Richmond Redistricting Process Underway to Redraw City Council Districts
Leisa Johnson, Community Advocate
ljohnson.rc@icloud.com
In 2020, Richmond transitioned from an at-large to by-district system for electing city council-members because attorney Scott Rafferty threatened the city with legal action under the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA) if they failed to act. Attorney Rafferty asserted that our at-large council-member electoral system violated both the CVRA and Federal Voting Rights Act (FVRA) by denying Latino voters of an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice that was enjoyed by non-Latino voters, and by diluting the electoral influence of Richmond’s African American and Asian communities.
The irony is that Richmond’s city council has often been comprised of mostly non-white members.
There are four criteria that a district map should achieve: 1) districts should be geographically contiguous; 2) neighborhoods and communities should not be divided; 3) boundaries should be easily identifiable; and 4) districts should be compact.
Many community members who participated in the first map drawing process believe that the district map adopted in January 2020 violated many of these criteria. Many neighborhoods and communities of interest were divided, including the Shoreline, San Pablo Corridor, Southside, Iron Triangle, 23rd Street, and Hilltop. Moreover, to meet the geographically contiguous requirement in District 2, they connected the disparate Hilltop, Shields-Reid, Santa Fe, and Point Richmond neighborhoods via a thin stretch of land with no residents.
There were alternative maps that many residents felt better represented Richmond’s diverse neighborhoods and communities. Jan Mignone, president of the Richmond Neighborhood Coordinating Council, stated “Many felt their voices were ignored. The city council adopted a gerrymandered map that divided our neighborhoods and supported their political agendas instead.”
With the change from at-large to by-district elections, each voter now only votes for the mayor and every four years for the council-member from his/her district. Council-members continue to be elected to four-year terms, with three district seats up each election cycle. And while each voter votes less often and for only one council-member, their vote carries more weight. Moreover, council-members are held accountable by the voters of their district.
In November 2020, the first three district seats were elected, with Council-members Melvin Willis, Gayle McLaughlin and Claudia Jimenez winning Districts 1, 5 and 6, respectively. Council-members Nathaniel Bates, Demnlus Johnson III and Eduardo Martinez were elected in November 2018 and will continue to serve as at-large council-members through mid-January 2023.
Ironically, District 1 was specifically drawn to generate a majority Latino district to address attorney Rafferty’s demands, yet its voters didn’t elect a Latino council-member.
Richmond is currently redistricting, which is the once-a-decade process of redrawing all district boundaries after the U.S. Census Bureau releases their official updated population data. This redrawn district map will serve Richmond for the next 10 years.
The next two public hearings to review draft maps will be held on January 18 and February 1, 2022, and the final map must be adopted by April 17, 2022.
All information can be found on the City’s website at https://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/4099/Redistricting-2020-Census.
It is critical for Richmond residents to participate in this process to ensure their voices are heard and that they have a district map that better reflects their neighborhoods and communities.