To: Honorable Mayor and Members of City Council
From: Tiffany Carranza, City Clerk
Prepared By: Caitlin Saldanha, Deputy City Clerk
TITLE:
Title
Transition from At-Large Elections to District-Based Elections for Councilmembers
LABEL
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Recommendation
Adopt a resolution Declaring the City's Intention To Transition from At-Large Elections to District-Based Elections of Councilmembers; Outlining Specific Steps to Facilitate the Transition (Including Public Outreach to Solicit Public Input, and Public Hearings); and Estimating a Timeframe for the Transition
Body
DISCUSSION:
The City of Napa currently has an at-large election system for the five members of City Council (including the Mayor and four Councilmembers), which means that voters from the entire City choose each of the four Councilmembers and the Mayor. Under the at-large system, the incumbent members of (and future candidates for) the City Council may reside anywhere within the City limits. The Councilmembers and the Mayor are elected to four-year terms. The terms of office for Councilmembers are staggered, which means that two Councilmembers are up for election every two years.
A district-based election system is one in which the city is divided into four separate geographic districts. For each district, the voters residing in that particular district vote for one Councilmember who also resides in that district.
On January 2, 2020, the City of Napa received a certified letter (attached hereto as Attachment 1) from Scott J. Rafferty (an attorney representing the Napa County Progressive Alliance), asserting that the City is required by the California Voting Rights Act ("CVRA") to transition from the current at-large election system to a district-based election system for the four Councilmembers, and to complete that transition so that the district boundaries will be in place for the General Municipal Election on November 3, 2020. Under the proposed transition to district-ba...
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