54
-DRAFT REPORT- Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Council May 9, 2013 Committee Members  Anthony Armas John Woodhead, Ex Officio Member Bill Dalati, Vice Chair  Amanda Edinger Sandy Day Larry Larsen Martin Lopez Gloria Ma’ae Keith Olesen Vivian Pham, Chair Vic Real

Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Council

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 1/59

-DRAFT REPORT-

Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement 

Recommendation to the Anaheim City Council

May 9, 2013

Committee Members

 Anthony Armas John Woodhead, Ex Officio Member

Bill Dalati, Vice Chair

 Amanda Edinger

Sandy Day

Larry Larsen

Martin Lopez

Gloria Ma’ae 

Keith Olesen

Vivian Pham, Chair

Vic Real

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 2/59

-DRAFT REPORT-

1

Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement 

Recommendation to the Anaheim City Council

Executive Summary

Anaheim City Council Resolution 2013-038 (See Appendix A) established the

Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement (noted as CAChereafter)on August 8, 2012 . The CAC held meetings at least monthly between October 18,

2012 and May 9, 2013, for a total of 12 meetings. During each of these meetings the CAC

heard citizen and expert testimony on the issues under their charge as outlined in

Resolution 2013-038 . In fulfillment of their charge, the Citizens Advisory Committee on

Elections and Community Involvement respectfully recommends to the Anaheim City

Council that the City of Anaheim:

-  Place the question of a potential change in the city election system, particularly the

question of districts or at-large council member elections to a vote of the citizens of 

Anaheim. 

-  Expand the size of city council to either six (6) or eight (8) council members, with themayor serving as one additional member.

-  Continue to have the mayor be elected at-large.

-  Continue to actively remove barriers to voter registration through the activities of city

staff and create a community outreach committee to encourage voter registration. 

-  Have a city voting official (city clerk) lead the following: working with local community

leaders to promote voter registration and turnout (e. g. church leadership, PTA),

partnering with schools, partnering with community groups (that are non-partisan,

non-profit or civic organizations) to assist with identifying local leaders. 

-  Continue partnering with the Orange County Registrar of Voters to provide election

materials in multiple languages (as required by law), translate election materials or

other items into multiple languages, translate all city community meetings (including

candidate forums), translate all city council meetings, and explore Spanish language

subtitles on ACTV to encourage resident participation in elections and in local

government decision making. 

-  Change the city council meeting time to 6:30pm to facilitate and promote participation

in the electoral process.

-  Increase the number of neighborhood council meetings in the range of six (6) to twelve

(12) meetings annually to promote participation in the electoral process.

-  Establish protocols to collaborate with civics organizations (such as the League to

Women Voters) to inform voters about voter information, and when appropriate,

conduct candidate forums to promote participation in the electoral process.

This report and set of recommendations was approved by the Citizens Advisory Committee

on Elections and Community Involvement on (INSERT DATE) by a vote of (INSERT VOTE)

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 3/59

-DRAFT REPORT-

2

Overview 

The Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement met a

total of 12 times, the first meeting was held on October 18, 2012 and the final meeting was

held on May 9, 2013. The City Manager’s Office provided staff support to the committee.

Representatives of the offices of the City Manager and City Attorney were in attendance at 

the meetings.

Resolution

The Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement (CAC)

was established by City Council resolution 2013-0381 The resolution charged the CAC with

providing “advice to the City Council on promoting the full participation of all ethnic and

racial groups in local elections, including recommendations on the following:” 

1.  Potential changes in the City’s election systems, including election by district,

residency-required districts, continuing with an at-large elected mayor or resuming

Anaheim’s historic system of having the mayor appointed by the council, the

number of districts, if any; cumulative voting; traditional voting; and the date of 

elections;2.  How to encourage voter registration;

3.  How to identify and engage community groups that can assist the City with

encouraging resident participation in elections and in local government decision-

making;

4.  What language assistance programs would be cost effective to encourage resident 

participation in city elections and local government decision making; and

5.  Other techniques, approaches, methods, or alternatives that, in the estimation of the

Committee, should be considered by the City Council or recommended to groups or

agencies with the ability to act to promote the participation of racial and ethnic

minorities in the electoral process.

 Appointments to the Committee

CAC members were appointed to the committee based on the procedure established

by City Council resolution 2013-038. Three members2 of the CAC resigned prior to the

completion of this recommendation, and were replaced as prescribed in city council

resolution 2013-038. Vivian Pham was elected from the membership of the CAC to Chair

the committee. The CAC membership upon completion of this recommendation was as

follows3:

Appointee Appointed by:

Amanda Edinger Council Members Kring and Brandman

Anthony Armas Council Member EastmanBill Dalati Mayor Tait 

Sandy Day Council Member Murray

Keith Olesen Council Member Murray

1 the full text the resolution appears in the appendix2 Peter Agarwal, David Dias, and Joseph Karaki3 listed in alphabetical order by surname

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 4/59

-DRAFT REPORT-

3

Larry Larsen Former Council Member Galloway

Martin Lopez Former Council Member Galloway

Gloria Ma’ae Council Member Eastman

Vivian Pham Mayor Tait 

Vic Real Former Mayor Pro Tem Sidhu

Testimony

The committee adhered to all of the procedures required by the Ralph M. Brown Act.

Public comment was heard at each meeting, which can be reviewed in the published

meeting minutes or the video recording of the meetings.

For six months, the committee heard testimony from a variety of experts in the field

as well as interested members of the public. An overview of the speakers follows:

  Justin Tucker, Director of the Center for Public Policy, California State University -

Fullerton. Provided an overview of local government electoral systems and someinformation from cities in Orange County.

  Justin Levitt, Associate Professor of Law, Loyola Law School. Provided an overview of 

the California Voting Rights Act and electoral systems.

  Wayne Dernetz, Former City Attorney for the City of Vista. Provided an overview of the

City of Vista’s citizens advisory committee and the community outreach committee.

  George Petrulakis, Former Chair on the Charter Review Committee for the City of 

Modesto. Provided an overview of the City of Modesto’s decision to revise their

electoral system from at-large to district elections.

  Peter Morrison, Demographer. Presented information about the demographics of 

Anaheim and some projected trends in city demographics.

  David Kimball, Professor, University of Missouri – St Louis. Presented information

about cumulative voting and instant runoff voting.

  Steve Chessin, President, California for Electoral Reform. Presented information about a

instant runoff voting and various forms of proportional representation electoral

systems.

  Neal Kelley, Orange County Registrar of Voters. Presented on what the Registrar does

and some of the programs that they use to encourage voting and registration. He also

provided information on the voting trends in Anaheim, including community

involvement in election administration, voter turnout, and voter registration.

  Linda Andal, City Clerk, City of Anaheim. Presented information on the City’s current 

outreach and voter registration efforts.  Aly Zimmermann, Assistant City Manager, City of Vista. Provided an overview of how

the City of Vista’s outreach committee performed its work.

  Joan Hake, Vice President Voter Service, League of Women Voters of the Central Orange

County Area. Provided an overview of the League of Women Voter’s efforts to engage

the community in the voting process.

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 5/59

-DRAFT REPORT-

4

  Elisa Sequeira, California Director of Civic Engagement, NALEO Educational Fund.

Provided information about Latino participation in elections. She discussed voter

registration, get out the vote, information and education, and poll monitoring efforts.

  Sarah Hill, Assistant Professor, California State University – Fullerton. Presented

information on election costs, the number of city council seats, and at-large and district 

elections.  Dennis Fitzgerald, spokesperson for Anaheim HOME-Home Owners Maintaining their

Environment. Presented information about a pro-districting advocacy group for

residents of Anaheim.

Decision making process

During the April CAC meetings, a professional facilitator, Steven Lynn, was brought 

in to assist the committee in their decision making process. The CAC agreed to adhere to a

set of procedural rules in their discussions and deliberations. During the CAC meetings on

April 11 and April 18, Mr. Lynn facilitated a discussion of the five topical areas under the

charge of the committee. During the April 11 meeting, the committee crafted and approved

recommendations for the following topical areas: 1) encourage voter registration, 2)identify and engage community groups, 3) language assistance programs, and 4) other

methods to increase participation of racial and ethnic minorities. During the April 18

meeting, the CAC crafted recommendations and held a vote on the remaining topical areas:

1) At-large, district, or some hybrid electoral system to elect members of city council, 2) the

number of seats on city council, and 3) the method of electing the mayor. The CAC refers

the City Council to the minutes of the April 11 and April 18 CAC meetings for the summary

of the discussion on each of the five areas (See Appendix B).

Committee Recommendations and CAC Membership Votes

The recommendations respectfully submitted are as follows:

-  Place the question of a potential change in the city election system, particularly the

question of districts or at-large council member elections to a vote of the citizens of 

Anaheim. 

  CAC members Dalati, Pham, Lopez, Larsen, and Real voted in support of 

district elections

  CAC members Armas, Day, Edinger, Ma’ae, and Olesen voted in support 

of at-large elections 

o  After a discussion on hybrid options, there was not a consensus of the CAC to

move that option forward.

o  The CAC was unable to reach a majority recommendation on the method of 

election. However, the CAC unanimously recommended that the city council put 

the issue of districts or at-large elections to a vote of the citizens of Anaheim.

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 6/59

-DRAFT REPORT-

5

-  On the issue of the number of members on the city council:

o  The CAC recommends that the council be expanded in number to either six (6)

or eight (8) council members, with the mayor serving as one additional

member. 

  CAC members Armas, Day, Edinger, Ma’ae, and Olesen supported six (6)

council members,   CAC members Dalati, Larsen, Lopez, and Pham supported eight (8)

council members

  CAC member Real abstained from voting 

-  On the issue of the selection of the mayor: 

o  The CAC recommends that the mayor be elected at large.

  CAC members Armas, Dalati, Day, Edinger, Lopez, Larsen, Ma’ae, Olesen,

and Pham voted in favor of the recommendation

  CAC member Real voted against the recommendation 

-  On the issue of encouraging voter registration, the committee was split on the specificrole of the city. They recommend the following: 

o  Continue to remove barriers to voter registration through the activities of city

staff(as they currently do), and 

  CAC members Armas, Edinger, Larsen, Olesen, Pham supported

removing barriers to voter registration 

o  Take more affirmative action by creating a community outreach committee. 

  CAC members Day, Dalati, Lopez, Ma’ae, Real supported creating a

community outreach committee 

-  On the issue of identification and engagement of community groups to assist the city

with participation in elections and local government decision making, the committeeunanimously recommend that a city voting official (city clerk) lead the following: 

o  Work with local community leaders (e. g. church leadership, PTA); 

o  Partner with schools; and 

o  Partner with community groups (non-partisan, non-profit , civic participation

groups) to assist with identifying local leaders. 

-  On the issue of what cost effective language assistance programs that would encourage

resident participation in city elections and local government decision making, the

committee unanimously recommends that the city:

o  Continue partnering with the Orange County Registrar of Voters to provide

election materials in multiple languages (as required by law);o  Translate election materials of other items into multiple languages;

o  Translate all city community meetings (including candidate forums);

o  Translate all city council meetings; and 

o  Include Spanish language subtitles on ACTV. 

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 7/59

-DRAFT REPORT-

6

-  On the issue of other techniques, approaches, methods, or alternatives that should be

considered to promote the participation of racial and ethnic minorities in the electoral

process, the committee unanimously recommends: 

o  That the city alter the City Council meeting start time to 6:30pm to facilitate and

promote participation in the electoral process;o  That the city increase the number of neighborhood council meetings in the

range of six (6) to twelve (12) meetings annually; and

o  That the city establish protocols to collaborate with civics organizations (such

as the League to Women Voters) to inform voters about voter information and

when appropriate conduct candidate forums. 

This report was reviewed and adopted on (INSERT DATE) and the CAC recommended that 

it be transmitted to the City Council by May 31, 2013.

Signed By:

Anthony Armas

Bill Dalati, Vice Chair

Amanda Edinger

Sandy Day

Larry Larsen

Martin Lopez

Gloria Ma’ae 

Keith Olesen

Vivian Pham, Chair

Vic Real

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 8/59

RESOLUTION NO 2013038

A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THECITY OF ANAHEIM

CALIFORNIA AMENDINGANDRESTATINGTHE RULES AND

PROCEDURES ESTABLISHING ANDGOVERNINGTHE CITIZENS

ADVISORYCOMMITTEE ONELECTIONS ANDCOMMUNITY

INVOLVEMENT

WHEREAS th e City of Anaheim is a diverse community with a significant population of

varying ethnic heritage and

WHEREAS th e City of Anaheim seeks to promote th e full participation of all residents

neighborhoods community groups and e thn ic groups in elections a nd

WHEREAS th e City Council is committed to studying it s electoral sys tem with an

unders t and ing of th e demograph ic and e thn ic population in our community and

WHEREAS it is important to ensure equa l opportunity of all groups to participate in th e

elec tora l process to elect cand idates t ha t reflect community interests a nd to ensure full

participation of all groups in local governmen t to ensure a representat ive governmen t t ha t servesall and

WHEREAS th e City Council of th e City of Anaheim adopted Resolution No 2012090

which es tab l i shed th e Cit izens Advisory Commit tee on Elec t ions and Community Involvement

and provided rules and procedures by which th e Committee would be governed and

WHEREASfollowing a public not ice process appl ica t ions for original membersh ip to th e

Committee were submit ted to th e City Clerk a nd 10 te n Committee members w e re selected and

WHEREAS th e City Council desires to amend and restate th e rules and procedures

applicable to the Committee as s e t forth in this Resolution to address circumstances where

vacancies may arise in th e Commit tee membersh ip t ha t was appo in ted by CityCounci lmembers

no longer holding office as Councilmembers

NOW THEREFORE BE ITRESOLVED t ha t th e City Council of th e City of Anaheim

hereby amends a n d re s ta te s th e rules and procedures establ ish ing and governing th e Committee inthe manner hereinafter set forth

1

There is hereby es tab l i shed th e City of Anaheim Cit izens Advisory Committee onElections and Community Involvement Committee The Committee shall consist of 10 ten

voting members with th e City Manage r or his appo in tee serv ing in an exofficio capac i ty for a

total of 11 members

2 Members of the City Council shall each appoint 2 members to the Committee

Committee members serve a t th e pleasure of th e Councilmember appointing him or her If aCommitteemember appointed by aCity Councilmember still holding office asaCouncilmember

Appendix A

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 9/59

r e s i g n s f r o m t h e C o m m i t t e e d u r i n g t h e C o m m i t t e ese r m t h e n t h a t C o u n c i l m e m b e r m a y s e l e c t ar e p l a c e m e n t C o m m i t t e e m e m b e r If a C o m m i t t e e m e m b e r a p p o i n t e d b y a f o rm e r C o u n c i lm e m b e rr e s i g n s f r o m t h e C o m m i t t e e t h e n a r e p l a c e m e n t s h a l l b e s e l e c t e d b y th e C i t y C o u n c i l ora l t e r n a t i v e l y th e C o u n c i l m a y a u t h o r i z e r e p l a c e m e n t b e m a d e b y a s u b c o m m i t te e c o m p o s e d o ftw o m e m b e r s o f t h e C i t y C o u n c i l a n d a n y s u c h r e p l a c e m e n t s h a l l s e r v e a t th e p l e a s u r e o f th e C i t y

