The Santa Clarita City Council on Tuesday is scheduled to swear in the city’s first-ever district-based representatives and hold its annual organizational meeting.
With the certification of the results from the Nov. 5 election earlier this week, Patsy Ayala is set to become the first Latina to join the council, with council member Jason Gibbs rejoining for a second term.
The city’s new electoral map divides Santa Clarita into five districts, and the council voted in June to put District 1, which was composed of a majority Latino population and considered the “remedial district,” on the ballot.
Both the drawing of the district and the placing of it on the ballot were the result of a lawsuit alleging the city’s at-large election system disenfranchised Latino residents by making it impossible for them to elect a candidate of their choosing.
Ayala beat out Bryce Jepsen and Tim Burkhart in a three-way race for a geographic area that was largely Newhall with a gerrymandered portion of western Canyon Country.
Gibbs was appointed in August after no candidates filed to run against his campaign, which was an incumbency, but not technically, because he’s also the first-ever representative for District 3. Gibbs’ District No. 3 is composed mostly of Saugus and some of Valencia based on the electoral map the city approved in June.
Previously, residents from throughout the city could select their top-two or top-three candidates, depending on the election.
The districts were drawn up through a public-participation process as the result of the city’s lawsuit settlement. The decision to place a district where Gibbs lives on the ballot meant outgoing Santa Clarita Mayor Cameron Smyth was not able to run for reelection.
Smyth’s last meeting will be Tuesday, which is also when the council members will vote among themselves to choose the next mayor and mayor pro tem for 2025.
Smyth said the decision to move on was bittersweet, and shared pointed criticism of the new electoral system in August, noting the effort to increase participation resulted in an incumbent running unopposed.
It’s also an unusual situation for Ayala and Gibbs, who will be quasi-district representatives in the sense that they’re also serving alongside three council members who won spots in a citywide race.
Gibbs said back in August he hoped that the fact that no one chose to run against him was a vote of confidence from his new District 3 constituency, although he also said, “My thought process will always be for the city.”
Los Angeles County reported that the city of Santa Clarita had approximately 151,707 registered voters based on its data.
“The canvass of this election verified that the number of registered voters in District 1 for this election was 23,054; the whole number of ballots cast in the precincts excluding vote by mail voter ballots was 5,099; the whole number of vote by mail voter ballots cast was 10,409, making a total of 15,508 ballots cast, which results in a 67% turnout
The results from Ayala (4,563), Jepsen (4,142) and Burkhart (4,108), mean 12,813 people participated, which would put an estimate of the turnout on par with the overall 66.12% turnout L.A. County reported.
In the previous general election in 2022, which was winner-take-all and allowed everyone in the city to choose their top-three candidates, Councilwoman Laurene Weste was the lead vote-getter (32,886), with Councilman Bill Miranda coming in second (32,306) and Marsha McLean third (28,352). That was from a total pool of 144,556 registered voters citywide in 2022.
