Board Redistricting Special Public Hearing – Review Draft Maps (Round 2)

Published Notice Required? Yes _______ No ___X__

Public Hearing Required? Yes _______ No ___X__

DEPARTMENTAL RECOMMENDATION:

The County Administrator recommends the Board of Supervisors:1)Conduct a Public Hearing to review three Revised Draft Supervisorial Redistricting Map Alternatives (Draft Plans A2, A3, and A4) prepared by the County’s Consultant, Redistricting Partners based on Board input from their November 2, 2021 Board Meeting and receive Public Input as required by the Fair And Inclusive Redistricting for Municipalities And Political Subdivisions (FAIR MAPS) Act of 2019 and subsequent updates in 2020 to the State law; and2)Provide further input and direction to staff and the consultant on the Revised Map Alternatives and any suggested revisions in preparation for the next Public Hearing scheduled for Tuesday, December 7, 2021 at 1 p.m.

SUMMARY:

The County’s consultant, Chris Chaffee from Redistricting Partners, will provide an overview of three revised draft maps (Draft Plans A2, A3, and A4) based on feedback received from the Board at their November 2, 2021, Board of Supervisors meeting. At that meeting, the majority of the Board members provided positive comments towards Plan A which provided the least amount of boundary adjustments but also expressed support for some aspects of Plan B which incorporated the entire City of Suisun City into District 3. The Board will have options to request further adjustments to the proposed supervisorial boundaries. The Board will also have an opportunity to review any additional maps not reviewed at the last public hearing that were submitted by community members through the County’s redistricting website using the online DistrictR mapping tool. This is the second of three public hearings for the Board to hear and consider public input and engage in a dialogue on revised map alternatives. A final redistricting map must be determined following the public hearing scheduled for December 7, 2021 and with final action on the redistricting map required at the December 14, 2021 Board meeting. A full recap of the redistricting project to date is contained in Attachment A of this staff report.

FINANCIAL IMPACT:

The cost of the redistricting project and consultant costs are included in the County Administrator’s FY2021/22 adopted budget.

DISCUSSION:

On November 2, 2021 the Board reviewed three Draft Supervisorial Redistricting Map Alternatives (Draft Plan A, Draft Plan B, and Draft Plan C) prepared by the County’s Consultant, Redistricting Partners. The Board also had an opportunity to review the eight maps submitted by the public vis the County’s redistricting website. The Board provided positive comments regarding Plan A which provided the least amount of boundary adjustments but also saw merits in some aspects of Plan B which incorporated the entire City of Suisun City into District 3. The County’s consultant, Chris Chaffee from Redistricting Partners, will provide an overview of three revised draft maps prepared based on input received from the Board with options to adjust the supervisorial boundaries to ensure they conform to the requirements of the FAIR MAPS Act. The Board will also have an opportunity to review any additional maps not reviewed at the last public hearing that were submitted by community members through the County’s redistricting website using the online District mapping tool. The Revised Draft Plans that will be presented include Draft Plan A2, Draft Plan A3, and Draft Plan A4 which are variations of a hybrid version between Draft Plan A and Draft Plan B reviewed by the Board on November 2, 2021. From these draft redistricting plans, staff has created Poster Maps (Attachments B, C, and D) for more detailed review. The consultant’s Draft Redistricting Plans are contained in Attachments E, F, and G. The Poster Maps and Draft Redistricting Plans, along with an interactive map are also available online at the County’s redistricting website at the following link:<https://redistricting.solanocounty.com/proposed-boundaries/>Below is a synopsis of each revised draft plan:

DRAFT Plan A2 (Total Deviation 7.7%) – Attachment B

This plan makes slight changes to Draft Plan A, with Suisun City being unified in District 3, and half of Travis being moved into District 5. This plan results in the largest total deviation of these three new revised plans. This plan results in total population, population variance and deviation percentages as follows:

District 1 – 91,020 / 1,449 / 1.6% Deviation
District 2 – 90,541 / 970 / 1.1% Deviation
District 3 – 91,713 / 2,142 / 2.4% Deviation
District 4 – 89,788 / 217 / 0.2% Deviation
District 5 – 84,795 / -4,776 / -5.3% Deviation

