City Of Fort Bragg Settles CVRA Claim — The City, the Coast Committee for Responsive Representation (Committee) and Jacob Patterson executed a Settlement Agreement late on October 10, 2018. The Committee rescinded its May 24th letter alleging a violation of the California Voting Rights Act of 2001 (CVRA); agreed to not file, assert or bring any further action under the CVRA, effective until after the November 2020 election; and issued a letter in support of the City Council’s decision to rescind the resolution of intent to transition to district- based elections. Mr. Patterson, individually, agreed to not bring any action under the CVRA or assist any other person in preparing or bringing such a claim, indefinitely, and agreed to destroy all work product and documents associated with the CVRA claim against Fort Bragg. The Committee received $22,000 for attorney’s fees and costs incurred in the Dispute.
As a part of the Agreement, the City will establish a committee, comprised of two (2) City Councilmembers and at least three (3) appointed members of the public, to research and evaluate electoral systems, including those available to a charter city. Conversion from a general city to a charter city would require voter approval, if recommended. The City also agreed to provide public hearing notices and City Council and Planning Commission agendas in both English and Spanish, eliminate fees and deposits associated with running for City Council, add Spanish language versions of identified signs at City Hall, and to promote language parity and encourage outreach to the community.
For more information on the CVRA and District-based elections please visit the City’s website:
https://city.fortbragg.com/634/District-Elections
Questions regarding this information should be directed to Tabatha Miller, City Manager, at (707) 961- 2829.
(Fort Bragg Press Release)
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The great California Voting Rights Act (CVRA) legal battle against non-existent discrimination against the Fort Bragg Hispanic minority ended late in the evening October 10th, not with a bang but with a whimper. Councilman Will Lee, at the last regular meeting, had indicated an inexplicable optimism that negotiations with the still anonymous “Committee for Responsive Representation” were proceeding, as Lee put it, “very very fruitfully.”
I doubted it but I was wrong. The committee, and their front guy, attorney Jacob Paterson, ignominiously caved. The Fort Bragg City Council bluffed them, pushed them and backed them down.
Two hundred jurisdictions in California have undergone forced reorganization with the aim of increasing minority access to the electoral process, often spending millions in the process to do it. Not Fort Bragg. The City Council cleaned Patterson’s and his anonymous “committee’s” clock.
What the committee got out of it was a face saving ad hoc discussion and no guarantees. Attorney Patterson agreed to destroy all his work and meet humbly with an ad hoc committee of the City Council to discuss the possible conversion of Fort Bragg to a charter city. The timeline for discussions is vague, but the pressure is absolutely off until at least 2020.
The deal does not protect Fort Bragg from an eventual CVRA lawsuit. Any attorney who needs a little financial boost can come into town and sue us if he can endure the public mockery and the disdain sure to rain down on him by claiming we’re a bunch of seaside bigots.
Mr. Patterson will take home a check for $22,000 bucks for his state-imposed alacrity in shaking down non-discriminatory Fort Bragg.
Fort Bragg had to spend an additional $35,000 to hire expert demographers who were able to discover to no one's surprise that Hispanics are an integrated and respected element of our population occupying no specific neighborhood. (They were looking for a barrio.)
Attorney Patterson’s alleged and perhaps mythical Committee For Responsive Representation was also successful in enacting a major assault on electoral tradition and insulting the Fort Bragg community without ever disclosing their identities. Who these brave advocates of spurious identity politics are may never be known. As they reflect on their righteous adventure in the sanctuary of their personal privacy one can be sure they are gratified to have escaped a close call with public humiliation and ridicule.
We will be asking Mr. Patterson how he intends to spend the big fat check he got from the city. The discussions with the ad hoc council committee and two soon to be appointed citizens from the city remain vague. The Committee for Responsive Representation has withdrawn any pressure to do anything, and the Fort Bragg City Council are not only fine negotiators they are also experts at doing nothing in committee meetings. The discussion group will do exactly what discussion groups do. Discuss.
The headlock that Mr. Patterson had on the city is broken; the Committee for Responsive Representation is successfully hiding from their portion of the heaps of calumny due them, while the city council can rack up an admirable victory for local self-government on our own terms. A very rare victory it is, distinguishing the city council in the statewide avalanche of over 200 municipal capitulations and defeats.
Full disclosure. I would like to see a charter city, and am no fan of the policies of the City Council. I think that the current Council has engaged in profound deceptions that are sure to come out and that a charter city might be an excellent improvement. But like any Fort Bragg patriot, I don’t support any electoral reform forced upon us under the threat of ruinous legal action. I am not backing off the city council. I would like to see mayor Lindy Peters’ regime of deception stopped in its tracks. But I have to admit the Council won this one, skillfully and on the strength of integrity. Bernie Norvell and Will Lee particularly. Credit where credit is due.
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