District elections rebalance power

From Fremont to Santa Clara, new voices are set to assume leadership positions

Spurred by advocates seeking to diversify politics, several cities across the Bay Area switched to district elections for the first time this past Election Day, setting the stage for a shift in the balance of power in local government.

“It’s a quiet revolution and it’s going to get louder,” said Robert Rubin, an attorney who has forced a number of cities to shed their at-large election systems for district elections in recent years by arguing they have prevented minority voices from having a fair say.

As a result, councils from Santa Clara and Fremont to Menlo Park and Martinez could soon look more like the residents they represent.

“It’s not just about recruiting good candidates that represent the interests of minority members or underserved members of the community, but also looking at the rules of the game,” said Garrick Percival, a politics professor at San Jose State.

He said minorities ran in at-large elections but didn’t win seats despite receiving support from residents in their neighborhoods.

Rubin recently won a case against Santa Clara, which has had an all-white city council for generations despite being about 40 percent Asian-American. Numerous Asian-Americans ran for council seats, but always lost. The city switched to six districts for the November election and unofficial results show Indian immigrant and Sikh community member Raj Chahal claiming the District 2 seat.

Chahal was able to knock on most of the doors in his district, he said, and

was often met with perplexed faces, particularly from minorities.

“They were surprised a candidate was knocking on their door,” Chahal said, adding that people often told him they felt like nobody was listening to their concerns before. “They sort of lost confidence in the democratic process.”

That doesn’t surprise Percival.

“There are a lot of issues — housing, crime, criminal justice, law enforcement — where there really are differences between whites and racial and ethnic minority groups,” he said. “That’s very clear.”

Most of the Santa Clara City Council members have owned their homes for years, for instance, but many people in Chahal’s district rent and told him they have concerns about the quality of life for apart- ment dwellers in the city.

“That’s kind of the real democracy, right?” said Richard Konda, the executive director of the Asian Law Alliance, who helped bring the case against Santa Clara. “Getting face to face with people and learning about their concerns.”

Menlo Park, where the same five members have served on the council since 2012, divided into five districts this year to avoid a lawsuit. Critics of the city’s at-large system argued the largely Latino and African-American Belle Haven neighborhood, which hadn’t had a resident on the council for decades, has not been adequately represented.

This week, unofficial results show Belle Haven resident Cecilia Taylor, who would be the first AfricanAmerican woman to serve on the council, ahead in District 1 with about threequarters of the vote tallied. Taylor received significant support from mi- nority residents during a bid for a council seat in 2016, but fell short. Drew Combs, another AfricanAmerican candidate who also ran unsuccessfully in the past, beat incumbent Kirsten Keith for the District 2 seat.

It’s too early to tell how the shift will play out policy wise, but tech giant Facebook has proposed a massive Willow Village campus just steps from Belle Haven that is expected to go before the council in the coming years. (Combs is a Facebook employee and would need to recuse himself from voting on issues related to the company).

Concord, which divided into five districts recently to avoid a similar lawsuit to the one threatened in Menlo Park, created a district to give the city’s Latino population a better chance of electing a member of their choosing. While no Latino candidates ran this election cycle, another district in the city had two incumbents — Laura Hoffmeister and Ron Leone — running against each other. Unofficial results suggest Hoffmeister will snag the seat, forcing out Leone and creating room for new leadership.

While Concord provides a clear example of how moving to district elections doesn’t always immediately translate into more diverse representation, Percival cautioned the process can take time.

“This’ll be a shakeup that I think will unfold over a couple of election cycles,” Percival said, but that “incremental change over time adds up to something meaningful.”

In Fremont’s first district elections, attorney Jenny Kassan ousted incumbent David Bonaccorsi, who was forced into the same district. In an unusual twist, Kassan will serve on the council with her husband, sitting Councilman Vinnie Bacon, whose term expires in 2020.

“The whole point of shifting is to shake up that balance of power and get some new voices on the council,” said Terry Christensen, a professor emeritus at San Jose State who pushed San Jose to move to district elections in the 1970s.

When cities divide into districts, Christensen said, campaigning becomes more manageable and affordable, which can be a boon for both women and minority candidates.

And switching systems often means that neighborhoods that had previously been ignored have a council member specifically charged with bringing their concerns to the table. Before San Jose moved to district elections, the council was often heavy with residents of Willow Glen or the Rose Garden, two of the city’s wealthiest neighborhoods. Now, places such as Almaden and Berryessa get to put a resident on the council, too. And when people feel like they are heard by their elected of- ficials, they also are more likely to be engaged in local issues.

As the demographics of various Bay Area cities continue to evolve and more courts decide in favor of district elections, more cities are contemplating getting rid of their at- large systems. Sunnyvale, under threat of a lawsuit, is considering the idea. Santa Rosa just made the switch, along with Morgan Hill.

In Santa Clara, Chahal is feeling both the joy and pressure of being the first Indian immigrant elected to the council.

“It’s a proud moment for me and my family to be the first minority council member ever in Santa Clara,” Chahal said. “It also makes me feel the responsibility that I have as the first minority on the council, and I have a lot to learn.”