Lompoc City Council seeks public input for redistricting the community

LOMPOC, Calif. – Lompoc City Council seeks public input, as part of a redistricting process for the city, and is required every 10 years. 

“The idea here is after each Census, there has to be a process of revisiting to make sure that the districts satisfy the law,” said National Demographics Corporation Consultant Daniel Phillips during Tuesday night's meeting.

The process involves drawing City Council District boundaries in a way that the community feels best represents the community. 

“The federal requirement, first and foremost, is equal population,” said Phillips. “These districts should have roughly equal amounts of people living in them.”

Currently, the city is divided into four districts. Each district must contain at least 10,100 residents, right now, all four districts are uneven with its population.

“District 3 is overpopulated and district 4 is underpopulated,” said Phillips.

Tuesday night, the city council asked the public to provide their first input on where district lines should be drawn, some don’t think new lines should be drawn yet.

“It doesn't make sense. It seems like a waste of money. It seems like it’s too soon,” said Lompoc resident Nick Nickolinco.

Others said creating a fifth district is a good idea.

“But we also include the village and the base and the school district,” said a Lompoc resident in the meeting. 

In a 5-0 vote, the city council voted to adopt a resolution that would provide funding for an agreement with National Demographics to act as demographer.

The second public input will be on July 20th.