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'lecember 1, 2022 7age 2 It was moved • Huffer, seconded • • and •• 5-0 to approve the Consent Calendar as presented. 11:4;1 A MZA V 4 0 111 -4 Receive information about the current demographics of the District and the process/rules for adopting division -based voting; conduct a public hearing to solicit public testimony regarding the composition of districts, especially communities of interest. Cusworth opened the Public Hearing. Smith introduced Doug Johnson, President, National Demographics Corporation, and Chris Skinnell, Partner, Nielsen, Merksamer (via zoom.) Johnson explained how the District is looking to move its election system from "at large" to "by district". He gave details of how this process will move forward and shared a PowerPoint presentation that included a timeline, as well as districting principles and a demographic summary of Thousand Oaks. Community input will be sought and considered, and maps will be drawn. Once the map is drawn, there will be a District representative(s) from each of the five areas running for election, and everyone living in each of those five areas will have an opportunity to vote for one of those representatives. Johnson stated that the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA) encourages this transition and that since 2003 many agencies have made this change. Johnson said draft maps will be brought to the meeting on December 15th for review and comment. They will be available on the District's website on Friday, December 9th. The final map will be adopted at the Board meeting on January 19th. Betsy Connolly, Thousand Oaks, Co-founder of "Conejo Together" and Board Member of "Adelante Comunidad Conejo," as well as a former Conejo Valley Unified School District Board (CVUSD) Member, expressed support for the by division election process and stated having representatives in parts of the community that haven't had a strong voice equals or outweighs the benefits of having wise, experienced directors. Chaise Rasheed, Thousand Oaks, is in favor of by division elections and believes it is inappropriate to consider the addresses of the current Directors when drawing the maps. He expressed hope that the maps are drawn in a way that respects natural boundaries and that communities of color are not diluted. Connie Tie Gutierez, Thousand Oaks, is in favor of the by division election process and requested that the map drawing be intentional and that space be held for people that are not represented on the Board of Directors.