The Soledad City Council will be holding a sixth public hearing to review the districting process, receive public input, and then to discuss and consider confirmation of a final selection on a preferred four-district map and election sequence for by-district elections.  All of the four-district maps received to date, including the previously identified preferred “Tan” four-district map, have been and continue to be available to the public on the City’s website and have been reproduced and included in agenda packets.  All four-district maps under consideration have been confirmed as being prepared in compliance with the criteria established by the Fair Maps Act- Elections Code Section 21601.  

The proposed four-district Tan Map would establish an election sequencing plan where the Mayor and two councilmembers would be up for election every two years.  As is the law with districting transitions, no current councilmember’s term of office would be impacted by the by-district conversion.  This would be accomplished by phasing the conversion to district elections over the course of two election cycles in 2024 (Districts 3 and 4) and 2026 (Districts 1 and 2).  Under the four-district format, councilmembers’ terms would remain at four years and the current two-year term and accompanying two-year voting schedule for the Mayor’s position would remain unchanged. 

If a four-district map is selected by the Council, it is the Council’s intent to introduce, waive reading and read by title only “An Ordinance of the City Council of the City of Soledad Establishing and Implementing By-District Elections.”  This Ordinance will amend Chapter 2.04 of Title 2- Administration and Personnel of the Soledad Municipal Code to establish the new by-district voting system.  The Ordinance will codify by-district voting as the means by which councilmembers are elected in the City, incorporate the preferred four-district map and establish a proposed election sequence to implement the new voting process.  Consideration of the adoption of the Ordinance will occur at a noticed public hearing on May 15, 2024.     

The City of Soledad currently elects its four city councilmembers and Mayor “at-large,” meaning each registered voter in the City has the opportunity to vote for all candidates seeking seats in the election.  In 2022, under threat of litigation, the City Council commenced the process of transitioning from at-large to by-district voting. By-district voting is a system whereby a city is divided into voting districts and the constituents of each district are represented on the council by a resident of the district elected solely by the voters of said district.

Consideration of action on a four-district map is necessitated by the voters’ rejection of Ordinance No. 765 at a special referendum election held in Soledad on March 5, 2024. Ordinance No. 765, which was adopted by the Council on October 4, 2023, had approved a five-district map whereby the City’s at-large Mayor’s position would have been eliminated and replaced by an appointment process from among the City’s five elected council members. With the rejection of Ordinance No 765, the Council must now decide if it wishes to continue with a districting process utilizing a four-district map that maintains the elected at-large Mayor’s position.