For more than 100 years, Healdsburg has held city council elections, meaning voters throughout the city cast ballots to elect the five council members.

But after being tipped off by Kevin Shenkman, a Malibu attorney who has made a name — and a lot of money — for himself arguing that election systems in general violate the California Voters’ Rights Act, that waiting to change.

Shenkman’s lettersent at the end of September on behalf of Southwest Voter Registration Education Projectcharacterized the Healdsburg vote as “racially polarized, resulting in the dilution of the minority vote.”

District elections would fix that, Shenkman says. In such elections, a council member represents a smaller part of the city, as opposed to the entire city at large. Residents vote only for the candidate in their district.

“Latinos make up 34.6 percent of the city’s population of 11,340, according to the most recent data released by the United States Census Department,” Shenkman writes. “However, Latino representation on the city council has been sparse and transient to non-existent.”

Council members are taking Shenkman’s claims seriously. At their Nov. 18 meeting, they are set to weigh two options: essentially agree with Shenkman and begin the process of moving to district elections, or prepare for a potential battle with him in court.

California’s Voter’s Rights Act allows attorneys like Shenkman to collect fees from municipalities he sues if he proves their voting systems violate the law.

“To some Latino officials and communities, he’s a bona fide hero, a one-man wrecking ball who paved the way for them to reach public office.” two San Francisco Chronicle journalists reported in a December 2023 story about Shenkman. “Others see a cynical opportunist exploiting a flawed law to extract taxes from cities and other public boards — $15 million over the past decade, including some settlements in cash-strapped cities and schools that say they’re doing nothing wrong but paying to not receive. sued.”

Since 2017, Shenkman, who declined to comment to The Press Democrat, has sent Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park, Windsor and Petaluma similar letters, with each municipality responding by switching from at-large races to district-based races.

It looks like Healdsburg is heading in that direction, too. City Manager Jeff Kay said the council plans to take the first step toward the Nov. 18 district election. “I don’t know of any city that has successfully avoided redistricting after receiving” correspondence from Shenkman, Kay added. .

In 2013, the city of Palmdale tried to fight Shenkman and lost, paying him $4.6 million. Other cities, such as Cypress, paid close to $1 million.

By comparison, Kay estimates the Healdsburg redistricting process “would cost less than $100,000, mostly involving hiring a demographer and legal assistance.” If completed, the first district elections in the city would be held in November 2026.

Throughout the city’s history, Healdsburg has had only four Latino members on its council, including Abel De Luna, Edgar DeasOzzy Jimenez and Skylaer Palacios.

De Luna was elected in 1976 and served as mayor from 1978 to 1980, and Deas was elected in 1988 and served a four-year term. Jimenez was appointed to the board in July 2020 after then-Mayor Leah Gold resigned. Palacios was elected in 2020 but resigned less than two years into her term, citing housing instability, safety concerns and a desire to protect her mental health.

“In light of the underrepresentation of Latinos in the city, it’s no wonder why Latino residents aren’t showing up as candidates,” Shenkman writes.

Council member Ariel Kelley, who was just re-elected last week, said she recognizes that “there has historically been limited representation of Latino residents on our city council.

“While I do not believe that the majority of our local voters cast their ballots in a racially polarized manner as alleged in Shenkman’s letter, existing case law does not give deference to local jurisdictions,” Kelley said.

Healdsburg is now in a 90-day “safe harbor” period under state law that allows it to avoid a lawsuit from Shenkman if it works to begin adopting a district-based system. If it moves forward as planned, the law would require city officials to work with a demographer to divide the city into separate districts.

The council would also have to determine whether the city would have a mayor who would serve at large, meaning that person would be elected by all residents. Petaluma and Windsor currently have a mayor in that capacity.

And before final approval, the board must also host public hearings to get input on district formation before electoral maps are finalized.

Both Kelley and Kay said the move to district-based elections could bring more diverse representation to the board. But Kay cautioned that district-based systems in small communities can lead to limited candidate pools.

“In the current climate, I worry that not all districts can generate interested and qualified candidates,” Kay said. “I think there is a risk of fewer contested elections.”

Amie Windsor is the community journalism team leader with The Press Democrat. She can be reached at [email protected] or 707-521-5218.