Two Manteca City Council seats will be up for grabs as well as the mayor’s post in the November 2022 election.

Individual voters, however, could end up being able to vote to fill the mayor’s seat and only one council position.

Whether that happens will depend on what the Manteca City Council decides when they meet Tuesday at 7 p.m. in regards to an effort to switch to district elections for the city’s four council seats.

Based on the 2020 census population of 86,000, the city would be divided into council districts with roughly 21,500 residents apiece.

Only people residing within a specific district could run for the council seat assigned to the area. And only voters within a specific district can vote for those running for that seat.

Election of the mayor would still be citywide.

California state law provides a hammer for citizens to all but outright force a move to district elections if they file a formal complaint with a governing body that elective representation of minorities is hampered by at-large voting.

Cities have a short time frame to respond when such a complaint is made. And if they are taken to court for not moving to district elections, California cities and school districts have consistently lost while being saddled with huge legal bills.

State law is aimed at

increasing minority

representation

Mayor Ben Cantu made switching to district elections part of his campaign platform during his successful 2018 mayoral election.

Cantu’s rationale for such a move is not based on a concern of at large elections being a roadblock that minorities can’t clear to get elected to the council. Three of the five current council members — Jose Nuño (Latino), Gary Singh (Punjabi American) and Cantu (Latino) — are considered minorities under California law.

Manteca has had only two Latino office holders in its 104 year history. They were Wayne Flores and Vince Hernandez. Neither ran as a Latino nor did Cantu or Nuño.

Cantu’s support of district elections is his belief they would improve neighborhood representation and therefore strength communication between the city and residents.

The theory is council members would be more attuned to staying on top of concerns in the neighborhoods and/or sections of Manteca they represent while at the same time addressing community wide issues.. At the same time residents would have a specific council member they could approach with neighborhood related issues.

District elections also would eliminate the need for council members to campaign citywide which, in theory, could reduce the cost of campaigns.

It would also avoid a situation that occurred when four council members four years ago all lived within the neighborhoods surrounding Woodward Park in South Manteca.

On Tuesday the council is considering spending $150,000 to retain the services of the Tripepi Smith consulting firm to provide services needed to form districts.

Such services include using demographics, in person workshops, public engagement, a dedicated website, and such.

Potential of lawsuits

prompts 79 cities in

state to go to districts

Given the city could run afoul with the law if they don’t, a main driving force will be to make sure districts provide the opportunity for minorities to get elected.

As such the ethnicity breakdown on census tracts within the city will be examined in forming districts. In some cities that has gone as far as assuring the majority of a district is of one ethnicity.

Prior to the Voting Rights Act adoption in 2002, only 28 of California’s 482 cities had district elections. After the law was passed, nine went to them including Modesto that had to be sued to switch. In the past four years 79 more cities have gone to district elections for councils including Visalia that also got slapped with a heavy legal payout by the courts. Most of the other cities switched when threatened by lawsuits.

Visalia, which is 46 percent Latino, never has had a Latino council member. They declined to switch when a complaint was made, failed to do so, got sued, lost, and were forced to pay a large legal bill. the first election after district voting was implemented none got elected to the council because no Latinos ran for the two seats that were available.

The law is based on geography groupings of districts as much as on ethnicity. That means if a city has neighborhoods that are fairly well integrated there wouldn’t be a requirement to produce Latino majority districts.

The 2010 census showed 36.8 percent of the city’s population as Latino compared to 49.6 percent being Caucasian.

The demographers will use the latest data from the 2020 census. Experts say that because of how questions were asked about ethnic makeup, there was a larger increase than expected among the ranks of minorities given the steady growth of multi-racial families.

The California Legislature in 2016 adopted a law that would give cities some protection from massive legal bills and to give them time to take steps to avoid lawsuits. The law gives cities 135 days to switch to district elections through the ordinance process after it is warned it could be in violation of the Voting Rights Act.  

If the city moves to change to district elections by ordinance within the prescribed time, there is a $30,000 limit on the amount cities must reimburse attorneys or groups that challenge the election system providing no lawsuit is filed against the city.

Manteca Unified has always had the requirement that board members must reside within a specific area or district but voting was districtwide until 2016 when the district switched to area elections.

The city, if they end up going to district elections, theoretically could have them in place before the 2022 election cycle starts with filing candidacy papers in the summer of 2022.

If the city goes with district elections and have then in place before the candidacy process starts for the November 2022 election, where current incumbents reside likely won’t be an issue.

That’s because the initial two council seats that would be subject to district elections would have incumbents that likely would not fall within the same district. Nuño lives north of Lathrop Road while Dave Breitenbucher resides in the Powers Tract neighborhood just north of the 120 Bypass.

At the same time the 2024 election would likely have incumbents with enough separation not to tempt the use of gerrymandering to make districts work that accommodate where they currently live. Charlie Halford resides in east central Manteca while Gary Singh is south of the 120 Bypass.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com