CITRUS HEIGHTS, CA (MPG) - On March 10, the Citrus Heights City Council held the third public hearing in the redistricting process for their election districts map.

Although the Council just selected the current map in 2018 when the City transitioned to district-based elections, the redistricting process must be conducted again after the release of the new 2020 census data to ensure that the map meets all legal requirements.

Major requirements include compact and contiguous districts that have roughly equal populations, with no more than a 10% differential between the most populated and least populated districts. The City’s current map is still legally viable, since the population differential is just under 6%.

The purpose of the third hearing was to get input from the community before the Council voted on a draft map, but there were no public comments offered during the meeting. However, the City also held a Community Workshop on March 3, 2022, that was attended by five community members, all of whom supported maintaining the current district map.

Councilmember Jeannie Bruins said, “I am heavily in favor of leaving our districts as they are. We are well within the boundaries of the law on all levels. … I think it would be in the best interest of our community to have stability, and so I favor leaving the districts as they are for this census track.”  

Vice Mayor Tim Schaefer agreed that keeping the current districts “offers a lot more continuity than the confusion that will come from changing the districts at this point.”

The City Council voted unanimously to maintain the current district map. A final vote to adopt the map will be held at a public hearing at the March 24 meeting.