What's at stake?
The City of Clovis wants the public's help drawing new electoral district maps for the first time in the city's history.
Clovis plans to take another reluctant step this week toward overhauling its city council elections with a public meeting this week that will begin to carve up Fresno County’s second-largest city into electoral districts.
The city is welcoming the public to its Community Map-Drawing Workshop at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 9, at the Clovis Transit Center, 785 Third St., Clovis.
The transition from the aging “at-large” model the city embraced for generations to the increasingly common district-elections format comes after nearly two decades of resistance from city leaders.
“This was a law passed in 2001. So we’ve done a pretty good job of putting it off for 23 years,” Mayor Lynne Ashbeck said in October after the council begrudgingly approved the change to avoid a lawsuit from a famously-undefeated Southern California lawyer who successfully sued numerous cities and schools under the California Voting Rights Act of 2002.
Ashbeck was far from alone decrying the transition she and the council approved, with other city councilmembers and residents calling it “bullying” and comparing it to hostage-taking.
But the law firm, in its letter to the city, noted that while Latinos comprise about 30.5% of the city’s population, Latino representation on the Clovis City Council has been “sparse to non-existent.”
The threat of costly litigation loomed large in the council’s decision, with potential court fees exceeding $20 million and the law firm’s undefeated record in such cases. So in a 4-1 vote, the city opted to avoid a legal battle they were almost certain to lose. Councilmember Vong Mouanoutoua was the lone ‘no’ vote, arguing that Clovis voters don’t pick candidates based solely on race.
Now city leaders are asking the public for input on how to draw the new council district maps. Thursday’s workshop gives residents a chance to “learn how to use the map-drawing tools and submit your own district map for consideration.”
The deadline for final map submissions is Feb. 21. The first-ever Clovis City Council district elections will take place in the fall of 2026.
The city’s transition is part of a broader trend across California, driven largely by legal pressure from Shenkman and Hughes, the undefeated law firm. In 2023, Clovis Unified School District made a similar change following a letter from the same firm.
While proponents argue that switching to districts can strengthen minority representation in election outcomes, the results in other cities have been mixed.
If you can’t make it to Thursday’s Community Map-Drawing Workshop, all the map-drawing tools and instructions are available online at cityofclovis.com/districts.
Fresnoland’s Gregory Weaver contributed to this report.
