Goleta presented a new online mapping tool created for the process of changing how voters elect its four City Council members starting next year.
City officials held a 50-minute public workshop via Zoom on Monday, providing people the opportunity to learn about, offer suggestions for and participate in the district elections process.
The public workshop marked the first of several that Goleta officials plan to host regarding education on the process to switch to district-based elections and gather input on potential communities for drawing district maps.
“In this process, we have to follow certain rules and criteria in order to maintain compliance with federal and state law,” said Daniel Phillips, a consultant at National Demographics Corp.
Beginning in November 2022, council members will be elected by district instead of citywide voting.
Under district representation, Goleta will be split into four districts, and Goleta voters in each district will elect a City Council member who lives in their district.
The mayor will continue to be elected citywide, according to officials.
City residents are encouraged to share their thoughts and create proposed maps as well as explore potential communities of interest on a recently created website by the National Demographics Corp.
The website includes maps showing U.S. Census boundaries, citizen voting age population by race and ethnicity, and other demographics, including areas with household incomes of $75,000 or higher.
In addition to the online tool, people can submit their maps of neighborhoods and communities of interest via paper or in Microsoft Excel.
“Whether you use the powerful online mapping tool, Excel, the paper kit or just drawn a napkin,” Phillips said, “we welcome your maps.”
Click here to view the city’s new district elections website.
A primary goal when drawing Goleta City Council districts is keeping neighborhoods together and keeping communities of interest together, which are geographic areas with shared social or economic interest.
Examples of physical features defining a neighborhood boundary include natural dividing lines, such as major roads or highways, rivers, hills or canals, as well as areas around schools or parks, and other landmarks, Phillips said.
“We want to figure out what the neighborhoods are to make sure that we can keep them in one district, and not divide them to the extent possible,” Phillips said.
Maps also must have a similar number of residents, with each of the four districts containing about 7,500 people, Phillips said.
Sparked to make the switch under the threat of litigation, the Goleta City Council in 2017 passed a resolution to move to district elections for the four council seats rather than at-large.
The City Attorney’s Office recommended that Goleta make the transition, mostly because of the cost of fighting a California Voting Rights Act lawsuit in court.
Other cities in Santa Barbara County have faced the same threat alleging California Voting Rights Act violations and replaced the system of at-large citywide elections.
Goleta will be holding in-person public workshops focused on district elections in the upcoming weeks.
The next public workshop is scheduled for 11 a.m. June 26 in the board room at the Goleta Union School District, 401 N. Fairview Ave., and at 6 p.m. Aug. 2, but officials have not yet determined a location. Spanish translation will be provided at the workshops.
“All of these hearings are to spread the word,” said Doug Johnson, president of National Demographics Corp.
Assistant City Manager Kristy Schmidt said that “representation is at the heart of city government, and in our democracy, so it’s hard to overestimate the importance of the public’s role in drawing our electoral districts.”
The city will hold a public hearing to gather “input regarding the composition of the districts” before drawing draft maps, and to identify and vote on neighborhoods and communities of interest to keep together in one district during a regular Goleta City Council meeting in mid-August.
The city will establish its district boundaries using data from the 2020 census findings, and initial draft maps will be posted after official state-adjusted census data become available. The data are expected to be available in mid-August, with the state-adjusted official redistricting data slated for September or October.
“There will be a chance to work with some estimated data before that,” Phillips said. “But once the official census data comes in, there’ll be official maps that can be drawn.”
Jan. 14 is the initial deadline for the public to submit draft maps, with the initial maps set to release on Jan. 25 on the city’s website.
Hearings to review the draft maps and to discuss the election sequence are planned during regular Goleta City Council meetings in February.
In March, the Goleta City Council will adopt a final map at a regularly scheduled council meeting, and the final map must be posted at least seven days before adoption.
A handful of residents participated during the workshop Monday, including Old Town resident Alison Tamminga.
Tamminga said that Old Town Goleta is “a very mixed neighborhood,” adding, “I think this will be a very interesting process.”
In the chat function on Zoom, a resident asked if the data potentially relevant to identifying communities of interest or neighborhoods in Goleta will include undocumented residents.
“In the census total population data, yes,” the consultant replied. “The census charges to count all people in a given jurisdiction, and that’s how the total population figures are counted.”
Two seats on the Goleta City Council (to represent districts) will be picked in the 2022 election. The terms of Councilman Roger Aceves and Councilman James Kyriaco are set to expire in 2022, according to the city’s website.
In 2020, Paula Perotte was re-elected to a four-year term as mayor.
— Noozhawk staff writer Brooke Holland can be reached at bholland@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
