REALIGNMENT OF COUNCILMANIC WARD BOUNDARIES

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OFFICE OF THE CITY ATTORNEY OPINION NO. is "~0 DECEMBER 29, 1972 SUBJECT: REQUESTED BY: Realignment of Councilmanic Ward Boundaries. City Council OPINION BY: James A. Withers,City Attorney BY: Richard E. Lay, Deputy City Attorney QUESTION: May the City Council realign council- manic ward boundaries in the absence of a 1096 discrepancy between ward populations? ANSWER: No. ANALYSIS: The Santa Ana City Charter, Section 101.2, provides that ward boundaries shall be adjusted at least 90 days prior to each general municipal election so that no ward shall vary from any other ward by more than ten per cent of the registered voter population. It then goes on to state: "If during the pre- ceding (2) years there shall not have been a change of regis- tered elector population in any ward to cause it to vary by ten (10) per cent or more from any other ward, then no change of ward lines shall be made." The effect of Charter Section 101.2 is twofold: (1) Whenever there exists a ward population variance of ten percent or more, a ward boundary realignment must be made at least ninety days prior to the next election; (2) Where there is no shozering of a ward population variance of at least ten percent, ward~boun- daries may not be-realigned. Section 34898 of the California Government Code, enacted in 1971 and amended in 1972, reads: "If the members of the govern- ing body of a chartered city are nominated or elected "by dis- tricts" or "from districts" as defined in Section 34871, such districts shall be of equal population according to the latest federal decennial census." It is a long established principle in this state that the con- duct of municipal elections is a "municipal affair." People ~,.., v. Worswick (1904) 142 Cal 71, 75 P. 663, Rees v. Layton (1970) 77