Laguna Hills holds first public hearing on switch to by‑district elections

Laguna Hills held its first public hearing on Oct. 7 required to begin a transition from at‑large to by‑district city council elections. Mayor Pro Tem Kaskey opened the special meeting and the city clerk reported a quorum; Justin Levitt, vice president of National Demographics Corporation (NDC), presented the consultant's overview of legal standards, demographic data and a schedule for map drafting.

"This is really because of a law called the California Voting Rights Act," Levitt said, explaining that the law has made by‑district transitions common across California and has produced litigation that often ends in large settlements. He told the council the city must hold two pre‑map hearings before any maps are drawn, then additional workshops and public comment before a December adoption target, with the first district elections scheduled for November 2026.

Levitt reviewed mapping criteria derived from federal and state law: equal population using 2020 census total population counts (the state‑required baseline),…