Pacific Grove City Council takes first step toward switch to district elections.

The City of Pacific Grove is on its way to switching from at-large to district elections, after the P.G. City Council voted 5-0 on Wednesday, March 6, to hire a demographer to study the makeup of P.G. residents—the first step in the process. Councilmembers acknowledged there was little choice in the face of potential litigation under the California Voting Rights Act—litigation no city has been able to win in similar circumstances.

The step toward district elections comes a little over a year and a half after the local chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, LULAC District 12, came knocking on the city’s door with a letter demanding that the small town of 15,000 residents convert to district elections, under the CVRA, in order to boost the representation of protected classes of residents in city government.

LULAC has issued similar letters to other cities and school districts in Monterey County, including the City of Monterey, which switched to district elections in 2022 after LULAC threatened to sue the city, as well as other cities and school districts. After LULAC filed a suit against the Pacific Grove Unified School District, the Board of Trustees voted in March 2022 to switch from at-large to by-trustee area elections.

P.G. City Attorney Brian Pierik told councilmembers that the city could face millions of dollars in court costs and attorneys fees should they attempt to contest LULAC’s demand. No city has been successful in court, and even if they are successful, the way the CVRA is written, another group of protected class citizens could also sue the city.

Normally a clock starts ticking when a jurisdiction receives such a letter demanding district elections. If action isn’t taken within a few months the group making the demand can sue, but when LULAC’s letter was sent in August 2022, there were mitigating factors, including a Santa Monica case that was awaiting a decision and the fact that P.G. voters were a couple of months away from voting on whether to reduce the number of councilmembers from 6 to 4. (The mayor is elected separately.)

The Santa Monica case was decided in the California Supreme Court with part of it sent back to the trial court, but as it stands would not affect the path that P.G. is now following. By just 13 votes in the November 2022 election, P.G. voters rejected the measure to shrink the council.

Now that the council has approved hiring a demographer, the city is in a “safe harbor” period, where it cannot be sued as it takes action. The period lasts 90 days but could be extended. The city will issue a request for proposals to hire a demographer. Once one is chosen and a report is ready, the city must then hold hearings on a district map composition, among other actions, leading up to placing proposed maps on a ballot.

Pierik presented a timeline to the council that suggested the city create a map and prepare it for a ballot measure by Aug. 9, the deadline of Monterey County Elections for the Nov. 5 General Election.