The North Marin Water District has divided its service area into five districts, a move ensuring that at least one board seat represents West Marin customers. Despite the shift to a by-district election system, all five current board members would be able to keep their seats should they be re-elected at the end of their terms in 2020 and 2022, as the new zones align with their homes, which are spread across the service area. 

General Manager Drew McIntyre said the district had not been tied to that outcome, but that it “just worked out that way.”

Last Tuesday, the board unanimously approved the map that delineates the new districts. Directors had discussed several map alternatives in the past few months at a series of public meetings in Novato and one in Point Reyes Station. 

The five districts include four in Novato that each have around 12,000 residents and a 10 percent Latino population. The fifth district—which encompasses the service area in Dillon Beach, Point Reyes Station and Paradise Ranch Estates in Inverness—also includes a portion of western Novato. The West Marin district is the largest by a narrow margin, representing 12,555 people, 6.2 percent of whom are Latino, based on the 2010 census. 

Mr. McIntyre did not receive many public comments in advance of the change, but said one resident recommended that Novato’s entire Hamilton Field neighborhood—a former Air Force base—be kept in one district rather than split. The directors agreed. 

Tina McMillan, a Novato resident who lost her bid for a seat on the water board last fall after campaigning on the importance of having a woman on the board, spoke up during a June 4 meeting. She argued that the at-large election system favored incumbents and that the change to by-district elections would help challengers. Minutes from the board meeting detailed her comments: “She noted that only one woman had been elected to serve on the NMWD board and only one woman had been appointed to the board throughout the district’s history. Ms. McMillan added that many cannot afford to run against the incumbents because [they] have to reach out to the entire district population for election, adding that she believes that a smaller population is easier to reach out to and allows you to be more accountable to that group.” 

Ms. McMillan also opined that the board was focused on Novato and not West Marin, and said she hoped the shift to district seats would help to change that. 

West Marin has lacked a representative on the board since Olema resident Dennis Rodoni stepped down from his seat in 2016 after a 20-year term to start his new job as county supervisor. Jim Grossi, a North Marin director and a rancher in western Novato, wrote to the Light following an article about the proposed shift in May, affirming his ties to the coast and commitment to West Marin customers.  

“Even though my address is Novato, I consider myself from West Marin, due to having lived my entire life on a ranch west of Novato and have many contacts in West Marin,” he wrote. “I and many of my family members and lifelong friends are involved in the Marin County Farm Bureau, MALT and the Point Reyes National Seashore. I have served on the board of the Lincoln-Union School District since 1981.”

Mr. Grossi, who was part of the design team for one of the critical water infrastructure projects in West Marin, a new well at the Gallagher Ranch in Point Reyes, encouraged coastal residents to reach out with concerns and questions.  

Threats of litigation

North Marin Water District’s move came alongside a wave of changes on Novato public boards triggered by an accusation that the Novato city council was violating California’s Voting Rights Act of 2001, which seeks to reduce “racially polarized voting.” 

Attorney Kevin Shenkman, on behalf of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, wrote to the city council in February arguing that its at-large elections are shutting out representation of the city’s Latino population. According to Mr. Shenkman—who has successfully brought legal action against cities across California over similar allegations—the state’s voting act disfavors at-large election methods, which dilute the voting strength of minorities.

In the ordinance that establishes North Marin’s new by-district elections, the water district rejects the idea that its historical at-large system violated the voting act. 

“The district’s service area in the Novato area is similar, but not identical to, the city boundaries, and the district denies that its at-large system for electing its directors violates the [California Voting Rights Act] or any other provision of law and asserts the district’s election system is legal in all respects and further denies any wrongdoing in connection with the manner in which it has conducted its elections,” the ordinance states. 

However, it continues, “Based on the foregoing, the board of directors has determined that the public interest would be best served by transitioning to a by-division election system and avoiding the risks and costs of defending against a [California Voting Rights Act] lawsuit or a transition initiated in response to a letter such as that received by the City of Novato.”

Mr. Shenkman threatened to sue the city should it not voluntarily transition to by-district elections, though the state’s election code protects jurisdictions from litigation for three months after such a notice to allow time for a proper public process. Jurisdictions that have fought Mr. Shenkman have wound up shelling out millions of dollars. 

Preemptively, North Marin directors adopted a resolution of intent to establish the by-district voting system on April 23. The Novato City Council adopted a by-district system in May, which will be in effect for November’s elections.

 

North Marin’s election map can be found at nmwd.com/about_elections.php.