DRAFT Plan A3 (Total Deviation 3.8%) – Attachment C

This makes additional changes to Plan A2, with all of Travis now moved into District 5. To further balance the district more of Fairfield has been added to District 5 using Tabor as the border to Laurel Creek. This plan results in total population, population variance and deviation percentages as follows:

District 1 – 91,020 / 1,449 / 1.6% Deviation
District 2 – 90,541 / 970 / 1.1% Deviation
District 3 – 88, 951 / -620 / -0.7% Deviation
District 4 – 89,788 / 217 / 0.2% Deviation
District 5 – 87,557 / -2,014 / -2.2% Deviation

DRAFT Plan A4 (Total Deviation 3.2%) – Attachment D

This plan makes further changes to Plan A3, adding the area of Tolenas into District 5. This plan is the most balanced with the least total deviation. This plan results in total population, population variance and deviation percentages as follows:

District 1 – 91,020 / 1,449 / 1.6% Deviation
District 2 – 90,541 / 970 / 1.1% Deviation
District 3 – 88,353 / -1,218 / -1.4% Deviation
District 4 – 89,788 / 217 / 0.2% Deviation
District 5 – 88,155 / -1,416 / -1.6% Deviation

In addition, Attachment H contains ten maps that were received from citizens via the County’s redistricting website. There were two additional maps submitted since the November 2, 2021 Public Hearing. The online digital ID’s for these maps are: 61936, 67922, 67923, 68119, 68134, 68573, 68796, 69092, 75534, and 75536. These maps can also be accessed at the following link: <https://districtr.org/event/Solano_County>.

Upcoming Schedule As a reminder, following this hearing, there is only one final opportunity to request revisions to these draft versions. Below is the timeline to meet the December 15, 2021 Fair Maps Act deadline to redraw the supervisorial district lines. The timeline includes the 7 days prior to the public hearing that the proposed maps are required to be published for review by the public. Staff will provide paper copies of the maps to the Board members when the draft proposed maps are ready to be published

November 30, 2021 – (On or before) – Publish second revision to proposed maps for the public to review.
December 7, 2021 – Board Meeting – Final public hearing to receive input/feedback. Board’s third and final opportunity to request revisions. Immediately following the public hearing, consultant will make relevant changes and staff will publish final proposed maps for adoption at the December 14, 2021 Board Meeting.
December 14, 2021 – Board Meeting – Final adoption of supervisorial district maps. No changes can be made.

Redistricting Process Background

In the past decades, state law provided general guidance on the redistricting process. The passage of the Fair And Inclusive Redistricting for Municipalities And Political Subdivisions (FAIR MAPS) Act in 2019 with subsequent updates in 2020 to California State Elections Code 21500 (c)(1)-(5), the law now requires specific factors to be addressed when drawing new supervisorial district boundaries which include, in order of priority:

Must be geographically contiguous;
Must ensure the geographic integrity of neighborhoods or “communities of interest”;
To the extent possible, must limit the division of cities;
Must have easily identifiable boundaries;
Be geographically compact; and
Neither favor nor discriminate against a political party or candidate.

Redistricting Partners utilized these factors as they began drawing proposed maps and alternatives in addition to ensuring the maximum deviance of 10% between the supervisorial districts with the highest and lowest population as required by State law. These considerations have been preserved in the revised maps.

On September 20, 2021, the final California Census population dataset by the Statewide Database at UC Berkeley was released with the reallocated state prison population data, making this the final dataset that cities and counties must use to comply with the FAIR MAPS Act.

The data released shows the total population for Solano County to be 447,857 which equates to an ideal population for each district to be 89,571. In reviewing the census data for each district, there is a deviation of 14.2% which is above the 10% maximum required by State law. District 4 has the lowest population at 82,397 (-8.0% deviation) and District 5 has the highest population at 95,112 (6.2% deviation), making it a total of 14.2% deviation. Districts 1, 2 and 3’s populations are 91,020 (1.6% deviation), 90,452 (1.0% deviation), and 88,883 (-0.8% deviation) respectively. At minimum, adjustments will have to be made to the District 4 and 5 boundaries to address this population deviance and bring them closer to the ideal population of 89,571. In the process, other district boundaries could also be adjusted as part of re-balancing populations, reflecting Communities of Interest and other public input received.

OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT:

The redistricting process is guided by data released by the United States Census Bureau.