Windsor Town Council to consider returning to appointed mayor, at-large council seats

Windsor’s Town Council is considering abandoning the district-based system used to elect council members, which it adopted in 2019 in the face of a threatened lawsuit arguing that at-large voting disenfranchised Latino residents.

A meeting to discuss potential legal liabilities of switching back to council seats chosen by Windsor’s entire electorate, with one of them serving as a mayor appointed by the full council, is set to take place later this month.

Sonoma County’s fourth-largest city currently has four council districts, with members serving four-year terms, as well as a mayor who is chosen separately in a citywide vote.

Following months of hearings two years ago at a cost of more than $100,000, the council voted to create the current system in response to a letter from Malibu attorney Kevin Shenkman, who threatened to sue over the town’s “racially polarized voting.”

In the 2018 letter, Shenkman accused the town of violating the California Voting Rights Act by not giving Latino candidates a fair shot at being elected because minority votes were diluted by the at-large system.

Several factors have led to the council’s recent reconsideration.

The council began discussing doing away with an elected mayor’s office after former mayor Dominic Foppoli was accused in April by numerous women of sexual assault or misconduct.

Foppoli spent weeks refusing to resign, at one point presiding as mayor over a surreal meeting in which residents swore at him, repeatedly called him a rapist and demanded he quit. Members of the council grew frustrated at their inability to force Foppoli from office, an ouster that because he was an elected official could only be accomplished via a felony conviction or a recall election.

Foppoli eventually resigned in May after a ninth woman accused him of sexual assault or misconduct. He has denied the allegations against him and has not been charged with a crime, though law enforcement agencies in Sonoma County and Palm Beach, Florida launched investigations into the allegations.

“We had a lot of people say we had to get rid of that system” after the Foppoli controversy arose, said Councilwoman Esther Lemus, one of the women who has accused Foppoli of sexual assault. “There was a lot of concern about having that at-large seat and not having that power of removal in the future.”

However, Councilwoman Deb Fudge pointed out that even if Foppoli had been appointed mayor by his fellow council members, they only could have forced him from the mayor’s office, not from the council entirely.

“People would have still wanted him off council, but we couldn’t do that legally,” Fudge said.

Lemus said Fudge had earlier proposed putting a measure on the November 2021 ballot that would dissolve the at-large mayor system, but the council had deadlocked 2-2 on the motion Aug. 3, with Salmon and Reynoza voting no. There was an Aug. 6 deadline to get the measure on that ballot.

As for the return to at-large elections for council members, on Sept. 27, the town held the first of five required public meetings on redistricting required by recently released 2020 census data. By law, Windsor is charged with making sure each district has a roughly equal population, and redrawing boundaries as necessary to achieve that.

During the presentation, consultant and legal firm Best, Best and Krieger showed that Windsor’s Latino population is dispersed throughout the four districts. It also showed Latinos make up about a third of the town’s population.

“If it looks like we could make a good argument that going back to at-large (council members) would not impact the underserved population in Windsor, we should look at it,” Mayor Sam Salmon said. “It’s all about representation.”

An at-large system allows all Windsor voters to vote for two or three council members every two years rather than a single council member in their district once every four years, which appealed to many residents, he said.

Council members have also highlighted that, since Shenkman threatened to sue, Windsor’s entire electorate voted two Latinas onto the council.

Lemus was elected while the council was still debating the switch to district elections, while Rosa Reynoza, the current vice mayor, was voted in on a special citywide ballot to fill the at-large seat vacated when Foppoli became mayor.

“The situation has changed,” Councilwoman Deb Fudge said. “I think we’re doing really well as a council as far as representation.”

Consultants will study and present more census data and revisit prior council elections and maps to determine what impact switching back to the old system would have, Salmon said.

Fudge said hiring a demographer to redraw the maps would cost another $150,000, according to the city.

One potential uncertainty, however, is that if Windsor switches back to at-large council elections, it could face another potential lawsuit threat from Shenkman, who has prevailed in nearly all cases when cities took him to court. The cost of a protracted court fight could be significant.

Salmon said that is something that will be discussed at least partly in closed session on Oct. 20.

“I wish we could go back to at-large (seats) but I’m worried about the legal risk,” Fudge said.

Salmon said that although the city of Santa Monica eventually prevailed in appellate court when a similar lawsuit was filed against it, it cost them several million dollars in attorneys’ fees, and the decision is now being reviewed by the California Supreme Court.

Petaluma received a similar letter from Shenkman in August, and the City Council there will discuss the possibility of moving to district elections at a meeting on Monday.

The question of which kind of election system is the most fair to minorities and the issues that arise when a system is changed “is more complicated than I ever thought it would be,” Salmon said. “We keep running into different idiosyncrasies.”

The next census redistricting special meeting is at 6 p.m. Oct. 25 at council chambers.

You can reach Staff Writer Kathleen Coates at kathleen.coates@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5209.