Santa Rosa’s political landscape in limbo

[Barry]

<style type="text/css">p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Lucida Grande'}
</style>This sounds like a big deal. Anybody got an opinion about this?

https://www.waccobb.net/forums/waccobb/keep90days/2015-10-04_15-56-29.png
Santa Rosa’s political landscape in limbo

KEVIN MCCALLUM
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT | August 28, 2:33PM

Under threat of a lawsuit accusing it of disenfranchising voters, the Santa Rosa City Council will debate Tuesday whether to fundamentally change the way the city is governed.

The council is being forced to decide in short order whether to change from at-large elections, where every council member represents the entire city, to district elections, where — like county supervisors — every council member represents an area of the city.

“It’s a big decision,” Councilwoman Julie Combs said. “It will change the political landscape of our city.”

Santa Rosa voters last considered district elections in 2012 when, after the issue was raised during the charter review process, they rejected Measure Q by a wide margin.

The question has now been raised again by a letter the city received last month from an attorney representing a voting rights group claiming the citywide election system has resulted in “racially polarized voting” patterns that violate the California Voting Rights Act of 2001.

Continues here (https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/7349294-181/santa-rosas-political-landscape-in?artslide=0)

[tommy]

My understanding is that Santa Rosa has long been represented by business & real estate interests, by white people, especially men, who live north of Hwy 12. They've had the power, the social connections, and the money to get elected.

The suggested advantage of district elections, is that there'd be more representation of minorities, poor people, families, and people living south of Hwy 12.


<style type="text/css">p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Lucida Grande'}
</style>This sounds like a big deal. Anybody got an opinion about this?

https://www.waccobb.net/forums/waccobb/keep90days/2015-10-04_15-56-29.png
Santa Rosa’s political landscape in limbo

KEVIN MCCALLUM
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT | August 28, 2:33PM

Under threat of a lawsuit accusing it of disenfranchising voters, the Santa Rosa City Council will debate Tuesday whether to fundamentally change the way the city is governed.

The council is being forced to decide in short order whether to change from at-large elections, where every council member represents the entire city, to district elections, where — like county supervisors — every council member represents an area of the city.

“It’s a big decision,” Councilwoman Julie Combs said. “It will change the political landscape of our city.”

Continues here (https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/7349294-181/santa-rosas-political-landscape-in?artslide=0)

[Barry]

And the answer is...

https://www.waccobb.net/forums/waccobb/keep90days/2015-10-04_15-56-29.png
Santa Rosa to switch to district elections

KEVIN MCCALLUM
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT | August 30,12:25PM

Santa Rosa City Council members may soon be elected from specific areas of the city instead of from the city as a whole, a switch that would fundamentally alter the city’s political and governance structure and one voters soundly rejected in 2012.

Facing a lawsuit that one council member likened to “extortion,” the City Council late Tuesday night voted unanimously to being the process of switching from at-large elections, where all seven council members represent the entire city, to district-based contests where council members are elected from smaller geographic areas.

Council members disagreed whether the new system would be an improvement or not. Mayor Chris Coursey said he believed the existing election system was unfair, while Councilman John Sawyer said he worried that carving the city into district would create “fiefdoms” that left council member less likely to do what’s right for the entire city.

But all seemed to agree that making the switch was the only viable course given the expensive alternatives of holding an election to decide the point ($450,000) or fighting the case in court (up to $4.5 million) and risk losing, a prospect several said seemed likely.

“If we’re going to get sued, I’d rather get sued for doing the right thing, rather than defending a system that excludes a large segment of our community,” Coursey said.

[rossmen]

Tommy is right. And the problem has grown bigger with time. And now that the county has agreed to pay (in perpetuity), for some of roseland to be annexed... this is huge news. It's not just Rosa, the old white bastion of westsebcounty will become even more valuable through economic exclusion, Fountain Grove even more city on the hill. Soco borders will be clarified.