Foster City Adopts Final Map in Transition to District Elections
For immediate release: December 3, 2024
Contact: Communications/ City Clerk Department, 286-3250, communications@fostercity.org
At a public hearing on Monday, December 2, the City Council moved ahead with Foster City’s transition to district elections by adopting a district map and finalizing the sequencing of districts for elections. District boundaries are defined in Final Map (Map B2 Live Edits). Sequencing of the elections for Council seats shall be as follows: districts 1 and 2 in 2026 and districts 3, 4 and 5 in 2028.
The Final Map adopted by the City Council on December 2, 2024.
The decision capped a monthslong effort to navigate the process of transitioning away from at-large elections, in which voters of the entire City elect the five City Council members. A district-based election is one in which the City is divided into separate districts, each with one City Council member who resides in the district and is chosen by the voters in that particular district.
The transition was initiated in August 2024, when the City Council discussed a letter received from a potential plaintiffs’ attorney, Shenkman & Hughes PC alleging a violation of the California Voting Rights Act (the “CVRA”) and threatening litigation if the City declined to voluntarily change to a district-based election system for electing Councilmembers. While the Council strongly disagreed with the allegations in the letter, a majority of the Council gave direction to staff to proceed with agendizing the resolution of intent in order to take advantage of the safe harbor provisions of Elections Code Section 10010 and avoid costly litigation. The City had 90 days from when the resolution of intent was adopted on September 3, 2024, to complete the transition.
As part of the transition, City staff launched a comprehensive outreach effort to encourage community participation in the process. These efforts included promoting public hearings; encouraging community members to draw district maps and submit community of interest forms; hosting community workshops; tabling at community events; disseminating printed and translated outreach materials, and much more. Visit fostercity.org/districtelections for more information about the transition process.
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