The following is a copy of a letter sent to Santa Clarita Mayor Bill Miranda:
I am very disappointed that the City Council is remaining silent on the pending lawsuit to require the city to adopt voting districts, rather than our constitutional at-large voting.
Mr. Scott Rafferty has extorted many other cities into adopting voting districts. He has bullied other cities into accepting the districts he has created and has profited from his legal bullying. At this time, the council’s only comment has been “it is too expensive” to fight. Since when has protecting our civil rights been “too expensive”?
Mr. Rafferty’s threatened lawsuit maintains that Santa Clarita must create districts in order to provide “fair” representation of minorities in Santa Clarita. What happened to the democratic fairness of one person, one vote, regardless of race or gender? If we were to create a “Latino district,” does that not deliberately diminish the voting fairness of Latinos outside that single district? Doesn’t the creation of racially favored parts of town seem like what was fought against just a generation ago? What is next, special “Voter Drinking Fountains”?
The basic premise of dividing the city into racially favored sections seems just that — divisive.
Our currency has our motto, E Pluribus Unum — “out of many, one.” I strongly recommend spending some of that currency to defend and protect the unity of our city.
Jim Scott
Santa Clarita
