Emilio Martinez: Watsonville politics shows why city needs elected mayor

Once again Emilio Martinez tells it like it is. Thanks Emilio!

Better than electing the mayor at large would to change to electing a council that more accurately reflected the voters of the city through some sort of a proportional representation system. It would also avoid the problem of racial or ethnic polarized voting because there would be no systemic disenfranchisement. The present system simply reversed who got disenfranchised from the old system.

Here's the latest voter registration numbers.

City Of Watsonville- 14,436
District 1- 974
District 2- 1,062
District 3- 2,271
District 4- 2,906
District 5- 1,678
District 6- 2,255
District 7- 3,290

http://www.votescount.com/reg100509.pdf

2,062 would be the average number of voters per district. Dividing that by the actual number in each districts gives the relative political representational power per voter in a district and the politician from whom that power manifests.

District 1- 2.12 Manuel Quintero Bersamin
District 2- 1.94 Luis Alejo
District 3-.91 Antonio Rivas
District 4-.71 Kimberly Petersen
District 5- 1.23 Greg Caput
District 6-.91 Emilio Martinez
District 7-.63 Nancy Bilicich

In this zero-sum game, a voters in District 7 has less than a third the representational power of voters in Districts 1 and 2 and about half of that of a voter in District 5. District 4 voters fair only slight better. No voter should have his or her vote count for more at the expense of other voters having theirs count for less.

We have no control over the districts. It is not the city, nor the county, that does the districts, it is the state. But as we know all of California will be redistricted in 2010. And with that if the "elected mayor" does pass as Emilio Martinez is hoping for then the city of Watsonville will be redistricted, not just once, but twice due to the fact we will loose a district seat in order to have an elected mayor. Therefore he is doing exactly what you are asking for.

MLM wrote:

We have no control over the districts. It is not the city, nor the county, that does the districts, it is the state. But as we know all of California will be redistricted in 2010. And with that if the "elected mayor" does pass as Emilio Martinez is hoping for then the city of Watsonville will be redistricted, not just once, but twice due to the fact we will loose a district seat in order to have an elected mayor. Therefore he is doing exactly what you are asking for.

Who are you claiming draws the districts in Watsonville? Redistricting doesn't happen till after the 2010 census and will be applied to the 2012 election.

The state does the districts It would be a conflict of interest if the city or county did. And with that if the elected mayor in Watsonville passes we would re-district before 2012 due to the fact we loose a council district.

MLM wrote:

The state does the districts It would be a conflict of interest if the city or county did. And with that if the elected mayor in Watsonville passes we would re-district before 2012 due to the fact we loose a council district.

Who do you claim at the state level is in charge of this?

They form a committee to do it. This, by the way is not a claim but a fact. They are appointed by Arnold. The people he appoints are totally up to him and his staff, which should be highly interesting. It is actually a very interesting process and I especially excited what they will be doing with the Senate seats in Santa Cruz County.

I find Emilio Martinez's opinion an interesting insight, but naive. First, Mr. Antonio Rivas not holding to his word is a growing reputation of how he makes promises and then finds it convenient to drop the ball. Regretfully, he exists due to the failure of leadership in the community where the chair needs to be filled. Why is Emilio naive? Simply the "reform" will be more of the same with no escape. Yes, most elected officials do not have a community service background that delivers measured results. Watsonville is no different than most cities where the City Manager calls the shots, and the City Council is window dressing. Rivas is simply part of the disease of me-centric people needing the importance of elected office - with his own defect of not understanding mutual respect of others - even those who often help him.

I find Mr. Gaudino's opinion that I am naive questionable considering that he has asked that I assist him with a community project. In regards to "community service" I served time on the Latino Affairs Commission, 2 years on the Planning Commission, one year as a council member, and almost 8 months as Director for the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Metro District. Walking districts attempting to gather 2,500 signatures is no easy task and if that does not qualify for "community service" I don't know what does.
The fact is that Watsonville has led the county with the highest unemployment rate in the past 12-15 years. Currently,we are closing in on a 30% jobless rate which is is a Depression era number. In my opinion, we are past just "community service" but in more need of a result oriented agenda.
Finally I attempted to meet with Mr. Gaudino but he didn't have the time. I also referred him to our new mayor as is protocol to assist him with his recommendation which was/is not clear. Still, my door of communication is open to Mr. Gaudino.
Emilio Martinez