Costa Mesa council to weigh election system change that could prevent lawsuit

Costa Mesa leaders are mulling a move to have City Council members elected by district in the future to avoid becoming embroiled in a voting-rights lawsuit that, as city documents put it, could be “expensive and fraught with peril.”

Currently the five council members are elected by a vote of the entire city. Members may decide Tuesday whether to put the proposed change in the voting system up for a public vote in this fall’s election.

In a district-based system, Costa Mesa would be divided into voting areas, with each tied to a particular seat on the council. Residents in each area would elect one council member to represent them. Proponents say district-based elections boost the electoral power of minority voters.

Should voters sign off on the switch in November, district voting would be used in council elections starting in 2018.

How the districts would be drawn and how many districts there would be are still to be determined, city spokesman Tony Dodero said Friday.

Tuesday’s council meeting comes almost four months after Kevin Shenkman, an attorney with Malibu-based law firm Shenkman & Hughes, sent a letter threatening to sue if the city didn’t scrap its at-large system in favor of district-based voting.

Shenkman, who has been involved in similar lawsuits around Southern California, says Costa Mesa’s at-large voting violates the California Voting Rights Act of 2001 by diminishing the power of Latino residents to “elect candidates of their choice or otherwise influence the outcome of Costa Mesa’s council elections.”

Local elections, he alleged in a letter the city received Dec. 21, are “racially polarized,” with Latino voters supporting different candidates than the majority of the electorate.

No Latino candidate has ever been elected to the Costa Mesa City Council, Shenkman said, even though Latinos made up about 36% of the city’s population as of the 2010 Census.

Council members could decline to move to district-based elections, but doing so could risk a potentially costly legal fight. The California Voting Rights Act allows plaintiffs to recoup legal costs if their claims are successful.

“Other cities that have gone to trial and lost CVRA cases have paid attorneys’ fee orders upward of $3 million, not including their own fees for defense,” according to city documents. “In sum, becoming involved in CVRA litigation is expensive and fraught with peril.”

If voters were to decide in November to maintain the status quo and reject district-based elections, the city still could be at risk of a lawsuit.

California Voting Rights Act lawsuits have been filed or threatened against several other cities in Orange County, including Anaheim, Fullerton, Garden Grove and San Juan Capistrano. All have taken steps to move to district-based elections.

Though district voting would be a new wrinkle for Costa Mesa council races, the Mesa Water District and the Coast Community College District already use district-based elections.

As part of their meeting Tuesday, council members will discuss how to give residents a voice in the process and keep them informed.

The meeting will start at 5:45 p.m. at City Hall, 77 Fair Drive.