Nov. 5, 2021
Redwood City — The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will begin a series of public hearings to discuss proposed maps and give residents the opportunity to voice their interests and provide input on the redrawing of supervisorial district maps.
The first meeting will be held virtually at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2021. The agenda and public participation details are available here and below.
Every 10 years following the release of U.S. Census data, supervisorial districts must be redrawn so that each district is substantially equal in population. This process, often called redistricting, is important to ensure each member of the Board of Supervisors represents about the same number of constituents.
Based on the 2020 Census, each of the five supervisorial districts must contain about 153,083 people.
While the five districts must be substantially balanced in population, requirements also include compliance with federal and state equal voting rights and the following rank-ordered state law criteria:
► Drawing districts that are, as much as possible, geographically contiguous
► Keeping communities of interest intact, as much as possible
► Keeping cities intact, as much as possible
► Having easily identifiable boundaries (major highways, railways, streets, rivers, mountains), as much as possible
► Drawing districts to encourage geographical compactness, as much as possible.
The Board’s Tuesday public hearing will be the first since an advisory commission last month recommended two proposed maps.
The maps were selected from among about 30 proposals considered by the 2021 Supervisorial District Lines Advisory Commission. Over the course of three months the all-volunteer commission held 10 public meetings, received over 300 comments, draft maps, and other forms of public input, and ultimately recommended two maps for Board consideration on a vote of 8 to 7.
These maps, labeled by their authors, are:
► Unity Map, submitted by the Unity Map Coalition
► Commissioner Espinoza Map, submitted by commission member Rudy Espinoza Murray.
By law, the Board must decide on a final map by Dec. 15, 2021. In doing so, the Board may consider the recommendations of the District Lines Advisory Commission, consider other maps submitted by the public or the County’s demographer, and/or instruct the County’s demographer to create a new map or maps for the Board’s consideration.
The Board at Tuesday’s meeting is expected to set future public hearings on the redistricting process.
A map of current districts can be found here. Residents can find their current district on a look-up tool here.
All commission agendas, draft maps and other information can be found at smcdistrictlines.org. A playlist of all commission meetings can be found on the County’s YouTube channel.
What:
Board of Supervisors Public Hearing: Link to agenda.
When:
9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2021
Participation:
The meeting may be accessed through Zoom online at https://smcgov.zoom.us/j/96883203316. The meeting ID is: 968 8320 3316.
Via telephone by dialing +1-669-900-6833 (Local). Enter the meeting ID: 968 8320 3316, then press #. (Find your local number: https://smcgov.zoom.us/u/admSDqceDg).
Live interpretation of the entire meeting will be provided in Spanish.
In addition, live interpretation of the redistricting public hearing will also be provided in Chinese and Tagalog. To access live interpretation services, click the interpretation globe icon in your Zoom meeting/webinar controls and select the applicable language.