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Report regarding a third public hearing to receive a report from the city's demographer, National Demographic Corporation (NDC) regarding the redrawing of district maps for the City of South San Francisco. (Rosa Govea Acosta, City Clerk and Kristen Parks, National Demographics Corporation)
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RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
It is recommended that the City Council: 1) receive a report from the City's demographer, National Demographic Corporation (NDC), who has prepared several draft district maps; and 2) conduct a third public hearing to receive public input.
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BACKGROUND/DISCUSSION
Every ten years, cities with by-district election systems must use new census data to review and, if needed, redraw district lines to reflect how local populations have changed. This process, called redistricting, ensures all districts have nearly equal population. The redistricting process for the City of South San Francisco must be completed by April 17, 2022.
The city adopted its current district boundaries on July 11, 2018, based on 2010 census data as required by law. Once the data is evaluated, and if found to be imbalanced, the city must redraw districts in compliance with the FAIR MAPS Act adopted by the California legislature as AB 849 and took effect January 1, 2020.
Under the Act, the council must draw and adopt boundaries using the following criteria in the listed order of priority (Elec. Code ?21601) for general law cities:
1. Comply with federal requirements of equal population and the Voting Rights Act.
2. Geographically contiguous.
3. Undivided neighborhoods and "communities of interest".
4. Easily identifiable boundaries.
5. Compact (do not bypass one group of people to get to a more distant group of people).
6. Shall not favor or discriminate against a political party.
By law, the city must hold at least four public hearings, at an affixed time, to inform the public about the process and solicit community mem...
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