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elections. For example, the City of Palmdale incurred $4.7 million in plaintiff's legal fees in unsuccessfully defending in court an at -large City Council election system, in addition to their own nearly $2 million in legal defense fees, and the Cities of Santa Barbara, Whittier, Anaheim and Modesto incurred legal fees of between $600,000 and $3 million in settling such challenges. All of these cases ended with those cities adopting by - district elections. In 2016, the California legislature amended Elections Code § 10010 to simplify the process of converting to by -district elections and to provide a "safe harbor" process to protect agencies from litigation. Under the amended Elections Code, the attorneys' fees a prospective plaintiff may recover are capped at $30,000, if a public agency adopts a resolution of intention to change to a by -district system of elections within 45 days after the receipt of a letter from that prospective plaintiff alleging a CVRA violation and then completes the transition process within 90 days after the adoption of that initial resolution. Staff has prepared a draft Resolution of Intention for establishing and implementing by - district elections for City Council consideration. The resolution allows the City to take advantage of the above-described "safe harbor" provisions to implement a by -district election system, thus protecting the City's taxpayers from the risk of future litigation. The recommendation to approve the resolution is not based on any admission or concession that the City would ultimately be found to have violated the CVRA. Rather, the public interest may be ultimately better served by voluntarily transitioning to district -based elections due to the uncertainty of litigation to defend against a CVRA lawsuit and the potentially extraordinary cost of such a lawsuit, even if the City were to prevail. The proposed resolution outlines the City's intention to transition from an at -large to district -based elections, specific steps it will undertake to facilitate this transition, and an estimated time frame for doing so (Attachment B). The proposed schedule envisions City Council adoption of an election district map and election sequence on or before March 31, 2018, followed by a vote on a Charter revision during the statewide primary in March 2020, followed by the first by -district City Council election in November 2020. A prospective plaintiff may not bring a CVRA lawsuit within 90 days after passage of the resolution and Mr. Shenkman and the City mutually agreed to extend that safe harbor to March 31, 2019. This allows the City to retain its own ability to determine and adopt an appropriate district map instead of having the risk of a court doing so. Additionally, adopting the resolution by March 31 enables the City to cap at $30,000 its exposure of having to reimburse Mr. Shenkman his attorney fees.