RAC21 Report to the Board of Supervisors

Published Notice Required?    Yes          No    X     
Public Hearing Required?    Yes         No    X     

DEPARTMENTAL RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended that the Board of Supervisors receive a presentation from the Solano County Redistricting Advisory Committee (RAC21) on the recently completed community outreach report on Communities of Interest (COI) in Solano County as it relates to redrawing supervisorial district boundaries as required by the Fair Maps Act of 2019.

SUMMARY:
The Solano County Redistricting Advisory Committee (RAC21) will provide an overview of their report on input received from the recently completed community outreach meetings conducted in each of the five supervisorial districts between June 23 and August 28, 2021. The overview will cover their formation, the outreach meetings conducted, their findings and any additional communities of interest they have identified.

FINANCIAL IMPACT:
Data for the report was collected and analyzed by members of the RAC21 with the help of the consultant as included in their contract and is covered in the County Administrator’s FY2021/22 adopted budget.

DISCUSSION:
The Solano Redistricting Advisory Committee (RAC21) was a new advisory body to the Solano County Board of Supervisors. Established for the first time in April 2021, the RAC21 was tasked with Phase 1 of the redistricting process which was to conduct community outreach on communities of interest (COI) as required by the Fair Maps Act and develop a report that would reflect the communities interests for consideration when redrawing the supervisorial district boundaries. The RAC21 has spent the last three months in this endeavor.

Beginning in May when the RAC21 was appointed, the members received redistricting and legal training from the Consultant and County staff. Following the training, the RAC21 completed ten community outreach meetings, two in each of the five supervisorial districts between June 23 and August 28, 2021. The Community Outreach Meetings were held virtually on a Wednesday evening between 6 pm and 8 pm and then moved to in-person on Saturday mornings between 9 am and 11 am. The virtual meetings were held using the
online Zoom platform and the in-person meetings were each held in each district as follows:

District 1 – Vallejo County Library
District 2 – Cordelia County Library
District 3 – County Events Center
District 4 – Vacaville Town County Library
District 5 – Elmira Fire Station 65

The report includes the formation of the RAC21, legal requirements, committee training, technology usage, and outreach efforts. The bulk of the report captures the key communities of interest in each supervisorial district that participants in the community outreach meetings felt strongly should either remain intact or be grouped together through the redistricting process.

At the closing of this phase of the project, Solano County thanks the RAC21 members for their participation and support throughout the process and the community outreach conducted through outreach meetings and individually.

Redistricting Next Steps
Now that the RAC21 has completed their outreach efforts and presented their findings to the Board, and the State has released the final 2020 Census data, the redistricting process can move to Phase 2 of the redistricting cycle which is to develop proposed maps for redrawing supervisorial district boundaries.

On September 20, 2021, the final California Census population dataset by the Statewide database which included the reallocation of the State prisoner populations. 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. There is a deviation of 14.2% which is above the 10% maximum required by State law. The deviation is the percentage between the district with the lowest population and the highest population. District 4 has the lowest population at 82,397 (-8.0% deviation) and District 5 was 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, 90,452, and 88,883 respectively.

There is a required 21-day wait period from the date the State releases the final Census population data before local jurisdictions can begin changes to district boundaries which is October 12, 2021. At that point, staff will begin working with the consultant to develop boundary options or maps for the Board to consider at their November 2, 2021 Board meeting. The feedback received by the RAC21 during their community outreach meetings will be taken into consideration as the Board reviews their options to redraw the supervisorial district boundaries. The maps will be published at least 7 days prior to that hearing as required by State law. Staff will use the input received at that hearing to revise the maps if needed before the special evening meeting scheduled for Wednesday November 17, 2021 at 6 p.m. There are two additional meetings scheduled for December 7, 2021 and December 14, 2021 for additional input and final approval by the Board.

OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT:
The RAC21 worked independently but also consulted with County staff and the County’s redistricting
consultant, Redistricting Partners Inc., to formulate this report.

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