2020 Transition to By-District Elections

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Welcome to the Districting Page for the City of Oroville!

Oroville's City Council in undergoing a districting process in which Oroville's City Council will transition from at-large elections to by-district elections, meaning that city council members will have to live in the district they represent and voters residing in each district will elect their respective council member. Oroville will continue to have six City Council members and a mayor who will be elected by all voters in the City.

We need your help!

The City Council would like to hear from all residents of Oroville about where the district boundaries should be drawn. In order to enable everyone to participate, the Council has decided to implement a transparent process consisting of public input hearings at which feedback will be collected. Residents will also be able to communicate with the City’s districting team by sending input by email, regular mail, or dropping off input at the City Clerk’s office at City Hall. The interactive map on this website is designed to provide information about the geography of the city, and will incorporate public input and potential maps of the districts as those are developed. This webpage will serve as the portal to all news about Oroville's districting process and handouts, documents, and other important info will be available here; Please check back for updates!

Our districting criteria:

All electoral districts have to be drawn using specific criteria to comply with the state and federal constitutions, state law, and the federal Voting Rights Act.
Most important are criteria one and two:

Equal population (Districts must roughly contain the same number of residents counted in the last census), and
Compliance with the Federal Voting Rights Act

Other districting criteria include Contiguity, Compactness and Respect for Communities of Interest (which may be neighborhoods or other areas in which people share a common interest important to the Council districts). We will provide information about how these criteria are defined in the hearings and on this website. The most important criterion on which the council will need your help with is where Communities of Interest are located in the City. If you would like to provide information about your Community of Interest, please use the COI Form linked below.

Timeline:

Hearings will be held at City Hall on the following dates:

Tuesday, January 21, 2020 at 5:30 pm
Tuesday, February 4, 2020 at 5:30 pm
Tuesday, March 3, 2020 at 5:30 pm
Tuesday, March 17, 2020 at 5:30 pm
A 5th hearing date will be announced soon

Process:

The public hearings are designed to be as accessible and transparent as possible. During the first two hearings (on January 21 and February 4, 2020) members of the public will be able to provide input on the district composition before any draft maps are developed. The City attorney along with the City’s demographer will present residents with an overview of the districting process and explain the applicable criteria.

At the third hearing, on March 3, the demographer will present one or more working draft maps that will be developed based on input received at the first two meetings. The City Council will review the working draft(s) of the district map(s) during the meeting, and give direction to the demographer on how to modify the draft(s), which will be done live and in public.

The Council will meet twice more to discuss the draft map.

On March 17, 2020, and again at a final meeting (date TBD), Oroville City Council will hold public readings of the ordinance to put the district election into effect and to vote on adoption of the ordinance for the by-district election system and district boundaries.

Links & Documents:

Resolution No. 8823 - Expressing the City Council's Intention, Pursuant to Elections Code Section 10010, To Initiate Procedures for Establishing and Implementing By-District Elections for Council Members.

Notice of Public Hearings - Four Public Hearings Scheduled

Interactive Districting Informational Map - Interactive Map Instructions

Understanding COIs

COI Form

How to create a COI map using Google Maps

Hearing Presentation - from 1/21/2020 Oroville City Council Meeting

Districting Glossary

Frequently Asked Questions

Participation Map

Oroville Asian Citizen Voting Age Population Map

Oroville Black Citizen Voting Age Population Map

Oroville Latino Citizen Voting Age Population Map