Notwithstanding any other provision of law and the Charter of the City of San Diego, the number of members, the election of members, and the reapportionment of trustee areas of the governing board of the San Diego Community College District shall be conducted pursuant to this section.

(a) Candidates for election as a member of the governing board of the district shall be nominated by trustee area at a district primary election held on the date of the statewide direct primary election. At the district primary election, the two candidates receiving the highest number of votes within the trustee area shall be nominees for the general district election for that trustee area, and the nominee who receives a majority of the votes cast by the voters of the district in the districtwide general district election shall be elected to represent that trustee area. The general district election shall be held on the same date as the statewide general election.

(b) Candidates for election as members of the governing board shall do both of the following:

(1) File a declaration of candidacy as provided in this code.

(2) File nominating papers following the procedural and substantive requirements in Sections 10220 to 10227, inclusive, of the Elections Code, except to the extent those requirements conflict with the requirements in subdivision (a) or this paragraph. For the purposes of this paragraph, any reference to the city elections official in the Elections Code means the elections official of the county. Each candidate shall be proposed by not less than 40 nor more than 60 voters in a trustee area.

(c) Each member of the governing board elected at the general district election shall hold office for a term of four years commencing on the second Friday in December next succeeding the member’s election.

(d) The territory of the district shall be divided into trustee areas and one member of the governing board shall be elected from each trustee area. A candidate for election as a member of the governing board shall reside in, and be registered to vote in, the trustee area the candidate seeks to represent.

(e) The governing board of the district shall be composed of not less than five members and not more than nine, as determined by the governing board. Sections 5019 to 5030, inclusive, do not apply to the governing board’s determination of the number of members pursuant to this subdivision. If the number of members of the governing board is increased or decreased, the governing board shall establish new trustee areas, abolish trustee areas, or adjust the boundaries of trustee areas so that the number of trustee areas is equal to the number of governing board members. If the number of members of the governing board is increased, the additional members of the governing board shall be elected at the next regular general district election of board members occurring at least 123 days after the governing board approved the increased number of board members. Prior to the next general district election, the governing board shall divide by lot the additional trustee area positions that are created so that the term of one-half of the board members elected to those positions shall expire on the second Friday in December following the next general district election. The term of the other board members elected to fill the remainder of the additional positions shall expire on the second Friday in December following the second general district election succeeding their election.

(f) The governing board shall adjust the boundaries of each trustee area in existence on January 1, 1992, to reflect population changes enumerated in the 1990 decennial federal census. The purpose of the adjustment is to establish trustee areas so that the population of each area is, as nearly as may be, the same proportion of the total population of the district as each of the other areas. Thereafter, the boundaries of trustee areas shall be adjusted pursuant to Section 5019.5 and may be abolished or rearranged as otherwise provided in this code.

(g) Pursuant to Sections 5019 and 5030, the county committee on school district organization may propose to the district voters that the member residing in each trustee area be elected by the registered voters of that particular trustee area. The proposal shall be submitted to the voters of the district at the next regular general district election occurring at least 123 days after the adoption of the proposal by the county committee on school district organization. If that proposal is approved by a majority of the voters voting in the election, then notwithstanding subdivision (a), there shall be no direct primary election for governing board members at the next election for members. Instead, members shall be elected at a general district election held on the same day as the statewide general election. At that general district election, board member candidates shall be elected to represent the trustee area in which they reside and are registered to vote by the registered voters of that trustee area. The candidate in each trustee area receiving the highest number of votes shall be elected.

(Amended by Stats. 2019, Ch. 624, Sec. 1. (AB 1150) Effective January 1, 2020.)