Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Goleta Latest Santa Barbara County City Facing Pressure To Change Format Of City Council Elections

The controversy over the fairest way to conduct city council elections has hit another Santa Barbara County community.

Two Goleta residents served the City of Goleta with a notice which contends the city’s current election process violates the California Voting Rights Act, and want to see the process changed.

The city currently elects its city council with at-large elections. Some people claim minority groups don’t get proper representation through at large elections, and that district elections are fairer. The notice says if the city fails to transition to district elections, the two residents may sue to try to force the change.

Similar claims in the City of Santa Barbara prompted the city to move from at-large to district elections. The City of Santa Maria is also looking at the issue.

The Goleta City Council is asking residents to weigh in on the issue at its March 7th meeting.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral.