City HMB’s 2nd Second Redistricting Advisory Committee Learns How to Use the Draft Map Tool

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VIDEO. From the City of Half Moon Bay’s Second Redistricting Advisory Committee Special Meeting on Thursday, August 12th, 2021, by Zoom and recorded by Pacific Coast TV (PCTV).

 

Half Moon Bay’s Second Redistricting Advisory Committee Special Meeting

Thu August 12 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Many of you were interested and involved in creating the original boundaries for the City Council’s districts in 2018. Now, the once-a-decade redrawing of those boundaries, using information from the 2020 Census, is about to take place – your involvement is crucial.

At this workshop, the City’s consultant will provide information about how and when the community can submit their own suggested draft maps, instructions on how to do so, plus offer an overview of the various laws and regulations governing how districts can be drawn. There will also be a discussion on communities of interest, along with ample opportunity for those in attendance to provide their input, ideas, suggestions, and ask questions.

The more public participation we have, the more the final district map will accurately reflect our community. This is a very important process and opportunity that comes up only once every 10 years. Help us think inside the lines as we redraw City Council districts – make sure your voice is heard!

For information and background about districts, visit the City’s redistricting webpage at hmbcity.org/redistricting, and DrawHMB.org, where you can review the existing district boundary maps and make your own suggested adjustments when public mapping opens. Paper map kits will also be available.


Half Moon Bay, CA – In 2018, after a significant public input process, the City of Half Moon Bay approved a transition for voters to elect city councilmembers by geographic district, instead of through at-large citywide elections. The November 3, 2020 election was the first to utilize the new districts. District boundaries are required to be re-drawn every ten years based on the most recent US Census data. Following the 2020 Census, the City has formed a Redistricting Advisory Committee and embarked on a public-based process to evaluate and re-draw district lines.
The community is invited and strongly encouraged to participate in this process, have their voices heard, and be part of creating election district lines which accurately represent the voters of Half Moon Bay.
The Redistricting Advisory Committee (RAC), made up of a variety of Half Moon Bay community members, has scheduled a series of public meetings to study the boundaries of the City’s four districts, supported by a professional demographer and City staff. Following an extensive community engagement and input process, the Committee will recommend draft district boundaries to the City Council, which will review, approve, and adopt a final district map.
The first series of RAC meetings this summer includes two public workshops and two public hearings. Then, in late 2021 and early 2022, there will be additional meetings and public hearings to finalize and adopt the selected map (see meeting schedule below). Additionally, the City’s website at hmbcity.com/redistricting will have updated information about the process. A special website is also available at DrawHMB.org, where people can review the existing district boundary maps, make their own suggested adjustments when public mapping opens, and submit them to the RAC.
The websites and upcoming meetings, workshops, and public hearings are all opportunities for community members to be part of this important undertaking.
“This is a once-in-a decade opportunity for our community members to join together in reshaping Half Moon Bay’s voting district boundaries,” said Half Moon Bay Mayor Robert Brownstone. “Your voice is the most important part of this process – I encourage everyone to participate and help assure that we create new district maps that work for our entire Half Moon Bay community.”
Meeting Schedule (see hmbcity.org/redistricting for updated times and locations of meetings)
  • August 12 (RAC meeting) – Public/Committee Workshop – mapping, legislation
  • August 19 (RAC meeting) – Public/Committee Workshop – district model, election sequencing
  • August 26 (RAC meeting) – Public Hearing #1
  • September 2 (RAC meeting) – Public Hearing #2
  • November 8 (RAC meeting) – Review first drafts of maps, select 3 – 5 for further focus
  • December 16 (RAC meeting) – Narrow down to 2 – 3 maps for further focus
  • January 19 (City Council meeting) – Public Hearing #3, review focus maps
  • January 22 (RAC meeting) – Public workshop – input on focus maps
  • January 27 (RAC meeting) – Public workshop – input on focus maps
  • February 15 (City Council meeting) – Public Hearing #4, final map selection and election sequencing March 15 (City Council meeting) – Adoption of ordinance adopting district map and election sequencing


First Redistricting Advisory Committee Special Meeting Agenda – 7/15/2021

VIDEO. From the City of Half Moon Bay Redistricting Advisory Committee meeting on Thursday, July 15th, 2021 at 7:00pm by Zoom

