The City of Lincoln became one of two cities in Placer County, and one of a few cities in California, where voting districts for City Council will be determined by an Independent Commission. All 5 members of the present City Council voted on April 13 to divest themselves of the power to select the configuration of new voting districts. Instead, the city will follow the mandatory model selected by state-wide voters for congressional, state senate, state assembly and state board of equalization which takes the job of drawing new district lines from the elected officials.
Successful campaigns and membership participation for the selection of an Independent Redistricting Commission were separately conducted by The League of Women Voters of Placer County and the Lincoln Democratic Club.
Every ten years after the publication of the federal Census information, all governmental agencies that govern by representation must redistrict to allocate California’s population evenly among the new districts. There are additional criteria for the redistricting which prohibit racial and other communities of interest from exclusion of the opportunity to successfully elect candidates that echo their interests. Redistricting is required of counties, cities, school boards, special districts and community colleges.
The Council members were concerned that the Independent Commission, or any other Commission provided for in the Election Code, would not permit broad public selection and participation in the composition of the Commission and in the work of the Commission. Further, there was concern the districts drawn would be flawed if the Council members did not have final determination of the final configuration.
Two factors figured in the final vote for Independent Commission: 1) Results of two separate public surveys ordered by the Council; 2) Cost of a “public option with no commission.”
1. Two public surveys were conducted to obtain the favour (???) of types of redistricting commissions. In both surveys, those favouring an Independent Commission led: Survey #1 with 5 different choices, 132 responses resulted in 67 for Independent Commission; Survey #2 with 2 different choices, 473 responses resulted in 418 for Independent Commission.
2. The Council received research from Staff that it would cost an additional significant expenditure of public funds to choose their own crafted “public option with no commission” model. This choice was drafted by the Staff at the direction of some of the Council members. In the end, the concerns for not enough public participation, as was already provided for by law in an Independent Commission, gave way to financial reality.
