Should Atwater move to district voting? The city may get sued if it doesn’t

City leaders have set out to use districts in local elections in Merced County’s third largest city.

Spurred by a letter from the Malibu-based legal firm Shenkman & Hughes that threatened a lawsuit if the city did not voluntarily make the change, the City Council asked city staffers this week to make arrangements for the shift to districts, according to City Attorney Tom Terpstra.

The law firm alleges Atwater’s electoral system discriminates against Latinos and violates the state Voting Rights Act of 2001.

The city of more than 29,000 people elects its mayor and four council members by citywide votes, what’s called an “at-large election.” About 53 percent of Atwater is Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The sitting mayor and four council members are white.

District elections would carve Atwater into four sectors, with one council member elected from each district. The mayor would still be elected by a citywide vote.

“Atwater’s at-large system dilutes the ability of Latinos (a ‘protected class’) to elect candidates of their choice or otherwise influence the outcome of Atwater’s council elections,” attorney Kevin Shenkman wrote in the letter.

Merced, Turlock and Los Banos went to district elections last year for the first time. Civil rights groups had threatened legal action in Merced and other area communities if changes were not made to try to add diversity to elected offices.

Modesto, which tried to fight the change to districts, lost a lawsuit that cost taxpayers $3 million before the city was required to move to districts.

The law firm uses Fernando Echevarria as an example of how the at-large system works against Latinos in Atwater. The 2014 candidate for City Council was able to get Latino support but not enough citywide support to win a seat, the firm argued in the letter.

The council will still need to vote to get the ball rolling, and voters would have to adopt the change.

This story was originally published June 29, 2017 at 4:27 PM with the headline "Should Atwater move to district voting? The city may get sued if it doesn’t."