Solano County supervisors to mull redistricting

Melissa Murphy
The Reporter
April 12, 2011

More people live in Solano County and district lines must change to reflect the population growth.

Results from the April 1, 2010, census show that 18,802 more people live within Solano County than 10 years ago. In 2000, 394,542 people lived in the county and that number is now 413,344.

With the new information, the county is required to adjust its Supervisorial District boundaries to reflect the outcome of the census.

Today, the board of supervisors will receive a report on the results from the census and consider moving forward with the redistricting process.

A contract for $49,000 was initiated by the county administrator for consulting services with Stewardship & Planning Inc.

To determine a desirable mean population for each of the five districts, staff has divided the population of the county by five, which results in 82,669 people in each district.

"By making adjustments to district boundaries in 2011 to bring each district closer to the ideal mean population, there will be less likelihood that more dramatic boundary changes will be required in 2021," according to staff.

Districts 1, 2 and 4 represented by Supervisor Barbara Kondylis, Supervisor Linda Seifert and Supervisor John Vasquez respectively will have to gain additional population in order to achieve the mean.

Meanwhile, Districts 3 and 5, represented by Supervisor Jim Spering and Supervisor Mike Reagan respectively will have to shed population in order to achieve the mean.

Also up for consideration by the board is whether or not prisoners should be included in total population cost for the purpose of determining district boundaries.

Historically, prisoners have been included in total population counts for Solano County and staff recommends continuing with that practice.

The Solano County Board of Supervisors meets at 9 a.m. in the County Government Center, 675 Texas St., Fairfield.