Who’s my council member? Sacramento temporarily reverses redistricting amid recall fallout
Sacramento City Council members should represent the neighborhoods that elected them rather than districts crafted after the 2020 Census, the city attorney announced on Tuesday.
City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood’s formal opinion reverses the city’s practice of immediately adopting new City Council maps after the once-a-decade redistricting process.
The city previously announced on its website in December that the new districts were in effect. Council members started taking calls from their new districts. Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela even held a community meeting where she was blasted by her new East Sacramento constituents on homelessness.
Then, in response to questions about which neighborhoods were allowed to participate in an effort to recall Valenzuela, Councilman Jeff Harris asked Alcala Wood for a public opinion on which districts the council represents, Harris said during Tuesday’s council meeting.
She published the opinion Tuesday, finding that they represent their old districts until the end of their terms in mid-December.
Alcala Wood said she will revisit that opinion and return to the council in two to three weeks, along with proposed changes to the charter, but for now, they should represent their old districts.
That means Harris will again represent East Sacramento, River Park and River District; Valenzuela will again represent Land Park; and Schenirer will again represent Curtis Park, where he lives.
“This is a little bit earth shaking,” Harris, who lives in River Park, said during the meeting. “But in fact I must tell you I’m very pleased I will be representing the area I live ... It’s been very disappointing for me to have another council member come in and take over projects I’ve worked on for so long and in fact we have different opinions about how things should work.”
The city has a charter, but when the charter is not clear, then the city follows the state elections code, Alcala Wood said.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg raised concerns.
“It has been reported on the city’s website and we communicated this and it was in error,” Steinberg said. “This is a fundamental question and I’m concerned about this ... I do think we need to go back and look at how this occurred because the public has been confused and the members have been confused for now going on ... four plus months.”
Alcala Wood said it was not an error to post to the city’s website that the districts were in effect immediately. The new districts technically are in effect, she said. But that only applies to people running for council seats this year.
“It’s inaccurate to say that information was in error,” Alcala Wood said. “The multiple effects of it is what you’re now asking.”
As for the effort to recall Valenzuela, Wood found that only voters from the neighborhoods that elected her in 2020 can sign petitions and vote if the measure qualifies for the ballot. That means voters from Land Park, Midtown and downtown could participate in a Valenzuela recall, not residents of East Sacramento.
In addition to the website, city staff told Valenzuela on the morning after the Independent Redistricting Commission approved the new lines, that she now represented a new area, she said.
“I wouldn’t say we were confused, we were operating under direction we got from city,” Valenzuela said. “If that’s not true, we have a lot of work to do in community to help them understand.”
Councilwoman Angelique Ashby defended Alcala Wood.
“This is insane,” Ashby said, addressing Alcala Wood. “I’m now learning in 2011 I actually represented downtown for an additional year I didn’t know about. There just happens to be a recall that falls to you, pointing out an error in our ways for many years.”
This story was originally published April 6, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