C o u n c i l A n y C i t y C o u n c i l s u b c o m m i t t e e f o r m e d p u r s u a n t to t h i s R e s o l u t i o n s h a l l t e r m i n a t e a t th etime provided in Sect ion 9

3 Nominees to t h e Committee must be Anahe im res idents The compilation of t h e

Committee m u s t c o n s i s t o f a majority from d i s p e r s e d g e o g r a p h i c a r e a s of t h e city a n d r e p r e s e n t ap l u r a l i t y o f t h e e t h n i c d i v e r s i t y i n A n a h e i m E l e c t e d o f f i c i a l s a n d a n y o n e r e l a t e d t o o r e m p lo y e d b ycity s t a f f o r p r o f e s s i o n a l s t a f f e l e c t e d o f f i c i a l s i n A n a h e i m a r e p r o h ib i te d f r o m s e r v i n g o n t h eCommittee

4 T h e Committee s h a l l provide a d v i c e t o t h e City Council o n promoting t h e fullp a r t i c i p a t i o n o f a l l e t h n i c a n d r a c i a l g r o u p s i n l o c a l e l e c t i o n s i n c l u d i n g r e c o m m e n d a t i o n s o n t h efollowing

1 P o t e n t i a l c h a n g e s i n t h e Citysl e c t i o n s y s te m s i n c l u d i n g e l e c t i o n by d i s t r i c t solelye l e c t e d b y r e s i d e n t s of t h a t district r e s i d e n c y r e q u i r e d d i s t r i c t s that r e t a i n a t largeelections continuing with a n a t large e l e c t e d mayor o r r e s u m i n g Anahe imsistorics y s t e m o f h a v i n g t h e m a y o r a p p o i n t e d b y th e c o u n c i l th e n u m b e r o f d i s t r i c t s if a n ycumulative vot ing tradit ional runof f vot ing a n d t h e d a t e of elections2How to encourage voter registrat ion3H o w to i d e n t i f y a n d e n g a g e c o m m u n i t y g r o u p s th a t c a n a s s is t th e City w i t h

e n c o u r a g i n g r e s i d e n t participation in e l e c t i o n s a n d in local governmentdecision making

4W h a t l a n g u a g e a s s i s t a n c e p r o g r a m s w o u l d b e c o s t e f f e c t i v e to e n c o u r a g e r e s i d e n tp a r t i c i p a t i o n i n c i t y e l e c t i o n s a n d l o c a l g o v e r n m e n t d e c i s i o n making a n d

5O t h e r t e c h n i q u e s a p p r o a c h e s m e t h o d s o r a l t e r n a t i v e s that i n t h e e s t im a t io n of th eCommittee should b e considered by t h e City Counci l or recommended to groups or

a g e n c i e s w i t h th e a b i l i t y to a c t to p r o m o t e th e p a r t i c i p a t i o n t h e r a c i a l a n d e t h n i cminorities in the electoral process

5 Th e Committeesecommendationshal l be communicated in writing to th e

C i t y C o u n c i l b y M a y 3 1 2 0 1 3 o r t h r o u g h s u c h o t h e r m e a n s a n d o n s u c h o t h e r d a t e s a s s h a l l b e s e tb y t h e C i t y C o u n c i l C o m m i t t e e m e e t i n g s s h a ll b e o p e n to t h e public r e c o r d e d a n d a v a i l a b l e f o rviewing a twwwnahemne

6 To a s s i s t t h e Committee t h e Citysta f f a n d Citysonsultants a r e authorized

a n d d i r e c t e d to provide logistical support community o u t r e a c h a s s i s t a n c e a n d a l l n e c e s s a r yinformation t o t h e C o m m i t t e e r e g a r d i n g t h e following subjects1h e d e m o g r a p h i c s o f t h e Cityof Anaheim and i t s historic election results2h e California Voting Rights A ct and a s s o c i a t e d

l a w s g o v e r n i n g e l e c t i o n s 3a p p r o a c h e s th a t o th e r c o m m u n i t i e s h a v e u s e d to p r o m o t e th e fullp a r t i c i p a t i o n o f r e s i d e n t s f r o m a l l c o m m u n i t i e s i n e l e c t i o n s 4t h e e s t i m a t e d c o s t a s s o c ia te d w i t hvariousoptions and5nyother informationor

materialswhicharerelevant to the tasks ass igned

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 10/59

t o t h e C o m m i t t e e I n a d d i t i o n t h e C o m m i t t e e m a y i n v i t e s p e a k e r s w i t h e x p e r t i s e t o a d d r e s s t h eC o m m i t t e e o n s u b j e c t s w h i c h t h e C o m m i t t e e d e t e r m i n e s w i l l a s s i s t i t i n i t s m i s s i o n M e m b e r s o ft h e p u b l i c s h a l l a ls o b e i n v i t e d t o a d d r e s s t h e C o m m i t t e e r e g a r d i n g w a y s t o p r o m o t e t h e f u l lp a r t i c i p a t i o n o f r a c i a l a n d e t h n i c g r o u p s i n t h e p o l i t i c a l p r o c e s s i n c l u d i n g e l e c t i v e o f f i c e

7 T o e n c o u r a g e p u b l i c i n p u t a n d a c c e s s t h e C o m m i t t e e s h a l l m e e t m o n t h l y a t am i n i m u m a n d h o l d m u l t i p l e m e e t i n g s i n d i f f e r e n t a r e a s o f t h e C i t y T h e C o m m i t t e e i s a l s oe n c o u r a g e d t o s o l i c i t i d e a s a n d s u g g e s t i o n s f r o m t h e S e c r e t a r y o f S t a t e C o u n t y R e g i s t r a r a n dl o c a l s c h o o l d i s t r i c t s a s w e l l a s f r o m Anaheimsl e c t e d s ta te a n d f e d e r a l o f f i c i a l s

8 T h e C o m m i t t e e m a y a s s ig n t a s k s to s u b c o m m i t t e e s i t c re a te s a n d h a v e t h o s esubcommittees report to th e full Commit tee

9 T h e C o m m i t t e e s h a l l t e r m i n a t e i t s e x i s t e n c e thirty 30 d a y s a f t e r i t r e p o r ts to th e

C i t y C o u n c i l a n d r e s p o n d s t o a n y a d d i t i o n a l r e q u e s t s f o r a d v i c e d i r e c t e d t o t h e C o m m i t t e e b y t h eC i ty C o u n c i l O n c e t h e t e r m o f t h e C o m m i t t e e h a s c o n c l u d e d i t s h a l l c e a s e t o f u n c t i o n a n d s h a l ln o t e x i s t a s a r e c o g n i z e d C o m m i t t e e u n l e s s e x t e n d e d b y C o u n c i l a c t i o n

10 T h e C o m m i t t e e a n d i ts m e m b e r s s h a l l b e g o v e r n e d b y th e R a l p h M B r o w n Act th e

A n a h e i m M u n i c i p a l C o d e r e g a r d i n g c o n f l i c t s o f i n t e r e s t a n d a l l o th e r a p p l i c a b l e f e d e r a l s t a t e o rl o c a l l a w s o r r e g u l a t i o n s U p o n t h e a p p o i n t m e n t o f t h e C o m m i t t e ese m b e r s t h e C i t y C o u n c i ls h a l l s e t a n i n i t i a l m e e t i n g o f t h e C o m m i t t e e i n a c c o r d a n c e w i t h t h e B r o w n Act a t a t i m e a n dp l a c e c o n v e n i e n t t o t h e C o m m i t t e ese m b e r s f o r t h e p u r p o s e o f o r g a n i z i n g i t s e l f a n d e s t a b l i s h i n ga s c h e d u l e o f m e e t i n g s T h e s e m e e t i n g s m a y b e h e l d a t C i t y f a c i l i t i e s p r o v i d e d t h a t t h e f a c i l i t i e sa r e n o t o t h e r w i s e i n u s e T h e C i t y will e s t a b l i s h a s p e c i a l s e c t i o n o f th e Cityse b s i t e f o r f u l la c c e s s a n d t r a n s p a r e n c y o n a l l a g e n d a s m i n u t e s a n d s c h e d u l e s o f th e C o m m i t t e e

11 T h e Committee s h a l l a p p o i n t a c h a i r p e r s o n and if desired t h e Committee m a ya d o p t p r o c e d u r e s f o r t h e c o n d u c t o f i t s m e e t i n g s a n d a c t i v i t i e s t h a t a r e n e c e s s a r y a n d c o n v e n i e n t t oenable th e Committee to c a rry o ut it s functions

B E I T F U R T H E R R E S O L V E D t h a t R e s o l u t i o n No 2 0 1 2 09 0 be a n d th e s a m e i s h e r e b yrescinded

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 11/59

THE FOREGOING RESOLUTION is appro ved a nd adopt ed by th e City Council of th e

City ofAnaheim this 5th day of March 2013 by th e following roll call vote

AYES Mayor Tait Council Members Eastman Brandman Murray and Kring

NOES None

ABSENT None

ABSTAIN None

Tom Tait Mayor

APPROVED ASTOFORM ATTEST

Michael Houston

InterimCity Atto Linda

Ana y Clerk

A lby I By

93956

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 12/59

Appendix B

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 13/59

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 14/59

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 15/59

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 16/59

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 17/59

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 18/59

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 19/59

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 20/59

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 21/59

 

Page 1 of 39 

CITIZENS ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON

ELECTIONS AND COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

MINUTES

Thursday, April 18, 20136:30 p.m.

Anaheim City Council Chambers200 S. Anaheim Blvd., Anaheim, CA 92805

COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT:John Woodhead, Ex Officio Member 

Anthony ArmasBill Dalati, Vice Chair 

Amanda Edinger Sandy DayLarry LarsenMartin Lopez 

Gloria Ma’aeKeith OlesenVivian Pham, Chair Vic Real

STAFF PRESENT:Greg Garcia, Deputy City Manager 

Robert Tyson, Deputy City AttorneyJohn Woodhead, Community Development Director Caroline Morey, Recording Secretary

Spanish language translation services are available at the meeting upon request.

1.  Call meeting to order. The meeting of the Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and

Community Involvement (CAC) was called to order at 6:36 p.m.by Chair Pham.

2.  Flag Salute

3.  Approve CAC minutes of the April 11, 2013 meetings.

Action: Approve minutes.

Chair Pham requested a motion to approve the minutes for the April 11, 2013 CAC meeting minutes.Vice Chair Dalati motioned to approve the minutes.

Appendix B

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 22/59

 

Page 2 of 39 

Commissioner Armas seconded.Ayes – 10 (Armas, Dalati, Day, Edinger, Larsen, Lopez, Ma’ae, Olesen, Pham, Real) Noes – 0

4.  Public Comments (Individual audience participation is limited to three (3) minutes per speaker)

Action: Public comments on any agenda items or subject matter within the jurisdiction of the Citizens Advisory Committee.

Commissioner Larsen requested the floor from the chair, he indicated there was an article in the AnaheimBulletin that he wished to speak about. There was a brief article and Commissioner Larsen said that hewas going to read about 3 paragraphs out of it. It is relevant and pertinent to what we are doing. It’s for general information purposes. The headline is School Board Mulls Changing Elections to District Voting.Voters in the Anaheim Union High School District soon could choose their school board members bydistricts rather than at-large. Right now members on the Board of Trustees are voted on by the entiredistrict electorate and do not represent any particular area within the district. Should the Board decide toswitch, it would establish trustee areas that are represent by board members that would be voted on within

that area only. Anaheim Union is the 4th largest school district in the county with more than 32,000students. It covers more than 46 square miles and includes portions on Anaheim, Cypress, Buena Park, LaPalma and Stanton. Of the 5 board members, three live in Anaheim while the other two live in La Palmaand Cypress.

Public Comments:

Lucille Kring, Anaheim City Council Woman, said that she did not have any plans to speak tonight. It’san interesting article, Mr. Larsen. She thanked Mr. Larsen for sharing that. Council Member Kring statedthat she does not support districting and she provided some reasons why. She thinks in a few years theHispanic community could have all five members on the City Council. You have to give it time to let the process work. She said she does not think that districting is going to provide people with what many

 people have said they want. Council Woman Kring provided examples of why districting could be problematic in the City of Anaheim. She said for example, if Keith, Amanda and she were councilmembers and each came from separate districts and Keith wants a fire station, Amanda wants a policestation in her district and Council Woman Kring would like a park, the first year they are all friends andthey vote for Keith and he gets his fire station. The next year Amanda, Keith and she have a falling outand neither one of us get the support from each other. So they don’t get Amanda’s police station, nor doesCouncil Woman Kring get the park. You have to remember that when there are 5 people, whether it’s 5 or 7 people, on a City Council, you are under the auspices of the Brown Act which means if you have 5 people, you can talk to one other council person. You cannot caucus. People have said to Council WomanKring that they will talk to their other colleagues, and get them to see their point of view in order to getthe fire station or the police station. You won’t have that opportunity because you will be violating theBrown Act.. If you have seven council members, you cannot talk to more than two people. These are

things that you really need to consider. By district voting in a city is not going to be the be-all end-all panacea that you are looking for. You need to elect people that you think will appropriately support you.

Also, if you are in a district, and you don’t like the person in your district you are banned from voting for someone from another district. She said she’d provide another example: in Newport Beach, they go byresidency. There were candidates in another district and she thought each one of them would be fabulouscouncil members, but she could only elect one. The people in the district next to them, thought that bothof the candidates would be a disaster, so what do you do? You do not get the council person that is going

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 23/59

 

Page 3 of 39 

to truly represent you. She thanked each and every one of the committee members as she realized thecommitment to serve has taken a great deal of time and energy away from your families and friend andother places you could be. Thank you for your time. God bless.

Mariana Rivera, Anaheim resident in support of district voting. She said that she understands district

voting will not be something that will solve everything. Ms. Rivera stated that she feels districting will aidin solving most problems that her community is having. Some people believe that Anaheim is not readyfor districting because Anaheim is being compared to other cities. She believes to truly know this; youwould need to live in those different cities. Also, she said that you would need to live in our communityto really know what we are going through. The last appearance she has had here, she was told that she has been asked to participate more so she is doing that and she is here, participating. She would like to inviteeach one of you (the committee members) and the community to attend a community meeting that theyare having. The meeting will share ways to participate and what their community is living through. Shewould like to deliver them so that you can attend their meetings. She provided a handout to be given tothe committee. It is a cordial invitation extended to all so that you may see what we are living through andwhat we are participating in. You as a committee have asked me and our neighborhood to get moreinvolved, so here I am. I am participating and we are now doing this to get more involved. Mariana said

she would appreciate your attendance at their meeting. She said that she hoped the committee would taketime to consider this to accept our invitation. She thanked everyone and said God bless.

