The City Council revises Council district boundaries every ten years following the U.S. Census. Districts must be as equal in population as is practicable. The 2010 Census data will be released on or about April 1, 2011, Council must complete the redistricting process within six months of the release of the Census “block data” figures for the June 2012 election.

It is estimated that the 2010 census will show that the City’s population has grown from 407,000 to 470,000. District 1 in particular is expected to be 40,000 people over its pro-rata share. Given the anticipated significance of change to existing districts, the City needs to insure clear communication, encourage widespread participation, and provide tools and information to facilitate understanding throughout the process. To that end, on February 8, 2011, the City Council adopted a resolution approving a Sacramento Redistricting Citizens Advisory Committee (SRCAC) that will represent the diversity of Sacramento. The SRCAC’s purposes are to review, organize, analyze, and refine the redistricting proposals submitted to the City, as well as to recommend to the City Council preferred redistricting. The SRCAC will advise but not replace the Council’s responsibility for the final selection and adoption of district boundaries. The committee will be composed of thirteen-members. On March 8, 2011, the Mayor and each councilmember will announce their selected candidate. After that date, the remaining four (4) members will be appointed through the usual Personnel and Public Employee (P&PE) nomination process.

Public participation will be encouraged at the SRCAC meetings. Additionally, City staff has prepared a redistricting website at www.cityofsacramento.org/redistricting/ . The site is designed to provide general information, updates, and access to relevant redistricting data. Currently the site includes a high level description of redistricting, maps, and links to downloadable geographic (GIS) data such as 2009 population estimates. The website will continue to expand and will include more information, maps, and data as they become available.

The city held four community meetings in February about the redistricting process. Committee and Community meetings will be held again in April after the release of the final census data. Additional meetings will be held in May to answer technical and logistical questions and members of the public will be asked to submit their proposal to the Planning Department for review sometime in May. In June the City Council will be asked to select proposals for staff analysis. Then, in beginning in late July and through August, Council meetings will be held to discuss and ultimately approve boundaries in September.