Palm Springs council elections could change after city threatened with lawsuit

Palm Springs city leaders are mulling over a letter sent by Malibu law-firm Shenkman and Hughes, threatening a lawsuit if the city doesn’t create districts for council elections.

“It’s not about what’s best for me. it’s what’s best for the city and our residents,” Palm Springs City Councilmember Geoff Kors said of the letter.

The letter alleges that voting in the city is “racially polarized” when it comes to the Latino population in elections.

“The more overarching concern is the inability to affect the outcome of an election and when an election is citywide, a minority group can be frozen out of an election entirely,” said Kevin Shenkman, an attorney at the firm.

Shenkman said his law firm has directly caused more than 40 cities to convert to district elections, including several in Riverside County.

Meanwhile, Kors and city leaders are studying the letter and requested a demographic study of the city.

“They look at Latino surnames. They look at census data. They look in an annual community study of residents to really figure out if the Latino population is voting different than the majority population,” Kors said.

Palm Springs Mayor Robert Moon said he’s for electoral districts and hopes the city can come to a solution soon.

“We need to do it. There’s no way to fight it. So, let’s do it. It’ll be good for the city, let’s keep a directly-elected mayor and let’s get it done. Let’s not kick this can down the road for six months or eight months. Let’s get it done and do it,” Moon said.

Kors said city council members will meet on April 19 to decide whether to fight California’s civil rights act in court or voluntarily go with districts and create maps with public input in future meetings.

Moon said he’s for districts as long as the mayor’s seat remains directly-elected.