Clare Turner, Policy Analyst at OCCORD, has been researching the distribution of community resourcessuch as parks, libraries, community centers, fire stations in Anaheim for quite a while. Today she presented a handout about the above titled “Unequal Voice means Unequal Resources.” She mentionedthat you heard a lot about this from speakers who both support and oppose districts. She reviewed thehandout stating that about 300,000 residents live in the flat lands and approximately 60,000 live in thehills. Seven council members have resided in the flat lands while eight council members have lived in thehills. She used data that they got from Anaheim’s Finance Department used on capital improvementsspending by the city used since the 2004-2005 fiscal year. They saw a lot of investment in both areas of the city over the past nine years, however there was more spent in Anaheim Hills. $170 per resident in the

hills compared to $156 in flatlands. Finally, if you look at the total number of resources available toresidents in different parts of the city, some of these parks and community centers have been around for a

very long time; others have been built in recent memory. Anaheim Hills’ residents have 3.5 times asmuch park space as flatlands Anaheim residents, and a little less than twice as many community centers..On a more specific public level, she stated that Anaheim South District Neighborhood Council receivedless public investment in total and per capita than any other neighborhood council district. She also statedthat West Anaheim has over 100,000 residents and 13 square miles of land and only one library. Since2004, the most public spending per resident went to the census tracts with the higher incomes. The top 1/5of census tracts with incomes in the 80-100 percentiles, with $75,000 with median household income,received more public investment than any of the other area. There may be reasons in that Anaheim isgoverned as a whole and sometimes, issues take precedence over others. She summarized by saying thatshe found a trend over time troubling that less was spent on underrepresented areas.

Marisol Ramirez has lived in Anaheim since she was a little girl, near Crescent and Brookhurst, WestAnaheim. She spoke in support of districting as she believes it will make the council more accountable.She is a part time worker and works with children in the 5th grade class. These students remind her of thechallenges that she grew up with. She grew up in areas like many of the areas in Anaheim where residentshave expressed concern about densely overpopulated neighborhoods, nothing but apartments, parking isan issue, absentee landlords and the area being generally run down. It angers her to see that there are

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 24/59

 

Page 4 of 39 

different generations going through the same issues. There should be better access for the children. Asidefrom libraries, they should have community centers that are spread throughout. They should have thesame resources as Anaheim Hills. She believes that district elections will give them that since they will beable to hold their representatives accountable.

Theresa Hines, 15 year resident who has attended a few of the Citizens Advisory Committee meetingsand she would like to make a few observations. Although it appears that districting may be the way to go,with the recommendation. She would like to suggest a recommendation that is comprised of both citycouncil and at-large members. The reason she recommends this is that there may be some leveragingwhere city council can go and volley for the needs of their respective districts but you do need to havemembers on a governing body that will have a city-wide perspective. She is hoping that balance couldmake the City of Anaheim the best in both ways. She also wanted to express with regard to AnaheimPolice Department. She understands that other individuals have had unfortunate experiences with them, but she would like to say that for the time that she was in need of police services, they were veryrespectful, helpful and professional to me. She would like others to respect the fact that there are other sides of the story. Regarding the comments related to Disneyland bed tax and the negativity from one of the speakers, whether it was factual or not, she cannot comment on. She said that she shudder to think if 

the city’s biggest tax revenue generator were to leave the city. She is concerned to think what wouldhappen to all the businesses that would be affected by that. She wanted to say that there was a presidentwhen she was growing up who said “Ask not what you country can do for your but what can you do for your country.” Standing here as a resident, as a tax payer, we can all do something. No matter where weare on the economic spectrum of life, no matter what our race, creed, color, and religion may be, we canall do something. You have code enforcement that you can call when you have unsightly, unkempt areas.You have anonymous reporting for gang bangers who should not be terrorizing your neighborhood. Shewants all of us to know that we need to take control of our destinies and not live in fear of defeat of anything. Lastly, she wanted to comment on the question she has heard the last two meetings that she has been here, “how does the committee want to be remembered?” First, she commended each of thecommittee for the time and sacrifice that each one of you have made and put your personal lives aside totend to this project. She wants to say that your decisions were substantiated upon facts, logic, due

diligence, not emotion. That they (your recommendations) were fair, equitable, and reasonable. That youwill apply wisdom to the information that you acquired over the course of this project to support your decisions and that your recommendations help to craft an electoral model for future generations that keptAnaheim vibrant, financially sound, and safe for our diverse community acknowledging and respectingall residents of Anaheim.

Jeff (no last name given) is a current resident who lives near the Lincoln and Brookhurst area and worksin the area since 2009 as a grill cook. The reason why they need district elections is due to the fact, asworkers, are not being heard. Their voices are being drowned out by the voice of the few, those with the big dollars. He is currently he is going to be thrown out of his job as of July if something doesn’t change.Getting involved to work for change, he has attended city council meetings, spoken with Mayor Tait,Councilmember Brandman, and a few other council members. They still have no solution. He does vote

and is a citizen. He brings his concerns to others, now, co-workers, family, friends, neighbors. He feelsthat if they had an equal voice, he could talk to council members that represent the Honda Center as wellas those that represent the areas that he has lived in. He would like to bring his concerns to them, and beheard and have change take place at that time. Thank you.

Janette Lister. She is a long time resident who grew up near Brookhurst and Ball. She presently lives near State College and Lincoln. She lives near Honda Center and works for Honda Center. In favor of districts,

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 25/59

 

Page 5 of 39 

and believes 8 districts will help represent the densely populated city and varying economicneighborhoods. She recommends that you mandate candidate and elected official live in his or her district, providing for them to be more hands on in their district with the issues and conflicts that are needed inthat particular district. This would improve accountability in each area.Anaheim is changing in regard to ethnicity and income. In the 1970’s when she was growing up the

 population was 60,000 and now it’s 340,000. With the immigration reform, those numbers will climb.She wants to make it perfectly clear that this is not a Latino thing, it’s not a black thing, and it’s notFilipino, Scottish, and German. This is an American thing. It is a basic right. There are tax payers in thiscity who have issues that are not being addressed in a timely fashion simply because we live in the wrongneighborhood.The proposed 8 districts would impact our city in such a positive way. Those elected officials living therein that neighborhood could head off trouble before it happens, like our recent unfortunate events. As itstands the current elected officials live in the hills and the Colony that is 1% of Anaheim. Our system of elections is broken. It does not reflect us. She has been coming to City Council meetings and to the CACmeetings, with their troubles at Honda and they are running out of time.

Jose, volunteer with OCCORD. He is in solidarity with Janette Lister and all the other works at Honda

Center that they will not be kicked out of their jobs and be replaced with minimum wage workers. Theyneed better jobs here in Anaheim. He grew up in Anaheim, graduated of Savanna High School. He didn’treally see any difference in neighborhoods. You assume everybody lives the same as you until you getolder and then you play against Brea High School Basketball. You realize that they have their nice

uniforms and their nice school and we’re just struggling to get by. Like many people who marvel at the big buildings, and palm trees, and Disneyland, you don’t really know that there are other ways to liveuntil you take a trip elsewhere. He worked at Disneyland, as well, he quickly realized that he couldn’tmake a living there to provide for himself and his wife working there. His attitude and troubles that theyhad caused them to go different ways. It’s amazing he said I went door to door to talk to voters, trying tohelp get voters out. Its impressive how many people think that Anaheim Hills and Anaheim are twodifferent cities. It’s actually quite sad because that is the reality that there are two different cities in one.And that’s not okay. So the solution is the districts, the district elections. They need 8 districts.

Leonard Latinen, long time West Anaheim resident came with two points he’d like to make tonight.He said he was here 25 years ago to make a statement to a committee in Anaheim that was consideringthe master plan for the city. He recommends expanding the city council to a seven member groupincluding the mayor. He recommends a compromise: 3 district elections with districts in the east, central,west and 3 council members elected at large. Anaheim is a huge city and a 5 member council is too small.He believes the city needs district elections. There are two needs for this city: larger council, some sort of 

district election system. He remembers North OC Community College District who governs the CypressCollege and Fullerton College. Last year they converted to 7 trustee areas. There are 7 elected trusteeswhen last year they switched from 4 trustees to the current 7. This included a change to district elections.They converted to the district system and each trustee was elected by each area. It is now more in-linewith the democratic ideals of an election system. He asked the committee to consider these suggestions.

Duane Roberts lives at 2276 Colchester Dr. He has been a resident of West Anaheim more than 40 years.He appreciates the adoption of the recommendation to adjust future council start time to a later hour of 6:30p.m. He is satisfied with that compromise. Nine out of 9/10 super majority agree that 5p.m. is nolonger adequate. His second request may be a bit more contentious in that request that they abolish theantiquated system of At-Large voting and move to 8 districts. From 1913-2013, many changes took place

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 26/59

 

Page 6 of 39 

including conditions changing and social institutions changing. He believes the at-large system needs togo and supports districting.

Yesenia- resident of Anna Dr. who has lived in Anaheim for more than 25 years. She thinks because of allthe problems in their neighborhood they need to have someone who represents their neighborhood. She

wants to ask for the committee’s support in suggesting 8 districts. They need someone who lives in AnnaDrive neighborhood not someone from Anaheim Hills.

Maria Ruiz said that maybe you remember me and tonight I am going to try to speak your language.Before someone translate for me. Now, she said I am going to speak in your language. Maria Ruiz hasworked for Disneyland for 6 years. She has three teenagers in the university. She is one of the Latino people who come to this country to have a better life. What comes to mind is the phrase from thecountry’s oath “justice for all.” When you make district elections in this city that is going to be justice for all. Thank you.

 Narcisco Guevara has worked at Disneyland and has lived in Anaheim for 25 years. He has his childrenwho were raised here in Anaheim. He believes that he has always been a responsible citizen, never had

any problems. He is here to support the expansion of these districts. He said the expansion into districtingwould personally for the last period in time he noticed the city has advanced slowly. He said that we arein a new era, the communication era. He knows that the City of Anaheim is up to this and much morethan this. His appearance here tonight is just to say to you that our children deserve better schools, better safe communities, and communities in better condition as well. He knows if they all work together thatwe will be able to obtain this goal.

Pedro Ramadan, 32 year he has worked in Anaheim, has been running a business in Anaheim for approximately 8 years. He pays taxes just as many of you do. Where his business is located is just off Euclid, he does not feel his business is being well represented the way it should be represented. He is pro-districting and with 8 districts, he would have better access to lodge any complaints or business to thateffect, to have a more successful business.

Rudy Gaona, resident of Anaheim since 2004. Born and raised in East LA. He decided to move toAnaheim because it is a beautiful city with beautiful people. They support their military which he said heis very proud to say he is a 21 year veteran of the service of the Army which he retired recently. He is pro-districting. It is time for equal representation here in the city of Anaheim. It doesn’t matter what color or race you are, but its equal opportunity for everyone.. He doesn’t have lots of money, but maybe oneday he would like to run for city council. He said with no disrespect to Ms. Lucille Kring, CouncilMember, she talked about a few council members want a fire house or library; she said what if they havea fall out. Well, they are thinking with their emotions. A true council member is a very professionalindividual that the residents of Anaheim voted on.

Luz Rosales from Ponderosa Neighborhood said in her community and other low income communities,

families are forced to live crowded in apartments. This causes many serious social problems and lower quality of life for families. One big problem they face is lack of parking. It caught her attention how theCity of Anaheim is developing this city inside the city, inside the Platinum Triangle, where they can seethe very nice condominiums, and there are spaces that are empty meanwhile people are overcrowdedelsewhere. They have been participating in South District Neighborhood Council Meetings as well asorganizing the community to try to solve their own problems. They have discussed the concern of districting. They have talked to code enforcement and the police department but they have had have no

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 27/59

 

Page 7 of 39 

answers or solutions at all. This is why she feels that they need 8 electoral districts and representativesthat understand their real needs and have their interests in mind. Their job is to listen to them; not to tellthem how they feel.

Arturo Ferreras Quintero said he has been a volunteer in the community and has served as the Chair of the

South District Neighborhood Council serving the city of Anaheim. The south is the poorest in Anaheim.He wanted to address the committee on two points tonight that he has observed: 1. Fear of change 2. Aswell as those who want genuine change in the community. He believes it is high time for us to strengthenthe social fabric of the city. He believes that districting will help. Each part of the city is represented by adifferent territory or sector, if you don’t want to use the word districts that have particular needs. Thereneed to be representatives so that all these territories’ needs can be addressed. Some don’t want changeand feel district elections being imposed on us. There is an urgent need to be represented and to be heard.There is a vastly different mix of people that make up the beautiful fabric of Anaheim. There is no better democratic system than districts. He stated he supports having 8 districts in Anaheim to represent all theneeds of the city.

German Santos, resident who lives just across the street from City Hall. Here’s what he contributes to the

community. He said he is Hispanic and came from NYC originally. He has lived somewhat like a nomadin Rancho Santa Margarita, Anaheim Hills, Irvine, Mission Viejo and Garden Grove. As a Hispanicfellow, he’s never had to deal with issues that fellow Hispanics here like what has happened on AnnaDrive in Anaheim. The Hispanic Gang member problem, in those communities, it’s like none of thatexists. He has always thought these are issues for other people until a few years ago he and his parents purchased a home here. What he has discovered is that the law enforcement community seems to havecontempt for Hispanic men in the community. They thought they could treat a Hispanic man working onengineering projects for an American Company that travels to Bogota, Colombia working on project.They thought they could treat him like a gang member.He said despite the fact that he is an engineer. When the riots occurred or protest or whatever you want tocall them, last summer, he didn’t know many of those people because he didn’t live in their neighborhoods but it was literally like he had known them for 30 years. The one thing that we had in

common, besides the fact that we’re Hispanics, is that they feel like the police are their enemy. That is hiscontribution. He hears many people talk about how they can get help. He feels there is no help. He has

asked for the help and so far there’s no help for his concerns. This community feels that by resorting to adifferent sort of electoral system that they will be able to pick people from their area and somehow that isgoing to make things better.

Marta Rivera, from the Ponderosa Community, she is here in support of district voting. She said that thisissue is in your hands. If you have said that you will be spending more money to have more councilmembers assigned, how is it that they are able to vote for $158 million tax for the construction of a hotelthat is really no benefit for the community. You can make these changes today and be part of Anaheim’shistory. Thank you.

Maurice Turner, resident who just lives several blocks away. He’s lived in Anaheim for several years nowand said he cares very much about his community. He has been doing his part to make it better. He reallyappreciates the committee doing their part and everyone here in the audience doing their part to try andmake Anaheim a better place to live. How do we know if we have done enough to satisfy the feeling of representation in the community. What is that metric that this group and the council and the community isgoing to use to know that we’ve put forth enough effort and we have made enough changes, or enoughsteps in the right direction, and to make sure there is a feeling of representation from the community. In

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 28/59

 

Page 8 of 39 

 just taking a look back at our census data, looking at which groups are considered to be minorities. If youlook at the 2010 census, blacks are the minority in the range from about 2.5 to 3%, Asian 15-16%. If youtake those numbers and look at the way our council has been constructed that you would expect to have a black person on council approximately every 16 years or so if we’re going along the lines of ethnic

representation. You’d expect to have an Asian person elected to council every 3-4 years. So if we don’t

meet those metrics or those quotas that some people might want to put out there for us are we still goingto leave ourselves open to the community or organizations like the ACLU and suing because we foundanother group that is unrepresented. How many of these other groups are there going to be. We need tokeep putting our efforts in from a structural background, which to me sounds like quotas. It's like sayingunless you come from my exact same background, and specifically, looks exactly like me; you're notgoing to be able to represent me. His deepest concern is that we're going to go through a process of making these changes and then as a body, as a council, as a people, we're not going to give it enough timeto work. What if after that first election, the council composition doesn't change significantly or by thesecond election. How much time are we going to give it before we say it's just not working or the ACLUcomes back and says you made it worse. You've made it so that now you have all this in-fighting betweenthese district elected officials and no one is getting anything done. That is his hope here that you continuegetting things done and that folks who are here keep showing up to other meetings and to council

meetings. He said that he appreciates everyone expressing their passion and effort in working towardmaking Anaheim a better community.

