Costa Mesa Sanitary District considers joining trend and changing board election method

In what has become a trend among governing bodies throughout the state, the Costa Mesa Sanitary District is considering changing the method in which its board members are elected.

Sanitary district officials have for some time mulled shifting to district-based elections, in which residents in particular areas elect one board candidate per area to represent them. But a recent letter from a Malibu-based lawyer challenging the district’s current voting system accelerated the process, General Manager Scott Carroll said Friday.

“He is putting you on notice saying, ‘Hey, if you don’t do what I tell you, I’m going to sue you,’ ” Carroll said of the letter from attorney Kevin Shenkman. “Because of that, you have to meet some deadlines.”

Board members Tuesday will discuss launching the process to change to district-based elections starting in 2020.

Currently, residents throughout the sanitary district — which provides curbside trash collection and sewer services to about 116,700 ratepayers in Costa Mesa, parts of Newport Beach and unincorporated sections of Orange County — can vote for any candidate running for the five-member board.

In his letter to the district dated March 26, Shenkman alleges the at-large voting system “dilutes the ability of Latinos … to elect candidates of their choice or otherwise influence the outcome of the district’s board elections” and therefore violates the California Voting Rights Act of 2001.

“The district’s election history is illustrative: During the past 15 years, there has not been a single Latino candidate for the Costa Mesa Sanitary District,” Shenkman wrote.

As of the 2010 Census, Latinos made up about 36% of Costa Mesa’s population.

Shenkman, who identified his clients as the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project and its members, warned he would “be forced to seek judicial relief” if the district doesn’t voluntarily change its election system.

Shenkman and his firm, Shenkman & Hughes, have filed or threatened California Voting Rights Act lawsuits throughout Southern California in recent years, including against the cities of Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District and the Coast Community College District.

Costa Mesa, Newport-Mesa and the college district decided to shift from at-large voting to district-based elections, but Huntington Beach City Attorney Michael Gates said last year that his city was “ready, willing and able to fight any such lawsuit.”

Carroll said the sanitary district plans to have its recently formed citizens advisory committee study the issue and has hired a demographer — the Center for Demographic Research at a cost of $14,597 — to aid in the process.

“We were going to do this anyway,” he said. “That’s one benefit we have over other jurisdictions that got letters like this.”

Should the board give the go-ahead, the district would schedule additional public meetings over coming months to discuss it further, Carroll added.

Tuesday’s board meeting starts at 9:30 a.m. at the district office, 290 Paularino Ave. in Costa Mesa.

luke.money@latimes.com

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