(a) The board shall take steps to encourage residents, including those in underrepresented communities and non-English speaking communities, to participate in the redistricting public review process. These steps shall include a good faith effort to do all of the following:
(1) Providing information to media organizations that provide county news coverage, including media organizations that serve language minority communities.
(2) Providing information through good government, civil rights, civic engagement, and community groups or organizations that are active in the county, including those active in language minority communities, and those that have requested to be notified concerning county redistricting.
(b) The board shall arrange for the live translation in an applicable language of a public hearing or workshop held pursuant to this chapter if a request for translation is made at least 72 hours before the hearing or workshop, unless less than five days’ notice are provided for the hearing or workshop, in which case the request shall be made at least 48 hours before the hearing or workshop.
(c) Notwithstanding Section 54954.2 of the Government Code, the board shall publish the date, time, and location for any public hearing or workshop on the internet at least five days before the hearing or workshop. However, if there are fewer than 28 days until the deadline to adopt boundaries, the board may publish the agenda on the internet for at least three days before the hearing or workshop.
(d) (1) A draft map shall be published on the internet for at least seven days before being adopted as a final map by the board provided that, if there are fewer than 28 days until the deadline to adopt boundaries, the draft map may instead be published on the internet for at least three days.
(2) Each draft map prepared by a member of the board or by employees or contractors of the county shall be accompanied by information on the total population, citizen voting age population, and racial and ethnic characteristics of the citizen voting age population of each proposed supervisorial district, to the extent the county has that data.
(3) (A) The board and employees or contractors of the county shall not release draft maps of supervisorial districts earlier than three weeks after the block-level redistricting database required by subdivision (b) of Section 8253 of the Government Code is first made publicly available. This subparagraph does not prohibit the board from holding public hearings or workshops on the placement of supervisorial district boundaries before the earliest date that draft maps of supervisorial districts may be released.
(B) If the period of time between the date that the redistricting database is made publicly available and the map adoption deadline is fewer than 90 days and more than 59 days, then the waiting period required by subparagraph (A) is reduced to one week. If the period of time between the date that the redistricting database is made publicly available and the map adoption deadline is fewer than 60 days, then the waiting period required by subparagraph (A) is waived.
(e) The board shall allow the public to submit testimony or draft maps in writing and electronically.
(f) The county shall either record or prepare a written summary of each public comment and board deliberation made at every public hearing or workshop held pursuant to this article. The county shall make the recording or written summary available to the public within two weeks after the public hearing or workshop.
(g) The board shall establish, and maintain for at least 10 years after the adoption of new supervisorial district boundaries, an internet web page dedicated to redistricting. The web page may be hosted on the county’s existing internet website or another internet website maintained by the county. The web page shall include, or link to, all of the following information:
(1) A general explanation of the redistricting process for the county, in English and applicable languages.
(2) The procedures for a member of the public to testify during a public hearing or to submit written testimony directly to the board, in English and applicable languages.
(3) A calendar of all public hearing and workshop dates. A calendar listing that includes the time and location of the public hearing or workshop satisfies the notice required by subdivision (c).
(4) The notice and agenda for each public hearing and workshop.
(5) The recording or written summary of each public hearing and workshop.
(6) Each draft map considered by the board at a public hearing.
(7) The adopted final map of supervisorial district boundaries.
(h) For purposes of this section, “applicable language” means any language in which ballots are required to be provided in the county pursuant to Section 203 of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. Sec. 10503).
(i) This section does not apply when a county transitions from at-large to district-based elections.
(j) Before January 1, 2021, and before January in each year ending in the number one thereafter, the Secretary of State shall publish on the internet a template explaining the county redistricting process that meets the requirements of paragraphs (1) and (2), inclusive, of subdivision (g). The Secretary of State shall publish the template in all of the languages into which ballots are required to be translated in the state pursuant to Section 203 of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. Sec. 10503). The template shall be published in a conspicuous location on the Secretary of State’s internet website.
(Amended by Stats. 2020, Ch. 90, Sec. 6. (AB 1276) Effective January 1, 2021.)