 

BACKGROUND

The City of Half Moon Bay’s Redistricting Advisory Committee was formed by the City Council at its May 18, 2021 meeting to study and recommend updated draft boundaries for City Council districts based on results of the 2020 Census. The Redistricting Advisory Committee is comprised of seven members, who were appointed June 15, 2021:

  • Michal Settles
  • Claudia Marshall
  • Marin Holt
  • Paul Gater
  • Steve Maller
  • Phil Marshall
  • Hal Bogner

Redistricting Advisory Committee Calendar

The Committee will meet over the course of the next 10 months to receive public input on draft maps, communities of interest, elections sequencing, and other important issues all culminating with an adopted final map by the City Council that will be used in Half Moon Bay elections for the next 10 years. Weekday meetings will be held at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday meetings will be held at 11:00 a.m. Meetings will be conducted via Zoom through September, then will move to in-person.

  • JULY 15 (RAC) – INTRODUCTION (BROWN ACT, PRA, OVERVIEW OF TRANSITION TO DISTRICTS, REDISTRICTING BASICS)
  • AUGUST 12 (RAC) – PUBLIC / COMMITTEE WORKSHOP ON MAPPING, LEGISLATION, ETC.
  • AUGUST 19 (RAC) – PUBLIC / COMMITTEE WORKSHOP ON DISTRICT MODEL / ELECTION SEQUENCING
  • AUGUST 26 (RAC) – PUBLIC HEARING #1
  • SEPTEMBER  (RAC) – PUBLIC HEARING #2
  • AUGUST 16 – CENSUS DATA RELEASED (LEGACY FORMAT)
  • LATE SEPTEMBER – CALIFORNIA PRISONER-ADJUSTED DATA AVAILABLE
  • LATE OCTOBER – END OF MANDATED THREE-WEEK WAITING PERIOD TO RELEASE MAPS
  • NOVEMBER 8 (MONDAY) (RAC) – FIRST DRAFTS OF COMMITTEE MAPS, SELECT 3-5 FOCUS MAPS
  • DECEMBER 16 (RAC) – SELECT 2-3 FOCUS MAPS
  • JANUARY 19 (WEDNESDAY) (COUNCIL) – PUBLIC HEARING #3, REVIEW FOCUS MAPS, PROVIDE REVISIONS, IF ANY
  • JANUARY 22 (SATURDAY) (RAC) – PUBLIC INPUT ON FOCUS MAPS
  • JANUARY  27 (RAC) – PUBLIC INPUT ON FOCUS MAPS
  • FEBRUARY 15 (CITY COUNCIL) – PUBLIC HEARING #4, FINAL MAP SELECTION & ELECTION SEQUENCING
  • MARCH 15 (CITY COUNCIL) – CITY COUNCIL ADOPTION OF ORDINANCE ADOPTING DISTRICT MAP & ELECTION SEQUENCING (ADOPTION BY RESOLUTION IF SB 594 IS ENACTED).
  • APRIL 17 – DEADLINE FOR COUNCIL ADOPTION OF MAP (APRIL 5 CITY COUNCIL MEETING)
  • MAY 12 – COMMITTEE CLOSING CELEBRATION

 


 

HMB City Council Begins the 2021 CVRA Redistricting Process That is Being Forced on Californians

 

VIDEO. From the May 4th, 2021 City of Half Moon Bay City Council meeting.

PRESS RELEASE.

