reDwooD shores
Based on the 2010 Census, Redwood Shores fulfills all the
Redwood City
City Council
District Elections
Context
In August 2018, a letter was delivered to the City Council alleging
that the current at-large manner in which City Councilmembers
are elected violates the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA). e
City had a 90-day “safe harbor” in which if the City adopted
Council districts and formally moved to district elections, legal fees
for plaintiffs is capped at $30,000. If the Council did not adopt
district elections within the 90-day “safe harbor” period, there is
not limit on the amount of legal fees that could be awarded.
Given the holidays, the City Attorney negotiated an extension of
the 90-day “safe harbor.” e end of the extension is March 31.
e CVRA was adopted in California in 2002. Since that time,
several lawsuits have been threatened against cities, counties, school
districts and other public bodies that use an at-large election
system. To date, no public agency has successfully defended a
CVRA lawsuit. Recently, the city of Santa Clara lost their effort
to defend a CVRA lawsuit. In losing their lawsuit, Santa Clara
will have to pay plaintiffs more than $3 million. e City of Santa
Monica is fighting a CVRA lawsuit, and has lost in the lower court.
ey are appealing the court ruling. If Santa Monica loses their
appeal, they will pay more than $6 million to plaintiffs.
DistriCt Maps
At the February 11 City Council meeting, several potential
district maps were received by the Council. Some maps were
submitted by community members, some maps were prepared
by organizations, other maps were prepared by a Consultant
hired by the City. In preparing potential district maps, the maps
must comply with Federal Election law, AND the California
Voting Rights Act. Some key considerations include:
• e population in each District must be comparable
• Districts should be contiguous and compact
• Districts should favor an identified protected class
In developing District maps, the 2010 Census is required to be
used. Upon the completion of the 2020 Census and the release
of that data (estimated to be in mid-2021), district boundaries
may be adjusted.
You can view additional information and all of the propsed maps
on the official webpage about the district elections process, at
www.redwoodcity.org/districtelections.
Page 10 March 2019 e PILOT
requirements to be one district. It has the appropriate number of
residents, is contiguous and compact, observes natural boundaries
(e.g. US 101, the bay, BRSSD school district boundaries, etc.). If
Redwood Shores were to be one district, Redwood Shores would
be assured of one Council member from the Shores.
ere are conversations regarding dividing the shores into
two Districts – or more accurately, that redwood shores
would be part of two Districts. is concept would create
the possibility of two councilmembers being on the City
Council. is concept would also create the possibility of no
one being on council from the shores.
In a two Redwood Shores district model, and to adhere to the
“equal population requirement” for each District, other areas of
Redwood City would need to be included in each district.
(For simplicity, Redwood Shores has 11,000 residents.)
For example:
• Redwood Shores District 1: 7,000 Redwood Shores residents,
4,000 residents from an adjoining neighborhood
• Redwood Shores District 2: 4,000 Redwood Shores residents,
7,000 residents from an adjoining neighborhood.
In this example, RWS District 1 is weighted to increase the
potential for a Shores resident to be elected. However, RWS
District 2 will have less than 50% of the population from the
Shores. In both cases, the potential exists that a non-Shores resident
could be elected for each District.
tiMeline
e City Council held another public hearing regarding district
maps on Monday, February 25. Final adoption of district maps
is scheduled to occur by the end of March.
City CounCil Meetings
City Council meets at 7pm at City Hall, 1017 Middlefield Road.
Council meetings are also broadcast on local cable tv, or streamed
on the internet. Video recordings of all past Council meetings
are available on the City’s website at www.redwoodcity.org.
Redwood Shores as ONE District
e Redwood Shores Community Association supports making
Redwood Shores one of the seven districts of Redwood City.
RSCA has already provided this input to the city council.
If you’re interested in this topic of advocating for residents of
Redwood Shores, please reach out to us at <info@rsca.org> to
learn how to be more involved in our community organization.