Council Avoids Litigation with a Vote to Approve ByDistrict Elections in San Clemente

BY C. JAYDEN SMITH

By the time November 2024 rolls around, certain San Clemente residents will vote for their City Council representation within a by-district format, after a 4-1 council vote on Tuesday night, Aug. 15.

The council officially adopted a resolution declaring the intent to move to a district-based election system. It also approved a contract, not to exceed $65,000, with the National Demographics Corporation for related demographic services, and held the first public hearing regarding districts.

Mayor Pro Tem Steve Knoblock was the lone vote against conceding to a Dana Point lawyer’s demand to switch the city away from an at-large election system, although the other councilmembers made sure to voice their displeasure with the change.

Councilmember Victor Cabral, who wrote a column in the San Clemente Times about the pending decision over whether to fight a potential lawsuit or switch to by-district elections, echoed his research that found the city would be in for a losing battle.

He also claimed the state of California had “rigged” the system against cities, to implement systems that wouldn’t work for cities such as San Clemente that lack a significant population of minorities.

“I look at it as purely a cost-benefit analysis; how much money should you spend to pursue a case that you’re very likely going to lose?” Cabral asked. “I don’t see the benefit in that.”

City officials have noted that after Dana Point lawyer Michelle Jackson sent a letter to the city in June on behalf of an unidentified client, alleging San Clemente’s at-large system violated the California Voting Rights Act’s (CVRA) intention to prevent “racially polarized voting,” the city’s hands were essentially tied.

The council’s action on Tuesday night, conducted less than 45 days after Jackson’s office sent a new letter on July 10, meant the city couldn’t be sued under the CVRA’s safe harbor protocol. Now, San Clemente has a new 90-day period in which it must hold at least three public hearings and adopt an ordinance solidifying a change to by-district elections.

In the new system, candidates for City

Council must reside in the district they will represent, and only voters within a given district can vote for that district’s councilmember.

Justin Levitt, vice president of the National Demographics Corporation (NDC), which the city contracted with to present preliminary information related to districting, spoke about how the most imminent elections would be affected by the eventual district map.

As two seats will be open in November 2024, that will be the first local election to use the by-district format.

“Think of it as a rollout,” Levitt said. “If you were elected in 2022, you would still complete your term regardless of which district you were in, because you were elected to an at-large term. In 2026, the remaining districts will have their first elections.”

City staff’s agenda report on the matter included a tentative timeline for proceeding public hearings and other deadlines.

The second public hearing would occur on Sept. 5, followed by the deadline for the public to submit proposed maps on Sept. 14 and a deadline of Sept. 21 for all maps, including those submitted by the NDC.

The third and fourth public hearings would occur in October, with the second being the time for the council to officially select a map for the city. A fifth hearing could follow only if the selected map was amended.

“Ultimately, the council gets to approve the final map (and) the sequence of elections, which is just a fancy way of saying ‘which districts hold elections in which year,’ ” Levitt said. “We’ll walk you through that process as we get into those later hearings. At these early ones, you really want to focus on the neighborhoods and communities.”

Additionally, once the 2030 U.S. Census occurs, the city must revisit its map in 2031 to ensure the districts meet the legal requirements and undergo any redistricting efforts before the 2032 election.

Levitt also discussed the rules and goals for creating districts, which the NDC divides into three categories.

Under the first category titled “Federal Laws,” the process must seek an equal population for each district; it must account for “protected classes” or groups that have historically faced discrimination in accordance with the federal Voting Rights Act; and it cannot have any racially gerrymandered districts.

“(The federal government recognizes) you can’t get to perfect equality, which is zero difference between districts,” said Levitt. “There’s a maximum deviation, or difference between the largest and smallest district of up to 10% of the population of the ideal district.”

The NDC also must follow California’s Fair and Inclusive Redistricting for Municipalities and Political Subdivisions (FAIR MAPS) Act, which states districts must be compact and geographically contiguous, and must have undivided neighborhoods and “communities of interest” within easily identifiable boundaries.

Lastly, NDC aims to respect voters’ choices and account for future population growth, according to Levitt.

“In the third column, other traditional principles are things that courts have recognized as being valid to consider,” he said. “They’re things that we can take into account if we’re debating between two maps we think do an equally good job under the FAIR MAPS Act.”

Levitt then showed demographic information and maps based on the 2020 Census, which displayed a total population of 64,384 people, with 71% being non-Hispanic White, 18% Hispanic and/ or Latino, and 7% non-Hispanic Asian or Pacific Islander.

A five-district system would require roughly 12,900 people, according to Levitt’s presentation.

The graphics also showed the lack of a large, centralized Latino population, instead displaying numerous areas around San Clemente where Latinos lived in smaller numbers.

In addition to population statistics, the demographics summary also referenced voter registration and previous turnout, income levels, and housing numbers.

When beginning to put districts together, Levitt mentioned using common factors such as the boundaries of homeowners associations and schools to tie together communities.

A roadblock, however, is how the census blocks California made for San Clemente aren’t conducive to the districting process when contending with natural features within the city such as canyons.

“One of the things that we’re working on is making sure that when we’re talking about these neighborhoods, the smallest units, that we divide the census blocks appropriately into their constituents to make sure that we can keep those neighborhoods and communities together,” said Levitt. “That’s something we’re going to be working on from a technical standpoint starting tonight.”

With the council’s adoption of an intention to switch to by-district elections, the public will soon be able to access a website dedicated to the districting process and use a paper tool to draw their own maps.

Before the council moved on, Mayor Chris Duncan, who is campaigning for a State Assembly seat in 2024, said the group’s hands were forced by state law, and that to change the law to fit communities such as San Clemente better, people would have to vote in new lawmakers in Sacramento.

“We’re not at that point,” he said. “We’re at the point right now where the law is the way the law is, and this council is reacting as responsibly as we can under the confines of that law.”