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CITIZENS ADVISORY 2012/12/13CITIZENS ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT MINUTES Thursday, December 13, 2012 6:30 p.m. Trident Education Center 1800 W. Ball Road, Anaheim, CA 92804 COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: Peter Agarwal John Woodhead, Ex Officio Member Anthony Armas Bill Dalati, Vice Chair David Diaz (arrived at 7:15 p.m.) Larry Larsen Gloria Ma'ae Vivian Pham, Chair Vic Real COMMITTEE MEMBERS ABSENT: Joseph Karaki Martin Lopez STAFF PRESENT: Greg Garcia, Deputy City Manager Robert J. Tyson, Deputy City Attorney Caroline Morey, Recording Secretary 1. Call meeting to order. The meeting of the Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement (CAC) was called to order at 6:38 p.m. by Chair Pham. 2. Flag Salute 3. Committee Procedures Action: Approve Procedures. Deputy City Manager Greg Garcia reviewed the procedures and advised that staff was available to answer questions or concerns. Commissioner Ma'ae motioned to approve procedures, seconded by Vice Chair Dalati. Ex- officio commissioner Woodhead took a roll call vote: Ayes - 7 ( Agarwal, Armas, Dalati, Larsen, Ma'ae, Pham, Real), Noes — 0, ABSENT — 3 (Diaz, Karaki, Lopez). Motion passed. Regular Meeting of the Citizens Advisory Committee, Elections and Community Involvement December 13, 2012 Page 2 of 6 4. Approve CAC minutes of the November 8, 2012 meeting Action: Receive and file minutes. Commissioner Real motioned to approve the minutes of the November 8, 2012 meeting, seconded by Commissioner Ma'ae, with Commissioner Agarwal noting his abstention due to his absence at the November 8 meeting. Ayes - 6 (Armas, Dalati, Larsen, Ma'ae, Pham, Real), Noes — 0, Abstained — 1, ABSENT — 3 (Diaz, Karaki, Lopez). Motion passed. 5. Public Comments: Action: Public comments on any agenda item or subject matter within the jurisdiction of the Citizens Advisory Committee: Please note: Individual audience participation is limited to three minutes per speaker. Chair Pham opened public comment. Phyllis Mueller, retired city employee, 14 year Anaheim resident, and former Pasadena resident for 26 years. She shared an email exchange between her and former Mayor Bill Bogaard of Pasadena regarding Pasadena's experience with a similar lawsuit; Mr. Bogaard shared his opinion that he felt the intent of district elections had been achieved in Pasadena. Ms. Mueller concluded that she supported districting and believed it should be placed on a future ballot with six districts and a mayoral election at large. Eric Altman, Executive Director of OCCORD, commented that he did not wish to express an opinion on the process of districting, however wished to state his belief that the committee was tasked with a great deal. Ultimately, he is concerned with whether there is a violation of the California Voting Rights Act and whether there is racially polarized voting. He recommended a demographer be invited to present statistical and demographical analyses to assist in their review. Brian Chuchua, Anaheim Resident for 42 years shared his opposition to spending tax dollars to fight a lawsuit that he believed the city was going to lose and spoke in support of districting. Chair Pham asked the commissioners if they would like to respond to the public comments. Commissioner Real highlighted the city council resolution that outlined the purpose and tasks charged to the committee. He reiterated that the committee was present to gather information and welcomed audience input advising that all information would be weighed by the committee, individually and together as a group. Return to public comment: Ricardo Del Toro, east Anaheim resident for 20 years, spoke in opposition of disputing the lawsuit. Commissioner Ma'ae stated she felt fortunate, as a Latina, to have had representation on the city council by Bob Hernandez, Richard Chavez, Lorri Galloway. She asked for patience and an open mind during this process highlighting that there was still much to learn and speakers to hear from Regular Meeting of the Citizens Advisory Committee, Elections and Community Involvement December 13, 2012 Page 3 of 6 before the committee could make a recommendation that would be in the best interest of all, adding that she wished to be represented as a person, not as a Latina. Commissioner Armas echoed Commissioner Ma'ae's comments, as well as speaking to the purpose of the committee, to gather information and make a recommendation to the city council, adding that the lawsuit was not before the committee. He encouraged the citizens to educate themselves along with the committee. Vice Chair Dalati expressed his opinion about the lawsuit with Commissioner Larsen's agreement and Chair Pham and