Imagine if they gave an election and no one bothered to run for office. That’s partly the case in the Fairfax School District and the city of McFarland.
Fairfax school board members Virginia Lawson and Jose Luis Tapia are not running for re-election and their four-year term ends in November. Yet no potential candidates filed to run for those seats.
“Never in my 25 years working in this district has this happened,” said Lora Brown, Fairfax Superintendent. “In the last election, we had a slew of candidates,” she added.
Brown attributes the situation to a significant change in the election process this year. Up to now, elections for the Fairfax school board have been done “at-large,” meaning anyone living within the school district boundaries could run to win a seat on the five-member board of trustees. However, earlier this year the school board voted to elect board members by dividing the district into areas, or by district.
Over the last several years, cities, school districts, community colleges and other entities throughout the state have been changing from at-large to by-district elections to comply with the California Voting Rights Act of 2001 (CVRA) and/or to avoid being sued. Civil rights groups claimed elections at-large discriminated against minorities who were concentrated geographically in a certain part of the city or school district. The CVRA prohibits any political subdivision from using any at-large method of election that impairs the ability of a protected class to elect candidates of its choice or influence the outcome of an election.
The city of Bakersfield for example, has had by-district elections for years, but school districts usually have held elections through the at-large system.
CITY OF MCFARLAND IN SAME SITUATION
The same situation exists in the McFarland city council. The city council divided the town into four districts and the mayor is elected at-large. One district this year is vacant, meaning no one from within that district filed to run for office.
“I’m surprised both the Fairfax school district and the city of McFarland allowed this to happen,” said Michael Turnipseed, executive director of KernTax, a local taxpayers watchdog group. Turnispseed suspects both entities did not do their due diligence in informing their respective communities of the change in the electoral process, and thus no one came forward to file for those vacancies.
McFarland mayor Saul Ayon disagrees, saying the city made a proactive effort to inform the city. “We announced this several times and had it on the city’s website,” said Ayon.
Both Fairfax School District and McFarland will follow the state process in filling the vacancies. “We will publish in the newspaper and on our website that we do have two spots, two trustee areas that are unfilled,” said Brown. That process allows anyone living within the two districts wishing to be considered for the vacancies to register their names with the district and the city.
Both entities will invite candidates to their respective to make a statement before the Fairfax school board and the McFarland city council.
The Fairfax school district will discuss the issue at its school board meeting on September 12 at 6 pm.
