A COUNCIL DIVIDED, A CITY CONFUSED

How will Chico's new district election cycle work?

CHICO >> The city of Chico’s plan for district elections is extremely complicated, to say the least.

There’s been name-swapping, line-redrawing, small modifications with huge ramifications, and all kinds of issues at stake at every City Council meeting since late October.

So it’s understandable why people are having a hard time understanding the council’s final decision.

Here to help you make sense of the mess is a guide to how the district elections will work, which districts get to vote first and who will (likely) sit on the City Council at the end of this year is the Enterprise-Record.

Need-to-know

First, you should know that in order to keep the staggered election model, it was always going to be the case that one half of the city was not going to get to vote for their representative councilor, no matter what.

Chico has had staggered elections for decades, where only half of the council is replaced in any given election. Four councilors are leaving the dais in November, that means four districts get to vote first. The remaining three districts get to vote in 2022.

It’s also important not to conflate where a current councilor lives with what district gets to vote, because even if that councilor’s term isn’t up for two

years, they weren’t voted in by that district.

Councilors Scott Huber and Kasey Reynolds, and Vice Mayor Alex Brown, now live in districts 2, 6 and 1, respectively. They were voted in by the city, at large, two years ago and therefore represent the city, not the district they happen to live in now.

If a constituent in a district without a councilor in it (specifically, District 4) wanted to bring an issue to the attention of a councilor that represents them, then they should bring it to one of those three.

That being said: If a councilor living in those districts wanted to endear themselves to a district that will go to vote at the same time they’re up for re-election — well, it would probably make for good politics.

Just to make things even more complicated, the council also swapped the names of District 1 and District 4 just before approving the district voting sequence. Previously, District 1 was in northwest Chico, while District 4 was in west central Chico, and covered much of area directly north and south of the Chico State campus.

Now, District 4 is in northwest Chico and District 1 is in west central Chico.

Their reasoning for the swap, said Mayor Randall Stone on Tuesday evening, was twofold: One, it ensured the areas of Chico with the most minority population go to elections first, keeping with the spirit of the California Voting Rights Act which prompted the districting effort in the first place.

The second reason was

that the voting act suggests — but does not require — that cities choose either the odd-numbered or even-numbered districts to vote first, depending on the numerical need. Because Chico needs four seats filled, districts 1, 3, 5 and 7 were a natural choice.

Confused yet? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Let’s take it district by district.

District 1

Brown lives in the newlyrenamed District 1, which covers west central Chico, and her term of office is up in 2022. However, District 1 was chosen among the first to vote for a new councilor in the upcoming 2020 election. That means they’ll get to vote for a new councilor, and Brown gets to stay until 2022 to finish out her tenure.

Technically, that means there will be two city councilors living in District 1, but only one will actually be an elected representative of the residents there. And, unlike the other councilors, Brown is also the only councilor who is also a renter — she could easily move to a new district in Chico within the next two years and challenge another incumbent for their seat should she wish to stay on the council.

District 2

Councilor Scott Huber lives in District 2, and his term is up in 2022. That coincides with when District 2 will head to the polls. Until then, District 2 will not have direct representation (just like the even-numbered districts 4 and 6) because that district did not vote in Huber — regardless of the fact that he happens to live there.

District 3

Councilors Karl Ory and Ann Schwab live in District

3. Both of their terms are up in 2020, but Ory recently announced he would not seek re-election. That means Schwab could potentially win the district when it goes to vote for its representative in November 2020.

As a side note, it was on Ory’s suggestion that city demographer Michael Wagaman move the District 7 line to split along Big Chico creek, instead of splitting along Vallombrosa Avenue. That move of a few hundred feet placed Schwab’s residence on the southernmost line of District 3 — with him — instead of on the northernmost line of District 7. To wit: It was a move that put District 7 in play instead of District 3.

Stone said Tuesday he expects Rich Ober, a previous council candidate in 2018 and a fellow Democrat, to run for the seat in District 7.

District 4

Councilor Sean Morgan lives in the new District 4, and his term is up in 2020. But District 4 won’t go to vote until 2022. So, like districts 2 and 6, that means there will be no direct representation from District 1 between 2020 and 2022. But it also means that for District 4, there won’t be a councilor on the dais who — even coincidentally — lives in that district.

But that doesn’t mean there will be only six councilors after the 2020 election. Remember that there’s both Brown and a new councilor from District 4, bringing the total number of councilors back up to seven.

However, it does make Morgan the only councilor whose term ends in 2020 not to be placed in a district that he can immediately run in again.

Morgan told this newspaper on Wednesday that he doesn’t even know if he’ll even bother finishing out his term as a councilor.

“I almost left (Tuesday) like, well if my area of Chico doesn’t matter and I can’t make a difference, why?” he said.

District 5

Stone lives in District 5, which is the furthermost western district, mostly around Nord Avenue. He is up for re-election in 2020, and District 5 is also choosing its councilor in 2020.

District 6

Reynolds lives in District 6, which encompasses pretty much all of Bidwell Park and eastern Chico. Her term is up in 2022, and District 6 will also go to vote for their representative in 2022.

District 7

And in District 7, which includes all of south Chico, including the Chapman neighborhood and the Mulberry annex, there is no councilor — yet. That district will go to vote in November 2020. (See the District 3 entry for more on this.)

A final gambit

Now that you’re properly confused, here’s one more wrench in the works: Had the council retained the original numbering of the districts, with Sean Morgan in District 1 (instead of 4) and Brown in District 4 (instead of 1) the districts heading to vote in 2020 and the councilors that are up for re-election in 2020 would have lined up perfectly.

By switching those two districts but still retaining the odd-numberedonly elections, the council ensured we’re all going to stay very confused for the next two years.

At least, until the new 2020 census comes out in 2021 — and Chico has to go through the redistricting process all over again.