The Sacramento City Council has placed Measure M on the ballot. Measure M, if approved, would amend the Sacramento City Charter related to the implementation of newly-adopted redistricting maps.
The measure’s effect on existing law
To comply with federal and state law, the City of Sacramento must redraw council district boundaries after each regular decennial United States Census. Under the Sacramento City Charter, the Sacramento Independent Redistricting Commission is responsible for adopting council district boundary maps. The core purpose of a council district boundary map is to establish boundaries for the City’s by-district, from-district councilmember elections.
The charter also currently provides that a newly-adopted boundary map is “effective immediately upon adoption.” Measure M would delete this general language and would insert new language to explain in more detail how a newly-adopted map gets implemented. That is, a new map is effective for use in the next-upcoming regular councilmember election, and then the election cycles that follow thereafter.
The language proposed by Measure M is substantially similar to language in the California Elections Code applicable to counties and cities.
Operation of the measure
Measure M would amend one subsection of Sacramento City Charter section 171. The amendment would delete the language that a newly-adopted map “is effective immediately upon adoption,” and would add new language to expressly state that “[a]t the first election after adoption of the final map, excluding a special election to fill a vacancy or a recall election, councilmembers shall be elected for each district under the final map that has the same district number as a district whose incumbent’s term is due to expire.”
Measure M is a clarification about map implementation. If approved, it would not affect the existing council district boundary map, nor its use in the City’s current or future election cycles.
Source: City Attorney's Impartial Analysis of Measure M