Raida Hamida works and lives in Anaheim. She came to Anaheim in 1993 when she lives in AnaheimHills. She currently resides in the Platinum Triangle. She understands what it is like to live in Anaheim asa privileged person and it is hard to watch the underserved in the community. It doesn't give me the rightto disconnect from these underserved communities. It is hard to see the lack of equality in the distributionof funding, because of the situation with the lack of redistricting. People like her have to step out andspeak up to help those underserved communities by saying it's not right that just because it doesn't affectme, any day she could lose her job, and it could affect her and she would have to leave Platinum Triangle.She said then she may have to live in the Mira Loma area or in the Ponderosa area and the sad thing is

that our communities now are isolated. We should reunite with the people that are also discriminatedagainst. One of the things she would like to propose, in that it's beautiful to see everyone come out and tosee the passion and diversity regarding redistricting, but to step up because everyone here has a voice.Everybody here has a place. She could speak to Mayor Tom Tait or Lucille Kring. She could speak toTerry Lowe in Community Services. Everyone here has that equal opportunity to have a voice. One of theother things she has seen unfortunately because she was part of a commission to address the youth in theCity of Anaheim. Sadly, the City of Anaheim is one of the richest places in the country, yet Anaheim alsohas one of the poorest neighborhoods in the country. Mira Loma is one of the communities who have thehighest need for services yet there is no resource center. Next year there is going to be a resource center  built, but that is because of people speaking up and coming to Community Service and City CouncilMeetings and speaking their voice. Even though as a Muslim and an Arab woman in our community, wemay feel discriminated against, but it's not until we also reach out to those who are underserved that we

can have a voice and work together. Because of the lack of safety in that community of Mira Loma, weare connecting neighborhoods by promoting safety. Unfortunately because of what has happened inBoston, is that one of the great things is that we unite in tragedy. It is unfortunately a discovery we havein these times but we should be pro-active rather than reactive. Saturday uniting Mira Loma form 11am to1pm the Muslim and Arab community are uniting with the Latino community and promoting safety inthat area where there are no resources.

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 29/59

 

Page 9 of 39 

If anyone would like to meet me afterward I can provide you with more information. The meeting will bethis Saturday from 11-1 at the Anaheim PD, Fire Department, CERT Team; Red Cross will all be there toaddress the children and the members of that community to support them in times of need. Thank you.

Dr. Patricia Adelekan, resident of Anaheim and she has looked around and she still sees human beings.As human beings, she believes that we have a commission and command to care for one another and sheis using the work love of community to take care of one another. In the name of Dr. Martin Luther King,he called it a beloved community. We take care of one another as human beings. Right is right and wrongis wrong.

Let us do our homework, due diligence, use wisdom, use justice, good sense, your brain and your heart,that we didn't pay for, but they are most valuable to us, and make the decision that is going to helpeveryone. You have heard many people here tonight speaking and I am looking at the faces. Love thefaces of everyone before us. She knows you are going to do the right thing. Thank you.

Eric Altman, OCCORD, addressed the committee that if you get through tonight you get one more

meeting. Another credit to all of you for the service you have put in. Some of you came in at the beginning, some of you a little bit later, but that is a credit to all of you. He hopes that you have beenspending hours in front of your computer screen watching the footage as there is a log of good info has been presented. As one previous speaker mentioned change can be uncomfortable. Change is hereregardless of what you do tonight. What we have heard a lot of folks saying is that many feel there is aneed for a change to have districts. That seems to be the tough question that you have to talk abouttonight. We saw at the last meeting, that you had a very wise facilitator, who led you through some of theeasier questions and you had a lot of good agreement about a lot of things. That was good. Mr. Altmansaid that he thought he would make a recommendation on starting point for tonight with a question on thenumber of seats, not one single person said keep seats the same size. No one has spoken about keepingthe size the same, none of your experts said keep the size. Many of your experts 2 recommended it. If nothing else, you may recommend an increase in the council size. Professor Hill said lower levels of representation and you may want to consider increasing the size. You have the facts and info in front of you so you may want to consider that size of the council. You all may not agree on districting but sizeyou should be able to agree upon. He thanked the committee for their service and said that he trusted asanother speaker said that you will do the right thing in serving the people of Anaheim.

Christina Guerrero, born in Santa Ana and raised in Anaheim has lived here for 36 years. She is asubstitute teach in Anaheim Union High School District (AUHSD). Being raised in Anaheim andworking as a teacher, she feels that she is part of the community and that she has gotten to know thecommunity well. Teaching is her passion. Two years ago she was one of the main artists who volunteeredto do the mural projects at the GardenWalk. She would love to see more of those types of projects inAnaheim, cleaning up the image that we have here. She is a true product of the city and she loves the city.When she subs, one of the main problems she sees is dealing with discipline problems in students whocome from certain areas. That is why she would like to see more positive youth programs and feels

strongly that involving youth to get them out of the streets and out of trouble she has seen them get into.She volunteers a lot within her neighborhood. She is a member of OCCORD. She is an artist and she doesa lot in our city and the community. She can't stress how important this is to her personally to have better representation. It's just logic to her and she strongly feels in her heart that it’s needed. It's just commonsense. They need that representation here. Thank you.

Chair Pham thanked everyone for their comments.

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 30/59

 

Page 10 of 39 

Public comments closed at 7:35 p.m.

5.  Receive and File Community Outreach Efforts

Action: Receive and file community outreach report, upon presentation of outreachefforts.

Outreach information made available during the meeting and online atwww.anaheim.net/CACelections

Chair Pham requested a motion to receive and file the report on outreach efforts.Deputy City Manager Garcia stated that they do not have a staff report today but they did have a memo intheir packet and that staff would be able to answer any questions.Commissioner Lopez motioned to receive and file.Commissioner Ma'ae seconded.Ayes – 10 (Armas, Dalati, Day, Edinger, Larsen, Lopez, Ma’ae, Olesen, Pham, Real) Noes – 0The motion passed.

6.  Overview, presentation, discussion and possible decisions on the Committee’s recommendations  

Action: Facilitated by Steven Lynn.

Mr. Lynn provided an overview of the items presented at the April 11 CAC meeting, asreflected in your minutes, as well as the decisions that were made. Whilethe audience cannot see it, there is a list of the items that were agreed upon at the April11th meeting. Mr. Lynn said that he would like to review those items, be prepared todiscuss those items, and be prepared to approve that draft in order to present it to themayor and council.

Items voted on tonight April 18, 2013a.  Council Seat size

Tonight the committee will focus on Item one regarding electoral system in Anaheim. Asa speaker recommended they may want to start with the number of council seats. Theinformation was presented again on a series of notes on the board which reviewed the 5items that the committee has been tasked with in the City Council’s resolution. Mr. Lynnalso referred to the Rules listed below and reminded everyone that they would be abiding by those as they went through the process tonight.

Secondly he wanted to ensure everyone tonight had an opportunity to weigh in on the

outcome, that everyone spoke and participated to feel as though they are a part of therecommendations being made.

Mr. Lynn opened by discussing the number recommendation as being more than 5 withthe recommendation suggest that you have an odd number of council member seats sothat you do not have deadlock, so that the number of council members plus the mayor would equal, hopefully, an odd number, whether that be 7or 9.

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 31/59

 

Page 11 of 39 

Mr. Lynn said he would like to see where people are in regard to the 7 or 9 city council member concept.Chair Pham said she would start by saying 8. Mr. Lynn clarified you would like to see 8 plus the mayor 

so that would equal 9. Ms. Pham confirmed that.Commissioner Armas 7 based on 6 plus the mayor.Commissioner Lopez 8 plus the mayor.Commissioner Edinger 6 plus the mayor.Vice Chair Dalati 8 plus the mayor Commissioner Ma'ae 6 plus the mayor Commissioner Larsen 8 plus the mayor Commissioner Real said he goes with a bunch. Mr. Lynn said that would be a split.Commissioner Realstated that he felt like this question was premature. He said he believed that they should be looking atsome of the other questions first but said we don't know what the questions are. Mr. Lynn replied that thequestions for discussion are contained within your charge, per the resolution. Mr. Lynn reviewed thequestions.

Mr. Lynn said we're going to talk a little bit about the number of council seats.He said we're going to discuss how the mayor might be elected.He said we're going to talk about the ways in which the council might be elected.Those are the three questions. That is all; those are the three questions.

Commissioner Real stated I think you are being funny about it but I don't think that it's funny. Mr. Lynnindicated that was not his intention. Mr. Real continued that he is very serious about the process andabout the way we are going through it. Mr. Real said that he felt last week that Mr. Lynn was puttingwords in their mouths on those questions. Mr. Real said that he feels coming to this question today is notthe appropriate time. So Commissioner Real said that he wish to abstain from voting.

Mr. Lynn asked Commissioner Real, so you don't wish to participate.Commissioner Real said he did not wish to participate on this question.

Mr. Lynn said that if anyone else feels he put words in your mouth he needs to know that. He said theseare your words; not mine. This is your record; not mine. These are recommendations made from peoplewho have come to the dais over the 6 months that you have been working. The recommendations that youmade last week came from your record. Mr. Lynn asked for other comments.

Commissioner Day said she believes it's reasonable to expand the council and she agrees with her colleagues. Day supported 7 total, 6 council members plus the mayor.Mr. Lynn said let me clarify what I am hearing. There seems to be a fairly strong consensus that thecommittee believes the number on the council should be expanded with there being a difference in the

total number of seats being recommended.

Mr. Lynn asked how many of you are for the total of 9 (8 council members plus 1 mayor)The following raised their hands:Commissioners Lopez, Dalati, Larsen, Pham

Mr. Lynn asked how many of you are for the total of 7 (6 council members plus 1 mayor)

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 32/59

 

Page 12 of 39 

The following raised their hands:Commissioners Olesen, Edinger, Armas, Day, Ma'ae

Mr. Lynn asked if he may suggest that the committee recommend to council that there be an increase in

size of the council to either 6 plus the mayor or 8 council members plus the mayor, retaining an odd totalnumber.

Vice Chair Dalati agreed.Mr. Lynn asked if that would be a reasonable recommendation.Commissioner Ma'ae and Edinger agreed as did many of the other committee members. Chair Phamthought it was reasonable.Commissioner Day disagreed.

Mr. Lynn said so let's use that as the recommendation to council. He said that we can revisit it tonight anddiscuss it further. He said if something strikes you as needing to go back and rethink this for some reason,the committee can do that.

Vice Chair Dalati asked that they hear the disagreement from Commissioner Day.Commissioner Day would like to discuss this. One of the items she learned from viewing the speakers,she said the larger the council the less efficient it becomes. Commissioner Day's concern being growingtoo fast might not be wise and that it might be wiser to grow incrementally. She happened to have thestatistics provided to the committee by Professor Sarah Hill regarding cities that were comparable to us.They saw a variety of numbers from 5-11. It seems to her if they are to expand to consider taking it

slowly. As the population continues to grow, there would be the possibility to expand maybe ten or twenty years from now this could be revisited again if it's necessary. Commissioner Day restated thelesson that was given to us from Dr. Hill was that the larger the council the less efficient it is, so Ms. Daysaid she thinks it would be wise for them to grow cautiously as a council.

Chair Pham said that during one of Dr. Hill's presentations she said that there is only a risk if the councilexpands enormously. Chair Pham does not think that from 5 to 9 is an enormous number. Dr. Hill saidshe thought that if the council grew to 7 or 9 she did not think this would be an issue. Chair Pham saidthat the city is growing everyday with the new immigration reform. She said she didn't know if you sawthe press release from the City of Anaheim but they agreed with the Immigration Reform Act. We're justgoing to keep doubling and growing in size and population. Ms. Pham said she thinks that if they justdecide to expand the council 10-20 years from now we're going to be behind. We're not being pro-active;we're being reactive to the community and Chair Pham said she would like to be pro-active.

Commissioner Ma'ae stated she believes that going from 5 to 9; the council size would actually double.It's not a question of it being enormous. That is doubling the council. Why would we be in such a hurry.Why would we not be cautious and take it in steps so that we can really examine what the actual needs are

and not just do a knee-jerk reaction. We have heard the professionals speak and they have provided goodinformation. Ms. Ma'ae said that she believes adding two members would be substantial and that theyhave the room for growth right now. It is something that could be done right away. Why not take the timeto re-examine and see if our growth is still going to be on the same pattern that it has been or with thechange in the economy if there has been an impact on the citizenry of the city. What will the outcome beand take some time to study that.

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 33/59

 

Page 13 of 39 

Commissioner Lopez said if he may, this is from public comments and from experts in the field, Dr. SteveChessin, did say that Anaheim has had 5 representatives since 1857. What he can see from experts is thatAnaheim is long overdue to increase the size of the city council. So just increasing it by two, we willcontinue to have an issue because the rate of growth of the city. With 340,000 residents, almost 350,000residents, the city council will still have to many residents to represent. Here we come again in a few

years when we're already overdue, and if we take those small steps, in a couple years we're going to findourselves violating the California Voting Rights Act Again.

Commissioner Ma'ae interjected that we don't know that there is a violation.

Commissioner Lopez said that it's not his opinion but it's what he got from experts. He based his number on looking at other cities in California. Anaheim is a big city. Two more members is not enough. Theratio is still too many residents to a council member. Areas will feel not represent and we’ll be back tosquare one.

Chair Pham quoted Dr. Sarah by saying that she stated 8-10 districts in Anaheim would not cause anefficiency problem. Ten districts is a lot. She meant to say ten council members but she believes that 8 is

a good number. Chair Pham said it may seem like it’s doubling.

Commissioner Ma’ae said it is. 

Chair Pham said that the city of Anaheim had 4 council members represent a city that was less than100,000 and now we are at 350,000 and growing. More representation will help us. She does not think 8city council members is going to be too much.

Vice Chair Dalati said he feels that it would be fair to state both opinions since 4 of us feel one way and 5agree with the other.

Commissioner Larsen said that this meeting has gone on the road and reached every community and

touched the heart strings of the citizens, now it’s come down to this, politics. The best argument we heardagainst 8 districts would be Council Member Lucille Kring. What she said that more council people youhave the harder it will be to cut deals. That is what she means. How will the example she gave with 3 of the council trying to make progress, if there are too many other council members cluttering it up.

Commissioner Ma’ae asked if that is the same as building a consensus.

Commissioner Larsen said it depends on what that word means to you. He believed she was referring tocutting a deal. Commissioner Larsen said maybe it’s a better deal if you have 8 people than 4 people. Mr.Larsen said we need more districts.

Commissioner Real clarified by saying that we are not talking about districts; what we are talking about is

number of council seats, number of members. What Mr. Larsen just said to us was talking about districts.He said may have misquoted Council Member Kring that the city council job is to divvy up what is

available. It’s a matter of economics, not politics. The decision is who is going to get the bigger piece of the pie today and not tomorrow.

Mr. Lynn indicated that we are talking about council size, number of seats, not how we get that councilsize.

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 34/59

 

Page 14 of 39 

Commissioner Armas said we’re throwing a lot of numbers around. He said the districts are relative to thecouncil because the council dictates the districts. When he looked at New York they basically have144,000 people per council member. We keep hearing this 8 number. It seems to be a consensus around

the organized group we’re hearing from. When we’re talking about 8; we’re talking about 45,000 people

 per council member representation. Then they want to break that into districts which seem pretty small.He gave Oakland as an example and they have 9 with about 50,000 more people than Anaheim. So thereis room for growth and we’re at 7. Do we have over-representation.

