(a) The council 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 city 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 city, including those active in language minority communities, and those that have requested to be notified concerning city redistricting.
(b) The council shall arrange for the live translation in an applicable language of a public hearing or workshop held pursuant to this article 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 council 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 council 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 council 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 council or by employees or contractors of the city 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 council district, to the extent the city has that data.
(3) (A) The council and employees or contractors of the city shall not release draft maps of council 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 council from holding public hearings or workshops on the placement of council district boundaries before the earliest date that draft maps of council 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, 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 council shall allow the public to submit testimony or draft maps in writing and electronically.
(f) The city shall either record or prepare a written summary of each public comment and council deliberation made at every public hearing or workshop held pursuant to this article. The city shall make the recording or written summary available to the public within two weeks after the public hearing or workshop.
(g) The council shall establish, and maintain for at least 10 years after the adoption of new council district boundaries, an internet web page dedicated to redistricting. The web page may be hosted on the city’s existing internet website or another internet website maintained by the city. The web page shall include, or link to, all of the following information:
(1) A general explanation of the redistricting process for the city 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 council in English and any applicable language.
(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 council at a public hearing.
(7) The adopted final map of council district boundaries.
(h) For purposes of this section, “applicable language” means any language that is spoken by a group of city residents with limited English proficiency who constitute 3 percent or more of the city’s total population over four years of age for whom language can be determined. Before January 1, 2021, and before January 1 in every year ending in the number one thereafter, the Secretary of State shall post the applicable languages for each city in a conspicuous location on the Secretary of State’s internet website. To determine the applicable languages for each city, in 2020 and in each year ending in the number zero thereafter, the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Statewide Database, shall request a special tabulation from the United States Bureau of the Census of the most recent data on limited English proficiency from the bureau’s American Community Survey that satisfies this subdivision. If the bureau is unable to produce that data, the Secretary of State shall base the Secretary of State’s determination on the table from the American Community Survey enumerating the number of residents with limited English proficiency that has the largest number of languages included, that is publicly available, and that was produced within the previous ten years.
(i) This section does not apply when a city 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 city 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 subdivision (h). The template shall be published in the same conspicuous location on the Secretary of State’s internet website that is described in subdivision (h).
(Amended by Stats. 2020, Ch. 90, Sec. 15. (AB 1276) Effective January 1, 2021.)