On September 25, 2015, the City Council approved a settlement in a lawsuit brought against the City asserting the City’s current “at-large” method of electing City Council members violates the California Voting Rights Act.  Pursuant to the settlement the City must replace the current at-large election process with a by-district election process beginning in 2016.  Although the settlement calls for five districts and elimination of an at-large mayor’s election, the court is still reviewing this aspect of the case.

In October 2015, the City Council approved an agreement with Compass Demographics to direct the process of creating districts.  In coordination with Mr. David Ely, a community participation plan was developed to gather public input on voting district boundaries and to facilitate the development of preliminary district map proposals.

In accordance with the community participation plan the City began outreach efforts including, but not limited to, the following elements described in this section.

Outreach

The City established a dedicated webpage containing all notices and information on the district elections mapping process with information in English, Spanish, Korean, Chinese and Vietnamese. An email address specific to voting district formation communications - districtelections@garden-grove.org was also established.

Additionally, City staff provided information to the public on the district mapping process through the City’s social media accounts, press releases, posting notices in the City’s regular posting locations, listings on the City’s events calendar, information in the City water bill inserts, emails to local community groups and residents, and a study session at the November 24, 2015, City Council meeting.   

Individual Meet with the Expert Meetings Round 1

Public input began with a series of meetings for interested stakeholders with demographics mapping expert David Ely from Compass Demographics.  Mr. Ely held 11 individual and small group meetings from November 30 – December 4, 2015, generally from 10:00 am to 9:00 pm.  Mr. Ely discussed how equal population districts might be distributed, using a Garden Grove map with United States 2010 Census population figures by Census block groups to facilitate stakeholder efforts and input regarding communities of interest.  He provided data tables to accompany sample discussion maps to convey demographic information expressed in percentages, including voting age population by ethnicity, Spanish and Asian surname registered voters and Spanish and Asian surname voter turnout.  The City offered interpreters for individual meetings upon request. 

Community Meetings Round 1

Following the small group meetings with key stakeholders, public input continued with three community meetings, at various locations in the City on different days and times to accommodate the public.  Each meeting had the same agenda.  The meetings began with an educational presentation to inform the public about voting districts and the process for initial formation of district boundaries.  The group then separated into small groups led by outreach facilitators to elicit participants’ ideas about communities of interest, connections, barriers, divisions and sample maps.  The City provided Spanish, Korean, Chinese and Vietnamese translators at all of the community meetings.  Mr. Ely will summarize the comments received thus far during his presentation. 

Voting District Discussion Maps

Mr. Ely has created three sample voting district discussion maps and provided related data tables showing options for five districts. Based on input from the first round of individual and community meetings, it was determined that the sample maps provide a good representation of what final maps might look like with some fine tuning based on community input. 

Attendees at the community meetings participated in an exercise to identify communities of interest, geographic features and where boundaries should be drawn but this exercise did not produce any finalized maps submitted for consideration of district boundaries.  No community members have submitted finalized maps for consideration at this point. 

The three sample voting district discussion maps are attached to this report, labeled as “Sample Voting District Maps and Data”.  The community meeting presentation materials are also attached. 

Next Steps

Mr. Ely will hold a second round of Meet the Expert meetings on January 28, 29, 30 and February 1 and 2, 2016 and a second round of community meetings will occur on March 2, 5, 9, and 12, 2016.  These meetings will give the public another opportunity to provide input on discussion map proposals. 

In March or April 2016, the City Council will hold a public hearing following the second round of meetings to consider final district proposals.

It is recommended that the City Council:

•  Receive the presentation from David Ely, Compass Demographics, regarding voting district discussion maps and the first round of voting district formation community participation meetings to gather public input on district boundaries;
•  Discuss voting district formation and voting district discussion maps; and
•  Hold a public hearing to receive public input on district boundaries.