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Census. In that process, we were able to form a coherent minority -majority district in urban San Jose due to the concentration of Hispanic and Asian households downtown and on the east side of town. Unlike San Jose, Pleasanton may not offer up a geographically -concentrated minority population for which drawing simple district lines will give voice to minority voters. If so, all the downside risk of creating districts will still result, but with little corresponding benefit to minority voters. There are at least two meaningful alternative solutions to creating four Council districts with an at -large Mayor. Both of these should be studied, and may be more applicable to Pleasanton than in the case where a geographically - concentrated minority population can be easily demarked. These approaches may (or not) also meet the requirements of the California Voting Rights Act. These alternatives are: - Hybrid District Voting (At -Large Mayor, plus 1 or 2 At -Large Council Seats, and 3 or 4 District Council Seats), and - Ranked Choice Voting In the Hybrid approach, 2 of the 5 (or 3 of the 7, if preferred) Council Seats would be elected at -large, meaning every area of Pleasanton is directly voting in those elections. In addition, since every area of town also elects its own District Councilmember, every area of town will be directly voting for and represented by a majority of the Council (3 out of 5, or 4 of 7). This approach also prevents the situation where a future Mayor has no meaningful electoral competition from an incumbent Councilmember elected citywide. Ranked Choice Voting is also worthy of further study and would allow Pleasanton to continue with all 5 seats being elected at -large (or would facilitate an increase to 7 seats if desired). Especially where the minority population is not concentrated and there is more than one minority community to consider, RCV may be a superior option for giving their votes meaning. RCV also completely sidesteps the controversial process of carving up voting districts. There is an excellent, recent introductory analysis of these issues online prepared for another community, Lowell, Massachusetts. https:Z/mggg.org/publications/Lowell-Report.pdf I am writing on my own behalf. At this time, PDA has no position on this important matter. My intent is to promote the best decision on administering local elections, not to tilt the politics in any way. I do believe Downtown is best served when our voters and stakeholders are represented directly by a majority of the City Council. Thank you for the important work you do. Best regards, Zac Zac Grant Executive Director Pleasanton Downtown Association www.pleasantondowntown.net 333 Division Street, Pleasanton, CA 94566 Click here to report this email as spam.