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Jul 14, 2023

Cypress faces a potentially expensive lawsuit after declining to switch to district elections

The city of Cypress is now facing dual lawsuits over its at-large election

The city of Cypress is now facing dual lawsuits over its at-large election structure.

On Wednesday, July 20, attorney Kevin Shenkman filed his promised lawsuit against Cypress in Orange County Superior Court alleging the city's at-large election system violates the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA).

Cypress City Attorney Fred Galante declined to comment, saying the city has not yet been served with the lawsuit.

Over the past decade, Shenkman has successfully gone after dozens of California cities, school districts, and other public entities with the same allegation: Their at-large elections dilute the voices of minorities.

Currently, all Cypress voters decide on all five council seats. With district elections, voters would choose only one council member who lives within their area.

Under the pressure of threatened litigation, cities often adopt district voting, which proponents say gives all corners of a city representation. Precincts can also make running for office less costly, allowing candidates to campaign in a smaller slice of geography.

In September 2021, Shenkman sent Cypress officials a letter warning of a lawsuit if the city did not voluntarily switch to by-district elections. Although 37% of Cypress’ 50,000 residents are Asian American, Shenkman noted, the city has not had an Asian American on the council for more than 10 years.

In recent years, most cities throughout the state faced with CVRA demand letters swiftly transitioned to district elections rather than risk an expensive lawsuit only to lose, if history continues to repeat itself.

Seven years ago, Anaheim spent about $1.1 million before relenting to by-district elections. In 2015, Palmdale backed down after agreeing to pay more than $4.5 million. Santa Monica is entangled in a multi-million dollar, still-active lawsuit.

Although sometimes grudgingly, many Orange County city councils — including in Fullerton, Garden Grove, Santa Ana, Tustin, Westminster, Los Alamitos, and, most recently, La Palma — have voted to switch to precincts rather than chance a burdensome legal battle. Some of those nudges came from Shenkman, and others from civil rights groups.

However, Cypress took a different tact than did its neighbors. The Cypress City Council met eight times in closed session to discuss the letter before calling a public meeting — announced on Christmas Eve and held Dec. 27.

Then, rather than hire a demographer to create proposed precinct maps, the council opted to pay a consultant $40,000 to organize workshops and solicit public opinion. After hosting several poorly-attended forums, the council voted 4-1, again in closed session, to reject the demand letter.

Galante announced the surprise decision to residents at a mid-March meeting, even before the city released the results of the survey it had funded.

"For several months, (Cypress) feigned some intention to bring its elections into compliance with the CVRA," the lawsuit said. "But then (it) abruptly halted its discussionsand its council voted, again out of public view, to cling to its unlawful at-large election scheme."

Cypress will now juggle two lawsuits regarding the CVRA issue. In May, watchdog group Californians Aware filed a petition against the city, alleging the council's behind-closed-doors vote violated the state's open government law, known as the Brown Act.

Shenkman filed the latest lawsuit on behalf of the voting rights group Southwest Voter Registration Education Project (SVREP) and residents Katie Shapiro and Malini Nagpal, who frequently criticize city council decisions at meetings.

The lawsuit argued that despite SVREP's decades-long mission to boost minority voting, those efforts can be diffused by "racially polarized" elections in which citywide majority populations choose all council members.

"Increasing minority voter registration from 15% to 20%, for example, in a particular jurisdiction, may have little or no effect on the outcome of at-large elections," the lawsuit said.

In an interview, Shenkman said district voting is "just good government."

"Even when you take race out of the equation, it assures that every neighborhood has a voice," he said. "One neighborhood will not become the constant dumping ground for every project no one wants in their backyards."

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