It isn’t only cities and school districts that have been threatened with possible legal action if they don’t switch from selecting board trustees “at large” to choosing them from specific sections of the district, each representing his or her own section.
At an online public hearing on Wednesday beginning at 6 p.m., the Central Contra Costa Sanitation District will talk about making such changes in the way its directors are elected.
The district also is asking for public participation for helping determine what the boundaries of these five
“divisions” should be.
The Central Contra Costa Sanitation District, often called Central San, collects and treats wastewater from Alamo, Danville, Lafayette, Moraga, Orinda, Pleasant Hill and Walnut Creek; portions of Martinez and San Ramon; and unincorporated communities within central Contra Costa County.
It also treats wastewater from Concord and Clayton.
Its main facility is near the I-680/hwy.4 interchange.
The move to “division” elections was driven by a threat of litigation if Central San doesn’t move away from at-large board elections.
That attorney has claimed at-large board elections violate the California Voting Rights Act of 2001, which asserts local at-large voting systems are discriminatory if they “impair the ability of a protected class … to elect
candidates of its choice or otherwise influence the outcome of an election.”
Malibu attorney Kevin Shenkman sent similar letters to many Bay Area cities, school districts and other special districts starting in 2016. Most, if not all, of those bodies have made, or are making, the switch from at-large to district, or division, elections.
Don’t blame the district. They are only trying to protect themselves from a lawsuit.
Actually, you can blame the District and its current Board of Directors. They’ve know for years they would need to make this change, but two of them live in the same neighborhood. Let’s see if all their talk about transparency and the public goes out the window as they try to protect their little kingdom.
“Out, damned spot! Out, I say — hell is merky!”
I can’t take this sh&t anymore!
Not many people have daydreams about effluent and are decent at government style budgeting. It takes a special type of person to be a Central San director.
This year’s election was unusual in that three seats were open and yet only one incumbent was running. The incumbent has been doing it for 43 years. I had to figure out two people who both seem to have daydreams about effluent and are decent at government style budgeting. It seems switching to divisions will narrow my choices of possibly qualified people. I saw that James Nejedly was running which surprised me as I thought he died of a drug overdose in a New Orleans hotel room while in possession of someone’s panties or bra… Google finds it was Jame’s older brother, John Nejedly, was the OD death. Their father, also a John Nejedly, was a great guy.