Around 30 community members showed up to Goleta’s first in-person public redistricting workshop on Saturday morning and were introduced to various map-drawing tools as the city prepares to transition to the by-district election system in 2022.
Starting next year, Goleta will be divided into four districts, with one City Council member elected by voters in each one, and the mayor will continue to be elected by voters across the city.
The by-district election system requires that City Council members live within the district they are representing, and can only be elected by residents of that same district, said Daniel Phillips, a consultant from National Demographics Corporation.
As part of the transition process, Goleta is conducting three workshops so the public can participate in the map-drawing process and give input on how the city should be divided.
While official 2020 U.S. Census data is not expected to be released until August, the public does not have to wait for those numbers to draw draft maps, Phillips said.
National Demographics Corporation has estimated population numbers to use in the meantime.
“You have the ability to use that estimated data to draw your own maps before the official census data comes out,” Phillips said. “Even though we, your consultants, will be drawing our own maps, we definitely encourage and want public submissions.”
“Oftentimes we prefer that the final adopted map is a public submission because you the public know your city the best.”
Each district should have roughly equal populations, be geographically contiguous, not divide neighborhoods or communities of interest, and have easily identifiable boundaries, Phillips said.
The maps should not discriminate against a political party or dilute marginalized communities, he added.
With an estimated population of 31,000 residents, each of the four districts within Goleta should have roughly 7,800 residents, according to Phillips.
There are various online and paper tools that allow residents to begin drawing maps of neighborhoods, communities of interest, or full district maps. Once the official census data is released, residents can amend their maps, Phillips said.
Residents can use Goleta’s StoryMap for mapped data potentially relevant to identifying communities of interest, such as school attendance boundaries, census boundaries, Board of Supervisors districts, airport noise contours, and city zoning.
The StoryMap also allows residents to look at voting age populations by race and ethnicity, education level, and income.
Latino residents are the biggest protected class ethnicity within the city, Phillips said, and current data shows that neighborhoods with the most voting-eligible Latino residents are in Old Town Goleta and parts of the northwest and southwest residential areas.
It also shows that voting-eligible white residents are predominant throughout much of the city, and there are no significant concentrations of voting-eligible Asian or Black residents, he said.
Paper-only maps in both English and Spanish will also be available for residents without internet access. Residents can use the paper maps to draw neighborhood or district plans, and use a calculator to add up population totals, Phillips said.
There is an additional option of using paper maps with a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to calculate population totals. The paper maps show an identification number that can be put into the spreadsheet to calculate population totals. The spreadsheet will show if the proposed districts are balanced, Phillips said.
District R, a powerful map-drawing database, will be available soon for residents to utilize. This tool allows residents to circle a neighborhood or area to draw boundaries and districts, and calculates population values automatically, Phillips said.
All of the tools will soon be available to residents on drawgoleta.org.
The next in-person workshop is scheduled for Aug. 2 at 6 p.m. at the City Hall Council Chambers, at 130 Cremona Drive, Suite B.
Goleta is one of the many local cities changing to district elections for its City Council members. The city also created a Public Engagement Committee to try and increase resident participation in government.
Santa Barbara was the first city in the county to make the change and has held three district-based elections.
— Noozhawk staff writer Jade Martinez-Pogue can be reached at jmartinez-pogue@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
