Dec. 21—Sine the city’s incorporation, Galt voters have always elected five city council members, each of whom serve one year as mayor.
But by 2026, residents may be able to run for mayor once the city adopts council district boundaries in the coming months.
The Galt City Council held its second public hearing to discuss redistricting on Tuesday, and Mayor Shawn Farmer and Vice Mayor Paul Sandhu said they would support an election system where residents vote for four council members and an at-large mayor.
Sandhu said if the city were to move to a council with five districts, each member would only be concerned with the interests of their own district.
“We have only a 25,000 population,” he said. “So each district will have very small populations. If you look at other cities like Elk Grove, each of its districts is like 30,000 in population. That fifth council person can have the best interests of the whole city instead of taking care of just one district.”
Farmer agreed with the vice mayor’s assessment, although he was not pleased with the idea of districting in the first place.
“This districting thing is going to divide the city of Galt furthermore,” he said. “Right now we’re divided east to west, so to speak. It’s going to become more-so. We’re going to compartmentalize our discussions instead of thinking of the community as a whole, which is a tragedy, in my opinion. It just seems like this whole process is anti-democratic.”
The city received a letter from the Shenkman & Hughes lawfirm on behalf of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project in August claiming the at-large system of voting dilutes the ability of Latino voters to elect candidates of their choice or to otherwise influence the outcome of an election. As a result, the firm claimed the at-large elections violate the California Voting Rights Act, which became law in 2003 and attempts to prevent the disenfranchisement of protected classes.
A protected class, staff said, is comprised of voters who are members of a race, color, or language minority group.
City staff said the letter was a prerequisite to having a lawsuit filed against it, and something no other agency has successfully defended.
To avoid a lawsuit, the council in October voted to transition from at-large elections to district elections by April 8.
Paul Mitchell of the Redistricting Partners consulting firm, which will help the city with the process, said if Galt were to incorporate five districts, their populations would each be roughly 5,000.
Resident Chris Brossman echoed the mayor’s sentiment that redistricting would only further divide the city, but favored a system in which voters elected five councilmembers from five different districts. He said an elected mayor, although chosen by all Galt residents, would only have their district’s interests at heart.
“The last election we had three candidates, and to get three candidates took some encouragement,” he said. “I have a concern about getting someone to run in a district. Let’s say nobody runs in (a particular) district. How does the city deal with that? I didn’t hear that tonight.”
Farmer replied that if a district had no candidates, the council would appoint someone from that district to serve.
Council members Bonnie Rodriguez and Tim Reed said they were undecided on the issue.
“I’ve seen other cities running both ways, and we’ve been running at-large,” Rodriguez said. “I see a very expensive process every two years running a mayor. Those little nuances of it, I’m not 100% sure I’m behind, but I’m not against it.”
Councilman Mathew Pratton was the only one to favor keeping all five representatives elected to districts.
“The reason for that is, I need more information,” he said. “I like the idea of the mayor being rotated and appointed.”
Mitchell said he would bring six maps with district boundaries to the council’s next public hearing on Jan. 21. Three maps will depict scenarios with five districts, and the other three will depict scenarios with four. The council will then have two more public hearings before April 8 to vote on district boundaries. No action was taken Tuesday night.