I urge my fellow Santa Clarans to vote NO ON MEASURE C.
Measure C is bad for Santa Clara by taking our current court ordered 6 districts and reducing it to 3. How is that fair and democratic?
Our council majority supports this, our city attorney supports it. This raises red flags as this is more about maintaining power and status quo than protecting voters’ rights.
In 2018, Santa Clara County Judge found our city in violation of the CVRA law. Our city was ordered to become 6 single member districts.
Yet there is great pushback to the judge’s orders.
The excuse used by the city attorney and council majority including the Mayor is they cannot change the charter without the people. It’s funny they say this because they did the same to changes to the role and responsibilities of the city clerk. They did the same to remove the architectural review. No vote of the people.
Suddenly they care about the charter and your rights, yet they support Measure C which reduces your voting rights.
The judge’s orders override our city charter. It implements 6 districts and the adaption could be done by ordinance like 29 other cities have done in California under the CVRA law. Currently the city of Santa Clara is appealing the decision of the judge. No city has ever won a CVRA lawsuit.
The argument made why to vote Yes on C shifts to “if we don’t vote for Measure C, we would go back to at-large elections and no districts”. Our city attorney falsely states this, he is wrong. There is no expiration date on the judge’s orders, it is not like a gallon of milk. It is a standing order and the court remedy supports this.
On March 3rd, vote against cronyism, hypocrisy and toxic elected officials that waste your tax dollars on costly litigation. Save your city and Vote NO ON MEASURE C
Anthony Becker
Chair, Santa Clara Planning Commission