Chair Pham said we’re not yet at 7.

Commissioner Armas said that we’re considering 7 or 9 and he thinks that 9 may be too many.He restated that New York has 144,000 per council member.

Chair Pham said that New York is a different beast.

Mr. Lynn wants you all to discuss but I am hearing from you that it may be time to recommend increasing

the number of members of council. That number for openers is either 6 or 8 and you are not ready tomake a firm recommendation for either.

Commissioner Day asked if she might add she is hoping that Commissioner Real may consider  participating now. If we were to consider expanding to 7, last November we could have had 4 councilseats available. The number 3 and 4 seat likely would have been Mr. John Leos and Ms. Rivera. It isinteresting to see that when the council is expanded the potential for diversity increases and that wouldhave been with just two additional seats. To address Mr. Larsen, in defense of Council member Kring waswhat was learned studying districts in the San Jose area was that land use issues become a major problemwhen council members get beholden regarding too much power concerning land use. Since that meetingshe did receive an email from Dr. Christensen, the university professor regarding land use that manymayors dominate decisions regarding land use. Their council members defer to them so that they will get

support with their preference in their own districts. She believes that is what Lucille Kring was referringto..

Mr. Lynn said let’s be very clear we are talking about the size of the council and not how they are elected.We are talking about the number of people who are going to sit on the dais. The question is 5 the currentnumber sufficient to represent the city of Anaheim.

Everyone who has spoken believes it may be time to increase the number.There is no consensus on which number.

There are two schools of thought, at least, one is 6 plus a mayor and one is 8 plus a mayor. If you’re notready to switch your vote, can we get a consensus on one of those? You may want to consider recommending to council that there be an increase in the number of council seats and either moving it to

6 or 8 plus the mayor. That would reflect everything I have heard so far.

Commissioner Edinger said she thinks the fear is that whatever decisions we make in the size of councilindirectly affect whether we favor districts. So if we say 8 council seats, if the decision is if we favor districts, then the logical decision would be 8 districts. Do you see what I’m saying? 

Mr. Lynn said I see exactly what you are saying but one does not necessarily lead to the other.

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 35/59

 

Page 15 of 39 

You have 5 council members now and they are not districted. You can have 8 elected at large. Once doesnot mean the other is a foregone conclusion and you should not have that in your mind that just doing onesuggests the other.

Commissioner Armas asked don’t we currently only have 7 seats (meaning physical seats available in the

chambers).

Commissioner Larsen would like to respond to Ms. Day. You may have the ability to read minds. Whathe believes Ms. Kring said was that there is a good old boys network and the more you add to it the moredifficult it will be to sit in a back room and make a deal.

Commissioner Ma’ae asked that is what you believe was literally said? 

Commissioner Real said that is not what she said which raised discussion among all committee members.

Mr. Lynn said it is not particularly productive to parse the council member’s words.

Chair Pham asked if you could repeat rule #4. Own your own words. The one that says if someone is nothere.

Mr. Lynn said Own your own words.

Chair Pham agreed yes that was the one that she wished to be reiterated. He doesn’t mean to denigrateanyone’s research but you can find any number of sources either for or against both sides of the argument.The point is they do it every way, everywhere. This is here. This is now. The question is, what are you ten people going to decide, that you can recommend to your city council that they can consider. That is theonly question before you.

Commissioner Lopez asked to talk to fellow committee members particularly the ones favoring the

number six. We all came here with an open mind and this is a public meeting, where we want theresidents of Anaheim to come out and speak. The City of Anaheim did a great job bringing forward anumber of experts. Mr. Lopez said that he never heard any of the experts. We kept hearing the number 8,so if we are to sit here, and ignore what they are all demanding or asking for, then we could have thismeeting behind closed doors and ignore the reality. The public is asking for 8 members based on statisticsand numbers that are real, what the city of Anaheim residents need and deserve.

Commissioner Ma’ae said Mr. Lopez the organization OCCORD has done an excellent job of bringingforward the number 8. They have been exemplary in coordinating among the people in this audience inthose neighborhoods, who are disenfranchised.

Commissioner Lopez said but OCCORD is not running the city, Ms. Ma’ae. 

Commissioner Ma’ae said that’s right, Mr. Lopez. That is my point. It’s interesting that everyone who hashad a number in mind has mentioned the number 8. Where did they get that number? Do you recall theconversation that we had in the parking lot with the member of OCCORD and he said to me that the onlyway that the undocumented person is going to have a voice in our government, in our electoral process, isthrough 8 districts. Commissioner Ma’ae said that Commissioner Lopez was a witness to that. Now, isthat something that she is supposed to calmly and agree that they should have 8 districts so that some of 

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 36/59

 

Page 16 of 39 

my family members who are here who are undocumented, which we are working on that legally andgetting them legalized, but am I supposed to sit here and put their voice before the rest of the city who ishere, registered to vote. Everyone deserves a voice, absolutely. Believe me, my background is one thatmy parents were immigrants, they came over here the hard way as they say. She has family members who

are here unfortunately not documented. They’re not proud of that. She is proud of them for coming for a

 better life, and a better way. That is the reason the majority of immigrants come to this country. As ayoung lady said earlier, there are other ways to go about this. It is not to come in and change the charter of our city for their voice. We all are entitled to that voice. It’s not just the select few.

Commissioner Lopez so that you feel that everyone that came, do you feel that most are undocumented.

Commissioner Ma’ae said no absolutely not.

Commissioner Lopez said then said that we heard one of the public speakers saying earlier that taxationwithout representation is not fair. Everyone is paying taxes. Everyone is working. He doesn’t want toquestion people’s document status and say they don’t deserve to be represented because they areundocumented.

Commissioner Ma’ae said you’re right. They do deserve to be represented.

Commissioner Lopez said everyone represents representation. He is going from public comments and

experts in the field. Anaheim is a big city and the 5 city council size was instituted in the 1857 and it’s solong overdue.

Commissioner Real being that we cannot reach an agreement or a consensus. The reason why I am hereand why I believe everyone is here is to make a recommendation to the city council. We don’t have to

give them any numbers. We can tell them it is the public’s opinion that the council size ought to beincreased based on how we determine the districting issue.

Mr. Lynn said that Commissioner Real’s comment was a valid one and if you like something you here letme know. What we are trying to do is get to a recommendation that you can forward to the mayor andcouncil. If numbers become the problem, Commissioner Real is suggesting that you not use the numbers.Just recommend the concept of an increased number of seats.

Commissioner Real said let the voters suggest the number.

Commissioner Armas said he likes what Commissioner Real is saying but what he is confused about ishow you get to those numbers and it’s not really our job to do that. He said it seems that we all agree thatthere should be an increase. There are different ideas on the number.

Chair Pham had a response to Commissioner Ma’ae and then she would like to make a recommendation.

Everyone is welcome. There has been a lot of outreach from the community and asking to have their voice be heard and she has not heard a lot of people, except for Ron Bengochea, that they are againstdistricting. In past meetings 22 people have made comments in support of districting or change todistricts. Six have made public comments opposed to districts. Today you know we have continued tohear 8 districts repeatedly. Are we going to just dismiss this public concern? Chair Pham doesn’t think weshould. We were charged to listen to the public. We were charged to listen to the experts. This is what weare hearing. They want 8 districts.

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 37/59

 

Page 17 of 39 

Mr. Lynn corrected her by saying did you mean to say they want 8 council member seats?

Chair Pham said yes, sorry, she meant to say 8 council member seats.

Mr. Lynn said so how we get them we can discuss in a moment. So your statistics go more toward item 3than item 2? However, I take that as listening to the public.

Chair Pham confirmed that was correct. So, it does not look like we are reaching a consensus. She wouldlike to recommend that we go back to what Mr. Lynn recommended in the beginning that we recommendto the city council an increase in number of seats to 6 or 8?

Mr. Lynn said that there are two perfectly clear ways to go. As Commissioner Real said you canrecommend an increase and perhaps ask the public what the right number might be. It could at some point be put on the ballot and they public could vote on how many representatives you have. That is onesuggestion.

Mr. Lynn’s suggestion earlier that there should be an increase but you couldn’t come to a consensus onthe number so that the two numbers that were discussed most were 6 council members plus a mayor or 8council members plus a mayor. That may suggest to them what they put out to the public for a choice tovote upon.

Commissioner Armas said that seemed fair.

Commissioner Day said that if she may appeal to her fellow commissioners, if we go large, we can’t go backwards. We can always grow. If we were seven member council it could grow bigger, but once you

have gone big you can’t go backwards.

Mr. Lynn said so it seems it would be prudent to consider incremental growth to limit the

recommendation to 6.

Commissioner Day said yes. If she is not mistaken when we took the first vote we had 5 for 6 members, 4for 8 and one abstention. Wouldn’t that be a majority?

Mr. Lynn said yes it would be at that time but we hadn’t had the discussion. He said that he is all abouthearts and minds changing.

Chair Pham said she didn’t hear anyone changing. 

Mr. Lynn continued when you hear something new sometimes that allows for change. So the question ishas the discussion you have had with one another changed anyone’s opinion. Is it fair to recommend that.  

Commissioner Edinger said she thinks it’s fair to say that we recommend that you increase the size andstate that so many members voted for 6 and so many voted for 8.

Chair Pham asked if we could have a motion.

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 38/59

 

Page 18 of 39 

Commissioner Edinger made the motion to state that there was a recommendation to increase the size of the council and those 5 members voted for 6 council members plus a mayor and 4 members voted for 8council members plus a mayor and there was 1 abstention.Vice Chair Dalati seconded.Commissioner Lopez asked if this was a compromise.

Many said yes.Commissioner Olesen said he doesn’t think it’s a compromise. They agree the numbers of council seatsshould increase but the numbers that were talked about were either 6 or 8 plus the mayor. The councilcertain isn’t beholden to go with those but that is what our recommendation would be. 

Mr. Lynn said he would like to be clear that the recommendation needs to be reflective of the discussion.The discussion was between 6 and 8 but I did not hear another number. He did not hear another number come up.

Commissioner Olesen said that’s where just making the recommendation that it should just be increased,he is not sure that that is much of a recommendation or a help. He thinks being specific parameters will bea better recommendation.

Mr. Lynn said I think Commissioner Edinger’s recommendation reflects that.

Vice Chair Dalati said he would like to clarify something. We did here from many who recommended 8

or 7. It’s important to have an odd number.

Chair Pham said 8 plus the mayor.

Vice Chair Dalati said Commissioner Edinger’s motion solved that and would work.  

Chair Pham said let’s put this motion to a vote for the citizens of Anaheim like Commissioner Real hasrequested.

Mr. Lynn restated that what Chair Pham asked is a change in the motion.

Chair Pham said yes.

Commissioner Edinger made the motion to state that there was a recommendation to increase the size of the council and those 5 members voted for 6 council members plus a mayor and 4 members voted for 8council members plus a mayor and there was 1 abstention with the final number to be taken to the publicfor vote.

Commissioner Day suggested that language is really not necessary because we are a charter city anychange to council would have to go to the public for a vote. It is not necessary to add that language.

Commissioner Edinger made the motion to state that there was a recommendation to increase the size of the council and those 5 members voted for 6 council members plus a mayor (Olesen, Edinger, Armas,

Day, Ma’ae) and 4 members voted for 8 council members plus a mayor (Dalati, Pham, Diaz, Larsen) andthere was 1 abstention (Real).

Commissioner Edinger said that her motion stood as originally stated. Commissioner Real seconded. ViceChair Dalati said he already seconded.

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 39/59

 

Page 19 of 39 

Ayes –  10 (Armas, Dalati, Day, Edinger, Larsen, Lopez, Ma’ae, Olesen, Pham, Real) Noes – 0The motion passed.

Mr. Lynn confirmed the numbers as they stood above. He said you are now through with a third of the

evening. He said now we will move on to discussing how the Mayor is elected.

 b.  How Mayor is to be elected

Commissioner Real said that it was important that the mayor not run for another office whileserving.

There was discussion of possible options of how the mayor will be elected including at-largevoting by the people or rotating with the other council selecting the mayor.Mr. Lynn asked if that was prohibited.

Mr. Tyson, Deputy City Attorney, said he cannot definitively say that it’s prohibited in the

State of California. What he has sees it that a public official may have to resign their office before they can run for another office. Mr. Tyson said he believes that the law frowns uponthat type of law unless they have been elected to the second office, then they cannot hold twooffices at once.

Mr. Lynn cautioned the committee against making any recommendation that was specific toany individual, in that you don’t know who is going to occupy the seats and who they are inthe future. I suggest very strongly that you try not to box people in too badly. Let peoplestand up for whatever it is that they do and be accountable that they do and be accountable to people for whatever they do and they have to be accountable to the laws, whatever the lawsare.

Commissioner Edinger said she would recommend the mayor be elected by the public sincethey are ultimately accountable to the public. She would like a mayor who is accountable tothe individual and not to the other council members.

Mr. Lynn said, At-large and by the entire community.

Commissioner Edinger said yes.

Others agreed.

Commissioner Armas expressed that he had a problem with them electing their own mayor.

Chair Pham also said especially with a city our size, because we are so large, we need onemayor who represents all.

Commissioner Olesen asked if he was the only one who remembered when Anaheim electedtheir mayor on a rotating basis and shared the history and some of the inherent problems witha mayor selected by other council members. Commissioner Olesen discussed Anaheimhistory, asking other members if any of them remember when Anaheim did have a rotating

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 40/59

 

Page 20 of 39 

mayor. He indicated it was extremely inefficient. It was suggested by Commissioner Olesenthat a rotating system would be moving backwards and could result in a biased council. Fromhis understanding, the thought it that the Mayor has one vote, same as other council members.

Mr. Lynn asked if anyone would like to take an opportunity to defend the concept of a mayor 

elected by their council members on a rotating basis.

Commissioner Real responded. Yes. He is a representative of the city. He hears that there aremany people saying that they do not have representation. That mitigates that question but thecity mayor is serving the people not of the city. He is a representative of the city like a king or a queen, socially.

Mr. Lynn said as a part of your city charter you have a weak mayor system, and I don’t meanthat pejoratively. That is the form of government you have: a council-manager form of government which basically means that the mayor basically presides at council meetings andhas other ceremonial functions that he may perform as mayor, but he has no more power thanthat by and large. Mr. Garcia, do you want to address that.

Deputy City Manager Garcia said you are correct. It does provide him a few other special powers but he essentially with the mayor-city manager system, it does provide him with afew other specific duties but that is correct.

Commissioner Lopez supports that the mayor be elected at large by the public and maybewith regard to the charter, we suggest he has more power in order to address those concerns.From his fellow committee members if they increase the size of the council if the councilfights over resources, it might be good if the mayor can balance or counter balance thoseresources and reasonable requests.

Motion: Vice Chair Dalati motioned that mayor be elected at large.

Commissioner Edinger seconded the motion.

Ayes –  9 (Armas, Dalati, Day, Edinger, Larsen, Lopez, Ma’ae, Olesen, Pham) Noes – 1 (Real)The motion passed.

Mr. Lynn stated that they are now two-thirds of the way done. At the heart of this entire process that thecurrent form of election needs to be reviewed. He stated that he didn’t say changed, he said reviewed. Themayor and council have charged this group with reviewing the current process. Your charge is todetermine whether or not it should be changed and if so what manner. The first question is, and you’vealready made a recommendation for some change with regard to increasing the size of the council, your recommendation is actually 6 and 8 for the council and a mayor elected at large. It does not say how thoseare to be elected. Here are the choices that have come out of your record.

c.  Electoral processThere was discussion on the options:

  At large(7 or 9 seats)

  By district, single member (5,7,8,9)

  Hybrid from district, elected at large

  Cumulative

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 41/59

 

Page 21 of 39 

  Ranked choice voting

Mr. Lynn asked if there are any of the choices that they would like to eliminate.Chair Pham recommended that they eliminate cumulative and ranked choice.

The committee decided to eliminate cumulative and ranked choice.Chair Pham motioned to eliminate cumulative and ranked choice voting options.Vice Chair Dalati seconded the motion.

Ayes –  10 (Armas, Dalati, Day, Edinger, Larsen, Lopez, Ma’ae, Olesen, Pham, Real) Noes – 0The motion passed.

There was discussion on how the possible options, such as hybrid voting.

Commissioner Armas suggested he liked hybrid if 4 candidates were elected by district and 4 wereelected at large. That would be a total of 8 candidates and they could only canvas their own area. This

would address some of the concerns we heard regarding cost, limiting people to their area, yet providingoverall representation so that citizens are allowed more opportunity for representation. He believes thatthe cost would be limited. This would allow the city to have direct representation but still be united.

Commissioner Real agreed.

Mr. Lynn said we have two people who agree with this.

Commissioner Lopez said he wanted to go by districts.Chair Pham said she would like to see a move to districts, as well.Commissioner Lopez said that if we go with electing the mayor at large, it made sense to elect council bydistrict. He understood with hybrids that some might be elected at large and he wants to give every single

neighborhood the opportunity to elect the candidate of their choice and feel represented.Vice Chair Dalati said the thing he does not like about at large and he has run for office before, is thatrunning at large is it’s really very expensive, $150,000-300,000.Commissioner Larsen said that just a point of clarification, with this last election two candidates spentover a million dollars and that was not out of their own pockets.

Commissioner Day said as a reminder with what they saw in San Jose model, their district 8 spent amillion dollars in the last election. So special interests can still get involved in district elected cities. Ms.Day began to speak and Mr. Lynn interrupted.

Mr. Lynn interrupted to remind Member Day thatwhen you make a declarative statement like that withouta fact to back it up, you could have 15 council members and depending on how they ran, who ran, how

they were financed, who turned out and what the election turnout was, you could have 15 people not of color. What you are trying to do here is take what you have heard from people in the community whohave said they need representation, now how best to get that to them?

Commissioner Day remarked that her comments were based on the last election.

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 42/59

 

Page 22 of 39 

Mr. Lynn said but we can’t do that. He said that earlier you made a statement in Anaheim’s last electionthat had there been two more, you named who it would have been. We can’t do that. That’s not at all true because if 4 seats had been up, more people may have run. You don’t know who would have run lasttime.

Commissioner Day said she was again basing it on the last election.

Commissioner Ma’ae said that in the last election, for example the two who came in third and fourthwould have gained a seat based on the candidates who were running.

Mr. Lynn commented on the argument indicating you can’t put the two together and make a conclusion.Commissioner Day said then let me restate this, if the council was to grow to 7 or 9 council members,something that is true that each Anaheim resident would have 7 to 9 people accountable to them whereasif we are district, they would only have one person accountable to them. That is true.

Mr. Lynn said that is absolutely true.

Chair Pham would like to make a comment about Commissioner Day’s comment about diversity. Ms.Pham said we keep coming back to needing racial representation on the city council and she thinks that isreally incorrect. Ms. Pham said she thinks that the public wants a representative from their neighborhood.Chair Pham doesn’t think that they necessarily want a Latino on the city council, they want someone whorepresents them from their neighborhood.

Vice Chair Dalati asked to speak in response to Commissioner Day and Commissioner Edinger. Thisword special interest keeps coming up and I think we can agree special interests are always going to behere. Mr.Dalati thinks the reason that we are all here is the interest of the people and while special interestar e not going away who want this or that. He doesn’t think we should care about it.

Commissioner Ma’ae said she wished that they could have elections where we could not have to worryabout special interest groups but our meetings have been a prime example of groups organizing and of getting together and putting a group of statistics together and scripted material for individuals to speak toat the podium. To address your comment about the public comments, yes they have been and she wishedthat more people would have come to these meetings and spoken during public comment and stood at that podium to make their voice heard instead of speaking just directly to me because I am trying to expresstheir interests and be representative of the city as a whole. It doesn’t help me if people don’t come to the podium. Ms. Ma’ae said she is one person and she does not have an organization  behind her to gather  behind her to speak to the individuals on the point she wished to emphasize.

Vice Char Dalati said he totally agreed and maybe this is just the style of the special interest groups thatyou are talking about. Other interest groups make phone calls behind the scene and they influence a lot of 

 people. Let’s really think about the people of Anaheim. 

Commissioner Ma’ae said it does work both ways.

Commissioner Larsen said Vice Chair Dalati with all due respect to you and you are very highly regarded,there are special interest people on this committee. They do know who they are and Mr. Larsen said heknows who some of them are but let’s not forget why we are here. This wasn’t because the city council

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 43/59

 

Page 23 of 39 

got together and said we should do something for the betterment of Anaheim. We are here because LosAmigos partnered with the ACLU and to sue the City of Anaheim on behalf of the majority of the peopleAnaheim. That is why they are here. What is going to happen which I have tried to point out is that a lotof money has been spent yet nothing has been done. He tried to point out tonight that the Anaheim UnionHigh School District is facing the same challenge with districting. Why? Because they have the same

 pressures on them. Here’s what is going to happen in Mr. Larsen’s opinion: The judge has already saidhe’s postponed any decisions until July additional time until this committee concludes their work anddetermine what the city council would like to do. If the city council does not go with districts, the lawsuitwill continue on. If the judge decides we will lose the lawsuit. Every expert who has come in has said the

 precedent is there and we’re going to lose the lawsuit. Let’s get real; let’s get practical and leave our emotions aside. The City of Anaheim will spend an unknown amount of money to fight a losing battle of a lawsuit and then we will lose the right to districting to the courts. The courts will take over thatresponsibility. They will assign the people who will do the districting and the city of Anaheim will be leftout. Special interests, you bet. That is why we are sitting here. By the way the number of people on thecity council and the way in which they are elected don’t guarantee anything or the quality of the person.That’s the right of the people to elect any lousy politician they may choose.

Mr. Lynn said that whether they are elected at large or by districts doesn’t guarantee it either.

Commissioner Larsen said to Commissioner Olesen that regrettably he is old enough to remember the oldmethod of the council directly electing their mayor in the 1970’s and the intent of going to a directelection of mayor was anticipating that at some point the mayor of Anaheim would be a full time job,which it basically is now and the city council are.

Commissioner Olesen said that’s always been a part of the discussion that the entire city council should be a full time job not a part time job as it is now.

Chair Pham wanted to comment on the lawsuit. Ms. Pham stated that the ACLU was probably going towin the lawsuit and she asked if the committee wanted to make the decision for the city of Anaheim to

move to districting or do we want the courts to decide. That’s something she’d like to remind the fellowcommissioners.

Commissioner Larsen and Commissioner Ma’ae said yes, we want to decide.

Commissioner Real said the districting is not going to be an easy task. Mr. Real said that if we select anequal number of representatives/candidates or residents to be covered by a council member, that meansthat he may not necessarily have a candidate of their choice being elected. If the public wants to see aHispanic being elected and the district goes beyond the Hispanic neighborhoods, that doesn’t necessarilyensure that the public will be able to select the candidate of their choosing.

Mr. Lynn indicated that candidate of choice is a function of people in an area or a district. Voting for a

candidate and having that vote count meaning it produced an elected official versus having someone likeyou are different. There is no guarantee on anything. What you are trying to do is give the issue the bestchance of success based on everything you have heard and everything you know. Mr. Lynn said he wouldlike to go back to Commissioner Armas’ suggestion and move through these. Please correct me if I mis-state this. Commissioner Armas suggested that you go with a hybrid with 4 of the 8 selected city wide plus the mayor, and then four from specific districts.

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 44/59

 

Page 24 of 39 

Commissioner Ma’ae asked if you meant 4 of the 8 or 3 of the 6.

Mr. Lynn said it could be either/or 4 of the 8 or 3 of the 6 because you have not made a firmrecommendation on the number.

Commissioner Armas said it would be easier to make it simple with 8 because you could stipulate thatyou must live in that area. If you look at LA County they don’t even live in the area. We have had thesame problem in Anaheim where they were actually renting a house within one block of the city, basicallythe carpet bagger syndrome that a lot of young people don’t know what that means. It is rampant. If wewent with a hybrid type of system we could ensure some type of 2-3 year residency inside that district,hold them a little more accountable because we really can’t trust anything a politician says.

Mr. Lynn said he is not going to comment on that but take the suggestion, that whichever number of seatsthe council may have that half of them be city wide (at-large) and half of them be elected by district andthen the mayor elected at large. Mr. Lynn asked if that suggestion has traction.

Commissioner Lopez said no.

Commissioner Real agreed with the suggestion.Commissioner Pham asked if they should go one by one.Commissioner Real said he agreed with that because if the city is just divided by numbers of population,it’s a losing proposition but this way guar antees that each area would be represented by somebody.

Mr. Lynn said either 4 people or 6 depending upon the size of council. Mr. Lynn noted thatCommissioner Larsen was speaking against that.

Commissioner Larsen said absolutely against it because there are a couple city council people who

couldn’t find West Anaheim.

Commissioner Armas said they’re not here Mr. Larsen; we’re not supposed to do that. Mr. Lynn thanked

Mr. Armas as it saved him from not doing it.

Mr. Lynn said is there anyone else who would like to jump on to those suggestions.

Commissioner Armas had one last comment and what he said is really turning him off from districting isthat you have heard all the talk about Anaheim Hills vs. the flatlands and the other areas. To him, there isalready a division that is pretty resentful with a lot of residents and Member Day came up with a statisticlast meeting that Anaheim Hills actually had a slower response time than the west. There are a couple of other things that they are probably not aware of. There are a couple other things with the fact thatAnaheim Hills is newer. They are now mandating more parks and open spaces. That was privy to theolder Anaheim. You can’t compare them. You can drive up there and see more green areas but that’s howthey are being developed in the newer areas. They have to its law. The district part is dividing our city

again with resentment. If you are one block out of that district you’re out of luck because if you have asituation over there that is a hazard or blighted, you’re just going to have to look at. If you can’t get

someone from that part of the city to look at it you’re out of luck. He said he thinks that we really need to be able to hold our politicians accountable.

Mr. Lynn said if I understand you correctly you are offering a compromise between half elected at largeand half districts with the mayor elected at large.

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 45/59

 

Page 25 of 39 

Commissioner Armas said yes.Commissioner Armas was under the impression regarding what Mr. Larsen said that the lawsuit did notdictate districts or our voting. In fact, we don’t even know if we have broken any laws although they havecited a lot of case references. Mr. Armas said it is his impression that the committee is here to look at

different alternatives with voting and not to mandate it because anybody can sue anybody.

Mr. Lynn said I want to talk about the lawsuit for a moment. I’d like to ask which of you is the judge thatis hearing the lawsuit.

Someone said none.

Mr. Lynn said that is correct. The point of that is, that person will determine if there is merit and if so,what that merit is. My point is that you are not hearing that case tonight. That is not your job. Your job isto provide the mayor and council with the benefit of your wisdom from everything you know.Commissioner Dalati, go ahead.

Vice Chair Dalati said again we’re forgetting we are only making a recommendation and that the peoplewho sit behind us here (the city council) are going to make the final recommendation in the end.He would like to ask Mr. Tyson if the lawsuit is asking for districting or are they just exploring methods.

Mr. Tyson replied, I think you are asking what remedy is the lawsuit asking for. Is it asking for districts or  just change in general.

Vice Chair Dalati said that is right.

Mr. Tyson said he doesn’t have the pleading memorized but his understanding was the remedyrecommended in the suit was districts.. As we heard from some of political science experts, it’s not theonly remedy that might be heard by the judge under hearing a case.

Vice Chair Dalati asked again so the lawsuit is about districting.

Mr. Tyson said that the lawsuit is seeking a remedy for the alleged violation of the California VotingRights Act. He believes that it proposes as most lawsuits do, that if you were suing for a slip and fall, itwould propose that you get some money damages and perhaps some other things. He believes the remedythat the lawsuit proposes is districts but that is not to say that is the only kind of remedy that a judge couldorder if there were a violation.

Vice Chair Dalati said he believes they should eliminate the hybrid method and consider districting or not. That is his opinion.

Mr. Lynn said he only had two people supporting hybrids, the maker and one other.

Commissioner Lopez asked to address Commissioner Armas idea with hybrid regarding someone rentinga house. That is particularly the problem and the risk we run with a hybrid system coming from an area

 just renting a house and knowing that he doesn’t get to be elected by the people in that district yet peoplefrom other areas electing him. So is he truly going to be representing the interest of those people in thatcommunity or someone else’s interest? That is his issue with the hybrid. That is why Mr. Lopez believes

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 46/59

 

Page 26 of 39 

that we should make the move to districts. You must live in your district and that way you would beaccountable only to those people in your district.

Commissioner Larsen said that hybrid could support special interests and in this city there is one specialinterest.

Mr. Lynn said there are two forms of hybrid, Commissioner Armas is suggesting one. In the other eachmember of a district runs in a primary, and is nominated but is elected citywide. That is a different type of hybrid. There are other cities that use that. The way the argument goes and it’s not Mr. Lynn’s position but the argument goes: the benefit of that type of hybrid is that even though districts are represented,everyone gets to vote in the final analysis for all members of the council. That is a different type of hybrid. I would like to have you consider them both to see if there is traction before we cut to the chaseand consider just at-large or district elections.

Commissioner Edinger wanted to expand upon what Commissioner Armas had said and why she is not infavor of districts. Anaheim is already divided between who lives in Anaheim Hills and who doesn’t. Ms.Edinger said she does not live in Anaheim Hills, and she understands what a lot of people are saying

about feeling not represented. She thinks having districts is only going to divide us even more. Keithcould live in my neighborhood; she could want one thing and Keith could want another. You can’tassume just because the person we elected is from our neighborhood, is going to represent every singlemember in that district. We talk about special interests, does Disneyland get its own member? Does it getits own district? Do the people who live right near Disneyland, are they going to get any representationwhen they are in the same district as the special interest? She sees the problem and shares some of theconcerns that are being brought up. Ms. Edinger said she believes it is putting a band-aid on a gapingwound, in her opinion.

Commissioner Armas said with some of the reading he’s done that districts started on the East Coast butthey were basically phased out because of their corruption. It wasn’t his thinking. It may not be perfect; but that is what we are here to discuss. We are trying to get to discussing something that basically failed

as it began. We’re trying to make a recommendation and just ensure we’re not going backwards again. 

Mr. Lynn said he still only has two people supporting hybrid.

Commissioner Olesen said he is for eliminating hybrid.

