Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/council-districts/)
Council members are expected to select a district map Tuesday that will be on the ballot in November when residents will decide whether to move the city to a council-district electoral system.
With the Garden Grove City Council set to approve maps for the city’s new electoral districts, some question whether leaders responsible for removing barriers to voting for underrepresented groups have done enough outreach.
Threats of a protest outside a major convention in Anaheim this year likely made the difference in getting members of the city’s council majority to change their minds regarding the new council districts map.
Despite an eleventh-hour revelation that the council districts map no longer has a Latino majority district, council members stood by their decision to adopt the map and put the most Latino district up for election this year.
Latinos and many other city residents hailed the map as perfectly balancing the diverse interests of Anaheim’s various communities. But city officials now say the map has no Latino majority districts.
Garden Grove will expand its city council and keep an at-large elected mayor, after the City Council Tuesday evening approved a settlement to a lawsuit challenging its transition to district elections.
In a rare win for the city’s activists, the City Council Tuesday night voted to restore a council districts map, known as the “people’s map,” that has broad community support and put a Latino-majority district up for election in 2016.
Based on a technicality, the city manager decided not to agendize Mayor Tom Tait’s request to discuss restoring a widely supported council districts map. Tait and his allies say the denial is “outrageous.”
The Anaheim city councilman, who was among four candidates vying for the seat being vacated by Loretta Sanchez, exits the race after being condemned by the Democratic party and shouted down by Latino residents.
Protesters say over 300 people will show up at Anaheim City Hall Tuesday night to oppose last week’s City Council decision to push back the city’s transition to district elections and scrap a districts map that had broad support.
