In recent months, the governing bodies of districts throughout San Benito County have considered redrawing their electoral grids, including jurisdictions for both health and education.
Amid transitions underway by the boards of the Gavilan Joint Community College and San Benito Health Care districts, the officials of the San Benito High School District also intend to further explore potentially restructuring its elections from “at large” to “by district” — a change now under consideration across the state, reacting to a growing number of legal challenges under the California Voting Rights Act.
On both sides of the matter, such calls have one goal — equality.
Marguerite Melo, a partner of the Law Offices of Melo and Sarsfield LLP, recently sued the San Benito Health District under the CVRA. In a civil complaint, the law firm said that because of racially-polarized voting, at-large elections of members of the hospital district’s governing board of directors resulted in dilution of votes by Latinos and Latinas, “impairing their ability to elect candidates of their choice or to influence the outcome of district elections.”
“In California, there is a law called the California Voting Rights Act,” said Melo in a statement May 4 to BenitoLink. “The CVRA says that if there were historic underrepresentation or no representation of minorities on a legislative body, such as a school board, a hospital board, or a city council, you could bring a lawsuit to force a switch by court order from at-large elections to elections by district. That has been done successfully throughout the state. No government agency sued for a violation of the CVRA has ever won such a case.”
The law firm, a Visalia business, also addressed rumors over the at-large structure currently used for elections of trustees for the local high school’s district, whose jurisdiction covers parts of San Benito and Santa Clara counties.
“There has been some talk lately of threatening a CVRA lawsuit to force San Benito High School District to move to district elections,” said Melo. “A look at the history of minorities elected to the San Benito High School District shows that minorities in large numbers have regularly been elected there for 20 years. SBHSD could, if it chose to, voluntarily go to by-district elections; but, because of the board’s historical record of significant minority representation, a CVRA lawsuit against the district would likely fail. In that case, an unsuccessful lawsuit possibly could be the first loser in state history.”
Hollister City Councilwoman Mickie Luna, who remains an active member of San Benito County’s League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Council No. 2890, said in a statement May 5 to BenitoLink that regardless of the historical diversity of board members elected in any at-large system, by-district elections can help communities ensure that their representatives reflect the diversity of their individual districts.
“There’s more knowledge now in the community, which cannot stay silent,” said Luna. “An at-large-elected board deprives local residents the opportunity to elect a representative of their choice within their designated district. A community who elects their representatives by districts brings accountability, more focus on whom the district voters elects, increases interest in voter turnout, and brings neighborhood representation to the table. It is the right direction for any elected seated board to consider implementing district elections.”
SBHSD mulls electoral transition
In the 2014-2015 school year, according to the California Department of Education, San Benito High School had 3,003 students, 68 percent of which were identified as “Hispanic or Latino of any race.” The CDE lacks data on the diversity of 18 students. While the CDE prefers self-reported classifications of race and ethnicity, the federal government permits “observer identification.” In fact, the United States Office of Management and Budget advises on the digital home of the White House that in some cases, “observer identification is more practical.”
Superintendent John Perales, who previously served as the founding principal of Christopher High School, confirmed in a statement May 1 to BenitoLink that the San Benito High School District expects to hold a public meeting June 3, when the community — including trustees and other residents — plan to further consider a possible shift toward by-district representation.
“It’s admirable that people are fighting for equality,” said Perales. “With that comes a lot of expectations. When a community moves to district seats, education is a part of that approach.”
San Benito High School District Board of Trustees President Ray Rodriguez — a military veteran, a leader for both the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, and a member of both the San Benito County Latino Advisory Committee and the League of United Latin American Citizens — also shared his perspective.
“It’s an educational process for us as well,” said Rodriguez. “Historically, we have not had much luck in getting people to place their names on the ballot in at-large elections. I worry that some districts will be without a candidate leaving the school district to appoint someone.”
Districts scramble to avoid lawsuits
Across California, according to recent agendas of the State Board of Education, school districts that hold at-large elections now are working “to reduce the potential for litigation and establish by-trustee-area elections as expeditiously as possible.” In its agenda for May 6-7, the education board notes eight requests — up from two in March — by school districts in various counties to “waive the requirement that by-trustee-area election methods be approved at district-wide elections — allowing by-trustee-area elections to be adopted upon review and approval of the county committees.”
The San Benito County Committee on School District Organization, according to County Schools Superintendent Krystal Lomanto, consists of 11 board members, who together take a leading role in both public and official consideration of any proposal for the reorganization of a school district.
