Residents weigh in on drawing Costa Mesa voting districts
About 30 Costa Mesa residents showed up to the Neighborhood Community Center on Thursday night to learn about the city’s proposed switch to a district-based council election system.
The meeting also was a chance for residents to share their thoughts on how to carve the city into voting districts.
David Ely, a consultant with Compass Demographics, has been retained to aid in the process.
The City Council voted in April to seek voter approval to adopt a system that would split the city into voting areas. Each area would elect a council member to represent it.
Currently, the five council members are elected by voters citywide.
Costa Mesa resident Greg Ridge said moving to districts would be “a great thing.”
“I think it will empower a lot of neighborhoods to have local leaders who represent them,” he said after the meeting.
Resident Jessica Bravo said that as a Latina, she feels “there have definitely been issues where our voices haven’t been heard.”
“I think [voting districts] would be a great opportunity for a lot of our community that’s been underrepresented,” she said.
Attorney Kevin Shenkman of the Malibu law firm Shenkman & Hughes threatened to sue Costa Mesa if it didn’t scrap its current system, alleging it violates the California Voting Rights Act of 2001 by diluting the power of the city’s Latino residents to influence council elections.
As of the 2010 Census, Latinos made up about 36% of the city’s population.
Thursday’s meeting was meant to “ensure the process is transparent, that everybody’s opinion is respected and heard and that [they] understand the districts are put together with some stringent criteria,” said Yesenia Arias, project manager with Arellano Associates, another consultant retained by the city.
Perhaps the most important factor in drawing districts is that they be similar in the number of inhabitants, according to Ely.
Another consideration is whether it’s possible to draw a district in Costa Mesa in which the majority of constituents are Latinos. Ely said that appears doable.
Districts also should take into account “communities of interest,” or areas of the city that share similar concerns or passions, Ely said. Poring over printed maps of the city, people at the meeting Thursday marked areas that could fall under that category, such as the Eastside.
Another community meeting on the voting district process will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at Halecrest Park, 3107 Killybrooke Lane.
Other meetings will be at 7 p.m. June 15 at St. Joachim Catholic Church, 1964 Orange Ave., and 10 a.m. June 18 at the Balearic Community Center, 1975 Balearic Drive.
For more information or to RSVP, email districtelections@costamesaca.gov or call the city clerk’s office at (714) 754-5225.
Ely has produced a handful of sample voting district maps that are available on the city’s website, costamesaca.gov. Three of the samples have five voting districts, while one has seven.
The City Council will hold two public hearings this summer to discuss voting districts. Council members eventually will choose a specific voting map to include in a ballot measure.
Costa Mesa residents will vote in November on whether to switch to districts.
If they don’t OK the change, the city could be exposed to further litigation, officials said.
If districts are approved, they would be used for council elections beginning in 2018.
Twitter: @LukeMMoney
