Panel needed to redraw district lines - Application process complex

SACRAMENTO - In about two months, California will begin accepting applications for arguably the most powerful panel of ordinary citizens ever assembled in Sacramento: the voter-created, 14-member commission that will draw legislative district lines that will be in force for the decade beginning in 2012.

Who will be chosen to make those momentous political decisions? Who will apply?

“It’s a great unknown,” said Kim Alexander, president and founder of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation. “There’s never been a commission convened like this.”

The panel was established by Proposition 11 , approved by voters last November. Sponsored by Common Cause and the League of Women Voters, the initiative’s objective was to take the power to create legislative districts away from legislators and turn it over to a commission that would remove partisan political considerations from the process.

To achieve that, the initiative created a complex - convoluted, some argued at the time - process for selecting commission members.

Step One is now under way: the drafting of precise rules to carry out the initiative. The Bureau of State Audits, the impeccably nonpartisan entity selected to oversee the process, has circulated draft regulations to implement Proposition 11 and will hold a hearing Monday in Sacramento to accept public comments.

If all goes according to schedule, the rules will be finalized and the application period will open Dec. 15 and run through Feb. 12. The commission will be in place by October 2010.

But first, some questions must be settled about who will be qualified to serve. Critics of the proposed regulations say they set the bar so high it will discourage many qualified applicants from applying and eliminate many who do apply.

“If you look at the requirements, they would likely produce a pool of people close to retirement: lawyers, professors, people with a lot of background in government. It would also significantly reduce the pool of Latinos,” said redistricting expert Alan Clayton of Los Angeles, who has been involved in drawing - and, in some cases, challenging - political maps statewide and in Los Angeles County since the 1980s.

Clayton also worries that a proposed prohibition against people with “biases for or against any individuals, groups or geographical areas” would preclude anyone who has advocated for civil rights from serving on the commission.

Qualifications daunting

Among the “relevant analytical skills” applicants must possess, the regulations propose they be familiar with “sophisticated software,” be able to resolve complex problems with “factual ambiguities,” apply “appropriate legal standards” and understand “complicated statistical information.”

Alexander agrees the proposed job qualifications sound a little daunting.

“We don’t want to chase people away,” she said. “There’s a balance. You want to encourage people, but you don’t want to encourage people who can’t do the job.”

Clayton argues the balance could be struck by seeking people with demonstrated decision-making skills and then giving them access to experts who could supply the technical and legal information.

“To really know computers and have a background in law - that leaves out a lot of people,” he said. “They’ve made it so stringent it’s going to exclude some people who would be good commissioners.”

Margarita Fernandez, spokeswoman for the Bureau of State Audits, said the intent in drafting the regulations was “to try to be realistic so that people know what to expect.” She stressed the draft regulations can be changed, and if there is public concern about how they would affect the diversity of the pool of applicants “it will certainly become apparent in the public process.”

Malka Kopell, who is monitoring Proposition 11 implementation for the nonprofit group California Forward, said her group is working with civil rights and good-government organizations to get the word out encouraging qualified people to apply.

“I’m confident that there is a diverse group of qualified applicants out there,” she said. “We should get thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of qualified applicants.”

The regulations detail a selection process of dizzying complexity, starting with a lottery-like selection of a panel of “qualified independent auditors” who work for the state. This panel will screen applicants, conduct interviews and otherwise manage the commissioner-selection process.

Anyone wishing to apply must fill out an online application. If not screened out because of conflicts or other deficiencies, the applicant will then have to complete a supplemental application, which will include answering essay questions and providing information about his or her race, ethnicity, economic status, political party affiliation and voting history.

Interview for 120 finalists

All will be sorted into three pools: Democrats, Republicans and voters who are either independent or members of minor parties. Their names and information about their application will be posted online, with public scrutiny invited.

The panel of auditors will interview 120 finalists, from which 60 will be selected for submission to the Legislature. Legislative leaders can strike the names of up to 24 of the 60 candidates.

From the remaining names, a lottery will select eight commissioners. Those eight will then select the remaining six commissioners from those remaining in the final pool. The 14 commissioners will include five Democrats, five Republicans and four who are neither.

“You do really have to want to do it,” said Kopell of the requirements for the job. “This is a chance for Californians to have a say in the process.”