CITY COUNCIL STAFF REPORT
Meeting Date: June 05, 2023
TO: THE HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCILMEMBERS
SUBJECT: PUBLIC HEARING TO CONSIDER DRAFT MAPS AND COMPOSITION
OF DISTRICTS FOR BY-DISTRICT ELECTIONS
PURPOSE
The purpose of this item is to hold the seventh public hearing overall, and the fourth “post-map” public hearing to review draft maps and the composition of districts and to receive input from the community concerning transitioning to by-district elections.
Background:
On March 6, 2023, the City Council adopted Resolution No. 20-23 declaring its intention to transition to district-based elections. This action was taken in response to the January 19, 2023 letter received from Kevin Shenkman of the Law Offices of Shenkman and Hughes on behalf of the Pleasant Hill Community Alliance, that claimed the City’s at-large system of voting dilutes the ability of Latino and Asian voters to elect candidates of their choice or to otherwise influence the outcome of the City’s elections. This letter is the first step before a potential lawsuit can be filed claiming the City has violated the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA). On March 20, 2023, the City Council held the first of four required public hearings and on April 3, 2023, the Council held the second required public hearing. On April 17, 2023, the Council conducted an additional “pre-map” hearing to gather additional public input.
A minimum of two “post-map” hearings are required be held, to review the draft maps and identify the sequencing of district based elections. This means the Council will select a final map, and determine which districts will be on the ballot at its next regular election in November, 2024 and which districts will defer to the general election in November, 2026. All proposed maps must be provided at least seven days prior to each of these “post-map” public hearings. The two “post-map” public hearings must be held within 45 days of each other. The first “post-map” hearing was held on May 1, 2023, with a second post-map hearing held on May 6, 2023 and a third post-map hearing on May 22, 2023. The hearing of June 5, 2023 is the fourth post-map hearing.
All required public hearings have been held.
Analysis:
If the City follows the “safe harbor” process set forth in Assembly Bill 350, a lawsuit can be avoided and the plaintiffs’ fees and costs will be capped at approximately $34,000. Pursuant to Elections Code § 10010, the City must hold at least four public hearings in connection with the establishment of electoral districts. The City is required to hold at least two public hearings over a period of no more than 30 days before any map or maps of the boundaries for the proposed voting districts are drawn. These first two “pre-map” hearings are for the purpose of developing the criteria that will be used for drawing the maps. At these”pre-map” public hearings, the community is invited to provide input regarding the composition of the districts. On March 20 and April 3, the Council held the first and second required “pre-map” hearings. At the second hearing, the Council directed that a further “pre-map” public hearing be held. Although not legally required, the Council desired to solicit additional public input and comment prior to the map drawing process. The additional hearing was held on April 17, 2023.
As part of this “pre-map” process, the Council provided direction as to specific factors, such as pertinent communities of interest or geographic landmarks it wanted the demographers to focus consideration on in the preparation of draft maps. The demographers also have evaluated any maps submitted by the public for compliance with the CVRA and Federal Voting Rights Act (FVRA) and those maps have been and are being presented for Council’s consideration at the “post-map” hearings.
To increase public awareness of the transition to district elections, the City has been and will continue to use a variety of public communication channels to engage members of the community, including having sent a postcard to every residence in the City prior to publication of the initial draft districting maps. Information also will be distributed by publishing newspaper notices five days before each hearing; social media posts; emails sent to a distribution list of members of the public who have submitted written comment, City commissioners, and subscribers to the City’s Outlook newsletter and the City’s bi-weekly Update newsletter.
Districting information will continue to be featured on the City’s website at the following web address: www.pleasanthillca.org/districts, which is populated with information in nine languages (including English) about how the public can participate in the process and answers to frequently asked questions about the districting process. The City has enabled closed captioning translations into all of the languages supported by Zoom. The City also has enabled an automated translation button on the City’s webpage.
Subsequent to the pre-map hearings, the City’s demographer prepared two draft maps, one depicting a five district configuration and one depicting a four district configuration, with a directly-elected at-large Mayor. In addition, two maps were received from members of the public. The proposed maps were posted to the City’s website on Monday, April 24, 2023, in accordance with the Elections Code. These first four maps were reviewed and discussed by the Council at the May 1, 2023 regular City Council meeting.
Three additional maps were received from the public on Wednesday, April 26, 2023 and were analyzed by the City’s demographer. These maps were posted to the City’s website on Friday, April 28, 2023, in compliance with the seven day posting requirement pursuant to the Elections Code, and were discussed at the May 6, 2023 public hearing.
Subsequent to the May 6th hearing, a total of seven additional maps were received from the public, three maps with a five district configuration, one map with a three district configuration, and three maps with a four district plus directly elected mayor configuration.
These maps were analyzed by the City’s demographer, with two maps found to be non-viable as they did not meet the district boundary requirements under the Elections Code: one map was drawn with a total of three Council districts instead of four or five, and one four-district map contained a large, non-contiguous portion in the northeast district. Additionally, one map split five different census blocks. These three maps were not presented for consideration. The four maps found to be in compliance with the requirements of the Elections Code and that did not split census blocks were posted to the City’s website on Monday, May 15, 2023 for discussion at the May 22, 2023 hearing. Map #8 in the five district map category was posted to the website, but subsequently found to have been posted with a linkage error. This error was corrected by staff on Tuesday morning. All eleven maps now have been posted for at least the required seven days.
