Voter discrimination issue resurfaces, Elk Grove urged to avoid taxpayers burden and voluntarily change to by-district
http://www.elkgrovenews.net/2018/11/voter-discrimination-issue-resurfaces.html
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| Elk Grove resident and by-district advocate Amar Shergill. | |
November 19, 2018 |
During public comment at the Wednesday, November 14 meeting of the Elk Grove City Council, the ongoing issue of switching to a by-district system for elections and representation resurfaced. The issue was broached during the public comment.
Speaking to the council, Elk Grove resident Amar Shergill briefed the council members on recent activities of Keven Shenkman, a Malibu-based attorney who has successfully persuaded or sued several California municipalities forcing a conversion to by-district form at-large elections. Last spring Shenkman sent a letter to the city saying it will sue the city if it does not voluntarily switch to the more democratic, less discriminatory by-district system.
In his comments, Shergill noted that in the last several months, Shenkman has succeeded in convincing several communities to become by-district.
"Today I ask you again, to save the city of Elk Grove millions of dollars," Shergill said. "As you may be aware, the city of Santa Monica was sued by a non-profit and Kevin Shenkman, the same attorney who has put the city of Elk Grove on notice for racial discrimination under the California voters rights act."
Shergill added that Santa Monica lost that lawsuit, and it will cost taxpayers there, according to Shergill, $5 to $10 million (see video below).
"They had big shot attorneys who told them the case could be beaten, and they were wrong," he added
In by-district elections, representatives are elected by voters in a geographically defined area while Elk Grove's at-large format has council member from a defined district voted on by the entire city. Shergill argued as others have in several successful lawsuits that at-large is discriminatory and in violation of the Califonia Voters Rights Act (CVRC).
In addition to the Santa Monica ruling, Shenkman has scored other legal victories in pursuit of cities found to be violating the CVRA. With each of those victories, municipalities have been ordered to pay Shenkman's legal fees which have amounted to millions of dollars. n 2013 Palmdale spend $7 million unsuccessfully defending its CVRA lawsuit and was ordered to pay Shenkman $4.7 million for his legal fees.
Along with Santa Monica, Shenkman's team last week convinced the City of Buellton to voluntarily switch to by-district, thereby saving taxpayers litigation costs. Other cities that have decided to voluntarily comply with CVRA request from Shenkman have included Martinez, Redwood City as well as at least two Bay Area school districts.
With the exception of Elk Grove Mayor Steve Ly, the four other city council members, Steve Detrick, Pat Hume, Stephanie Nguyen, and Darren Suen have vigorously defended maintenance of the current at-large system. Critics have noted the four council members benefit from the current system that makes it financially more difficult for a non-incumbent to raise the required $100,000 to stage a citywide campaign.
In his finishing comments, Shergill added "it is a breach of trust for you to use the Elk taxpayers' money to spend millions on a discriminatory voting system that benefits you personally.
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Elk Grove has been threatened with a law suit for almost a year now. If Mr. Shergill was right that law suit would have been filed in June, July, August especially before the November election. Elk Grove elections of council members are different than the the cities that are losing. Those cities have an at large voting system which actually harms minorities running for office an minorities being represented. In Elk Grove minorities are living in all the districts without a concentration of any minority group in any one of the districts. So even under by District voting the outcome would be the same. This issue is being driven by party politics. It doesn’t take much time to find out that the Democratic Party is pushing this as one of their platform items. Election is over an no election until 2020. In 2020 there will be a census it has widely been talked about after the census that Elk Grove may need to discuss changes. So way now? Why keep pushing the issue? There are no elections. If Mr. Shergill is successful is that a feather in his cap being an executive officer in the Sacramento Democratic Party. Is he looking to become an elected official or just a power player to raise his value in the Democratic Party. There is absolutely no reason right now for this. We need to be talking about issues that affect Elk Grove, traffic, jobs, security, as well as other things dealing with city issues. Maybe EGN should investigate the reason why this issue is being pushed by the Democratic Party. I know enough that if Elk Grove was in violation of a state law the law suit would have already been filed. One last thing unless a law suit is filed this is just away of bullying people in being scared. I got news for you I am not scared an as you know I will stand up against anyone who tries to bully their political choices an threaten our current system. I say file the law suit or sit down an shut up! Being a bully is not going to work!
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