On Tuesday, August 7th, the Colton City Council finally approved the measure of reducing the City Council seats to be placed on the November General Municipal Election ballot. This discussion has been going on for months with many people on opposite sides. To attempt to make this possible there had to be a Planned Commission Public Hearing which was on July 10th, along with two public hearings for discussion. The first public hearing was on July 17th where they voted to move forward with the measure. The public hearing on August 7th was the second and final public hearing.
The public hearing was to consider and adjust the boundaries of proposed district-based election maps that would reduce the number of city council seats from 6 to 4 with an at-large elective mayor. After presenting the history of this discussion, they opened up the floor to the public.
The first to speak was Ben Eilenberg, who is a lawyer for many of the local Colton businesses. According to Eilenberg, the businesses asked him to represent their interests. In his closing statement he said to the council, "Genuinely the concern is about moving down from where we are, which is a very high point of respect for the city council."
“Their genuine worry is that by reducing the number of city council members they are reducing their primary point of axis for businesses and residences, to the city, in terms of where they go when they don’t know where to start,” said Eilenberg.
Eilenberg said that the City of Colton is responsive to the public and that they always follow through. Colton is heavily involved when something is going on in the city. He concludes, there is no ill will, but if they pass this then they are moving down from where they are.
The second person to speak was Linda Black, a lifelong Colton resident. She thanked the council for considering reducing council seats since she supports the measure because of its potential to help businesses and the community.
“I know all the time you’re asking these employees, the citizens, to cut back, to do more. The fact that you’re actually going to cut two of your own positions speaks volumes to me as a taxpayer,” says Black.
One speaker actually gave a history of the city council seats of Colton. In 1887-1992, the City of Colton only had 5 council members and with that, no problems occurred. There is an argument of quality against quantity when discussing the seats. Cities can be effective if they have a smaller amount of seats.
With the closing of public comment, the vote was 5-2 with Council Members Toro and Suchil voting against it. If the measure is passed there will be over $50,000 annual reduction in costs to the City due to reduced needs for City Council staff and services. Colton residents will now be able to vote in November to reduce the seats.