A summary of the maps is included below. Each of the draft maps was analyzed and reviewed by the city’s demographer, and found to be legally viable. This means the maps create potential Council districts that are population-balanced within a margin +/- 10%, are contiguous and compact.
One consideration of district-based elections is the potential to create majority/minority voting districts, where a single identified minority represents 50%+1 of Citizens of Voting Age (CVAP). Pleasant Hill has a relatively low minority total population (40.2%), and the CVAP population is 30.9%, with 69.1% of the CVAP population comprised of Non-Latino Whites. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, given the dispersed nature of minority residency, to create one or more voting districts that represent 50%+1 minority citizens of voting age from a single minority. None of the proposed maps achieves this goal, however the highest total minority CVAP population (all minorities - known as a “coalition minority” district), is identified for each proposed map.
A summary of the population deviation and minority coalitions for all eleven maps is presented below.
The Minority CVAP Coalition for all districts on all eleven Maps is provided as Exhibit A.
Map 5:
At the May 22nd Council meeting, the Council formed a subcommittee of Council members Shess and Noack to work with the City Attorney’s office to make minor modifications to Map 5.
Unfortunately, the demographer found that moving entire census blocks resulted in unacceptable deviations above 10% and the only way to accomplish the requested modifications to Map 5 was to split census blocks, which, while not illegal, is discouraged and is not viewed as a best practice. The subcommittee will report further on this issue and provide their recommendation at the June 5th Council meeting.
Mayor’s Question Regarding an Election:
At the May 22, 2023 Council meeting, the Mayor asked if two or more Maps could be selected by the Council and placed on a ballot at a Special Election for the voters of Pleasant Hill to decide which Map should be selected. While we are not aware of this method of selection being used in another city, we see no impediment to the Council calling a Special Election and placing two or more Maps on the ballot as separate measures in order to allow the voters to select the Map that will govern how the City will be divided into districts. The districting ordinance that will be adopted by the Council would need to specify that the Map receiving the most votes and at least 50% of the votes, will be the selected Map.
While the Council could call a Special Election as a stand-alone election just for Pleasant Hill, according to Contra Costa County, the cost of such an election would be between $9 - $14 per voter. Since Pleasant Hill has 23,111 registered voters, the resulting cost would be $207,999 to $323,554. If, however, the Council were to consolidate a Special Election with the State-wide Primary Election in March of 2024, the cost would be $2 - $4 per voter for a resulting total of $46,222 to $92,444.
Map ID Population Deviation Minority CVAP Coalition
Draft Map 1, 4 Districts 7.25% D3 – 42.3%
Draft Map 2, 4 Districts 6.64% D1 – 41.4%
Draft Map 3, 4 Districts 8.38% D2 – 36.7%
Draft Map 1, 5 Districts 6.48% D3 – 45.7%
Draft Map 2, 5 Districts 7.43% D1 – 42.3%
Draft Map 3, 5 Districts 9.25% D1 – 42.2%
Draft Map 4, 5 Districts 7.60% D4 – 43.9%
Draft Map 5, 5 Districts 7.94% D1 – 42.1%
Draft Map 6, 5 Districts .78% D4 – 40.4%
Draft Map 7, 5 Districts 5.71% D4 – 44.9%
Draft Map 8, 5 Districts 1.92% D1 – 45.0%
Public Input:
The next public hearing to receive and consider input from the public concerning the composition of voting districts will be set by the Council at the June 5, 2023 hearing. The public is also encouraged to provide input via email to [email protected]. Input may also be dropped off at the City Clerk’s Department or mailed to the City Clerk at the following address:
City of Pleasant Hill
Attn: City Clerk
100 Gregory Lane
Pleasant Hill, CA 94523
Please note that the deadline for submittal of public created maps was May 9, 2023 at 5:00p.m.
FISCAL IMPACT
The services of an expert demographer are needed to prepare and review publically submitted maps at a cost of approximately $15,500. There will be additional costs incurred by the work of the City Attorney’s Office during the process. Finally, under the law’s “safe harbor” provision, the City will be responsible for the potential plaintiffs’ attorney fees and costs for a maximum amount of approximately $34,000 paid to Mr. Shenkman. As well, the City has executed a contract for translation and interpretation services for a not to exceed amount of $20,000.
Informational mailer costs are estimated at $12,000 and costs for “promoted” social media engagement is estimated at $500.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
The California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) does not apply to activities that will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment or is otherwise not considered a project as defined by CEQA (Section 21605) and CEQA Guidelines §§ 15060(c)(3) and 15378. Conducting public hearings for public input regarding transitioning to by-district elections and setting a schedule for future hearings meets the above criteria and is not subject to CEQA.
PUBLIC CONTACT
Public contact was made through posting of the City Council agenda on the City’s official notice bulletin board, at the Pleasant Hill Senior Center and at the Pleasant Hill Police Department. The agenda and staff report are posted on the City’s web page. A Public Hearing Notice was published in the East Bay Times on March 15, 2023, March 29, 2023, April 12, 2023, April 26, 2023, May17, 2023 and May 31, 2023. A news release was posted on social media, and in the City’s bi-weekly Update newsletter.
RECOMMENDED CITY COUNCIL ACTION
Conduct the fourth “post-map” public hearing, receive and consider input from the public, and provide further direction to staff regarding the composition of districts.
ATTACHMENTS:
Exhibit A - Minority CVAP Coalition - all Districts - all Maps Public Hearing Notice
Correspondence
Draft Maps
Prepared by: Janet Coleson, City Attorney
Approved by: June Catalano, City Manager