City approves $450K for redistricting panel
San Diego’s nine-member redistricting panel plans to spend $450,000 over the next two years redrawing the boundaries of the city’s nine City Council council districts so they are balanced by population and reflect recent demographic changes.
The proposed budget, which the City Council approved Tuesday, includes $198,411 in the ongoing fiscal year and $252,517 in the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2021.
Much of the money will cover the salary and benefits of the panel’s chief of staff, who has not been chosen.
The chief of staff will receive an annual salary of $110,000 and benefits that will cost the city $35,000 per year. Total estimated costs for the chief of staff are $218,000 over roughly 18 months.
The budget also includes $180,000 for consulting, mapping, legal services and translations. Another $32,000 is expected to be spent on advertising, postage, printing and transportation.
The once-a-decade redistricting effort is expected to include several public hearings. The new boundary lines will be based on data from the 2020 U.S. Census. The panel must complete its work within nine months of receiving that data, which is expected sometime next year.
The volunteer panel was selected in September by three retired judges, who chose from 103 applicants. Each member represents one of San Diego’s nine council districts.
The panel includes three attorneys, an educator, a retired fire chief, an economist, a fiduciary accountant, a nonprofit official and a former school board member. The members are Valentine Hoy, District 1; Frederick Kosmo, District 2; William MacPhail, District 3; Ken Malbrough, District 4; Alan Nevin, District 5; Mitz Lee, District 6; Justine Nielsen, District 7; Monica Hernandez, District 8; and Thomas Hebrank, District 9.
Federal law requires that differences in population between the largest district and the smallest district be at most 4.9 percent. Redistricting ensures that the city complies with that.
The redistricting process is expected to be less turbulent than in 2010, when a redistricting commission had to expand the number of council districts from eight to nine.