By Christian Kallen
The city-wide conversation about splitting Healdsburg into districts continued last week at a public workshop on Thursday, Jan. 16, at the Healdsburg Community Center (soon to officially become the Abel De Luna Community Center). With bilingual translation earphones and tablets to lend, the city was well prepared for the two-hour get-together to further inform residents what that split into districts means, what it doesn’t mean and how to take part.
It was a disappointment to some that the city’s presentation was essentially the third time around for an introduction by Redistricting Partners, the city’s consultant. Covered again were the reasons for the transition to district elections (threat of legal action to enforce the 2002 California Voting Rights Act), the option for district-elected council members and either an at-large elected mayor or one selected by the council from among its members, and what criteria go into creating a district.
For those who attended either or both of the past two City Council meetings, the first 20 minutes seemed quite familiar. “Based upon past city workshops, I was admittedly expecting a different kind of meeting: visuals on the walls, more interactive, people seated at tables working around large maps and identifying ‘communities of interest’ and maybe some laptops set up for exploring the DistrictR tool,” said Merrilyn Joyce.
“I was also expecting the room to be packed,” she added. Packed it was not, though of the roughly 30 people there (aside from city staff) about half were Latino, showing engagement by the community that stands to gain most from district-based elections.
Many Questions, Few Answers
Before Liz Stitt of Redistricting Partners had fully finished her latest walk-through of DistrictR, the hands-on app used to split up a jurisdiction into districts, questions began to percolate up from the audience. There was clearly some confusion caused by the past two City Council meetings that made people think they, the council, had endorsed a five-district model, with a rotating mayor seat.
Which was not what was presented at the workshop, but instead a more robust, option-friendly version that allowed for four, five or six districts. Many were surprised at this result, since the City Council had appeared to place favor not once but twice on the five-district option, with its implicit rotation mayor structure. Whether or not the consultants took it upon themselves to present these options or were later directed to do so by the council, was unclear.
Yet this is the model Stitt presented, a choice of district numbers from four to six to allow for a range of public input. Neither City Manager Jeff Kay nor consultant Stitt wanted to dwell on any delay that may or may not have been caused, and tried to shepherd the questions to the end of the presentation.
Who’s the Mayor?
Another confusion concerned whether an even number of districts necessitated an at-large mayor—voted upon by the entire city’s electorate, not just any one district. Numerically it needs to be an odd number, to allow for majority votes, though for some reason the concept seemed difficult to explain. Four or six districts mean an at-large elected mayor; five means it rotates.
The other side of that equation is, just what kind of mayor do we want? What are his or her obligations, responsibilities or powers, if any? If we do want a “strong” mayor, or one with more authority than the current seat holds, how do we get there?
“An at-large mayor would be a little bit trickier” to implement, Kay said. The process to change or define the role would not happen overnight, and almost certainly not before the required final vote on districts, on April 7.
As Kay said, “Ultimately this will be determined by the City Council.” He encouraged anyone with strong opinions or ideas, including on the election or selection of the mayor, to email City Clerk Raina Allen at ra****@he********.gov to make sure their voice is officially logged.
Draw Your Own
As of Jan. 13, the DistrictR tool was live and functional, and anyone can draw up a city map of four, five or six districts, with the five-district model the only option for a rotating mayor, as Healdsburg has at present. Various tools are located in the upper right corner, as is common in such applications—a hand tool to move the map, a pen tool to select a district and color it, an eraser tool to fall back on.
The tool shows Healdsburg’s population as 11,360, based on the 2020 census (the latest for which complete information is available, and integrated into the mapping tool). Of these people, about 63% are white—the rest a mix of Hispanic, American Indian, Asian, Black, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, or Other. Combined, those ethnic groups comprise only 37.7% of Healdsburg voters. Drawing an equitable non-white majority district is the challenge that the city’s map creators face.
Executive Director Marcy Flores and a number of others from Corazón Healdsburg were engaged throughout the meeting. “We have been focused on outreach and education about this process, using online tools, phone calls and in-person presentations,” she said.
“The Jan. 16 community workshop was especially helpful in explaining the stakes, answering questions and introducing the mapping tool. This is a particularly complex topic with a short timeline, for ensuring our City Council truly reflects our community’s diversity,” she added.
Flores said she and other community leaders will meet with the city manager next week, “to go further in-depth on the process and share feedback in Spanish.”
For additional information on the District Elections process, visit: healdsburg.gov/districtelections.
