Pasco agrees it can’t fix district-based voting issue, wants federal judge to weigh in

In the past 36 years, Pasco’s population has grown by almost 400 percent, and the city’s footprint has expanded from 16 to 40 square miles.

In 1980, about 20 percent of the city’s residents identified as being of Latino heritage. Today, that number is 56 percent.

“The Pasco today is certainly not the Pasco of yesterday, at least statistically,” said City Manager Dave Zabell. “Pasco still remains one of the fastest-growing cities in the state and, relative to the rest of the country, a really fast-growing community.”

Zabell used those demographics Monday night to show the city’s evolution over the decades, how that relates to council districts and how “possible voter dilution has entered into the dialogue in Pasco.”

He talked with city council members for 30 minutes about the recent lawsuit the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington filed against the city and the proposed city-ACLU agreement to be submitted to a federal judge.

While the issue of seven council district seats versus five district seats and two at-large positions is at the forefront of the litigation, Zabell explained that there is a process to follow and it starts with the draft consent decree.

A consent decree is an agreement that defines the problem and the circumstances surrounding it.

The city’s legal team and ACLU legal staff have been working on the decree, which stipulates that there is an issue with Pasco’s current election system and gives the U.S. District Court of Eastern Washington jurisdiction to override state law and implement a remedy that likely is contrary to that law.

The remedy in this case would be district-based voting, Zabell said.

The ACLU, on behalf of lifelong Pasco resident Bertha Aranda Glatt, sued Pasco, claiming that its at-large method of electing council members violates Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act.

Pasco’s system of opening up the general election to citywide voters, instead of letting each district pick the successful candidate, dilutes the electoral power of Pasco’s Latino voters, the lawsuit says.

As a result, Latinos are deprived of an equal opportunity to participate in the local political process and to elect candidates of their choice to the council, the complaint states.

Pasco officials acknowledge that the city’s system likely violates the federal Voting Rights Act, but the city is prohibited under state law from changing its electoral process.

And efforts over the past two years to enact legislation or essentially get the state attorney general’s permission so Pasco could adopt district-based elections either were unsuccessful or “muddie(d) the waters a little bit,” Zabell said.

He believes the city may see a different result if it pursues another bill in the 2017 legislative session, but says that would be too late to meet the council’s goal of having the issue concluded before the next election cycle.

So the legal action on Aug. 4 was anticipated by the city and is being considered a proactive path to a resolution.

“Certainly, a federal judge’s decision could be overruled, but it would be in federal court, and we’d be talking about federal law,” Zabell told council members.

Three of the four council members attending Monday’s meeting agreed to put the draft consent decree on the Aug. 15 agenda for potential approval. But before voting, the council also will take public comment on the agreement.

Zabell said the consent decree imposes a deadline of Sept. 15 for the plaintiff and defendants “to meet and confer,” and for remedial plans to be submitted to the court by Nov. 15.

The city has dedicated a page on its website — in English and Spanish — to keep the public informed and updated about the ACLU litigation and scheduled meetings on the topic.

The next question is “What does a fix look like?” Zabell said.

On Sept. 6, the city council has scheduled a public hearing for input on alternative voting systems, with action expected two weeks later on the preferred system.

There are two scenarios: the current five district and two at-large districts or seven districts.

An ACLU attorney has said the organization believes having all seven seats “elected on a district basis is the best way to bring Pasco into compliance with the law and ensure that the Latino population’s vote is meaningful in city council elections.”

Leo Perales, a member of the Latino Coalition, attended Monday’s meeting but did not address the council.

He later told the Herald via email: “The Latino Coalition believes that only seven single-member districts is the viable solution and would yield the most equitable results in terms of proper representation for the Latino community.”

Zabell made it clear to council members that the city does not prefer one system over the other, and will only end up discussing alternatives that the legal team “feels pass the Voting Rights Act test.”

That means if one of the options has no chance of passing federal review — like a modified 5-2 system — then it will not be considered in September, he said.

Then on Oct. 3, another public hearing will focus on district boundaries, with the council set to vote Oct. 17.

In 2015, when the city last redrew its council boundaries, it created “two very distinct Hispanic majority council districts and one Hispanic-influenced district,” said Zabell. He noted how Pasco then used a demographer who was well-versed in voting rights law.

The city has spent considerable resources just trying to keep up on the regular impacts of growth, like police, fire, water, sewer and infrastructure, he said.

“The changing demographic has added another layer as a focus for providing fair and equal opportunity for Latinos to influence elections, and the council has spent quite a bit of time and effort on those things,” Zabell told council members.

The realignment, done every two years, ensures that the population within each voting district doesn’t deviate by more than 10 percent from the others. The federal Voting Rights Act and the draft consent decree deal with registered voters in a district.

However, Zabell added that it is “extremely important” for all Pasco residents to get involved in the process now because the way they have historically elected their city council will be changing.

This story was originally published August 10, 2016 at 6:19 PM with the headline "Pasco agrees it can’t fix district-based voting issue, wants federal judge to weigh in."