Politics

The City of Morgan Hill’s long-standing growth control policy was never under threat of dying at the polls Nov. 8, as Measure S was resoundingly supported by 77 percent of those who cast ballots.

The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority’s draft 10-year outlook for Measure B has received sharp criticism from South County officials, who say the agency is going against the voters by allocating most of the funds away from street repair.

Nancy Altman-Palm has widened her lead to nearly 80 votes over incumbent Wendy Sullivan in the Morgan Hill Unified School District Trustee Area 1 race.  As of 5pm Nov. 14, Altman-Palm had received 1,953 votes, to Sullivan’s 1,874, according to the Santa Clara County Registrar...

More ballots counted have not resulted in any lead changes in City of Morgan Hill election races as of late Nov. 5, according to the latest results from the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters office.  Mayor Mark Turner holds a commanding lead over challenger...

City officials posted a new website containing interactive maps, meeting and workshop schedules and information devoted to the upcoming switch to a by-district election system for electing city council members.The website, found at drawmh.org, allows residents and voters to participate in the effort to create four council districts within the city limits. The section titled “Draw a Map” allows voters to propose their own preferred district boundaries that reflect the area or areas they think should be represented by a single elected official.An “Interactive Map Viewer” features layers of data such as the boundaries of individual U.S. Census population units within the city limits, and the number of residents within each unit. Draft maps, to be created in the coming weeks with input gathered from the public and a professional demographer, will be posted to the website.The site, which can be viewed in English and Spanish, also gives voters instructions on how to draw a proposed district map—on paper or electronically—and submit it to city officials.“The primary goal when drawing council election districts is to draw lines that keep neighborhoods together. So the council wants to know: what do you consider the boundaries of your neighborhood?” reads the “Welcome” section of the website.The next chance for voters to interact in person with city officials regarding the effort to draw new council districts will be at a July 10 community workshop, from 7 to 9 p.m. at City Council meeting chambers, 17555 Peak Ave.Under the by-district election system, each district will be represented by a single council member who resides within that district. Voters within each district will elect only one council member to represent them.This is a stark change from the at-large system that has elected council members for the last 100-plus years. Under that system, all voters throughout Morgan Hill could vote on every council seat that was up for election, regardless of where in the city each candidate lived.The council voted June 7 to make the change to a by-district system, in response to a “demand letter” from an Oakland law firm denouncing the at-large system as being in violation of the California Voting Rights Act. By adopting the change, the council is taking advantage of legal protections that limit the damages and costs that can be claimed in a potential civil rights lawsuit.The by-district system will start November 2018, when two seats—currently occupied by Councilman Rich Constantine and Councilwoman Caitlin Jachimowicz—will be up for grabs. The other two seats—now held by Mayor Pro Tem Larry Carr and Councilman Rene Spring—will be subject to the by-district change when they next appear on the ballot in November 2020.The mayor of Morgan Hill will continue to be elected at large under the change, according to city staff and drawmh.org. The mayor serves a two-year term.The May 2 demand letter from Oakland law firm Goldstein, Borgen, Dardarian & Ho, alleges that the current at-large system results in “vote dilution” and prevents under-represented groups such as Latino voters from “influencing the results of elections.”The city council has held two public hearings—on June 21 and June 28—on the election system change since it was adopted.At the June 28 meeting, Douglas Johnson, President of the National Demographics Corporation, gave a presentation about NDC’s proposal to offer mapping and demographic services to the city during the transition to a by-district system.Public meetings and workshops on the subject will continue until Aug. 23, when the council is expected to adopt official district maps created with input from the voters and NDC.NDC has recently offered similar services to the Morgan Hill Unified School District, when its seven-member board of trustees voted to change to a by-district election system in 2015, also under threat of a lawsuit. It has also offered redistricting services for the Santa Clara Valley Water District.The company’s contract with the City of Morgan Hill cost $43,000.

Two candidates are running for Morgan Hill City Council District D, which includes the southeastern portion of the city. Marilyn Librers, who served on the council from 2012-2018, is running against incumbent John McKay, who is running for his second four-year term in 2022.  Librers...

The nominations period will open on July 18 for candidates who want to run for local offices in the Nov. 8 election. The nominations period closes at 5pm Aug. 12, according to a press release from the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters Office....

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan on Jan. 6 named newly-sworn-in District 1 Councilmember Rosemary Kamei—who started her political career in Morgan Hill—to serve as the city’s vice mayor.  Prior to her election in June, Kamei served as a Morgan Hill planning commissioner, a trustee of...

Proponents of Valley Water’s Measure S on the Nov. 3 ballot say the parcel tax is crucial to reinforcing water supplies, flood protection and other priorities for nearly 2 million Santa Clara County residents; but its detractors say the measure lacks details and transparency, and caution that the proposed tax has no sunset date.

While Morgan Hill Mayor Rich Constantine—the only candidate who qualified to have his name on the Nov. 3 ballot in the mayoral election—has taken an overwhelming percentage of the vote, a late write-in candidate has received 777 votes, according to the registrar’s office.