Riverbank’s eight voting district maps up for review

Leaders now have eight options for splitting the city into voting districts.

All will be presented at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, and each can be seen on interactive maps at http://bit.ly/1zlnrrV.

Mayor Richard O’Brien has said more options were not sought to protect incumbents’ seats. But one of the initial four options has been slightly altered and the result would not force Councilwomen Jeanine Tucker and Darlene Barber-Martinez to run against each other, and no incumbents would face off in two of the newly drawn maps.

The options eventually will be the focus of town hall meetings. The council likely would narrow them to one choice for people throughout Riverbank to vote on, either this fall or in November 2016.

Voting by districts, as opposed to at-large elections, is supposed to help minority candidates’ chances. A consulting firm considered guidelines of the California Voting Rights Act when proposing four choices two weeks ago, some with predominantly Latino neighborhoods. Each would divide the city into four geographic districts with one future council member coming from each; the mayor would continue to be elected by voters across the entire city.

But O’Brien did not like the perception of splitting Riverbank into privileged and disadvantaged districts, so the firm went back to the drawing board and came up with four more options, for a total of eight.

Two of the new options would split Riverbank’s heavily Latino state streets neighborhoods, between Iowa and Virginia avenues, into east-west sections and the other two options would split them into northern and southern sections.

Latinos make up 52 percent of the city population but only about 42 percent of registered voters. No current council member is Latino, although Leanne Jones Cruz, Cal Campbell and Barber-Martinez all are married to Latinos.

A brief analysis:

▪ Draft A would divide Riverbank into north, south, east and west quadrants more cleanly than the others. Tucker and Barber-Martinez live in District 4, Campbell is in District 2 and Jones Cruz in District 3.

▪ The redrawn Draft B2 would eliminate the possibility of a Tucker and Barber-Martinez matchup, but Campbell and Jones Cruz would face each other.

▪ From a map perspective, Draft C has mostly long and skinny vertical districts. Similar to Draft A, this option also pits Tucker and Barber-Martinez against each other and gives passes to Campbell and Jones Cruz.

▪ Drafts D, E and F would split District 4 into two noncontiguous parts separated by railroad tracks, one covering the south part of the Crossroads neighborhood and the other Riverbank’s east edge. Barber-Martinez would face no competition in any of the three drafts.

▪ Tucker and Jones Cruz would live in District 3 under Draft D.

▪ Drafts E and F would produce horizontal districts. Both would split the state streets north-south, and both would create “safe” districts for all four incumbents, meaning none would have to run against another.

▪ The state streets would split east-west along Terminal Avenue in Drafts G and H. Both plans would produce a wide open District 1 with no incumbent, each encompassing all of east Riverbank.

▪ The smaller west portion of the state streets would fall into District 3 with Tucker as the only incumbent in Draft G, Campbell and Jones Cruz both in District 2 and Barber-Martinez alone in District 4.

▪ In Draft H, the west portion of the state streets would combine with northwest Riverbank’s District 2, where Campbell resides. Jones Cruz and Tucker would vie for District 3 and Barber-Martinez would be left alone in District 4.

The Latino Community Roundtable, whose warning spurred the impending change, circulated an email Monday inviting members to attend Tuesday’s council meeting in Riverbank. The notice says a group in Chico has asked for tips on advocating for district elections. “We must be doing something right,” the email says.

Tuesday’s City Council meeting starts at 6 p.m. in the chamber at 6707 Third St., Riverbank.

This story was originally published January 26, 2015 at 5:52 PM with the headline "Riverbank’s eight voting district maps up for review."