Title
2020 Final Census Data presentation for the City of South San Francisco. (Kristen Parks, NDC and Rosa Govea Acosta, City Clerk)
Body
BACKGROUND/DISCUSSION
The City of South San Francisco seeks input on Redrawing District Boundaries. The community's input in the development of the redrawing voting districts is extremely important to the Redistricting process. A series of public hearings along with Community Workshops will be held to receive community input on the development of district boundaries.
What is Redistricting?
Redistricting is the regular process of adjusting the lines of voting districts in accordance with population shifts. Each city with district-based elections is required to update (“redistrict”) the district boundaries every ten years, following the receipt of updated population data from each federal decennial census.
Since the City of South San Francisco has district-based elections for five Councilmembers, the city is required to redistrict the district boundaries prior to the next election of Councilmembers in 2022. Councilmember Districts 2 and 4 were on the ballot on November 3, 2020, and Councilmember Districts 1, 3, and 5 will be on the ballot on November 8, 2022.
The City of South San Francisco is asking for your help to draw new district boundaries for Councilmembers. The finalized maps that you help create will change how you elect your Councilmembers for the next ten years. Our primary goal when redrawing Councilmember districts is to draw lines that respect neighborhoods, history and geographical elements.
What is a Community of Interest (COI)?
A Community of Interest is a group of people that: share common social or economic interests, live in a geographically definable area, and should be included within a single district for purposes of effective and fair representation in future elections.
There are some communities of interest that are considered “protected classes” in that they have rights through state or federal civil rights or voting rights laws. Some examples of protected classes in districting would be ethnic and racial minorities such as a concentration of Latinx, Asian, or African American people.
There are other potential COI that can also be considered in Redistricting, such as: senior citizens, college students, people who live in a particular neighborhood, or even people who share concerns such as parents with young children, bicycle enthusiasts, topic interest group, etc.
COI does not include relationships with political parties, incumbents, or political candidates.