CHICO — The city of Chico has officially released the newly-hired city demographer’s suggested district maps. The maps will be discussed by the council at a public hearing Jan. 7.

There are six maps, each maintaining a seven-member city council. That decision comes despite multiple public hearings during which residents repeatedly asked the council to consider a high number of seats with the influx of residents created by the Camp Fire.

The city must establish districts with nearly equal proportions, and that are consistent with the Federal Voting Rights Act and state law, under threat of legal action by a local resident.

The city must create districts that are contiguous and do not consider race or incumbency, among other considerations, as a primary interest. But those factors can be considered as one of many.

The City Council directed new city demographer Michael Wagaman on its top priorities for drawing the maps at its Dec. 10 meeting. The council said its priorities for Wagaman’s draft maps were to keep established neighborhoods intact and identify normal demarcation points — like geographical features, highways and major roads. Mayor Randall Stone specifically, told Wagaman that maintaining incumbency was ranked last among his priorities.

The six maps are coded Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Purple. If you overlay the approximate home addresses of the current city councilors over the top, which is public information provided by the city, there are a few areas of the maps that are noteworthy.

In all but one of those maps — Yellow — incumbent city councilors are each in their own district. The Yellow map places Stone and Vice Mayor Alex Brown both in District 4.

Moreover, in maps Orange, Green, Blue and Purple, a small neighborhood northeast of Nord Avenue is carved out, often in conjunction with the area that would be District 5.

That neighborhood? That’s where Stone just moved to.

Stone says the move was a decision to accommodate his growing, young family that was delayed until recently by the Camp Fire.

If that neighborhood was placed with District 4 instead, Stone and Brown would have to run against each other for that district in four out of six scenarios.

And in the Red map, it’s not Stone’s neighborhood that’s carved out, it’s Brown’s — by a block.

So in five out of the six maps, Stone and Brown’s residences are either right on, or very near to, the district line. Councilor Ann Schwab, too, is often placed on the northernmost line of District 7.

Councilor Sean Morgan, who is up for reelection, is always placed in District 1 by himself. Schwab, also up for reelection in 2020, is always placed in District 7. Councilor Karl Ory, who has stated he will not seek reelection after his term is up, is placed variously with councilors Scott Huber or Kasey Reynolds in various proposed districts.

On the Orange map, it seems as though the urban neighborhood where Reynolds is identified as living is included in the much larger District 6, which encompasses all of Bidwell Park and all of eastern Highway 32, up to southeast of the Chico Municipal Airport. Related Articles First weeks running Paradise demonstrate emergency readiness, new town manager says

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Stone said he would find the map lines more of a problem if he and Brown were running in the same election — but Stone is up for reelection in 2020 and Brown isn’t until 2022. And the maps will need to be redrawn once data from the 2020 census is made available anyway.

“I see far greater priority placed on the uniqueness of the neighborhoods,” he said. “(Brown) will run in 2022 with a totally different district map.”

But, he added, on first glance, it does “seem like (Wagaman) has placed an emphasis on incumbency.”

Wagaman, the city demographer, would not comment on the maps’ content until he briefs the council on his work, but said that the “maps were put together based on direction from council.”

Further public hearings will be held on Jan. 7 and 21, and any new or revised draft maps will be made available on Jan. 14.

The vote to adopt the proposed ordinance and the first reading will be Feb. 4 and the final reading and adoption will be Feb. 11.

Any action after Feb. 11 — which is also the 90-day deadline from the council’s adoption of a resolution of intent on Nov. 12 — would be in violation of the California Voting Rights Act of 2001 and could potentially cost Chico millions of dollars in legal fees.