District lines are being redrawn to increase Latino representation and avoid possible violations against the California Voting Rights Act.
The Board of Trustees approved a trustee model of seven City College areas, each representing an equal-size voting population. The new model requires trustees to live in their designated district and limits voters to vote only for the trustee representing their area. Under the f previous at-large system, residents could vote for trustees in all four districts, regardless of where they lived.
“What we want to do with The California Voting Rights Act is to make it possible to have increased Latino representation, but it’s up to the people to make that decision,” said Dr. Peter Haslund, president of the board.
The voting act allows minority groups to file suits on the premise of racially polarized voting in City College’s current voting system of at-large elections. According to statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau compiled in 2010, 42.9 percent of Santa Barbara residents are of Hispanic or Latino origin.
“One district is particularly likely to have at least one Latino candidate. Then the people of that district will have to decide ‘Is this the person?’ It isn’t just ethnicity that matters; it’s the person that matters,” Haslund said. “Mr. Villegas was not elected by Latinos, he was elected by everybody.”
Haslund represents Area 1—Carpinteria and Summerland—and board member Morris Jurkowitz represents Area 2—Montecito. These areas are going to be joined into one when the new district model will be put into place in November.
Jurkowitz has said he will not be seeking reelection in the fall.
“The new districting system will be more of a representative model in that my district has been enlarged to include both Carpinteria and Montecito, so I will be meeting with people in that area,” Haslund said. “But there is an area, the central area, that will be created as a new district that nobody represents at the moment. We’ll see what happens, what the people of that area want to do with that possibility.”
Luis Villegas, vice president of the board, is currently the only one out of seven trustees of Latino origin. As of publication, he did not get back to The Channels to comment.
Villegas currently shares seat of Area 4—Goleta, Hope Ranch and Ellwood—with board member Lisa Macker, but will be representing a portion of Santa Barbara and the unincorporated areas if re-elected in November. Villegas is facing reelection in the fall, if he decided to run again.
Macker will represent Isla Vista and a portion of Santa Barbara.
Board members Marsha Croninger, Joan Livingston, and Marty Blum all represent Area 3—Santa Barbara—which will be split into five and leave an open seat , as Livingston is facing re-election.
Livingston said the new system “changes the district so there’s a closer, tighter relationship between the trustee and a very limited geographical area. That’s the biggest change.”
City College lines have not been re-drawn since the 1960’s and populations have largely shifted since then.
“These districts are entirely new, and each of them will create their own focus towards the college and that’s going to be the most interesting aspect of this,” Livingston said.