Applications are now open for residents who want to serve on the City of Half Moon Bay’s Redistricting Advisory Committee, which will study and recommend updated draft boundaries for City Council districts based on results of the 2020 Census. This is a once-a-decade opportunity to help revise district boundaries to ensure they reflect new population data and demographic changes in Half Moon Bay.
The application is available on the City’s website in English and Spanish. Applicants can fill out an online form or pick up a paper form from the City at 501 Main Street, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019. Applications will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. on Monday, May 31, 2021.
“I want to encourage all interested community members, from throughout every part of Half Moon Bay, to apply to serve on this important Committee,” said Half Moon Bay Mayor Robert Brownstone. “How we draw these boundaries is fundamental to the election process. Input from this Committee, which needs to represent the diverse interests, demographics, and geographic variety of our community, will be invaluable in ensuring our City Council districts are fully representative of the people who live here.”
The City Council will assess applicants using the following guidance:
  • Committee members must be residents of Half Moon Bay, and at least 18 years old.
  • Half Moon Bay elected officials, their family members, staff members, or paid campaign staff are not eligible to serve on the Committee.
  • The selection process will consider applicants associated with good government, civil rights, civic engagement, and community groups or organizations that are active in the City with the goal of forming a Committee with membership that is geographically diverse and consistent with the City’s emphasis on valuing diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The City Council is anticipated to select seven residents to serve on the Committee. Applicants who are appointed may not serve on the City Council or the Planning Commission for four years following adoption of the final map by the City Council. The Committee will be subject to the Ralph M. Brown Act and Public Records Act. Additionally, applicants will be required to fill out a Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) Form 700 within 30 days of appointment.
Once formed, the Committee will hold a series of public meetings and workshops to study the boundaries of the City’s districts, election sequencing, and district model. The Committee’s work will be supported by a professional demographer and City staff. Following an extensive public engagement and input process, the Committee will recommend two draft maps to the City Council, which will review, approve, and adopt a final district map.
Meetings will primarily be held on weekday evenings with some weekend workshops. It is anticipated that the Committee’s work will be completed by early 2022. However, applicants should be willing and able to serve longer if necessary.

From the American Enterprise Institute

A court challenge to California’s racial gerrymandering mandate

With the nation’s attention elsewhere, the U.S. Supreme Court was petitioned recently to take up Higginson v. Becerra, a case that challenges the constitutionality of the California Voting Rights Act.

If the justices accept the case and declare it unconstitutional, as they should, hundreds of California cities, school districts, and other jurisdictions that have been forced to adopt racially gerrymandered, single-member election districts during the last few years may choose to restore their previous nonracial forms of governance.

This is an important case, not only for Californians, but for the rest of the nation. In striking down the constitutionality of the CVRA, the court could restore the need for local California elected officials to build bridges between racial groups and represent the needs of their entire community, rather than a single racial or ethnic faction. It would represent an important victory in the endless battle against identity politics in California and throughout the country.

This case goes back to 2002, when California’s legislature, dissatisfied with a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that narrowed the use of race and ethnicity in creating election districts, passed the CVRA. The law essentially overturned the high court’s opinion, making it easier for racial and ethnic minorities to sue and demand racially gerrymandered voting districts.

Any city or school board that elected its members from at-large voting districts would now be at risk of being sued if minority candidates lost. All that was needed to prevail in a lawsuit was to show that minority candidates — usually Hispanics — weren’t being elected to office because of “racially polarized voting.”

So if white voters vote to elect a white candidate over a Hispanic one in an at-large election, then the system is rotten and must be changed. That is the crux of the CVRA. Unsurprisingly, the legislation had the support of left-leaning groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

But the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation of when and how at-large voting systems are unfair to minorities is vastly different from what the CVRA now requires. In a 1986 redistricting case, justices created an empirically-driven, multi-part test to determine whether minority voters were being treated unfairly. While “racially polarized voting” is an element of the test, it is only one of the components a challenger must prove.

In contrast, the CVRA makes race or ethnicity the sole criteria in governmental decision making. This falls outside of what the U.S. Constitution allows.

Soon after the CVRA became law, a handful of aggressively clever California lawyers got busy recruiting plaintiffs to challenge the voting systems of dozens of jurisdictions. Initially, a few fought back, including the towns of Modesto and Palmdale. They lost and were forced to pay millions of dollars in legal fees and expenses. Since then, every jurisdiction even threatened with a lawsuit has immediately caved. By one estimate, about $20 million in legal fees to plaintiffs’ attorneys has been paid since the CVRA became law.

In 2017, the City of Poway (pop. 49,704) received a certified letter from attorney Kevin Shenkman asserting that Poway’s decades-old, at-large city council election system violates the CVRA. Shenkman wrote that “voting within Poway is racially polarized, resulting in minority vote dilution” and therefore must change, even though Poway’s Hispanic population is only 16% compared to 40% overall in California.

Based on the fees and expenses other jurisdictions had incurred in fighting Shenkman, Poway agreed to change its system. During the city council meeting to approve the settlement every member of the council voiced their objection to the changes the CVRA was forcing the city to make. One council member said that he was “proud of the job we do … but we have a gun to our heads, and we have no choice.”

