, and answer questions,” the city said in the post.
Following five public hearings, a community workshop (June 21, 2022), mailers and City publications, the City Council adopted a district map and sequence of elections at its Oct. 4, 2022, regular meeting.
According to the city, beginning with the Nov. 2024 election, La Palma residents will vote for one City Council seat. Candidate(s) for each district may only run for the district seat in which they live and the district voters may only vote for the candidate(s) in their district of residency.
According to the city’s demographics, each district houses slightly more than 3,000 residents.
The term of each City Council seat remains the same, as each elected member can serve a term of four years with no more than two consecutive terms. The Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem will be selected each year by the Council, as it was with the at-large election system.
Following each decennial Census (every ten years), the city will have to draw new districts.
