The Lodi City Council approved new districts for City Council elections this past Wednesday. This map will be effective until the next Census.
During the Lodi City Council meeting on the evening of April 6, 2022, the Council discussed and voted on the new map outlining City Council districts based on the 2020-2021 Census data. Obviously, due to the COVID pandemic the Census data and redistricting was delayed. A deadline of April 17, 2022 was given to approve a new map.
Watch the entire Lodi City Council Meeting for April 6, 2022 here.
Three previous redistricting meetings were held, and the April 6th meeting was the fourth of four required meetings. Very little citizen input was given during these meetings, and only one citizen map was submitted, according to the City Council. The citizen map did not meet the requirement of outlining a district with 51% Latino citizen voting age population. Additional requirements were given, which are shown in the image below.
All districts are required to have a population deviation of 10% or less. Population deviation is the difference between the most populous and the least populous districts.
Four maps were presented during this final meeting. The “Yellow Map” was preferred by all four present members of the City Council: Vice Mayor Mikey Hothi, Council Member Alan Nakanishi, Council Member Doug Kuehne, and Council Member Shak Khan. Mayor Mark Chandler was absent from the meeting. This new map was chosen because it met the redistricting rules and goals outlined above, has a population deviation of 8.77%, and has the least changes from the previous districts.
City Council Districts 1, 2, and 3 are up for election this November 2022, and two of the three incumbents will not run for re-election. Districts 4 and 5 will be up for election in 2024. Additional statistics for these new districts are outlined in the images below. Click on the images to zoom-in in another window.
