City Council Apparently Gets Political Hand Grenade – Attorney Demanding Voting By Districts
Written by 991KBU on November 4, 2019
Malibu’s city council has called a special city council meeting … for 11 o’clock Tuesday morning.
They’ll go behind closed doors … to consider a letter … threatening a lawsuit … from a Malibu lawyer.
Milton Grimes his and one-time law partner … Kevin Shenkman … have sent letters to dozens of California cities threatening lawsuits.
Malibu has citywide council voting … not districts … but has curiously has not been served with the letters until now.
Grimes has sent a letter to Malibu … threatening a lawsuit under the California Voting Rights Act of 2001.
According to the most-recent U S census estimate from last year … Malibu has an 89 percent white electorate.
Just 6 percent of the voters are Latino … and Latino voters are not believed to be concentrated in any one part of the city.
But Grimes calls that 6 percent figure a “significant proportion.”
In his letter to the city, he notes that “never has any Latino been elected to, or otherwise served on,
the Malibu City Council.”
His letter calls “the complete present and historical absence of Latinos on Malibu’s City Council outwardly disturbing,” and said it shows that Malibu is “fundamentally hostile towards participation by members of this protected class.”
“The City’s at-large election system has also impeded the emergence of Latino candidates in Malibu. For instance, in the entire history of the City of Malibu, there has not been one Latino to emerge as a candidate for a seat on the Malibu City Council. Opponents of fair, district-based elections may attribute the lack ofprotected class members vying for elected positions to a lack of interest in local government from these communities. On the contrary, the alarming absence of Latino candidates seeking election to the Malibu City Council reveals vote dilution.” – Grimes letter.
On the surface, Grimes’ claim makes little factual sense.
With a citywide population of just 6 percent Latino, and with no concentration of Latino voters in any particular part of the city, splitting the city into five voting districts would likely only create five voting districts, each with 6 percent Latino voters on the rolls.
Despite that logical disconnect, fighting such a lawsuit could be very very expensive.
Grimes and his one-time partner Shenkman have made a very lucrative practice … other cities say they have been shaken down by the law firm.
They get paid 30 thousand dollars for just writing the letter.
Now … if the city moves to voting by district … it would quite likely mean that every one of the five city council seats would be up for election in the next general election.
That’s in exactly one year … 2020.
That would include incumbent mayor Karen Farrer and mayor pro tem Mikke Pierson …even thought their terms currently go to 2022 …. two years past the next election in 2020.
Farrer and Pierson would apparently have to run for re-election … from within their districts.
And this would clip their maximum terms of service to two … one of two years … one of four.
The other three council members’ terms all expire in 2020 anyway.
Rick Mullen could run for re-election … but Skylar Peak and Jefferson Wagner are banned from running again by a term limits initiative passed by voters 19 years ago.
At the very least, voting by district would change the face of Malibu’s city council.
All of the five current city council members live in the western half of the city … defined as west of the city’s population center … PCH at Paradise Cove Road.
