After the Irvine City Council voted in early January to consider increasing its number of representatives and changing how voters elect councilors, a subcommittee formed to discuss the issues concluded its first meeting Feb. 7, by electing its chair and agendizing for its next meeting the possibility of the creation of an advisory board, with some members drawn from the public, to advise them on the issues.
Currently, all five of the city’s councilors are elected at large—by eligible city voters—and represent the whole city. Under consideration, however, is what’s called “district voting,” where the city would be divided into five districts, wherein voters in each would vote for one representative.
At the subcommittee’s first meeting on Tuesday, taking the lead on the issues are councilors Larry Agran, Tammy Kim, and Mike Carroll, who was voted in as its chair.
Kim proposed at the meeting the creation of a 13-member committee to advise them on the issues, which failed. It will now be agendized for the full council’s consideration at its Feb. 14 meeting.
“My goal here is to make sure that we have an open and transparent process as possible,” Kim said.
She recommended such an advisory group to include five appointees—one from each councilor—and eight at-large members selected through an application process of eligible city residents.
The 13-member advisory committee would create different maps, parsing the city into districts, which would be narrowed to two of which the council, ultimately, would vote for one.
According to Kim, during the map-making process, the advisory committee would have public hearings and workshops and consult with demographers.
She said her main objective is to prevent “politicized” map drawing, meaning the possibility, for example, that councilor who lives in the same general area would work to make sure district borders were drawn ensuring they would be in different districts, therefore assuring they could run for re-election at a later date.
“I don’t see a scenario with them living all so closely together, that [they] could actually fairly create maps that would put them all in separate districts. I find that very hard to believe,” she told The Epoch Times.
She also said she believes Agran and Carroll joined in a concerted effort to elect Carroll as chair, in an effort to have more control.
“[They wanted] to ensure that they all had district maps that would be favorable to them from an incumbency standpoint,” she said.
During the initial vote to consider the issue last month, Kim was the only councilor who opposed the idea, saying it was unnecessary.
“The problem is Irvine is a newer city,” she said during the January meeting. “We’re one of the most thoroughly integrated and diverse cities in the United States.”
She additionally said in the most recent meeting that Irvine’s master planning makes it difficult for dividing up, because some areas are hubs—for shopping and business, for example—while others are residential “villages,” which could make for economic disparities.
“My district, which is highly dense, there’s a lot of apartments, a lot of condos ... yet no economic opportunities,” she said.
Kim said if districting passes, those made up mostly of villages may have less revenue for projects such as renovating neighborhood parks.
She told The Epoch Times the council should make sure not to “create areas of economic disenfranchisement and economic marginalization, but also that incumbents [don’t] draw maps that are in their favor.”
But Agran has previously said switching to districting is necessary because of Irvine’s large population, noting it would allow councilors to focus on hyper-local issues.
“They provide for a better form of representation,” he said during last month’s meeting. It permits councilors to “simply have a better understanding of the local problems and opportunities in [their] area of town.”
For Irvine to make the shift, it would require an amendment to the city charter, as well as an ordinance, public outreach, and hearings.
Both the issue of creating districts and increasing the number of councilors would require voter approval, with the next available dates not until either the statewide primary or general election, both in 2024.
