Release of 2020 Census Data Requires Redistricting Process

CITRUS HEIGHTS, CA (MPG) - At the February 10 regular meeting, the Citrus Heights City Council held the first Public Hearing in the redistricting process to update the City’s election district boundaries. The City just transitioned to district-based elections in 2019, but the data used to draw the boundaries came from the 2010 census. The district boundaries must now be reviewed after last year’s release of the 2020 federal census data.

The City Council must hold at least four public hearings in the redistricting process and adopt a final map by the April 17 deadline. The City hired a consultant group to oversee the process, and Robert McIntyre of National Demographics Corporation presented an overview of the redistricting process. He explained that as populations shift over time, the district boundaries must be reviewed to ensure the populations are balanced and continue meeting all the legal requirements.

Federal law requires roughly equal populations among the districts (with no more than a 10% differential between the largest and smallest populations) and prohibits racial gerrymandering that dilutes the voting power of minority groups. The State of California also requires that the districts are compact, geographically contiguous, and keep neighborhoods and communities of interest (those that share common interests or socio-economic features) together.

Other considerations include drawing boundaries that are easily identifiable, such as along major roadways or geographic features like rivers. Demographers also try to account for future population growth while preserving the core of existing districts. McIntyre said it’s also important to minimize the number of voters who are shifted to a district that votes in a different election year, because they could feel disenfranchised. He said, “This doesn’t meet the definition of disenfranchisement, but it still doesn’t feel good, and we want to minimize the number of people that could happen to.” The demographers also work to respect voter choice by maintaining continuity of office, so they try not to put current councilmembers into the same districts.

Another thing to consider when reviewing the districts is voting age population and whether certain boundaries might allow historically marginalized voters to become a majority in any district, thus giving them more voting power. But McIntyre said that in Citrus Heights the population of minority voters is spread throughout the city, with no areas where minority groups are highly concentrated: “When we see people spread out geographically across a jurisdiction, typically that means that people feel safe living anywhere in that jurisdiction. That’s often something to celebrate.”

But there are areas with high concentrations of renters and areas that have common socio-economic features, so these data can be used to inform map boundaries by keeping those communities of interest together. But McIntyre said it is vital to hear from the community in order to determine what the voters want their districts to look like. The demographers want to know how people define their neighborhoods, and what communities of interest are most significant to Citrus Heights citizens.

According to 2020 census data, the Citrus Heights total population is 87,850, which counts all people, not just citizens or people of voting age. With the new data, each of the five districts must contain approximately 17,570 people. After reviewing the current map, which McIntyre called “probably one of the cleanest maps I’ve ever seen,” he said that the districts are all within the required range, and the variation between the most populated to the least populated districts is just 5.8 %. So, the current district map is still legally compliant and could be re-selected by the Council.

There was only one public comment during the Public Hearing, submitted by Kathy Morris, Board President of CHASEN (Citrus Heights Area Seven Eight Nine). She wrote that the current boundaries of District 2 correspond exactly with the boundaries of their neighborhood association, which has a lot of active participation. She encouraged the Council to retain the current configuration of District 2.

During discussion, Councilmembers Steve Miller and Bret Daniels questioned why the City is not offering the interactive mapping tools as they did during the original districting process. The tools allowed members of the public to draw district boundaries in an interactive map that calculated the population for each, thus allowing for real-time adjustments to ensure the map met the population requirements. The current plan is to offer copies of the district map and ask the public to mark their proposed changes. Councilmember Daniels pointed out that this will make it more difficult for the public to submit viable maps.

Staff explained that there is an additional cost to offering the mapping tools, but the City can choose to pay that fee if there is a lot of interest from the public.

Vice Mayor Tim Schaefer expressed his support for re-selecting the current map since it still meets the legal requirements. He said that when he was campaigning, he discovered that many community members don’t know about or fully understand the election districts. He said that changing them again would lead to even more confusion: “We just did this. … Let people get acclimated to the new district program.”

Councilmember Jeannie Bruins agreed: “Why make more work than we need to?”

To keep the redistricting process transparent and easily accessible to the public, the Council agreed that no Special Meetings will be held; instead, all the Public Hearings will be held at regularly scheduled meetings City Council meetings. The second hearing will be held on February 24, when the draft maps and election sequencing will be discussed. At the third hearing on March 10, the Council will vote on the preferred map option. The final hearing and map adoption is scheduled for March 24.

To ensure the community has ample opportunities to participate in the process, the City is also planning a Public Workshop on March 3 at City Hall. For more information on the redistricting process, visit https://www.citrusheights.net/1159/Redistricting.