The city of National City held a special meeting Feb. 22 during which several map options dividing the city into voting districts were presented for public consideration.
The push for districting took root in National City in December 2021 after members of the Filipino-American and Asian Pacific Islanders communities rallied to push elected leaders of the 61,000 resident municipality toward district-based voting.
Ostensibly, district-based elections could beget more equitable voting practices, however the 2001 California Voting Rights Act also has essentially forced many cities to convert to a district system or risk a lawsuit.
The city currently has a March 15 cutoff date to determine and approve those districts, and this November will mark the first time the districts are utilized for City Council member elections.
Redistricting Insights Chief Legal Counsel Matt Rexroad summed up a few standard practices, including the need to maintain similarly sized populations across different districts. The Black, Asian and Hispanic Citizen Voting Age by Population numbers are also important, Rexroad said.
That CVAP number is determined by the Census Bureau through a series of surveys, Rexroad said, but is not directly generated from the census itself.
Redistricting Insights Data Scientist Eddy Harrity presented three maps developed by the consulting groups.
“These are intended to be starting points and what we really want is feedback from the public on what changes we want to make on these maps. We don’t expect to have drawn you the perfect maps on our first try,” Harrity said.
Several residents have submitted maps through the online mapping tool available at nationalcityca.gov/districting
Among key asks during the meeting: a district with Morgan Towers as the epicenter with a high population of elderly Asian residents, consideration for the Old Town and west side neighborhoods that have only recently been a target for environmental justice, and more time to draw up the maps that will be used through 2032.
During time for public comments, resident Ken Gottschalk said although all the maps developed by Redistricting Insights and other residents show four districts, “there is nothing in voting regulations that says we have to have four districts” and submitted a proposed map with just two districts for the entire city.
“My alternative is a two-district map for elected positions that would provide every resident with a vote every two years. Two people would represent each district. Council seats would alternate in the elections and be for four year terms. These maps are geographically contiguous and there is a very low deviation in the population. District two is more than 30% Asian and would be represented by two council members,” Gottschalk said.
Environmental Health Coalition representative Sylvia Calzada and several other callers asked the city to factor in environmental justice when drawing district lines.
“It’s important to recognize there is a community of interest covered by the West Side Environmental Plan. We fought for amenities like the community garden and we want a representative who lives on the west side,” Calzada said.
Vice Chair of Asian Pacific American Coalition and Chair of Districting Subcommittee Cynthia Suero-Gabler delivered a roughly five-minute presentation encompassing shared requests from both organizations as well as member agencies.
Their interest group would like to see what they termed an Asian Empowerment District created in the center of the city which would reflect a 37% CVAP. Suero-Gabler also proposed an extension to the March 15 deadline for district development and approval, echoed by several callers throughout the meeting.
“While we are pushing for an empowerment district, I would like to ask that anyone who would like to contribute to this process has a chance to do so and I would like to review maps with residents of National City as well as outside residents who are a part of the business community. All voices should be heard,” Asian community organizer Kandi Custodio-Tan said.
Ditas Yamane, who unsuccessfully ran for City Council in 2020 said the extra time was unnecessary and detrimental to the city.
“I believe the timeline you have set is more than enough for you to push forward with the decision. Delaying this process would create confusion as well as take more time and effort and cost more to our city,” Yamane said.
Mayor Alejandra Sotelo-Solis said all maps and information are available online in English, Spanish and Tagalog as well as in a dedicated in-person space where residents can develop maps.
The next districting hearing is scheduled for March 5 from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. and a final public hearing is scheduled for March 15 from 4-5 p.m. where district maps will be adopted.
