Home Knightsen Tonight: Diablo Water District Continues Discussion on District Election Maps

Tonight: Diablo Water District Continues Discussion on District Election Maps

by ECT

On Wednesday night, the Delta Diablo Water District will continue their discussion on District Mapping as they move from an at-large director election to a division director election which would impact the City of Oakley and community of Bethel Island and a small portion of the Town of Knightsen.

The Board is seeking input from the public before they make a final decision on which map to select for the 2020 election.

According to the Agenda, there are 5 total maps, including Map 7 which was created by Staff, that the Board of Directors will be narrowing down.  After the last meeting, Maps 1A and 2A were no longer split Eagle City Mobile Home Park and the board eliminated Maps 4 and 5.

During the July 24 meeting, Director Ken Crockett stated he didn’t like a certain map because he and another director would be in the same district and would have to run against one another.  Meanwhile, Director Paul Seger was in favor of Map 6 because it kept like-minded communities together and kept those with ground water together. Meanwhile, Board President Edward Garcia left the meeting prior to this agenda item saying he had an emergency, but proceeded to spend 30-minutes talking in the lobby with a member of the public.

According to general manager Dan Muelrath, Map 7 was compiled by District staff that have lived in the service area for decades.

In Map 7, it would create two Districts where no directors currently sit, however, it does create a district specific to where on applicant applied for the open seat after Rico Cinquini’s resignation. That seat ultimately went to Howard Hobbs who was appointed.  Map 7 also places Directors Ken Crockett, Paul Seger and Hobbs all in the same District.

“Given the limited variance that we can have in population between division, there will be no perfect solution,” said Muelrath.  “If there is no support for any specific map, then it will likely be dropped.”

The public can offer input by attending the meeting or providing an online public comment about which Map they would prefer or any other comments they wish to make.

Under the Federal Voting Rights Act, the District should be created following the criteria which includes:

  • Each area shall contain nearly equal number of inhabitants
  • Drawn to comply with Federal Voting Rights Act
  • Compact and contiguous, as much as possible
  • Respect communities of interest, as much as possible
  • Follow man-made and natural geographic features, as much as possible
  • Respect incumbency, If possible
  • Other local considerations (IE, school boundaries, locations of school sites)

 

If You Go:
Diablo Water District Board Meeting
August 28 at 7:30 pm
87 Carol Lane, Oakley CA.

For maps & agenda: click here.

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