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Clerk of the Council Office www.santa-ana.org/cc Item # 24 City of Santa Ana 20 Civic Center Plaza, Santa Ana, CA 92701 Staff Report October 5, 2021 TOPIC: First Public Hearing: Redistricting Ward Boundaries AGENDA TITLE: Hold First Public Hearing Regarding Redistricting Ward Boundaries RECOMMENDED ACTION Open and close the first public hearing seeking input regarding possible changes to the wards boundaries before proposed ward map(s) are drawn. DISCUSSION Pursuant to Santa Ana Charter Section 101.4, on September 21, 2021, the City Council adopted Resolution of Intention No. 2021-053, setting forth public hearing dates to consider changes to boundary lines of wards, and fixing the date, time and place of said hearings thereon. Pursuant to California Election Code, the process must be completed and the adoption of the new ward boundary map must occur by April 17, 2022, which will be utilized in the November 2022 General Municipal Election. To assist in the redistricting process, demographic and outreach consultants have been secured. The City is working with demographer Paul Mitchell, Redistricting Partners, who also assisted the City during the re-boundary process and first ward-based election in 2020. Assembly Bill 849 – The Fair Maps Act The Fair Maps Act, effective January 1, 2020, creates a standardized redistricting criteria aimed to keep communities together and to prohibit partisan gerrymandering. It also contains expanded community outreach and public hearing requirements and timelines. In the re-drawing of ward boundaries, the City Council must ensure compliance with state and federally mandated criteria by adopting boundaries that contain a nearly equal population, based upon total population of residents of the City as determined by the most recent census, adjusted by California to count state prisoners at their “last known home address” rather than at the prison. The City Council must also adopt maps that comply with the Federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S.