By Rosita Ventura-Gomez

The City of Chowchilla and its future elections will now be district elections instead of at-large elections– this transition to a new process of election races has stirred the pot not only with the community of Chowchilla, but also with city council members.

On June 11th, council members of the City of Chowchilla finalized the adoption of map 401, dividing Chowchilla into four districts. This means that Chowchilla voters in each district will get to choose their representative who resides in their own neighborhood. The reason for Chowchilla’s shift to district-based elections is due to a possible violation of the California Voting Rights Act of 2001 (CVRA) that was brought up by community members of Chowchilla.

(The new District map for the City of Chowchilla)

The violation of voters’ rights in the city was brought to attention by residents of Chowchilla due to the City’s unequal fees towards mobile vendors. In August 2023, Mark Hamilton, Director of Community & Economic Development, and city council members passed a new mobile vendor permit fee increase that would charge vendors $36,500 annually, while restaurants such as McDonald’s would be charged a permit fee of $348 annually

(On the left is the document of the annual fee increase for mobile vendors. On the right is Mcdonald’s annual fee.)

“I don’t know what the issue is with people on the council who voted to pass it without even blinking,” said Josue Diaz, a Chowchilla resident who has been supporting mobile vendors against this new fee increase. “None of them asked a single question; they just approved it.”

Diaz and other Latino residents who were concerned of the unfair increase in mobile vendor fees sought legal advice from the UC Berkeley New Business Community Law Clinic. The law clinic found that the Chowchilla City code did not differentiate between mobile vendors and street vendors. Which made the Safe Sidewalk Vending Act, a California law that sets protections and regulations for street vendors, applied to all Chowchilla vendors, including mobile vendors.

According to Diaz, he and other residents of Chowchilla used information they received from UC Berkeley’s Law Clinic to point out the potential violations in Chowchilla’s city code with the Safe Sidewalk Vending Act. As a result, the city council members retracted all the fees and restrictions. The City then decided to scrap the entire code regarding mobile vendors to rebuild an equitable code from scratch.

Even after this fee was annulled, some residents of Chowchilla felt that in order for the city to have its needs met, the city council must reflect the diversity of its population.

On February 16th, 2024, the City of Chowchilla received a letter from Scott J. Rafferty, a litigation attorney for the California League of Latin American Citizens, stating, “I represent the California League of Latin American Citizens (California LULAC),Which has received requests from members who are electors residing in Chowchilla to petition the city to adopt electoral districts. The City’s at-large method of electing council members dilutes the influence of minority voters, which violates the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA). As a result, neighborhoods in large parts of the City are chronically underrepresented on the City Council.”

The City had no choice but to transition to a district-based election, or face a lawsuit.

“I think everyone will get better representation when their city council member is from their area,” said Ahlan Eschiek, a resident of Chowchilla. “Currently, three of the city council members are actually from one district (Green Hills), and they are pretty separated from the rest of Chowchilla.”

Though half of Chowchilla residents believe that transitioning to district-based elections will improve representation, another half feels that a district-based election doesn’t make any sense.

“This community is built on family,” said Rachelle Smith, a resident of Chowchilla. “It’s disgusting that this creates further division.”

Smith and other residents of Chowchilla feel that this new transition of election feels there is no need to change the way of elections in the City, and so do most of the city council members of Chowchilla who also fear that no one will run.

“We do have a muslim representative, we have two Hispanics, and two whites. I don’t know how we can get more diverse?” said John Chavez, a city council member for the City of Chowchilla whose term will be ending in December 2024. “It’s going to be harder for people to run. I have been doing this since 08’ and I have asked hundreds of people to run. Several elections have been unopposed. We can’t get anyone to run.”

In November 5th 2024, there will be two seats open for Districts 3 & 4 for a 4-year term and a 2-year term for Mayor At-Large this election year.