Commissioner Day said that her heart is for at-large, but she is considering what Commissioner Armasand Commissioner Real are discussing the at-large district model which is being used in Santa Ana rightnow. She supposes that in an effort to show to good faith, she thinks it is something reasonable toconsider. What she is trying to say is that for core principle reasons, she believes in the at-large system.The lawsuit was brought up. Something that she finds confusing is that the lawsuit doesn’t talk aboutgeography. It’s very specific language that is race based. The goal post is constantly changing with that.

Ms. Day said that we have people here on the dais who are saying it’s regarding area representation; thatis not the language at all that is specified in the ACLU lawsuit. It’s actually very ugly language that is all

about skin color and it’s very disturbing. She loves what she heard from Dr. Patricia who spoke about Dr.Martin Luther King. We have had that other gentleman who spoke about what matter is what is on theinside. Commissioner Day said she believe that it’s what is on the inside that matters. That is who she is.Ms. Day believes that districts are the opposite of that. She believes it’s a model of reverse racism to be

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 47/59

 

Page 27 of 39 

truthful with you based on the language that is dictated in the lawsuit. She is very opposed to singlemember district elections.

Vice Chair Dalati asked Mr. Tyson if it’s based on representation or is it based on race.

Ms. Day said its race; its 100% based on race.

Mr. Tyson replied if you are asking about the lawsuit. Under the California Voting Rights Act, it is basedon ethnicity; it is not based on geographic issues.

Chair Pham said she would like to make a comment to Commissioners Armas and Edinger again a quotefrom Dr. Sarah Hill, she said that corruption is not a districts vs. at-large issue. It is an issue inherent in politics. The factors causing corruption that led to the adoption of at-large districts in the 1930’s no longer exists today. She also said that she thinks that districting adds cohesion to the city if everyone feels likethey have a voice and are part of the process instead of some folks feeling as if they are left out.Representation from neighborhoods can help make sure that resources are divided in a way that is bothequitable and well thought-out.

Commissioner Armas said that they based that on Republican and Democrat parties.

Chair Pham said based what on.

Commissioner Armas said the districting and the corruption was based on the party affiliation. While shesaid that doesn’t happen anymore, we do have special interests. 

Chair Pham made a rebuttal.

Vice Chair Dalati said can we vote to take hybrid off?

Mr. Lynn said he felt there were still three people that he knows that were in favor of hybrid thatCommissioner Armas recommended.

Commissioner Day clarified with the three people being Commissioner Real, Commissioner Armas andmyself? To show good faith in an effort to come up with a solution, she believes that she feels that would be a better solution than districting.

Mr. Lynn said to Ms. Day that he understood that you are coming to it reluctantly because you do feelstrongly that your point of view going in was in support of at-large. Ms. Day you are willing to supportthis in the interest of compromise. Mr. Lynn said he would like to see if anyone else is in agreement.

Commissioner Armas wanted to interject again. Mr. Lynn said he believes that Mr. Armas has already

said everything. The reason he said it is just a recommendation and we could refine it so we are notlocked in to just one system. We would have a lot of longitude here whereas the districts just lock us in toone way.

Commissioner Ma’ae said she would be open to hy brid because she feels single member districts are not productive and hybrid would allow everyone to have a voice. It makes it so that only people in thatdistrict have a voice.

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 48/59

 

Page 28 of 39 

Mr. Lynn said that was four.

Commissioner Edinger asked if Commissioner Ar mas’ suggestion was in agreement with Commissioner Day that her recommendation would be to continue with at large but with a recommendation to consider 

hybrid as an option.

Commissioner Day said she liked how Commissioner Edinger phrased it better.

Mr. Lynn said that is different from what was said by Commissioner Armas.

Commissioner Edinger asked Commissioner Day if she would prefer the at large with hybrid as analternate.

Commissioner Armas said that the hybrid system would satisfy a lot of the things that we need to look at but it would also give us the opportunity to expand upon it.

Commissioner Edinger said that is different than what Sandy and I would recommend.

Commissioner Armas said if we go to at-large; you’re locked in to that. If you go to districts; we’relocked in to that. Hybrid is the only one that he feels gives you some latitude and would allow you someability to adjust it.

Mr. Lynn said make no mistake the hybrid system has a district function built in to it.

Commissioner Armas said he understood that.

It’s just that there is a division of function within the hybrid option.

Commissioner Ma’ae said that within the hybrid option, you have some districts but you have an at largevoting.

Mr. Lynn said no that was not the case with Commissioner Armas’ suggestion. Half would be from at-large and half would be from districts with the mayor being elected at large.

Chair Pham said that if Commissioner Ma’ae is suggesting the other hybrid model. She would consider  supporting the other district model of nominating the candidates by district and electing them at-large,citywide.

Chair Pham said yes, that is correct.

Commissioner Larsen asked Commissioner Armas a question.Mr. Lynn asked if Commissioner Ma’ae was changing.Commissioner Armas said he actually liked the idea better of the candidates being nominated out of districts and being elected at-large.

Mr. Lynn said he would get to Mr. Larsen. Mr. Lynn said he was hearing a shift here and he wanted to besure he understood clearly. So, now we are talking about having all candidates nominated from districts in

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 49/59

 

Page 29 of 39 

a primary and being elected at large with the exception of the mayor who would also be elected at large both in primary and in general. Commissioner Armas has now clarified that he is now supporting thesecond hybrid model, nomination by district and general election at large.

Commissioner Armas said that is correct and the candidates would still need to reside in the districts.

Commissioner Larsen asked for clarification. Say we have 6 districts; every district would nominatesomeone.

Commissioner Armas said that they would nominate someone from there district; there could be four or five.

Commissioner Larsen said then someone from that district may not be elected.

Mr. Lynn said let me explain. If this explanation of hybrid is the one you want to go with, let me explainwhat would happen. Districts would be drawn. Within that district people would run for office. The toptwo for that seat would go forward from a primary election and then would be voted on citywide. The

winner of that city wide vote would hold that district seat.

Commissioner Larsen said so what we are saying then is that, he lives in Anaheim Hills, but I am going toinfluence who is elected in the West Anaheim district.

Mr. Lynn said that is correct. He said he would like to point out that in that hybrid, and this is somethingthat happens all the time, that if two candidates go forward as top two; there may be a huge disparity between the top two, the top and the second. Often times the result of the citywide election does not produce the candidate of choice for that district by a majority vote.

Commissioner Larsen said so each of those candidates from West Anaheim would still have to campaigncity wide and they would still have to generate the money to do that and neither one may win.

 No, Mr. Lynn said someone from each district will win. One of them will win. If you look at the entirecanvas of the final vote; it is possible that the winner of a district may be determined in another districtvote.

Chair Pham so this is like the Santa Ana model.

Commissioner Larsen said so just for kicks, the people in Anaheim Hills could all get together and electthe lesser of the candidates in West Anaheim. So what are we accomplishing?

Commissioner Day said the West could do that for the East as well.

Commissioner Larsen stated we’re creating a bigger problem. Mr. Larsen said we’ve already created this problem in California. Are you aware of how we elect people in primaries in California

Commissioner Larsen explained the top two vote getters run off for that office. It’s no longer by partiesany more. The top two vote getters will run off for that office. So if the top two vote getters for governor happen to be Democrats; you have two Democrats running for the office of governor. You do not have analternative party. That would be what we’re doing here.

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 50/59

 

Page 30 of 39 

Vice Chair Dalati said that he kind of like the concept. Running at large will always put you at the mercyof special interest.

Commissioner Olesen said, Commissioner Dalati, running for office at all puts you at the will of special

interests.

Vice Chair Dalati said that if you run by district; it’s much more reasonable and there is less impact of special interest.

Mr. Lynn reiterated to the committee that he wanted everyone to understand the difference and determineif they were going to vote on it or eliminate hybrid. The committee started out favoring one type thenshifted to the other type of hybrid elections.

He restated the two types of hybrids:

  The first hybrid option brought about by Commissioner Armas where regardless of number of seats half of the seats would be elected at large and the mayor would be elected at large; the other 

half of the council would be elected by districts.  The second hybrid system recommended by Commissioner Ma’ae would be where two

candidates are nominated in a primary from each district and then they would be elected in ageneral election that was citywide.

Mr. Lynn’s question is do you want either one of them. 

Commissioner Ma’ae if we did a hybrid where it is half voted on by the district and half voted on by at -large; do you have an issue with that?

Commissioner Larsen said he absolutely has an issue with that because that gives the special interests afoot-hold on who they are electing. All the special interests have to do then is elect half is to control thecity council which will continue to disenfranchise some of the districts that don’t have the money or the

support to run for office. You know Anaheim Hills that everyone vilifies, so they can collect all themoney and they can elect whomever they want, where West Anaheim, or Central Anaheim, or the AnnaStreet group; they don’t have any money so they’re not going to be able to elect anybody.  

Commissioner Ma’ae said but is it still the same concern that you had o ver an entire at large system withindividual districts.

Commissioner Larsen said, quite frankly, he doesn’t personally have a problem with at -large the way it isnow and he knows that is not the way it’s going to be. So, Mr. Larsen said that he is going to be pro-active and practical to the point let’s control our destiny and let’s not accept the fate of a judge decidingour destiny. That is where he’s coming from. At-large he is fine with. At-large or by district; neither guarantee good representation either way. It also doesn’t say that you won’t have good r epresentation..

You just have to see what we get. It all depends on what you think about what we have now versus whatsomeone else may think. What we are going to have versus what he wants are two different things.

Mr. Lynn said that is a very helpful clarification of a position.

Commissioner Real said voting at large, he thinks, that the voters do not go to the polls. When they havedistrict, and they have a personal interest in the district; they will go to the polls and vote.

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 51/59

 

Page 31 of 39 

Mr. Lynn said is that a good thing.

Commissioner Real said, yes that is a good thing.

Others agreed.

Commissioner Real continued that they are complaining about not being represented by the city council.

Mr. Lynn said so let me ask the question again. Do either versions work for the committee.

Commissioner Day said if we as a committee had a problem understanding the hybrid model and thevarious scenarios and here we’ve been studying this for as long as we have, she said she would like toremove her recommendation for hybrid. If we’re confused by it; how do we expect 350,000 people tovote on it or understand it.

Commissioner Olesen motioned to eliminate hybrid voting because it came about as a result of compromise. He said the ultimate result of compromise often being mediocrity; he recommendedeliminating the hybrid options.Commissioner Larsen seconded.Ayes –  10 (Armas, Dalati, Day, Edinger, Larsen, Lopez, Ma’ae, Olesen, Pham, Real) Noes – 0The motion passed.

Mr. Lynn reiterated their first decision regarding council size has been recorded. He said that you canrevisit it next week in the draft. It is now in the record.

 Now he would like to discuss the at large vs. districting. His sense is that if he gave you three more hoursto discuss it you’d be at the same place as you are now. My guess is where you are is still where you are.

You have heard each other talk about it enough to know each other’s point of view enough to know whatthe arguments are. Mr. Lynn said I don’t want you to consider the lawsuit in trying to determine what the

outcome will be; but that is certainly a reality is as well. To reflect Larry’s statement of his positionearlier, his position is driven by the fact that he would rather do it now, rather than be told he must dosomething else.. Mr. Lynn suggested that he suggested that the committee may be at a point where youmay wish to take a vote by a show of hands and then take that discussion period to fashion arecommendation that can be based on the vote. Vice Chair Dalati would like to say something.

Vice Chair Dalati directed his question to Mr. Tyson, the lawsuit has cost almost 400, 000 thus far, if wewere to say the City Council is going to go to districts right now, would that drop the lawsuit? Would it be over?

Mr. Tyson, if I understand your question, if you recommend districts, does that end the lawsuit?

Vice Chair Dalati, said not me, but if the committee recommends districting to the City Council? Chair Pham clarified if in July the City Council recommends a move to districts, would that put an end to thelawsuit.

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 52/59

 

Page 32 of 39 

Mr. Tyson said he can’t speak for the plaintiff’s attorney. He said the plaintiff’s attorney would have toagree that that settles the case or they would have to dismiss the case. Mr. Tyson reiterated that he cannotspeak for the plaintiff’s attorneys. If council did approve the recommendation to districting, he said thathe is sure that the plaintiff would like to see it approved before the voters because it would have to beapproved by the voters as a charter change. There is certainly a good chance that would resolve the

lawsuit by agreement. There is a chance that any change that is recommended by the council could lead toa chance that it would resolve the lawsuit.

Vice Chair Dalati asked if Mr. Tyson was aware of the situation with the City of Compton.Mr. Dalati stated that Compton was forced to go to district elections.

Commissioner Day said it went to the vote of the people and they voted on it.

Vice Chair Dalati said they were forced by the court to go to districts.

Mr. Tyson said he did see the presentation on the City of Compton.

Commissioner Day said that is not accurate. Commissioner Day said it went to the vote of the people andthey voted on it.

There was a discussion about the fact that it hard to go to a vote with the public because Compton is acharter city. Mr. Lynn said that any charter city would have to go to the public for a vote to make achange to the charter.

Vice Chair Dalati was inquiring because Compton was sued by the same group that Anaheim had beensued by.

Chair Pham moved that they take a vote to see how many are in favor of at-large or districts.

Mr. Lynn said how many of you are in favor of creating district elections in Anaheim. See results below.He also asked how many support at-large. See results below.

d.  At large vs. Districting for electoral systemThere was a lengthy discussion after determining the committee was split 5 and 5.Supporting maintaining at large election:

  Commissioner Olesen

  Commissioner Edinger 

  Commissioner Armas

  Commissioner Day

  Commissioner Ma’ae 

Supporting districting:

  Commissioner Larsen

  Commissioner Lopez

  Chair Pham

  Vice Chair Dalati

  Commissioner Real

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 53/59

 

Page 33 of 39 

Given the split decision and further discussion, the committee determined it would be best to recommendto the City Council that the issue be placed on the ballot for the people to vote on maintaining at largeelections or moving to districting. Mr. Lynn suggested there were two options as to how this could be placed on the ballot. There was discussion of placing this on the ballot either for an advisory vote or for a

change to the charter which would include creation of districts and voting by district. It could be doneeither way. You could make a recommendation as to how they would do it, however an advisory ballot isnot binding.

Commissioner Edinger asked if it would be less costly to have an advisory vote or opinion poll.

Mr. Lynn said that it would also be less official and have less validity to have an opinion poll rather thanan election. The cost for either type of election is likely it may cost the same.

Commissioner Olesen said I believe Commissioner Edinger was asking about the non binding advisoryvote.

Mr. Lynn said the non binding advisory vote and vote to change the charter would cost the same.

Commissioner Larsen pointed out that if you are concerned about money. What is being spent on thelawsuit in court will be way more than an election, especially if it continues would certainly be more thanthe cost of an election to vote on the issue.

Commissioner Olesen said it is money well spent.

Commissioner Real made a motion to let the people vote.Commissioner Lopez seconded the motion.

Vice Chair Dalati clarified that the motion- the committee was unable to make a majority

recommendation, however the committee was firm in the recommendation that the mayor and city councilshould refer the issue to the ballot to let the citizens vote.

Commissioner Larsen asked that the 5 who voted for at large, to use a little common sense and disregardwhat they have been asked here to do and consider supporting district voting.

