Glendora stays whole

Back in May, two Glendora residents came forward with the proposal to change how the City Council represents the city. Instead of a general council where each member can be from any part of the city, is voted in by the whole city, and represents the city, the proposal would have each council member represent a district.

A number of cities have this type of city council, including cities I used to cover in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach.

Oh, hi. I am the new Glendora, Azusa and La Verne reporter for the Tribune - Daniel Tedford. I came from the Daily Pilot (nice little shout out), which covers those two O.C. cities.

In Newport Beach, they have a district council similar to what these residents were proposing. Council seats would be based on districts, in Glendora's case five districts while Newport Beach had seven. Those running for city council would have to live in the district they are running for and their nomination papers would have to be signed by residents of that district.

During elections, those seats would then be separate races. In district 1, the nominated parties would run against each other and not against those candidates running for district 2.

This is where things can get tricky.

In Newport Beach, the entire city can vote for each district, not just their own district. But in Glendora, the proposal asked that residents of a district would vote in their district official, and not any other council representative. A system much like Congress and state assembly.

Well, it all didn't matter anyway, because the two residents never filed the papers and signatures needed to put the issue on the ballot by the deadline of Sept. 8, according Glendora City Manager Chris Jeffers.

"It just sort of died away," he said.