The Chula Vista City Council unanimously voted to hire two major consultants in redrawing the city’s district boundaries on March 16. The Redistricting Commission adopted resolutions on Feb. 18, recommending the selection of demographer, National Demographics Corporation as the demographer and Southwest Strategies, LLC as the public outreach consultant.
NDC was chosen by the Redistricting Commission for its professional experience, interactive mapping review, approach towards public engagement. Southwestern Strategies was chosen for its ability to reach out to the diverse communities in Chula Vista, its manpower, resources to successfully reach out to these diverse groups during a pandemic, and its multi-generational and multi- social economic approach. It did the redistricting process in 2016 and have familiarity, the expertise, and knowledge on conducting outreach in Chula Vista.
But there is concern that the delay in redistricting could affect th city’s June 7, 2022 election. Potential candidates are eligible to begin raising funds 11 months prior to the election and must report their intentions, district, and campaign contribution account. This falls under the California Fair Political Practices Commission guidelines and Chula Vista Municipal Code, Chapter 2.52, Campaign Contributions. The June 2022 election is open for the at-large offices the mayor and city attorney and council seats in District 1, represented by council man John McCann, and District 2’s Jill Galvez.
Mayor Mary Casillas Salas said election cycles are coming, and people will be making decisions whether, or not they want to run for city council or other positions based on the districts yet to be drawn.
Galvez said she hoped for an update prior to candidate filing in July. Assistant City Attorney Jill Maland said an update could be provided but is not sure if there will be timely information by that time.
“We are all waiting with bated breath on potential state action,” she said. “All of our colleagues are in the same position with June elections coming up. There is the possibility that the state could act under an emergency order possibly to extend the election date or take other actions.”
Anne Steinberger, Marketing and Communications manager said that the finalization of the 2020 Census report is a “moving target” due to the pandemic and brought in NDC President Douglas Johnson to give an update.
Johnson said the original deadlines for the Census Bureau was the end of March, but that they said long ago they would not make that deadline.
“We heard that we would have the data no sooner than July 31, and in a worst possible situation the date was moved to by Sept. 30,” said Johnson. “Which is obviously very late. We have a further delay because California is going to adjust for prisoners.The state is releasing prisoners and sending them back home, and we hope this goes faster, but the state is saying that it could take 30 days for that. So worst case we are looking at getting the data Oct. 30.”
Johnson said they did get one piece of news: the Census Bureau may release the final data in a “very raw format.” It would be accurate data, but not fully processed until mid to late August.
“They are looking into that format to see if they can work with that, and if so, we would get the census data mid to late August and have the state adjusted data by mid to late September,” said Johnson. “But it is good to get started on this and having everything in place to be ready to roll and do the initial rounds. We do not have to wait for that census data. We already have all the social economic data, education data, immigration data, age, income levels, renters versus homeowners. All that data we already have in hand. So, all we are waiting for from the Census Bureau is the total population. So, it will be a quick turnaround.”
Steinberger said despite the delays, obtaining the right partners to work with in redistricting is especially crucial with the moving timeline before they receive the final population data.
“A big part of the outreach program is to reach out to the community and educate, make them aware that redistricting is coming,” she said. “The Commission has talked about a hiatus until the data is released, but there are also things happening at the state level that may affect deadlines and requirements for the districting to happen that will inform the process and deadlines for the candidates in 2022. There is still a lot at play, but there is a lot that we can do to prepare the community and remind them that we are redistricting, and they can get involved, tell us about their communities of interest, provide information in the existing boundaries of our districts.”
Steinberger said it has tools for the community members to draw their own map and see how shifting a line here or there. She said that technology was not around the first time the city redistricted.
“There are a lot of things from the community outreach stance where the community can get involved and participate in the process,” she said. “When we do get the data, we can move quickly with a good foundation of outreach to start with the draft mapping. We anticipate having at least five community meetings. We have a lot of work to do this coming summer that can set the stage for the process of recommending new redistricting boundaries once the data is released.”
An abbreviated version of this story was published in The Star-News.
