Chula Vista City Council Members. Photo credit: sandiegofreepress.org
From San Diego Free Press
The Chula Vista City Council unanimously approved the boundaries for 4 election districts on Tuesday, July 14th, a historic moment for the second largest city in San Diego County that has held at-large elections until now.
In 2012, 62.7% of voters passed Proposition B that mandated Chula Vista be divided into four voting districts. The City then created a temporary Districting Commission and appointed seven volunteer commissioners. Ten public workshops were held and lines were drawn based on communities of interest, or COI. By June 8th Commissioners voted on a map and on July 11th they numbered the districts. As a final step, the Districting Commission sent the map to City Council, which could approve the map or vote to send it back to the Commission for revisions.
The victory went to Districts 3 and 4. With a 75.68% Latino population, District 4— located in the Southwest corner of Chula Vista—has been known for its dilapidated infrastructure. Residents of the district will now receive their own representative in 2016.
The biggest victory went to the civically engaged Filipino-American community who advocated to have Southwestern College within district 3 alongside several significant building projects.
Ten community members gave public testimony in support of the District 3 boundary lines, many representatives from the Filipino-American community, including the President of the Council of Philippine American Organizations (COPAO), a former President of the Filipino-American Chamber of Commerce and Thomas Hom, the first Asian American to serve on the San Diego City Council from 1962 to 1968.
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News story courtesy of San Diego Free Press