The city of Santa Maria will be holding the final two of four public hearings in March to receive input on how councilmembers’ electoral district lines should be drawn and in selecting the next election district maps for the City Council. The meetings will take place on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. and Tuesday, March 15, at 6 p.m. Both meetings will take place at Minami Community Center, 600 West Enos Drive.
Three draft maps have been prepared by the city’s consultant, National Demographics Corporation. These maps, Plan A, Plan B, and a Quadrant Map, along with detailed demographic information for each map, are posted to the City’s redistricting website for consideration by the public and the City Council, and can be accessed at https://cityofsantamaria.org/redistrictingmaps.
To participate and make your voice heard, attend the public hearings in-person and/or email your comments including suggested draft maps to redistricting@cityofsantamaria.org. Emailed communications and map submissions must be received by 2:00 p.m. on the day of the hearing in order to be timely viewed by the City Council. Additionally, you may call in on the night of the public hearing with your comments to the City Council at (805) 361-9505 or toll-free at 1-(866) 789-1117.
All four of these City Council meetings are being held in community centers throughout the city to facilitate participation. Due to the offsite locations of these meetings, live broadcasting of the hearings will not be available on the City’s YouTube Live Channel or on Comcast Cable Channel 23. Additionally, Zoom will not be offered for these offsite meetings. A video recording will be made of each hearing and posted to the meetings portal and on the City’s redistricting webpage the following day. Spanish interpretation will be provided in-person.
A webpage on the City’s redistricting process will be maintained and can be viewed at: www.cityofsantamaria.org/redistricting. The webpage can be translated into Spanish by clicking the En Español option at the top of the webpage.
The current City Council Districts and maps can be viewed at https:/cityofsantamaria.org/home/showdocument?id=22187
Questions may be directed to the Records/City Clerk Division, (805) 925-0951 extension 2307.
email: kzehnder@newspress.com
