Merced needs volunteers for City Council district planning

The city of Merced is looking for qualified volunteers to help pick a plan for carving the city into six districts for local elections.

City staff will continue to accept applications through Jan. 30 before turning them over to the Merced County League of Women Voters, who will make recommendations on who should serve as part of a commission on the districts.

Voters narrowly passed a measure on Election Day to eliminate the city’s at-large voting system, making an effort to comply with demands from the Los Angeles-based Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, a civil rights group. The group threatened to sue the city about a year ago if voters did not make that change.

The city and the civil rights group agreed to ask the League of Women Voters to make the recommendations, according to Mary Hofmann, the president of the League. “We want to keep everything as fair and educationally sound as possible so that the political process represents everybody,” she said.

To be eligible for the commission, volunteers must live in Merced and be eligible to vote. The panel cannot include elected officials, paid political employees or anyone else with a conflict of interest. The volunteers will also be expected to have the free time to participate in the commission, which will meet two or three times a month from March through the end of 2015.

Hofmann said the League hopes to recommend at least seven people for the commission, and seven more as alternates. She said a diverse board that covers all of Merced’s demographics would be best.

The city is looking to have the commission set by March and come up with the plan for districts by the end of 2015. So far, the city has received one application from one person interested in being on the commission, according to spokesman Mike Conway.

“We definitely need to have applicants. This is a very important seat to have,” he said. “We want to have the community involved in it.”

Conway said the city plans to call for volunteers by sending notices home with schoolchildren, using radio announcements and spreading the word at a Jan. 29 town hall meeting.

Under the new voting system, the mayoral seat will continue to be elected by voters citywide, but the six council seats would be picked by their respective districts.

Advocates for districts have argued the change should give better representation to south Merced, an area of town some consider to be neglected. All six sitting councilmen in Merced live north of Bear Creek.

The city agreed to a settlement with the civil rights group that the districts would use the Santa Fe railroad tracks as a boundary that would split the city in half.

Those looking to be on the commission should submit an application to the city clerk before Jan. 30. Applications are available at the clerk’s office, 678 W. 18th Street, or on the city’s website, www.cityofmerced.org.

For questions, call the clerk at (209) 385-6834.

This story was originally published December 30, 2014 at 6:51 PM with the headline "Merced needs volunteers for City Council district planning."