Palm Desert City Council to continue discussion on possible change to five voting districts

The Palm Desert City Council discussed the proposal to change its voting districts from two to five.

The city council heard from residents and gave shared their own thoughts on the proposal. Ultimately, the council voted 3-2 to direct staff to draft up a resolution that would call for a ballot measure on five districts.

The drafted resolution will be presented at a future council meeting. According to city documents, in order to get a Council-initiated ballot measure on the ballot, the City Council would need to adopt the resolution before June.

Mayor Pro-Tem Sabby Jonathan and councilmember Gina Nestande were the two No votes on the proposal. Both spoke about their concerns about splitting the city and its residents even more.

Last week, the group Drive4Five, which is composed of residents, held a rally to push for five voting districts.

“Representation is a real thing, it’s a meaningful thing. I happen to live in north Palm Desert so there’s a lot of issues in north Palm Desert that are not relevant to or not noted by that live in the south part of town. There’s just different issues that we face,” said Drive4Five member Carlos Garcia.

Members of this group said they believe the citizens of Palm Desert would be represented better with five districts.

“So many of the big projects the city is undertaking are all in the south part of town," Garcia added, "You know the north part of town doesn't have a main street, we don’t have like a place to walk around. Uhm, everything is like big box stores and you know Costcos and Walmarts and Home Depots and Lowes– it’s not like, it’s not that friendly. we feel we deserve some consideration for that type of quality of life as well."

Palm Desert adopted a two-voting district system in 2020 following a lawsuit to comply with The California Voting Rights Act. Cities with a minimum of 50,000 residents must switch to districts to better represent minorities.

There aree approximately 26% Latino voters in the city, according to city officials.

One council member represents District 1, while the second district that surrounds it, is at-large.

Palm Desert is currently split up into two districts. A downtown district shown (below in green) with one city councilor, and four other city councilors elected from the remaining area (below in purple) on this map.

The city is also currently in the process of redistricting, which happens every 10 years following the census results.

Councilmembers were shown draft versions of the new potential district lines.

The next notable event on redistricting will be held on Feb.11, which will be the deadline for the public to submit draft maps for consideration at third public hearing. That hearing will take place on Feb. 24.

Visit https://www.engagepalmdesert.com/2022-redistricting for more information.