SACRAMENTO REGION, CA (MPG) - On September 9, 2020, the San Juan Water District (SJWD) held a public hearing to select a draft map and identify the sequencing for division-based elections. The process began in response to a legal challenge asserting that the District’s at-large election system violated the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA). Under the new division-based system, each Director will be elected from within one of five District divisions.

The SJWD Board of Directors governs the District’s wholesale and retail operations. The retail division primarily delivers water to customers in Granite Bay and part of Roseville, while the wholesale division sells water to Citrus Heights Water District, Fair Oaks Water District, Orange Vale Water Company, and the City of Folsom (north of the American River). The majority of the Board currently resides in the Granite Bay area.

Throughout the public input process, multiple community members from Granite Bay and the retail service area expressed concern that the new system would leave them underrepresented. Some community members also asked that rural areas with hobby farms be identified as a community of interest since such properties have different water use needs than the typical suburban area.

The Citrus Heights Water District and Fair Oaks Water District submitted potential draft maps for consideration, based on existing county, city, and neighborhood boundaries. SJWD Legal Counsel Jennifer Buckman said that those maps were rejected because they did not accurately reflect District boundaries.

The Board of Directors instructed the demographer to consider the following criteria when drafting potential maps: community associations, rural area boundaries, county and city lines, and the boundaries of other special districts—such as water, fire, park, and cemetery districts. Out of multiple potential maps, SJWD staff identified Plan B as the best option to meet all the required considerations. Buckman explained that the map is compact, contiguous, meets the population requirements, and also creates a division representing the rural areas of Granite Bay and Orangevale. In contrast to some of the other map options, Buckman said that Plan B also avoids "packing" the retail customers into one division, which could dilute their voting power.

According to the most recent census data from 2010, SWJD doesn’t have significant concentrations of African American or Asian populations, but there is a significant Latino/Hispanic population in the Citrus Heights area. Buckman said Plan B was drawn so that Latino voters could be concentrated into a “majority/minority division.” This is encouraged by the CVRA, as long as the division is compact and drawn without racial gerrymandering.

The Board agreed with staff’s assessment and expressed a preference for advancing Plan B. On the question of election sequencing, staff recommended that Divisions 2, 4, and 5 be elected in 2022 and Divisions 1 and 3 be elected in 2024. President Ted Costa suggested an alternative, asking that the divisions on the map be re-numbered so that the blue, green, and brown divisions are odd numbers and the purple and yellow divisions are even numbers. He suggested odd-numbered divisions come up for election in 2022 and even-numbered divisions come up for election in 2024: “That would make a smooth transition.”

Director Dan Rich motioned that they move forward on a vote following President Costa’s recommendation. The motion was seconded by Vice President Pam Tobin.

Director Marty Hanneman brought forward a substitute motion to vote on the sequencing in the staff recommendation. With no second on the motion, the motion failed.

President Costa opened the meeting for public comment. Two members of the public spoke in support of the proposed map and sequencing, including Granite Bay resident Amber Beckler who said she believes the rural areas are “well represented.”

President Costa also entered into the record confirmation of receiving a joint letter from Citrus Heights Water District and Fair Oaks Water District. President Costa did not read the letter during the meeting, but it was posted to the SJWD website. In the letter, dated September 4, the Citrus Heights Water District and Fair Oaks Water District acknowledged the Board’s desire to respect rural areas as a community of interest. But they expressed concern that Plan B “does not actually respect urban-rural boundaries.” The letter states that “the maps being considered by your Board do not seem to follow existing urban-rural splits. We believe your Board wants to achieve the best urban-rural division it can and hope you will not consider other unexpressed interests, like incumbency protection actually driving the process.”

Director Ken Miller asked Legal Counsel Buckman whether she had reviewed the letter from Citrus Heights Water and Fair Oaks water districts about their concerns regarding the District’s proposed maps. Buckman said, “Nothing in that letter gave me pause or concern about the recommendations that were included in the staff report.”

When asked which divisions current Directors reside in, Buckman said, “We’re not going to answer that question, because where the current Board members live has not been a factor that this Board has taken into consideration in drawing the divisions. And we don’t want to introduce that evidence into the administrative record. That’s not something the Board has been considering.”

The Board of Directors voted 4-1 in favor of Plan B and President Costa’s proposed sequencing, with Director Hanneman dissenting. The map and election sequencing will move forward for final approval at the October 14 public hearing.