Council Districts for San Dimas

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Starting with the 2022 City election, City Councilmembers will be elected by district instead of at large.  There will be four City Council Districts, while the Mayor will continue to be elected at large by the entire city.

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To help the City Council decide, the public was asked to submit proposed maps and come to a Public Hearing to discuss them.

• We received 38 maps by the deadline of November 1, 2021.

• On November 9 we had a Public Hearing, reviewed all the maps, and narrowed the number to four finalists:  Maps 101, 101.5, 127, and 131.

• A special City Council meeting was held on November 15 to discuss these four maps.  A majority of the Council decided that Map 131 was best, and an ordinance was introduced to that effect.  (Note that an ordinance has to be introduced at one meeting and adopted at another to be valid.)

• A final Public Hearing was held on November 23, and Map 131 was adopted.  It was also decided that elections would be held for Councilmembers in Districts 2 and 4 in 2022, 2026, 2030, etc., while Districts 1 and 3 would have elections in 2024, 2028, etc.  The seat for Mayor will continue to be decided city-wide every two years.

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Why did we change from at-large elections to district elections?

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Like many cities in California, we will no longer have at-large elections for Councilmembers.  In at-large elections, voters could vote for two City Council candidates to represent everyone in the city.  The top two vote-getters were elected.  Now we have drawn four Council districts, with one Councilmember to be elected from each district.  Candidates for City Council must live in the district where they are running.  In two districts, voters of each district will elect a Councilmember in 2022, 2026, 2030, etc.  In the other two districts, voters will elect a Councilmember in 2024, 2028, etc.  (The Mayor is a different story and will continue to be elected at-large every two years.)

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As you can imagine, the boundaries of each district are very important.  Drawing maps has been a public process, with encouragement to residents and groups to propose maps of their liking.  Go to sandimasdistricts.org to see all 38 maps, including Map 131.  As stated above, the final Public Hearing on this matter was held on November 23, 2021, and Map 131 was adopted.

 

The district map will be in effect for ten years, at which point a new map could be drawn.  As you can see, it is important to choose a good map, one that holds communities together, like Old Town or Via Verde or the Foothills, and takes demographics and growth into consideration.  Thank you for your participation.