ESCONDIDO — The Escondido City Council heard an update last week on the city and county’s redistricting process, which has been ongoing for several months.
Every 10 years, after the federal census, city councils, school boards and other public agencies that use the district voting system redraw their boundaries to balance the district populations and reflect demographic changes.
Councilmember Mike Morasco expressed his opposition to the draft maps that were proposed by the San Diego County Independent Redistricting Commission on Nov. 1 regarding San Diego County redistricting.
“Some of the proposals align the City of Escondido with the City of Coronado and the City of La Jolla as part of the same district, and even though I love those areas, I don’t know how the City of Escondido has commonality with them,” Morasco said.
Morasco added that he will be sending a letter to the commission expressing his opinion of the draft map. Councilmember Consuelo Martinez indicated that she has already sent her own letter to the commission.
“My thing was ensuring that the North County cities of the 78 Corridor stay together… that’s what I have lifted up in my testimony, so I invite the community to participate,” Martinez said.
Councilmembers Tina Inscoe and Joe Garcia also strongly encouraged Escondido residents to participate and share their input on the redistricting process.
The city’s redistricting process is currently in its public outreach phase, which involves raising awareness about the process among the community. The commission has also received recently released census data and will soon share their first draft map.
Census data show Escondido’s population has grown from about 144,000 to 152,000 over the past decade. Each redrawn council district, therefore, will have a population target of 37,879, said Jane Hood at the Oct. 27 meeting.
According to Hood, District 1 has lost about 7% in population, District 2 has gained 7%, and Districts 3 and 4 have remained roughly the same.
In January and February, the commission will hold a series of public hearings throughout the city to discuss potential redistricting maps, resulting in a final map that must be forwarded to the City Council for approval by April 15.
Escondido uses a seven-member Independent Redistricting Commission for this process. Three retired judges appointed the commission’s members based on racial, geographic, social and ethnic diversity in November 2020.
Escondido residents are encouraged to provide input about their communities by attending one of the commission’s public hearings or by reaching out to the commission directly at https://www.escondido.org/independent-districting.aspx.
