Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
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The city of Tehachapi has rejected a citizen's petition that would have required the City Council to rescind its Dec. 4 ordinance establishing district-based elections. According to the city, mistakes in content and wording invalidated the signed forms that resident Peter Graff delivered to City Hall on Jan. 2, 2018. The forms bore 565 signatures, which were more than the ten percent of the city's registered voters (436) needed to validate the petition and trigger a referendum on the November...
It ain't over yet! City Council could face tough decision Signed petition forms filed Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018 at Tehachapi City Hall may trigger suspension of the City Council's ordinance that jettisoned the at-large election system in favor of five single-member council districts. Former Tehachapi police officer Pete Graff filed the petitions on behalf of residents who oppose the City Council's 5-0 vote Dec. 4, 2017 to approve the election district ordinance. The opponents assert that voters shou...
A resident of a city that has adopted a district-based election system under threat of litigation – as the city of Tehachapi is in the process of doing -- is suing that city and the state of California, arguing that the system is unconstitutional. The suit asserts that the district-based system as defined by the California Voting Rights Act of 2001 (CVRA) is illegal because it requires a city to draw boundaries based primarily on race. "Accordingly, the CVRA flagrantly violates the Fourteenth A...
The three possible configurations for the city of Tehachapi's five new election districts reflect the density of population in the older downtown area and scarce population in the vast rural area in the northern sector of the city. In presenting the proposed maps to the City Council at a special hearing Oct. 12 at Wells Education Center, demographer Dr. Justin Levitt of Glendale-based National Demographics Corporation said that every district has to meet federal laws requiring equal populations...
In an analysis of the amended California Voting Rights Act, Marguerite Mary Leoni and Christopher E. Skinnell, writing for the League of California Cities, cite the cities of Dinuba (population 23,961, Tulare County) and Santa Paula (population 30,335, Ventura County) as examples of "small jurisdictions" that underwent federal voting rights litigation. The city of Tehachapi, now on an accelerated track to switch from an at-large to by-district City Council election process to satisfy a voting ri...
'More than one' voting rights complainant For supplementary coverage of this topic, read City Council forced to change election process on page 11: http://www.theloopnewspaper.com/story/2017/09/16/local-news/city-council-forced-to-change-election-process/3867.html...