Commissioner Ma'ae dissenting. Ex- officio Commissioner Woodhead reminded the committee about the committee's charge as set by the resolution. Chair Pham reminded the committee that based on Dr. Tucker's draft roadmap during the last meeting, the committee requested a presentation on the California Voting Rights Act which was scheduled on the agenda, as well as a demographer that would address historical voting trends. With that, Chair Pham requested a report by a demographer of the city demographics and voting. An unidentified speaker asked questions relating to the council resolution and the new city council body (partially inaudible). Ex- officio Commissioner Woodhead shared and advised that the original charge to the committee, set by the resolution, stands unless the council directs otherwise. Chair Pham thanked them for the response and requested they move on to the next item. 6. Receive and file the report on Community Outreach efforts Action: Receive and file a staff report regarding outreach. Commissioner Pham suggested the committee receive and file community outreach report, upon staff presentation of outreach efforts. Deputy City Manager, Greg Garcia provided an overview of the city's outreach efforts as identified in the city's staff report. Commissioner Agarwal asked about language translation with Mr. Garcia responding that material is provided in both English and Spanish. Mr. Agarwal commented on the number of other languages throughout the city and asked staff to provide a plan to address the other languages in the future. Motion by Commissioner Ma'ae to receive and file the report, seconded by Vice Chair Dalati. Ayes - 7 ( Agarwal, Armas, Dalati, Larsen, Ma'ae, Pham, Real), Noes — 0, ABSENT — 3 (Diaz, Karaki, Lopez). Motion passed. 7. Overview and presentation on California Voting Rights Act Action: Presentation by Justin Levitt, Associate Professor of Law, Loyola Law School. Regular Meeting of the Citizens Advisory Committee, Elections and Community Involvement December 13, 2012 Page 4 of 6 Presentation slides made available during the meeting and online at www.anaheim.net /CACelections 7:15 p.m. Commissioner Diaz arrived. Professor Levitt provided a brief presentation about the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA) and at large elections, generally. He advised that although he would explain what the CVRA required, he was not providing legal advice and his presentation should not be substituted for legal advice. In response to Vice Chair Dalati's questions regarding polarized voting and election system options, Professor Levitt reiterated that his presentation was an outline of how the CVRA works not an assessment of Anaheim's current system. He advised that a determination was based on fact dependent inquiries, past elections, voting patterns and demographics, information that he didn't presently have. Commissioner Agarwal asked Professor Levitt to elaborate on limited voting with Professor Levitt advising that several options exist, however he presented the three common examples: cumulative voting, where voters have a certain number of votes; ranked choice voting, where candidates are ranked 1 through 5, for example; and limited voting, where voters have fewer votes than what is be voted upon. He added that the committee should review Anaheim's system generally, consider the pros and cons, and educate the public accordingly. He encouraged the committee to look at demographics data to determine their choice, such as population and voting trends, as well as what they believed would be most effective for the identified groups. Commissioner Diaz spoke about low voter turnout in Anaheim and added that a charge of the committee was to engage the community. Chair Pham commented that the committee was charged with a broad task and asked if the committee could omit districting from their recommendation to Council. Ex- officio Commissioner Woodhead communicated that the committee was asked to make recommendations on a number of issues, with the electoral system being just one of the component pieces. He added that the committee was free to present any recommendation to Council that they felt was best. No action taken. 