Commissioner Ma’ae responded that no one on council asked me to respond one way or another. Just

 because we are involved in different functions and different support groups, that does not mean I don’thave a mind of mine own or that I don’t represent people in my immediate neighborhood.

Commissioner Olesen said to Commissioner Larsen that you could be accused of the same thing. Adiscussion broke out. Mr. Lynn said he didn’t wish to question anyone’s integrity. 

Chair Pham said let’s go back to the motion at hand. 

Mr. Lynn reiterated everyone here has their own opinions and they are entitled to vote them here on this panel. That’s what you were asked to do. He does not believe it’s valuable to impugn anybody’s motivesor intentions. He said I consider every one of you to have pure motives and intentions because you arehere doing what you’re doing and you have spent the time doing it. 

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 54/59

 

Page 34 of 39 

Vice Chair Dalati said that he believes that the money being spent on the lawsuit is money that belongs tothe people of Anaheim and he believes they should have a say in whether they continue to spend it or endthe lawsuit.

Chair Pham said there was a motion on the floor and it had been seconded.

Commissioner Day asked for clarification on the motion.Mr. Lynn clarified the original motion- the committee was unable to make a majority recommendation onthe methodology of election, however the committee was firm in the recommendation that the city councilrefer the issue to the ballot to let the citizens vote on which methodology they prefer, at large or districts.

Commissioner Day said so the people will vote on at-large or districts and the majority wins. Ms. Daysaid she was agreeable to that.

Commissioner Larsen asked do we want to recommend a special election or the very next generalelection.

Some said right away. Some said general election. There was discussion.Commissioner Ma’ae said let it be put to the vote of the people.Mr. Lynn said you may impact the timing.Commissioner Edinger asked if the recommendation will show that we were split evenly?

Mr. Lynn said yes. What Mr. Lynn said is I’m trying to get what you do agree on so there is somesemblance of this work, all of your time, and the many months you have spent goes to the mayor andcouncil with more than a 5-4 or 6-4 vote at the end. This is going to come back to you in a 3-4 pagedocument that has your recommendations in it. It will be your report to mayor and council. Mr. Lynnwants it to firmly reflect what you think and feel so that when that vote happens on May 9th, it’s not 5-5.

He’s love that it be 10-0. Whatever we get to, I would like for you to have a much more affirmativerecommendation on the full report which will retain each of these recommendations. That’s why it’simportant for you to think about and vote on. You have a motion on the floor.

Commissioner Armas said what’s the motion.

The motion was made by Real to take a vote.Commissioner Real made the original motion, Commissioner Lopez seconded the motion.

Ayes –  10 (Armas, Dalati, Day, Edinger, Larsen, Lopez, Ma’ae, Olesen, Pham, Real) Noes – 0The motion passed.

Commissioner Lopez asked to make a recommendation that all the public comments, all the records of expert’s comments, and all the discussion the committee had be included in the final report.

Mr. Lynn said he thinks they will be referenced and the record is public. The record is there.

Mr. Lynn is there any other business that you would like me to be involved in next time.Commissioner Day would it be possible for us to get summaries of everything from this meeting tonightand the last meeting before the next meeting so that we could study that.

Mr. Lynn said yes. You are going to have that the Monday before the next Thursday meeting.

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 55/59

 

Page 35 of 39 

Commissioner Day clarified that it would be comprehensive of all the five issues?

Mr. Lynn said yes, it will be all outlined for you in report form. What I really need you to do is to take afew minutes before the meeting to run through it and to make sure it fairly reflects what you did. If it

needs changes, that is the meeting where we will make the changes to make sure that at the end of themeeting if you’re voting on the report, you’re not voting for any specific recommendation but you’revoting that the report fairly reflects your work as a committee.

Commissioner Day asked if it would your preference if items from the last meeting wait to be discusseduntil the next meeting.

Mr. Lynn asked do you have something you want to talk about now because you haven’t seen it in form.He would like for you to see it in form before we discuss not just what may be wrong but how to changeit.

Chair Pham said that is what our next meeting is for.

Commissioner Day said okay, thank you.

Commissioner Lopez asked so you’re saying that we’re not only reviewing the report to make changes

 but we’re also reviewing what’s been decided. 

Mr. Lynn said Commissioner Lopez we’re not going to rework the recommendations. What you are goingto do is review the report and if it fairly represents what you did in these two meetings. For example, if on the issue of the size of the council, if I neglected to indicate that this was 5-4-1, then you would add it.

That doesn’t bring the issue up again. It clarifies what needs to go in the report so you’re all in agreementthat that’s what happened. 

Commissioner Day said so it’s only a confirmation of what occurred, so she would like to address someitems.

Mr. Lynn said no, it’s not just a confirmation of what occurred. It is for you to decide whether or not thereport as written fairly reflects what you did.

Commissioner Day said so we could amend it at that point.

Mr. Lynn said yes you could amend it, absolutely. And you can amend it specifically by adding words.Come with those comments ready if you need to put an amendment forward and those will be voted on.

This was not easy and I know that but I wanted to say you are very close to the finish line. I thank you for 

that. I want to say two things first. I again, want to applaud the time and energy that each of you has putinto this assignment.. Facilitation is sometimes not an easy job and sometimes it gets intense. If Ioffended anyone here, I sincerely apologize.Commissioner Real said he wished we started with the last point. It would have taken less time.

Chair Pham said she disagreed. She still believes it would have taken just as much time.

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 56/59

 

Page 36 of 39 

Mr. Lynn said you may be right. You are now very close to the end of the process. I think you have donegood work. I think it is clear what you are saying to the mayor and council even when you don’t make anaffirmative recommendation, you are being clear about a path. I thank you for the opportunity to help youdo this work. I think it’s very important for the city and I applaud you for doing it.

Chair Pham thanked the facilitator.

Chair Pham would like to move on to closing comments from her fellow commissioners.

7.  Committee Communications.

Action: Closing comments.

Commissioner Larsen thanked staff and the audience for their tenacity.

Commissioner Lopez said it’s been a long six months since the first meeting on October 18, sixmonths from today and he would like to thank all the residents that came out and gave input and the

committee listened. He hopes that the result with be the best for Anaheim.

Commissioner Real would like to share something that was said to him. I want to respect the rightyour right to say what you want to say but I don’t have to agree with it. He wanted to thank theaudience primarily, the staff and technicians. Every member of the committee here has done a verygood job. Thank you.

Commissioner Ma’ae would like to say that she’s aware some of the comments she has made may not be the popular thing to say. To have people personally attack you as you’re personally representing anorganization. Eric Altman speaks very freely his mind and his opinion. Even though he is not anAnaheim resident, he’s here. He’s involved and he speaks his opinion . We should all be entitled to dothat. She would hope that everyone here is talking from their heart and their own personal

experiences. She is representing her neighborhood. She and her husband have dealt with challenges intheir neighborhood for over 10 years or more. They have opened their home to their neighbors and

they have had to combat gun violence, gangs, prostitution, and even some other issues that aren’t asmajor. They did it at the risk of their own safety and safety of family. When you have issues such asgangs in your neighborhood, she understands how it is frightening and intimidating. The residents inthese neighborhoods are fearful to address those concerns. Unfortunately that is something that notany one of us here can help to end it. There are still gangs in her neighborhood. The beauty of it isthat the people are more empowered now with the help of city staff and the help of the policedepartment and no longer live with everyday fear. They have gotten a handle on it and minimize the problem. When she spoke to the issue of people who are undocumented, she does have familymembers who are dealing with that. She hopes that with immigration reform that it will improve andshe wishes to do more to help. She hears concerns of their family, neighbors, 300 family members

who represent every race and ethnicity, and are from more than 20 countries in our own family. Thatis what she finds is the beauty of Southern California is the exposure to multiple cultures and her children are exposed to so many cultures. It helps to broaden your mind and broaden your thought processes that we can embrace our differences. Embracing the differences is really what communityinvolvement is all about; trying to understand one another, in addition to other support within the city.She wants to help; she was raised to be compassionate. She can’t tell you how many people camethrough her parent’s home and how many people have come through her home to get on their feet, to

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 57/59

 

Page 37 of 39 

acclimate. She takes a lot of pride in that. She just wanted to be clarified that the reason she is here isfor the people not for special interests.

Vice Chair Dalati extended his thanks to facilitator, Steven Lynn. He applauded him. Thanks toVivian for the great job. She has us all under control. Mr. Dalati said that he came from a background

of living in a corrupt system where really you cannot even speak your mind. When he came here, GodBless America, he was blessed by God and was able to accomplish a lot in with his business. Hewanted to run for office and serve; he was really excited about it. As he walked the streets of Anaheim knocking on door, he has seen neighborhoods that remind him of where he came from with

 potholes and neighborhoods that aren’t being taken care of. When he talked to some of these people,they say the city doesn’t come here. There is no representation. People say he was first important person even though he was just running for office to come here and knock on their door that was allthe way in West Anaheim. Then he heard that there were other neighborhoods under siege, as theysay, where people carry guns and people with drugs, where people are really afraid for their life. Thenthere is some aggressiveness maybe by the police department. When he spoke to the police, they saidif we act aggressive people are against us. We don’t know where we stand. He thinks that back wherehe came from its corruption; here its special interest. When you run for election you spend a lot and

you have to talk to each of the special interest. Sometimes they bless you and sometimes they will tellyou we need you to do this or that. Whether it’s called corruption here or it’s called special interest.It’s the same thing in his opinion. He wants everyone on the committee to know that he has noconflict with any of you and he loves everyone here. He knows he can ask any question of Commissioner Olesen about Anaheim and whatever you tell me, I know it would be very credible100%. We all love Anaheim; that’s why they are here and have our famili es at home or doing amillion things that we can do. So please understand that there is no conflict with you. Whatever Ivote, I would listed to either side. He was approached by both special interests. To him, if he votedfor districting, he can sleep very well at night. He feels that representation from that sameneighborhood would make a difference for that neighborhood.

Mr. Dalati thanked the audience and staff.

Commissioner Day said addressing this issue about special interest. She would like to share twostories and she hopes it will help everyone understand. The first one is a personal story to help people,to help Mr. Larsen understand who she is and why she made the decisions she did.When she was a younger girl, in her 20’s she was a manager in a pharmacy. She was in charge of time cards. She had a group of employees that she supervised, all sorts of colors of people whoworked at the pharmacy. There was one particular young lady who came late to work every day, from breaks, from lunch. Sandy said that she had a difficult time letting her know that she was gettingcomplaints from fellow employees. She felt that she wasn’t good at confrontation. She finally got thecourage her know she needed her to be on time from her breaks and lunch. Her response to Ms. Daywas you’re only saying that to me because I’m black. That was the furthest thing from Ms. Day’smind because she doesn’t think that way. This was like 30 years ago. She regrets to this day that ever 

since she said that to me, that she never corrected her again. She continued to come to work late,come from lunch late, and come from breaks late. Ms. Day realized that she fell into a trap of treatingsomeone differently because she was afraid of being labeled a racist which she is not. Ms. Day saidshe was young and now here we are 30 years later that she finds it fascinating to watch on a nationallevel, the narrative that you see is so divisive. She grew up here in Southern California and one of themost wonderful things about growing up here is that it is a melting pot. She said she never feltdifferent than the kids in your classroom. She was raised by her parents with the idea that whatever 

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 58/59

 

Page 38 of 39 

you want to be, you can be whether it’s a doctor, a president. She believed that and she still believ esthat. When she looks back and thinks about that employee and think about those words she said tome. Somebody told her as a young person that she wasn’t equal because she was black. She wasrepeating something she believed because she was told that. One of Ms. Day’s biggest concerns asshe sees a similar movement occurring in the Hispanic community is for our young Hispanic people

to buy into that lie. It’s a lie. We are equal. We all have the same opportunities. We all have the sameaccess to our government today and in the future whatever these recommendations turn out to be. Shedoesn’t want anybody to believe that you don’t have that access because it’s not true.

The other thing she wanted to point out was the presidential election in 2008 it was a very excitinghistorical moment for our country as we saw President Barack Obama become president, the first black president. It was exciting and wonderful and not just our nation, but it was of internationalinterest. Particularly the black community was very excited, and she understands that particularly for African American people and what they have experienced in the United States. The part that shewants to bring up and she looked at some numbers studying this. There was such a great hope in this president from the black community because of his skin color. So right now there are 39 millionAfrican Americans in the United States, 13% of our population. However, the African Americans

demographic is actually suffering more than any other demographic in the United States and it’sgotten worse since Barack Obama became president. She is not trying to disrespect the president.What’s she is trying to teach is that her concern that the philosophy that she has seen expressed bysome speakers and even the lawsuit as what it claims that there was a sentiment that we wantsomeone to represent them that looks like them. Those are words that she has read and she had heardin the ACLU lawsuit. The African American jobless rate is 13% considering among all Americans its8.1%. 27% of African Americans live below the poverty line is that there was a great hope in the black community by electing a black president. I share that because I think truth is important. In thecourse of the meetings Ms. Day has had the privilege to meet with many community members whohave spoken here. When she is finished with her obligation here, she is committed to helping thesecommunities who need help. She doesn’t do that because her skin color is the same color as theirs, or  because she speaks the language that they speak. It’s what was said over and over  again; it’s because

of what was on the inside of people. So when Mr. Larsen speaks about special interests, the specialinterest that Ms. Day has are human beings and the City of Anaheim. Period. Thank you.

Commissioner Armas said what a country. We have been meeting for 6 months. The audience has been here for 6 months. What did we come up with? Take it to the people for the vote. Isn’t that what

we’re all about. Thank you, Steve, for getting us this far. There’s respect, no animosity, and theaudience’s opinion. Where else can you do this? That’s what we live for it’s what we stand for. 

It’s why we’re all participants in this process that we get through. He hoped it continues andeveryone’s opinions are out there as a lot of them were express. Whether we agreed or not, we came back to letting the people.

Commissioner Edinger thanked everyone for their time and participation on the committee, city

 personnel, and the audience members for their time and participation today.

Commissioner Olesen said that he also escaped tyrannical oppressive corrupt system. He was born in New York. We escaped before it affected my mind too horribly. Quickly, I think this ended up wherea lot of people thought it would anyway, but he believes it was worth the process to get there. That’sthe main thing. Things were said and people we heard. One last comment: districts for election andrepresentation are a lot like airport security. As security; it’s a delusion. The quality of the person

7/30/2019 Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement Recommendation to the Anaheim City Co…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/citizens-advisory-committee-on-elections-and-community-involvement-recommendation 59/59

 

elected is what counts not where they are from, where they live or anything else. That being said, helooks forward to seeing everyone next time.

Chair Pham thanked the staff again, for all their hard work, long days and late nights. Thank youSteve so very much. Ms. Pham said she thinks he had a really tough job here. Thank you for doing it

for us. As a former Political Science student, it’s been an amazing opportunity to be a part of this. Sheloves this country. It’s what the democratic process is all about. We are able to say what we feel. Asresidents, we can agree to disagree. We have our opinions and facts to back it up. She loves this

 process. Unlike some other countries, they wouldn’t have a voice. If they spoke out they would getshot or put in jail. It has been a long, hard, tough process over the last six months. It really tied usdown to this committee. Thank you to all of the committee members for your time, the work, andresearch, and she looks forward to the final recommendations.

8.  AdjournmentThe meeting was adjourned by Chair Pham at 9:55 p.m.

*****

Respectfully Submitted,

Caroline MoreyRecording Secretary