Facing the threat of a lawsuit by the firm that has forced city after city in California to switch to electing council members by district, Norco residents so far want their city to stand its ground.

The suit alleges that allowing every citizen in the city to vote for all five of the city council races — known as at-large elections — dilutes the power of minorities. Despite a population that’s 31 percent Latino, the Norco City Council has no Latinos — and has had no Latino candidates for most of the 21st century.

Similar arguments for such a switch prevailed recently in Inland cities such as Temecula, Highland, Hemet, Redlands, Banning, Eastvale and Wildomar, despite objections from residents in many of these municipalities.

In some cases, the change to district-based elections came after an expensive lawsuit, which in the case of Palmdale in Southern California cost millions of dollars.

Norco residents and council members say that to divide their city, dubbed Horsetown USA, would be to destroy it.

“I agree with most everybody here that this thing is not right for our city,” Mayor Ted Hoffman said Wednesday, Dec. 20, after a public hearing. “It’s going to tear us apart. It’s going to hurt our ability to govern.”

Malibu-based law firm Shenkman & Hughes wrote in September to say that the city’s voting was racially polarized and therefore violated the California Voting Rights Act of 2001.

“Given the lack of Latino representation on the City Council in the context of racially polarized elections, we urge Norco to voluntarily change its at-large system of electing members,” the letter states. “Otherwise, on behalf of residents within the jurisdiction, we will be forced to seek judicial relief.”

At the Wednesday session, 10 residents spoke against district-based elections. None spoke in favor. All of the speakers were white.

“There is no evidence of racially polarized voting in the city of Norco,” said Norco resident Jodie Webber, an attorney and member of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission, which is in charge of drawing district boundary lines for Assembly, Senate and Congressional districts in California. “The demographics don’t pan out. You actually cannot draw a district in the city of Norco that would be a majority-minority district.”

Residents fear that having each council member accountable to the residents of only one-fifth of the city would motivate them to champion the interests of only that particular area, at the expense of the city as a whole.

That could mean the loss of the rural, western atmosphere cultivated in Norco, a city of 27,000 with 400 acres of parkland and one of the nation’s largest networks of horse trails.

None of the cities who’ve tried to defend at-large elections against allegations that they violate the California Voting Rights Act have succeeded, City Attorney John Harper said.

If the city doesn’t decide to go forward with district-based elections within 90 days of starting the hearing process, it could be forced to pay significant attorney fees to Shenkman & Hughes, Harper said.

Public hearings on the issue are set for Jan. 24 and Feb. 7. Meanwhile, city officials are encouraging residents to draw their own suggested district boundaries online. Residents can draw maps and learn more details at www.norco.ca.us/districts.