8. Presentation on city comparisons Action: Presentation by City of Vista and City of Modesto. Wayne Dernetz, Former City of Vista presented regarding his experience in Vista, presentation available: http: / /www.anaheim.net /ima.Q�es /articles /4957/12 13 12 CityofVista.pdf George Petrulakis, Former Chair on the Charter Review Committee in the City of Modesto regarding his experience when Modesto had issues with their voting system. Regular Meeting of the Citizens Advisory Committee, Elections and Community Involvement December 13, 2012 Page 5 of 6 Mr. Dernetz and Mr. Petrulakis presented their experience when their jurisdictions were faced with a lawsuit as a result of low voter turnout with regard to a possible protected class being impaired political power. They provided insights and details on the paths they followed to increase voter turnout and engagement and to help to remedy any concerns relating to polarized voting. Details from their presentations are available on www.anaheim.net/CACelections The complete transcript of Mr. Dernetz's presentation was provided and made available online at http: / /www.anaheim .net /images /articles /4957/12 13 12 CityofVista.pdf Mr. George Petrulakis, Chair of the Charter Review Committee, City of Modesto advised that the city's charter was reviewed every ten years, which included the city's election system. In 2006, the Charter Review Committee reviewed the city's election system over a two year period. The committee provided recommendation to City Council and those were voted upon. Mr. Petrulakis stated that he was a volunteer chair on the committee and although he is a lawyer in private practice, he was not giving any legal advice. Mr. Petrulakis provided a brief overview of the city's election system and reported that Modesto was also sued for their at large system under the CVRA. Mr. Petrulakis stressed that the Modesto Charter Committee did not factor the lawsuit into their process and instead reviewed the election system independent of the lawsuit over the course of 30 meetings. The committee ended with a recommendation to change from an at large system to districts, through an advisory ballot in a two part questions. In November 2007 the process went forward with a vote of approval of 57% in favor and 43 % against districts. Citizens determined a common district election with 6 council members, requiring candidates to live in the district in which they were running and be the top vote getter. . Mr. Petrulakis reported that moving to a district -based system revealed that it could either help evenly disperse the power or it could have an opposite effect, where people feel less important and poorer turnout than prior to the shift. 9. Committee meeting calendar Action: Approve January CAC meeting dates /locations: January 10, 2013, 6:30 p.m. at East Anaheim Community Center and January 31, 2013, 6:30 p.m. Orangeview Junior High School Motion by Commissioner Armas to accept the above dates, seconded by Commissioner Diaz. Ayes - 7 (Armas, Dalati, Diaz, Larsen, Ma' ae, Pham, Real), Noes — 0, ABSENT — 3 (Agarwal, Karaki, Lopez). Motion passed. Regular Meeting of the Citizens Advisory Committee, Elections and Community Involvement December 13, 2012 Page 6 of 6 Final public comment Brian Chuchua thanked the committee for their hard work and feels that better resident participation is definitely needed. He hopes that tonight gave them some ideas to implement. Chair Pham asked if there were any other public comments. She closed the final public comment period. 10. Committee Communications Action: Closing comments. Commissioner Armas thanked residents for their attendance. Vice Chair Dalati thanked everyone for their attendance and staff for their hard work remarking that the process would take the city and community coming together. Commissioner Diaz expressed his desire to better understand the process and the rate of participation and demographics. He requested information on current processes of voter information and education and asked the committee to attend neighborhood council meetings to communicate the committee's efforts. Commissioner Ma'ae expressed her appreciation on the presentations received and that there was a need to increase voter registration and getting the underrepresented community engaged. Commissioner Real encouraged people to get out and vote and expressed the importance of voter education. He spoke about a recent OC Register article about connecting with gang members, a group put together by former City Council Member Lorri Galloway and supported by the mayor and believed it would be helpful if the committee attending. Chair Pham thanked everyone for their hard work and complemented the presentations. She asked staff to return with information on the city of San Jose, who was not sued under CVRA and is looking forward to hearing about demographics and voting trends to better understand Anaheim's situation and whether racially polarized voting exist in Anaheim. She agreed with Commissioner Ma'ae's recommendation that presentations be printed and provided to the committee prior to each meeting to allow time for review and to ask better questions. 11 . Adjournment TIME: 8:51p.m. Motion was made by Commissioner Real, seconded by Commissioners Diaz and Dalati submi Caroline N Recording