SUNNYVALE — To prepare residents for the possibility they’ll be electing city council members by district, Sunnyvale is holding the first of three community meetings Monday to teach attendees the basics of drawing district map boundaries.

Sunnyvale’s city charter currently calls for a seven-member city council that’s elected citywide. The council appoints one member to serve as mayor for two years.

If voters approve a charter amendment in March, the city will switch to electing six council members by district and a mayor citywide.

At the workshops, residents can submit their own proposals for how council districts should be drawn up.

The city will hold map-drawing workshops on Monday as well as on July 31 and Aug. 20. Monday’s meeting will cover legal requirements in drawing district maps and how to use an online mapping tool. The community meetings on July 31 and Aug. 20 will provide technical training for using online mapping software.

Sunnyvale has hired Glendale-based National Demographics Corp. to lead the map-drawing training.

Final map proposals are due Aug. 24. After that, the council will hold a series of public hearings before selecting a final map in December.

The city is moving toward district elections after a group of civil rights attorneys in October lodged a legal challenge under the California Voting Rights Act, which allows minorities to sue if they can prove an at-large election system dilutes their votes and makes it difficult to elect minority candidates.

The attorneys argued that while Asian Americans make up about 43 percent of the city’s total population and 30.8 percent of eligible voters, only two Asian Americans have served on the council in the city’s history. At the time of their complaint, all seven current council members were white.

An Asian American candidate, Mason Fong, was elected to the council in November.

Most California cities facing such lawsuit threats have opted to adopt district elections immediately rather than pursue litigation. No city has won in court against a California Voting Rights Act challenge.

In neighboring Santa Clara, city leaders fought a lawsuit by advocates and are appealing a trial court’s decision requiring them to implement a district election system. They have been ordered to pay $3.1 million in fees to the advocates’ attorneys, in addition to more than $755,000 for their own legal expenses so far.

While many cities facing California Voting Rights Act challenges have opted to adopt district elections outright by a council vote, Sunnyvale needs to get voters’ approval because it’s governed by a charter and a switch from an at-large election system to a district election requires passage of a charter amendment.

The city council will consider final language for the charter amendment and decide whether to place it on the March 2020 ballot at its meetings in November.

Mapping Workshops:

July 15, 6 to 8 p.m.
Community map-making kickoff meeting
Sunnyvale Public Library (Program Room)
655 W. Olive Ave.

July 31 and Aug. 20,  6 to 8 p.m.
Map drawing training and technical assistance
Sunnyvale Office Complex (Computer Training Center)
505 W. Olive Ave. No. 315

More information about the transition to district elections is available at https://sunnyvaleelections.org.

Contact Thy Vo at 408-200-1055 or tvo@bayareanewsgroup.com.