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Report regarding providing direction to staff on how to proceed with the Council redistricting project of South San Francisco. (Rosa Govea Acosta, City Clerk; Kristen Parks, National Demographics Corporation)
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RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
It is recommended that the City Council provide direction to staff regarding whether the Council prefers to complete the redistricting process without a commission or using one of the three options to establish a Council Redistricting Commission.
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BACKGROUND/DISCUSSION
The U.S. Constitution requires that everyone residing in the United States be counted every decade. The resulting Census data is used for geographically defining State and local legislative districts. This process is called "redistricting." According to the California Elections Code, following each decennial Federal census, the Council using that census as a basis, shall adjust the boundaries of any or all the Council Districts so that the districts shall be as nearly equal in population as feasible. Although the City had a similar redistricting process in 2018, the State has made significant statutory reforms to the redistricting process since that time through the Fair Maps Act (AB 849), signed into law in October 2019. In 2018, when the City transitioned to District elections, the Council did not form a commission and completed the districting process with staff and NDC.
When redrawing district boundaries, the Council must comply with the requirements of the U.S. Constitution, California Constitution, the Federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the California Elections Code. These authorities require each district to have substantially equal population, generally prohibit using race as a predominate criterion for redrawing districts, and prohibit diluting the voting rights of racial or language minority communities. Additionally, based on the updated Elections Code, the updated district boundaries must be redrawn using the following s...
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