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Home My WebLink About2011-04-26 - AGENDA REPORTS - REDISTRICTING CMSN (2)Agenda Item: (A CITY OF SANTA CLARITA AGENDA REPORT NEW BUSINESS City Manager Approval: Item to be presented by: Michael Murphy DATE: April 26, 2011 SUBJECT: CALIFORNIA CITIZENS REDISTRICTING COMMISSION DEPARTMENT: City Manager's Office RECOMMENDED ACTION 1. City Council approve the recommendation of the City Council Legislative Committee to submit the following recommendations to the California Citizens Redistricting Commission (CRC): A. City of Santa Clarita be placed within only one Congressional, State Senate, Assembly, and Board of Equalization district and not divided among two or more districts. B. Santa Clarita Valley be placed within only one Congressional, State Senate, Assembly, and Board of Equalization district and not divided among two or more districts. C. The City of Santa Clarita and Santa Clarita. Valley be placed within compact districts, which should include other communities of north Los Angeles County and/or the northwest communities of the San Fernando Valley. 2. City Council designate a Council Member to testify at one or both of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission meetings on April 30, 2011, in San Fernando, and/or May 1, 2011, in Lancaster. BACKGROUND Every 10 years after the U.S. Census data is released, California must redraw the boundaries of its Congressional, State Senate, State Assembly, and State Board of Equalization districts to address any changes in population concentration. For these districts in California, the Citizens Redistricting Commission (CRC) will draw the new districts. A' D California voters authorized the creation of the CRC when they passed the Voters First Act, which appeared as Proposition 11 on the November 2008 ballot. Initially charged with drawing State Senate, Assembly, and Board of Equalization Districts, the CRC received authority from California voters in November 2010 to draw Congressional districts in, addition to the state districts previously authorized. The 14 -member Commission is made up of five Republicans, five Democrats, and four not affiliated with either of those two parties, but registered with another party or as decline -to -state. The Commission is charged with drawing the district lines in conformity with strict, nonpartisan rules designed to create districts of relatively equal population that will provide fair representation for all Californians. The Commission must hold public hearings and accept public comment. After hearing from the public and drawing the maps for the 53 House of Representatives districts, 40 State Senate districts, 80 Assembly districts, and four Board of Equalization districts, the Commission must vote on the new maps to be used for the next decade. To approve the new maps, the maps must receive nine "yes" votes from the Commission—three "yes" votes from members registered with the two largest parties, and three "yes" votes from the other members. In making the new districts, the CRC must follow the criterion below in rank order: 1. Comply with U.S. Constitution and contain reasonably equal population Districts must comply with the U.S. Constitution and have `reasonably equal' populations. The most important provisions of the Constitution for redistricting are the 14th and 15th Amendments. For U.S. House of Representative districts; the Commission must make sure the population in different districts is as equal as practicable. For California Senate, Assembly, and Board of Equalization, the Commission must make sure the populations between districts are reasonably equal "except where deviation is required to comply with the federal Voting Rights Act or allowable by law." That means that districts may have slightly unequal populations, especially in order to comply with the Voting Rights Act. 2. Comply with the federal Voting Rights Act The Voting Rights Act is a federal law that prohibits denying or abridging individuals' right to vote on the basis of race or protected language minority status. This includes redistricting plans that provide an unequal opportunity for voters of different racial/language minority groups to elect a candidate of their choice. 3. Contiguity Each district must be contiguous, which means that all portions of a district must be �01 attached in some way. This prohibits districts that are made up of separate geographical areas, such as a district located partially in Northern California and partially in Southern California. 4. Keep political subdivisions, neighborhoods, and communities of interest intact Districts should try not to divide up political subdivisions, such as counties and cities, neighborhoods or "communities of interest." The law defines a community. of interest a local community that shares social and economic interests and that should be kept together in a district for purposes of fair representation. 5. Compactness Districts should be "drawn to encourage geographical compactness" meaning "nearby areas of population are not bypassed for more distant population." This means that populations should be clustered together to the extent possible. 6. Nesting To the extent possible, after complying with all the above criteria, districts should be "nested" within each other in the following ways: Each Senate District should try to contain two "whole, complete, and adjacent" Assembly Districts. Each Board of Equalization District should try to contain 10 "whole, complete, and adjacent" Senate Districts. In addition to the above criteria, the law also states that districts should be drawn without regard for incumbent or candidate residence, and that they should not be drawn to favor or discriminate against a particular party, incumbent, or candidate. The CRC established the following apportionment totals as the ideal number of people, based upon California's overall population, that should be in each district: • Congressional District: 702,905 • CA Senate: 931,349 • CA Assembly: 465,674 • CA Board of Equalization: 9,313,489 The City of Santa Clarita's population listed in the 2010 U.S. Census is 176,320. The City's population compared to the boundary sizes of the new districts is shown below: • Congressional District- 25.08% • CA Senate- 18.93% • CA Assembly- 37.86% • CA Board of Equalization- 1.89% The 14 member CRC is currently holding public input hearings throughout the State until the end of July 2011. The closest scheduled public input meetings to the City of Santa Clarita are at the City of San Fernando Council Chambers on Saturday, April 30, 2011, from 2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. at City Hall and in Lancaster on Sunday, May 1, 2011, from 2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. at Sierra Toyota, Antelope Valley Room. The CRC is taking testimony from local area residents before drawing its first round of draft maps which will be released in June. Final district maps must be certified by the Commission and presented to the Secretary of State by August 15, 2011. On Monday, April 18, 2011, the City Council Legislative Committee met and discussed the issue of redistricting. The Committee makes the following recommendations to the City Council: 1. In recognition of the CRC's criteria that districts should try not to divide cities, the City of Santa Clarita be located within only one Congressional, State Senate, Assembly, and. Board of Equalization district. 2. In recognition of the CRC's criteria that districts should not try to divide "communities of interest" the entire Santa Clarita Valley be located within only one Congressional, State Senate, Assembly, and Board of Equalization district. 3. -In recognition of the CRC's criteria that districts be compact and should try not to divide counties and since the Santa Clarita Valley does not contain enough population to be its own Congressional, State Senate, Assembly or Board of Equalization district and must be included in districts with other communities, Santa Clarita should be paired with other communities in north Los Angeles County, including the Antelope Valley. 4. In recognition of the CRC's criteria that districts be compact and should try not to divide "communities of interest," that in the event that districts including the City of Santa Clarita need to comprise areas outside of north Los Angeles County, that the districts include communities of the northwest San Fernando Valley. 5. The City Council designate a Council Member to testify at one or both of the Citizens Redistricting Commission meetings on April 30, 2011 in San Fernando and/or May 1, 2011 in Lancaster. 0� ALTERNATIVE ACTIONS Other direction as determined by the City Council. FISCAL IMPACT No additional resources are needed to implement the recommended action beyond those already contained within the City's adopted 2010/11 budget. IP]