Lakeport City Council considers redistricting maps
- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Lakeport City Council gave staff further direction on Tuesday regarding input on maps released by the California Citizens Redistricting Commission.
The commission redraws State Assembly, State Senate and congressional districts every 10 years, based on the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
At its Nov. 2 meeting, the council had directed City Manager Kevin Ingram to write a letter to the commission expressing support for the latest “visualizations,” or scenarios, for how Lake County would be grouped.
However, Ingram reported that before he could get a letter completed, more changes were released.
Since then, the commission has moved from visualizations into draft maps.
Ingram told the council during its brief discussion of the matter on Tuesday evening that he expected to see smaller changes to the mapping going forward.
The process has been moving quickly in recent weeks, and between the time Ingram completed his report to the council last week and the Tuesday meeting, newer maps were posted on the commission’s website, supplanting what was in Ingram’s report.
Current maps can be found here.
The draft maps now show Lake County being grouped with Colusa, Glenn, Napa, Tehama and Yolo counties for the State Assembly, and with Del Norte, Humboldt, Marin, Mendocino, Sonoma and Trinity for State Senate.
For Congress, Lake County is proposed to be bundled with Napa, Solano and Yolo counties. It’s a scenario that would no longer have Lake County split over two congressional districts, as has been the case over the past 10 years.
“It is our overriding priority to just keep Lake County whole,” said Councilwoman Mireya Turner.
She moved to direct staff to prioritize redistricting efforts to make sure Lake County is not split into different districts and to keep the county aligned with strategic agricultural and economic
partners.
That’s an approach that Ingram said will allow staff to craft a tailored response to each proposed mapping change and ensure that the city’s voice is presented to the commission.
The council approved the motion with a 5-0 vote.
The council also voted unanimously to cancel its second meeting of December, which was set for Dec. 21.
The cancellation was proposed because city offices will be closed beginning on Dec. 22 to observe the Christmas holidays and there are no urgent pending items for the Dec. 21 meeting.
Ingram’s written report said, if it was necessary to handle any urgent business, a special meeting could be called Dec. 13 or the week of Dec. 27.
Ingram said it will require them to move the council reorganization — the election of the mayor and mayor pro tem — to the end of the Dec. 7 meeting, and that action usually takes place at the second meeting in December.
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