To: Board of Supervisors
From: County Administrative Office
Agenda Section: Time Certain Matter
SUBJECT:
title
10:00am - Public Hearing on Redistricting in Humboldt County
end
RECOMMENDATION(S):
Recommendation
That the Board of Supervisors:
1. Open the public hearing;
2. Receive recommendations made by the Redistricting Advisory Commission;
3. Make recommendations on the formation of a final draft Supervisorial District Map for adoption no later than the Board meeting of Dec. 14, 2021; and
4. Close the Public Hearing.
Body
SOURCE OF FUNDING:
General Fund (1100)
DISCUSSION:
On July 20, 2021, your Board established and appointed members to the Redistricting Advisory Commission (RAC) by adopting Resolution No. 21-76, and later, Resolution No. 21-91 (Attachments 1 & 2). The intent of the RAC was to recommend to your Board its findings for the need, if any, to change supervisorial district boundaries based upon the 2020 Federal Decennial Census, with such recommendations to be acted upon, after holding the requisite public hearings, no later than Dec. 15, 2021.
The RAC met weekly in August with a focus on training which covered the legal framework of redistricting, recent legislation, and their roles and responsibilities as Commissioners. Four community outreach workshops occurred in September. Each was held via Zoom and led by staff at the California Center for Rural Policy (CCRP). Three of the four meetings were held on weekends and/or in the evening to ensure the workshops were accessible to the public. Two RAC members attended each workshop to learn firsthand how current or future district boundaries may affect residents and their communities. Data from each of these sessions was shared with the RAC and evaluated by the full commission once meetings recommenced with the release of state-level census data at the end of September.
Throughout this process residents of Humboldt County were encouraged to share public input and ideas on what attributes, values, geographic landmarks, and municipal boundaries tied their communities together. In addition to outreach workshops and RAC meetings, testimony was submitted via phone, email, in person and via surveys on Open Humboldt. Testimony submitted through each of these channels led the RAC to identify how Communities of Interest (COI) would likely be impacted by shifts to the current Supervisorial District boundaries.
In total, through the Open Humboldt website, the Community of Interest survey received 93 visitors and 23 individual responses. The Draft 1 survey received 468 visitors and 111 individual responses, and the Draft 2 survey received 294 visitors and 51 individual responses. In total, the public shared 9.5 hours of their time providing feedback through Open Humboldt surveys. In addition, the County Administrative Office also received a substantial number of mailed and email comments on the topic. All public input received as of Oct. 27, 2021 at 3 p.m., are detailed in Attachments 5 through 8. Any additional public input will be recorded as attachments in future agenda items.
The county’s consultants, Redistricting Partners, participated in each meeting and combined data from the census, COI testimony and guidance from the RAC to produce two rounds of draft maps. Each round of drafts received increasing attention from the public and produced a wider range of feedback from constituents. Ultimately, the RAC met for the last time on Oct. 27, 2021 to discuss and make recommendations on the final round of drafts presented to them.
The Redistricting Advisory Commission recommends your Board:
1. Reject both Draft Maps, titled Draft A2 and Draft C2 (Attachments 3 and 4)
2. Request an additional draft, or drafts, be created for review, posting and approval, in which your Board will:
a. Pay particular attention to Native populations in each district; drafts should include a “heat” map as well as population totals for each district;
b. Consider keeping the areas of Glendale and Blue Lake together, in either District 3 or 5, based on COI testimony;
c. Consider not splitting Eureka from East to West by putting northern Eureka with Arcata, based on COI testimony;
d. Make as minimal change possible to the existing district map (Attachment 9); and
e. Consider COI testimony received thus far in any changes made to the existing district map.
Your Board may choose to accept these recommendations and move forward with an additional draft map, or maps, as described above or to move forward with your own set of criteria. Whichever option your Board selects, your first opportunity to adopt a district map will be Tuesday, Nov. 16. The timeline remains the same and is described below:
Nov 2. - Public Hearing to discuss RAC recommendations and hear public comment;
Nov. 16 - Public Hearing to vote on a final map OR make final changes to a map or maps;
Dec. 14 - Public Hearing to vote on final map (only held if final vote is not made on Nov. 16; and,
Dec. 15 - State-mandated deadline for final maps to be adopted.
Per Elections Code §21500 (Attachment 10), any maps must be publicly posted for at least 7 days before final adoption. As such, any requested changes made during today’s hearing must be produced by the consultants and publicly posted by the county no later than Nov. 9, 2021. If additional maps are requested on Nov. 16, 2021, they must be publicly posted by the county no later than Dec. 7, 2021.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
There is no impact to the county General Fund in receiving this report and/or to making the related recommendations. Costs related the overall redistricting effort, attributed to CCRP, for outreach services, and Redistricting Partners, for mapping and consultation services, total $100,000. These funds were included in the adopted budget for fiscal year 2021-22 within the County Administrative Office budget unit 1100-103.
STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK:
This action supports your Board’s Strategic Framework by inviting civic engagement and awareness of available services fostering transparent, accessible, welcoming and user friendly services and by providing community-appropriate levels of service.
OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT:
None
ALTERNATIVES TO STAFF RECOMMENDATIONS:
Board discretion
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Resolution No. 21-76
2. Resolution No. 21-91
3. Draft Map A2
4. Draft Map C2
5. Community of Interest Survey Results
6. Draft 1 Map Survey Results
7. Draft 2 Map Survey Results
8. Emailed Public Comment
9. Current Supervisorial District Map
10. Elections Code § 21500
11. Elections Code § 23000
PREVIOUS ACTION/REFERRAL:
Board Order No.: G-3, L-2, I-1, I-1, I-1, I-1
Meeting of: 6/07/2011, 6/21/2011, 3/16/2021, 7/13/2021, 7/20/2021, 9/14/2021
File No.: 16-3965, 16-3900, 21-273, 21-873, 21-1018, 21-1380