“Currently, each district elects a board member to sit on the County Committee on School District Organization,” said Lomanto in a statement May 1 to BenitoLink. “Districts submitted their selections to the County Office of Education by December 2014, during the districts reorganization meeting. Each selected board member has received a congratulations letter and the County Office will be hosting a meeting in August.”
The county committee specifically “is the local initiator, coordinator, analyst, facilitator, and arbitrator for the reorganization of school districts,” states a document on file with the office of education. “It formulates plans, responds to petitions, conducts public hearings, develops and releases information, and analyzes proposals throughout the approval process of reorganization. For petitions for transfers of territory and certain unification proposals, where state approval is not required, the county committee gives final approval or disapproval, subject only to appeal to the State Board of Education.”
Last month, the Morgan Hill Unified High School District publicly proposed trustee areas as possible replacements for the district’s current structure, an at-large system.
“Elections Code 10010 requires that any school district considering a change from an at-large method of election to a trustee election must hold public hearings to consider proposals regarding trustee area boundaries,” said the board’s April 21 agenda. “This will be the first of three planned public hearings on this topic. The board will review and receive community input on alternative proposed trustee area boundary maps prepared by the District’s demographers.”
Morgan Hill Unified School District Trustees Bob Benevento, Ron Woolf, Rick Badillo, Gino Borgioli, David Gerard, Amy Porter Johnson and Donna Ruebusch did not respond to a BenitoLink request for a comment.
Their district, according to a previous report by BenitoLink, remains a part of the Gavilan Joint Community College District, whose board officially approved policy changes April 14 that call for tighter parameters for elections in and after November 2016, and present a tentative expansion of the community college district’s three sub-districts to seven, allowing residents of each area to elect their own trustee.
“Trustees would be elected by their ‘population center,'” noted a draft of minutes provided by the board, per a request by BenitoLink. “This may change the current board representation of three from San Benito County, two from Gilroy and two from Morgan Hill. Trustees are currently elected by the population residing in Gavilan’s entire district. This change is in response to the California Voting Rights Act.”
Since 1963 — when San Benito County Junior College turned into Gavilan College — San Benito County held three seats on the school’s board. A transition to by-district elections is expected to reduce that representation to two seats.
Other jurisdictions, such as city and hospital districts, choose their own methods to oversee changes of coverage areas, which often have commonalities.
“The County of San Benito has established its districts according to supervisorial boundaries,” said Gordon Machado, the president of the San Benito Health Care District Board of Directors. “In the hospital’s district, which has some similarities to the high school’s district, the coverage area is not quite countywide: The Aromas area, along with a section south of Bitterwater, are outside our district.”
Jim West, a member of both the San Juan Bautista City Council and the San Benito Health Care District Board of Directors, said in a statement May 4 to BenitoLink that by-district elections can more closely tie officials to the voters in their districts.
“I support by-district election all the way,” said West. “We want the boards of our districts to reflect our community.”
State, federal lawmakers continue facing legal hurdles
In a public hearing last year on local government, specifically concerning a proposed bill to require large cities to hold elections by districts instead of at large, California Assemblyman Roger Hernández (D-Baldwin Park) pointed to a ruling by the United States Supreme Court, which in 2013 struck down a couple of pieces of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. That act, according to the court, “employed extraordinary measures to address an extraordinary problem” — discrimination.
In what Chief Justice John Roberts called “a drastic departure from basic principles of federalism,” according to the Supreme Court’s opinion of Shelby County v. Holder, the fifth section of such a federal act had required states to receive federal permission to enact any law tied to voting; and the fourth section had applied that rule to only some of them — including several in the South.
“Striking down an act of Congress ‘is the gravest and most delicate duty that this Court is called on to perform,'” said Roberts, who quoted Blodgett v. Holden. “We do not do so lightly. That is why, in 2009, we took care to avoid ruling on the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act when asked to do so, and instead resolved the case then before us on statutory grounds. But in issuing that decision, we expressed our broader concerns about the constitutionality of the act. Congress could have updated the coverage formula at that time, but did not do so. Its failure to act leaves us today with no choice but to declare §4(b) unconstitutional.”
That ruling, according to Hernández, “increased use of the California Voting Rights Act,” under which legal challenges over racially polarized voting remain undefeated.
Water districts, too, remain fair game.