Monday, July 18, 2011

Sacramento Bee: Elk Grove redistricting has City Council weighing options

With new district lines, Elk Grove City Council members weigh election options

Published: Monday, Jul. 18, 2011 - 12:00 am | Page 1B
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The Elk Grove City Council has adopted new district boundaries for its 2012 elections, clearing the way for the city's first direct election of its mayor and dissolving the seat held by Sophia Scherman at the end of next year.
The 4-0 council vote last week ushers in a system in which mayoral candidates must seek voter approval. Currently, mayors are chosen annually by their council colleagues.

Council member Gary Davis, whose term expires in 2014, is expected in September to announce his candidacy for mayor in 2012. It's a campaign that he can wage while remaining in office.
He already sounded like a candidate a day after last week's vote.

"From my perspective there's huge opportunity for Elk Grove to begin to see its hard work pay off, to get on the map as far as economic activity goes," Davis said.

"I'm looking forward to potentially having a more meaningful title and a larger platform from which to promote these big ideas."

Scherman, whose term expires at the end of 2012, has said she's running in the Republican primary for state Assembly District 10, a seat held by Democrat Alyson Huber. She has said also, however, that her decision could change if the new District 10 lines do not encompass all of Elk Grove.

Her council District 5 straddles Highway 99 and reaches the city's southern border west of the freeway.
District 5, when it disappears, will be added to Districts 2 and 4 in the remap.

Scherman has said she also might run for mayor. As a practical matter, if she fails to win the June 2012 primary race for the Assembly seat, she still will have time to file paperwork for a mayoral run.

The mayoral post is more bully pulpit than power base, since the mayor has few special powers. One is the ability to name appointments to boards and commissions, but the appointments must receive council approval.

"Whether I'm a councilman or mayor, I do the same work and serve the citizens of Elk Grove in the same way," Mayor Steve Detrick, the District 3 councilman, said.

Detrick said he has no plans to run for mayor in 2012.

"It's all ceremonial," he said. "And it's a two-year term. The thing I don't like about a two-year term is that as soon as you're elected, you have to start your campaign again."

Elk Grove voters approved the new election format – including a reduction in the number of districts from five to four – in 2010.

So last week's council vote had a dual purpose: to adjust boundaries in accordance with the 10-year census and to accommodate the voter-mandated elimination of one district.

In the end, the city still will have a five-member council. But the fifth member, the mayor, can live anywhere in the city.

The other four council members must live in the district they will represent. But they, too, must run citywide campaigns, competing against candidates from their respective districts.

Their terms will continue to be four years.

Perhaps the most dramatic remap change is Davis' District 4, which will include the Elk Grove Automall and the city's largest planned area of growth, including Laguna Ridge, known also as Madeira.

The boundaries were fairly logical, said Councilman Pat Hume, who represents District 2. They tended to follow major roadways and to keep neighborhoods intact.

Both Hume and District 1 Councilman Jim Cooper said they have no interest in running for mayor in 2012.

"It's not a strong mayor," Cooper said. "It's one vote."

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