Board Redistricting Public Hearing – Review Maps (Round 3)

Published Notice Required? Yes ___X___ No _____
Public Hearing Required? Yes ___X____ No _____

Departmental Recommendation:

It is recommended that the Board of Supervisors:

1. Waive reading of the proposed Ordinance and read by title only (majority vote); and
2. Conduct a Public Hearing and Consider introducing an Ordinance repealing Sections 1.4-11 to 1.4-15 of Solano County Code Chapter 1.4 and adding Sections 1.4-11 to 1.4-15 to Chapter 1.4 setting the boundaries of all the County of Solano Supervisorial Districts in conformance with the FAIR MAPS Act for the 2021 Redistricting cycle.

Summary

On November 17, 2021, at their special Board meeting, the Board conducted a second public hearing to review three revised Draft Supervisorial Redistricting Map Alternatives (Draft Plan A2, Draft Plan A3, and Draft Plan A4) prepared by the County’s Consultant, Redistricting Partners. The Board also reviewed ten maps submitted by the public via the County’s redistricting website. The consultant was available to draw live maps during the public hearing and following a discussion on keeping Air Base Parkway as a clear boundary line between Districts 3 and 5, the Board came to consensus on the Final Plan which maintains the entire length of Air Base Parkway as that boundary.  The Final Plan also restores a portion of Suisun City, west of Walters Road back into District 5. The Board directed staff to proceed with the proposed Final Plan and introduce an ordinance to establish the new supervisorial district boundaries which will remain in place through the next redistricting cycle in 2031. Based on the process and timeline the adoption of the Ordinance is required by December 14, 2021 Board meeting to meet the December 15, 2021 FAIR MAPS Act deadline to approve new boundary lines. A full recap of the redistricting project to date is contained in Attachment A of this staff report including the public process and work performed by the Redistricting Advisory Committee.

Details on the Redistricting Plan and alternatives considered by the Board in the public process can be found at the Solano County Redistricting Website at <https://redistricting.solanocounty.com/>.

Financial Impact:

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

Discussion:

Federal and state law requires counties to undergo an adjustment to their supervisorial district boundaries to reflect the outcome of each federal decennial census. 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% as required by State law calculated as the difference between the supervisorial districts with the highest and lowest population. This criterion has been preserved in the Final Plan.

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 of the existing districts, a deviation of 14.2% 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), added together makes the total deviation 14.2%.  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 were identified as being necessary 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, potential other district boundaries were also identified as part of re-balancing populations, reflecting Communities of Interest and other public input received.

On November 2, 2021, the Board conducted a public hearing to review 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 through the County’s redistricting website. 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 also considered a Plan C which involved more significant adjustments to the current district boundary lines. In addition, the Board  reviewed eight maps submitted by community members through the County’s redistricting website using the online DistrictR mapping tool.

On November 17, at their special Board meeting, the Board conducted a second public hearing to review three revised Draft Supervisorial Redistricting Map Alternatives (Draft Plan A2, Draft Plan A3, and Draft Plan A4) prepared by the County’s Consultant, Redistricting Partners. The Board also reviewed ten maps submitted by the public via the County’s redistricting website. This includes the original eight reviewed at their November 2, 2021 Board meeting and an additional two submitted thereafter. The consultant was available to draw live maps during the public hearing and following a discussion on keeping Air Base Parkway as a distinctive delineator, the Board came to consensus on the Final Plan contained in Attachment B and C of this staff report. Key adjustments were made to maintain all of Air Base Parkway as a district divider and the inclusion of a small portion of Suisun City east of Walters Road in District 5 to balance out the population distribution to stay below the required 10% deviation threshold. The Board directed staff to bring the proposed Final Plan and introduce an ordinance to approve it as the new supervisorial district lines. Final adoption of the ordinance for the redistricting map is required by December 14, 2021 Board meeting to meet the December 15, 2021 FAIR MAPS Act deadline to approve new boundary lines.

The legal descriptions for the five supervisorial districts were prepared by the Department of Resource Management, based upon the Final Plan map and incorporated into the proposed Ordinance (Attachment D).

From the attached draft redistricting plan, staff has created a Poster Map (Attachments C) for more detailed review. The consultant’s Draft Redistricting Plan is contained in Attachment D. The Poster Map and Draft Redistricting Plan, 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 the Final Plan:

Final Plan (Total Deviation 6.7%) – Attachment B and C

This plan makes slight changes to Draft Plan A2 by restoring a portion of Suisun City, east of Walters Road back into District 5 and restores the entirety of Air Base Parkway as the boundary between District 3 and District 5 in Fairfield. This plan results in a 6.7% total deviation between the largest district (District 3) and the smallest district (District 5).

Final 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 – 91,266 / 1,694 / 1.9% Deviation
• District 4 – 89,788 / 217 / 0.2% Deviation
• District 5 – 85,242 / -4,329 / -4.8% Deviation

Alternative Actions:

The Board could reject the introduction of the proposed ordinance, but such action would prevent the Registrar of Voters from completing the process of redrawing precinct boundaries in advance of future elections.

Other Agency Involvement:

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

CAO Recommendation:

Approve Departmental recommendation