Politics

The City of Morgan Hill spends more than $200,000 per year in fees for processing credit card payments for various city services—including utilities, business licenses and recreation.  These costs came up during a discussion of new and updated fees for city services at the April...

More than a dozen city council district map proposals, submitted by residents and a professional demographer, are available for public review on a website created to set up the new election system.The draft maps can be viewed at drawmh.org, which provides a wealth of map drawing tools and demographic information about the City of Morgan Hill.Citizens can review the submitted draft maps and offer suggested changes, or create their own maps depicting four council districts equal in population, according to Morgan Hill Communications Manager Maureen Tobin. Residents can submit maps until Aug. 14.The city council is scheduled to approve an official four-district map in late August or early September. The map they approve will take effect with the November 2018 council election, and remain in place at least until the 2020 U.S. Census is completed.The five-member (including the mayor) Morgan Hill City Council approved the change from the current at-large election system to the new district-based system at their June 7 meeting. The change was a response to a demand letter from an Oakland law firm that claims the at-large system is in violation of the California Voting Rights Act because it limits the influence of minority groups.Under the by-district system, the city’s four council members will be elected by voters within the council district in which they reside. The mayor’s seat will continue to be elected on an at-large, citywide basis, according to city staff.By approving the change, the council aimed to protect the city from a potentially costly civil rights lawsuit. But it also forced the city to fast track the process of notifying the public and creating four new districts equal in population, without gerrymandering.The draft maps posted on drawmh.org include 10 “population balanced” maps with four districts each containing roughly 9,500 Morgan Hill residents. Seven of these were created by Morgan Hill residents. The other three were drawn by National Demographics Corporation, with whom the city contracted for $43,000 to help with the districting process.Also posted on the website are three maps created by residents that are not population balanced, and two maps that depict a single district.

The Morgan Hill City Council recently certified an environmental study and approved permits for a 269-home development at the southwest corner of Mission View and Half roads. The city’s planning commission had recommended the project’s approval at a previous meeting.  Known as Crosswinds, the project...

Hundreds of people in Morgan Hill and Gilroy hit the streets April 5 to deliver the message that they are not happy with President Donald Trump and Elon Musk as part of the nationwide “Hands Off!” protests.  On just the 76th day of Trump’s presidency,...

Morgan Hill’s new mayor, Mark Turner, and District D Councilmember Marilyn Librers were sworn in and welcomed to the dais at the Dec. 14 meeting at City Hall meeting chambers.  Also sworn in was Morgan Hill District B Councilmember Yvonne Martinez Beltran, who was reelected...

Sig Sanchez—former mayor of Gilroy and loyal advocate for South County throughout his 55-year public service career—died peacefully Jan. 30, according to family members.

Early, unofficial results in local races on the Nov. 8 election ballot show Morgan Hill has elected a new mayor, as Mark Turner leads the three-candidate field with almost all of the votes counted, according to the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters Office.  In...

Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen announced Dec. 5 that he will deactivate his office's Twitter account due to the recent rise in hate speech on the platform. In a statement, Rosen called on other district attorneys around the country to leave Twitter in...

As elections officials closed out their first ballot-counting weekend after the Nov. 8 election, Nancy Altman-Palm has widened her lead over incumbent Wendy Sullivan in the Morgan Hill Unified School District Trustee Area 1 race—but only by a few dozen votes.  As of 5pm Nov....

The incumbent members of Congress representing portions of Santa Clara and San Benito counties—Anna Eshoo, Ro Khanna, Zoe Lofgren and Jimmy Panetta, all of them Democrats—are easily headed to reelection this year, despite encountering significant changes in district boundaries because of reapportionment based on...