December 21 – Since the city’s incorporation, Galt voters have elected five city council members, each serving as mayor for one year.
But in 2026, residents may be able to run for mayor once the city adopts council district boundaries in the coming months.
The Galt City Council held its second public hearing Tuesday to discuss redistricting, and Mayor Shawn Farmer and Vice Mayor Paul Sandhu said they would support an election system in which residents vote for four council members and a mayor.
Sandhu said if the city moved to a five-district council, each member would only be concerned with the interests of his own district.
“We only have 25,000 residents,” he said. ‘So each district will have a very small population. If you look at other cities like Elk Grove, each county has about 30,000 residents. That fifth councilor can have the interests of the entire city in mind instead of just looking after one district. neighborhood.”
Boer agreed with the deputy mayor’s assessment, although he was not happy with the idea of districting in the first place.
“This district thing will divide the city of Galt even further,” he said. ‘At the moment we are, as it were, divided from east to west. It will become even more divided. We start to compartmentalize our discussions instead of thinking about the community as a whole, which I think is a tragedy. It seems like this whole process is anti-democratic.”
The city received a letter in August from the law firm Shenkman & Hughes on behalf of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project alleging that the overall voting system dilutes the ability of Latino voters to elect candidates of their choice or otherwise influence the outcome of influence an election. election. As a result, the company alleged that the general election violated the California Voting Rights Act, which was enacted in 2003 and seeks to prevent the disenfranchisement of protected classes.
A protected class, the staff said, consists of voters who are members of a minority group based on race, color or language.
City staff said the letter was a prerequisite to filing a lawsuit against it, and something no other agency has successfully defended.
To avoid a lawsuit, the council voted in October to transition from general elections to district elections on April 8.
Paul Mitchell of the consulting firm Redistricting Partners, which will assist the city in the process, said if Galt were to create five districts, their population would be about 5,000 each.
Resident Chris Brossman echoed the mayor’s sentiment that redistricting would only further divide the city, but favored a system in which voters elected five council members from five different districts. He said an elected mayor, while elected by all Galt residents, would only have the best interests of their district at heart.
“In the last election we had three candidates, and to get three candidates it took some encouragement,” he said. “I’m concerned about having someone running in a neighborhood. Let’s say no one is running in (a particular) neighborhood. How does the city handle that? I didn’t hear that tonight.”
Farmer responded that if a district had no candidates, the council would appoint someone from that district to serve.
Council members Bonnie Rodriguez and Tim Reed said they had not yet decided on the issue.
“I’ve seen other cities run both ways, and we’ve been running in general,” Rodriguez said. “I see a very expensive process every two years to run a mayor. Those little nuances of it, I’m not 100% sure I support it, but I’m not against it.”
Councilor Mathew Pratton was the only one in favor of keeping all five district representatives elected.
“The reason for that is I need more information,” he said. “I like the idea of the mayor being rotated and appointed.”
Mitchell said he would bring six maps of district boundaries to the council’s next public hearing on Jan. 21. Three maps will show five-district scenarios, and the other three will show four-district scenarios. The council will then hold two more public hearings before April 8 to vote on district boundaries. No action was taken Tuesday evening.