Don Higginson, a former Poway councilman and mayor, was not going to watch this happen to the citizens he represented for over two decades. So, shortly after the council voted to adopt race-based districts, he sued California in federal court alleging the CVRA was a violation of the 14th Amendment. After a few years of legal wrangling, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Higginson. He has appealed to the Supreme Court.

Much of this is going to be familiar to the justices on the high court, should they take the case. As Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote nearly 30 years ago, “Racial gerrymandering, even for remedial purposes, may balkanize us into competing racial factions; it threatens to carry us further from the goal of a political system in which race no longer matters — a goal that the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments embody, and to which the Nation continues to aspire.”

O’Connor was right. And this law intentionally results in “divvying us up by race,” as Chief Justice John Roberts has previously put it. It drives racial-identity politics and leads to — indeed, requires — the creation of racially gerrymandered voting districts. All of this ultimately inhibits the creation of election districts and forms of governance in which the race and ethnicity of voters and their representatives become inconsequential.

The intent of the CVRA was to make race and ethnicity the only factors in how jurisdictions choose to govern themselves. Laws like this one will continue to fray the social fabric that holds us together as a nation. Let’s hope the justices take the case and strike it down.

 


 

City Council of Half Moon Bay Meets ~ 1st and 3rd Tuesdays at 7:00pm

HMB City Council Agendas and Zoom Links

HMB City Calendar

The New Now ~ Virtual Remote Public Agency Meetings

Watch streaming, or the Pacifica Coast TV video, that we will post. Stay tuned!
The meeting will be held at the Adcock Community Center for any members of the public who wish to speak in person, though we do encourage all members to participate remotely.
The meeting will be:

Members or the public are welcome to submit comments (in accordance with the three-minute per speaker limit) via email

to [email protected] prior to or during the meeting, via Facebook live during the meeting, and via two phone lines during the meeting – (650) 477-4963 (English) and (650) 445-3090 (Spanish).
The City Clerk will read all comments into the record.

HMB City Council Agendas and Zoom Links

HMB City Calendar

Leave messages with the Clerk’s Department at 650-726-8250

    1. Robert Brownstone

      Mayor
      Phone: 650-726-8250 (leave message with Clerk’s office)
    2. Debbie Ruddock

      Vice Mayor
      Phone: 650-726
    3. Deborah Penrose

      Council Member
      Phone: 650-726-8250 (leave message with Clerk’s office)
    4. Harvey Rarback

      Council Member
      Phone: 650-726-8250 (leave message with Clerk’s office)
    5. Joaquin Jimenez

      Council Member
      Phone: 650-726-8250 (leave message with Clerk’s office)

The City Council of Half Moon Bay

The City Council of Half Moon Bay is the City’s governing body, and consists of five elected members. The Council sets priorities and policies, makes final decisions on all major City matters, adopts ordinances and resolutions, appoints the City Manager and City Attorney, and approves the annual budget.

City Council members are elected at-large to four-year, overlapping terms. There are no term limits in Half Moon Bay. The City Council selects one of its members to serve as Mayor and one to serve as Vice Mayor, on an annual basis.

The Half Moon Bay City Council typically meets on the first and third Tuesday of each month starting at 7 pm at the Ted Adcock Community Center, 535 Kelly Avenue.

Meetings and Agendas

The City Council typically meets on the first and third Tuesdays of each month, at 7 pm, at Ted Adcock Community Center, 535 Kelly Avenue. City Council meeting schedule, agendas, minutes, and videos are available online. Planning on attending a City Council Meeting? Please visit our “Commenting at a City Council Meeting” information page. You can also learn about City Council Procedures and Decorum.

Strategic Elements

The City Council develops Strategic Elements to help focus the City’s actions and work plans on its key priorities. The Strategic Elements are aimed at providing high quality public services and facilities in a fiscally sustainable, responsive, and friendly manner, which fosters a safe, healthy, and thriving community.

 


Half Moon Bay City Council Subcommittees

  • CSFA Grant Selection
  • Education
  • Emergency Preparedness
  • Finance
  • Human Resources
  • Legislative Affairs
  • Mobility
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