Little input given to district maps

Council approves consulting services with NDC

The Porterville City Council held its second public hearing Tuesday to receive public input for criteria in the drafting of district boundary maps, during which two residents offered their thoughts.

The first was Porterville resident Ellen Nichols.

In addition to inquiring about who exactly the group of voters that filed the lawsuit against the city were, Nichols questioned the council’s potential approach on creating boundaries within the city.

At its meeting on Oct. 3, the council identified several factors that may be of use when creating district boundaries in the city such as ethnicity, school attendance areas or boundaries, existing districts in place or proposed such as Sierra View Hospital, or neighborhoods.

Nichols said the notion of neighborhoods grabbed her attention.

“Often, neighborhoods consist of voters with similar incomes or wealth or homes of similar value,” Nichols said. “There could be a neighborhood where all the houses are worth half a million dollars or more, or there could be an-

other, where the upscale houses are maybe worth a hundred thousand dollars.”

She continued, “Do you think these kinds of neighborhoods could be taken into consideration if boundaries are drawn,” Nichols questioned.

Like former councilmember Virginia Gurrola, Porterville resident and local attorney Allan Bailey said he too laments the fact that the council is switching over to by-district elections.

“I certainly understand the city’s position for doing so, but I would also like to express my lament that I believe that this may end up making the current efforts of the city less collaborative and more competitive,” Bailey said, adding, “I appreciate the city’s efforts in that regard and hope that whatever districts are crafted will not realize the fears that Gurrola and I have.”

The council also approved an agreement to receive consulting services by National Demographics Corporation (NDC) for $23,500, and authorized Patrice Hildreth, the city’s administrative services director, to execute the agreement.

“Nothing is cheap in this process,” said Mayor Milt Stowe.

Hildreth said the city will pay for the consulting services through the council’s Special Purposes Reserve Fund.

“They [NDC] are kind of the go-to demographer in this realm,” she said.

Hildreth noted that the city previously worked with NDC several years ago when the firm provided a preliminary assessment of the city’s demographics and election/candidate analysis.

“They came in and offered a preliminary review,” Hildreth said. “Not to this extent, but more broad in nature.”

City Attorney Julia Lew said NDC has done a tremendous amount of work in the area.

“They are probably the most used demographic consultant in the state right now on this issue specifically,” she said.

Vice Mayor Brian Ward questioned why there wasn’t a bid for consulting services.

“We were a little short on time to go out and bid on this one,” Lew said.

The reason the council is transitioning from its current at-large voting system to by-district elections stems back to a letter the city received on Aug. 30 from Marguerite Melo of Melo and Sarsfield asserting that the city’s current voting system does not comply with the California Voting Rights Act. Hildreth said the letter threatens litigation unless the city voluntarily agrees to implement district elections.

At its meeting of Sept. 19, Hildreth said the council adopted a resolution to initiate procedures for establishing and implementing by-district elections. At its meeting of Oct. 3, the council held the first of several public hearings in order to receive public input prior to the drafting of district maps.

She said there will be additional pre-map public hearings held on Oct. 17 and Oct. 24 in order to provide the public with ample opportunity to provide comments.

The next city council meeting will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 17, in the council chambers at Porterville’s City Hall.