Preparing Your Testimony for the Citizens Redistricting Commission
In considering your testimony, look to answer four key questions:
- What are the geographic boundaries of the community?
Be explicit; the more specific the better. Are you defining your city, a neighborhood, or a region? Use geographic markers (a river, a mountain range, a highway) to set the boundaries of your community. Draw or mark it on a map.
- Is it advantageous to be grouped together or separately?
Is your influence strengthened if you are combined in the same district? Or is your influence best utilized split in multiple districts?
- Which communities are alike and should be joined together?
Think of the interdependencies you share from the perspective of economics and commerce; transportation; community history; infrastructure (water sheds, utility districts, school districts, disaster planning areas); shopping districts; education; and media markets as examples.
- Which communities should not be combined?
Essentially, this is the flip side of the coin above. What so distinguishes one community from another that their interests are fundamentally different and the separate populations would be better served in separate districts?
More Information
Contact
For more information, contact Cathy Mesch, CalChamber grassroots coordinator, (916) 444-6670.