Rohnert Park City Council poised to approve disputed plan for district elections

A divided Rohnert Park City Council is poised to approve Tuesday a disputed plan for district-based elections that appeared at nearly the last minute in a four-month process and would prevent a longtime incumbent from being able to run for reelection.

Councilwoman Gina Belforte, whose term expires this year and who would be without a seat to defend under the new plan, said the map and election cycle that the council majority advanced earlier this month safeguards three other incumbents from head-to-head races and flouts the state's voting rights law.

She called that outcome “troubling” and “an embarrassment” to the city. It hired a consultant and considered a total of 10 maps put forward by that firm and residents, and the council settled on one — submitted by a city resident a day before the Jan. 31 deadline.

“When you look at it and all that's going on, it doesn't look good by any stretch of the imagination,” said Belforte. She preferred a plan that would have resulted in races between incumbents before backing an election cycle that would have left Councilman Jake Mackenzie without a seat to run for. Instead, the council opted for a plan that did that to her.

“This has affected so many people, angered our constituents, created distrust and it's just an embarrassment,” Belforte said. “Not only are you taking away the democratic process from voters, you're also breaking the law, or at least not adhering to the law.”

Michelle Marchetta Kenyon, the city's attorney, has said several times that each of the seven map options produced by the city consultant, as well as three qualifying choices submitted by members of the public, were “legally defensible.”

The dispute that pits Belforte against most other council members centers less on the map, which had earned support from all five on the council, than on the linked election cycle. Three seats would be up for election this November and two in 2022.

Among the three council members whose terms expire this year, it would leave Belforte alone with no seat to contest.

Mayor Joe Callinan and longtime Councilman Jake Mackenzie both have districts that leave them clear paths to reelection.

The third seat up for election this November would be created out of the southwestern part of the city, home to much of Rohnert Park's Latino population.

Of the two seats up for election in 2022, one would be in the southeastern portion of the city where no incumbent lives. Councilwoman Susan Hollingsworth Adams, whose term expires that year, has signaled interest in moving to run for that seat.

The other seat would be carved out of a district that is home to both Councilwoman Pam Stafford and Belforte. Belforte has said she'll likely run, while Stafford hasn't indicated whether she'll seek a fifth term.

Stafford, Hollingsworth Adams and Mackenzie backed the map and election cycle in the first formal vote Feb. 11. Callinan joined Belforte in the opposition.

The vote was the first of two required to approve the map, with the second scheduled for Tuesday. Residents critical of the process said the city has failed to make all council discussions and decision making transparent to the public.

Specifically, critics called out two closed-door sessions, at least one of which, according to Callinan, featured a council discussion of the proposed maps — a move that a public meetings expert said may have violated state law.

They have also questioned the origin of the new map, which beat out nine others, including those previously put forward by the paid consultant. It came from Rohnert Park resident Marci Akin, according to the city's consultant, and was posted to the city's website a week ahead of the Feb. 11 meeting. Hollingsworth Adams previously said Akin is a longtime friend, and the two supported the same candidates in several Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified School District school board campaigns dating to at least 2014.

Akin is a former cafeteria assistant and instructional aid in the Cotati-Rohnert Park district. She did not respond to multiple interview requests over two weeks. Her husband, who answered a reporter's knock on their door last week, said his wife was not at home and that he was not aware she had created any election map for the city.

Rohnert Park officials said she was not a well-known person at City Hall.

“I couldn't pick her out of a lineup. I don't know her,” said City Manager Darrin Jenkins.

However, amid public outcry last month over the process, Callinan, in a Jan. 29 interview, said he expected new maps to come forward before the Feb. 11 meeting. Over the ensuing period, only one map surfaced — Akin's plan.

Since then, Callinan has declined interviews, saying he wouldn't discuss the matter until after the final vote. Hollingsworth Adams, who declined to be interviewed Monday, spoke briefly about the issue in a Feb. 12 phone call, acknowledging her friendship with Akin.

Stafford has not returned calls for comment over several months.

The transition to district-based elections stems from a legal threat last year, in which a Southern California attorney alleged that the city's at-large voting system for council seats disenfranchises Rohnert Park's growing Latino population.

Santa Rosa, Windsor and Santa Rosa City Schools, the county's largest school district, have received similar letters from Malibu-based attorney Kevin Shenkman and made the switch in part to avoid potentially costly legal fights.

But Belforte, who helped organize the Rohnert Park-based Latino Alliance, said the favored plan would sidestep in the first election much of the city's Latino population. While the largest bloc of Latino residents, in the southwestern section, will get to vote for council this year, the second largest bloc — where Belforte lives — will have to wait until 2022.

Mackenzie dismissed the argument, noting that little disparity existed between that district and the other three carved out in the new map.

A similar case happened in the most heavily Latino area of Santa Rosa, the southwest, including Roseland, which will vote for the first time this year for a district-based council seat.

Frankie Lemus, president and co-founder of the Latino Alliance, said that in his own personal opinion, the election cycle was “unfair” to Belforte.

“She's been the primary council member who has spoken up for Latinos in the community, for sure,” Lemus said. “I think she should have a right to go against somebody and us be given an opportunity to vote, and have the public decide somebody instead of ousting her.”

Belforte was alone in backing the election cycle where the same would have happened to Mackenzie, a six-term incumbent who has yet to say whether he'll run later this year.

“This is not about me, or incumbency. It's about getting this right for the city,” Belforte said. “If I have to run against somebody, but it's in the best interest of the city, that's what it means. I am happy to let the community choose.”

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin Fixler at 707-521-5336 or kevin.fixler@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @kfixler.