Poised to start the process of drawing draft district maps, the California Citizens Redistricting Commission held a business meeting finalizing details for its organized group presentations next week and set guidelines for its meetings in which it will give instructions to the line drawer for preliminary maps.

 
In order to accommodate more organized groups that registered to present regional and statewide district maps, the Commission extended the times of the meetings untill 9:00 p.m. each day.  The meetings will be held at Laney College in Oakland on Tuesday, May 24th, from 9:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. and at California State University Northridge on Thursday, May 26th from 9:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m.
 
The up-dated procedures for the organized group presentations are on-line at www.wedrawthelines.ca.gov.  The deadline has passed for groups wishing to present at next week's meetings.
 
The Commission decided that when directing line drawers for preliminary maps, when there is no consensus among Commissioners on directions to the line drawers, it will require an affirmative vote of nine of the Commissioners.
 
The Commission moved to thank the State Legislature for offering to fund software for public access to mapping which would be managed by the Commission. The Commission decided that at this late date it was impractical to take this added responsibility on.
 
The Commission decided to stay with its previous decision to continue the preparation to seek consultants to conduct an in-line process review, which will be hired by the Commission only on an as needed basis.
 
The deadline for the public to submit testimony for consideration for the first draft of preliminary maps is 5:00 p.m., Monday, May 23rd.  The public may e-mail comments to [email protected] or send by fax to 916-561-5711.