SJ RESIDENT WILL HELP DRAW DISTRICTS - LEGISLATIVE BOUNDARY TEAM HAS JUST ONE FROM VALLEY

J.N. Sbranti
The Modesto Bee
December 18, 2010

San Joaquin County resident Michelle R. DiGuilio-Matz was confirmed Wednesday as one of the 14 Californians who will redraw the state's legislative boundaries.

Nearly 30,000 people applied for a spot on the Citizens Redistricting Commission. DiGuilio-Matz, a mother of four from Stockton, is the only San Joaquin Valley resident to make it.

The slate of commissioners appears to be a fairly representative cross- section of California's population. It includes five Democrats, five Republicans and four people unaffiliated with any party, including DiGuilio-Matz.

Four of the commissioners are from Los Angeles County, and one each is from San Joaquin, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Yolo, Alameda, San Diego, Orange, Ventura and Riverside counties.

Because 27 percent of California residents live in Los Angeles County, having four of the 14 commissioners from there is demographically justified.

The citizens commission will work most of 2011 to establish new boundaries for California's Senate, Assembly, Board of Equalization and U.S. House of Representative districts.

The lines previously were drawn by politicians, but California voters stripped lawmakers of the power to "gerrymander" their own districts. Proposition 11 in 2008 and Proposition 20 last month transferred all reapportionment duties to a citizens commission.

It will determine boundaries based primarily on 2010 census population counts, which will be released in a couple of months. The new legislative districts must distribute the population evenly, be geographically contiguous and avoid violating the U.S. Voting Rights Act.

DiGuilio-Matz has credentials considered well suited to the task. She holds a master's degree in community planning and a bachelor's degree in environmental studies and communications.

She was a program assistant for the Modesto-based Great Valley Center, a management analyst at the San Joaquin County Human Services Agency, a director for University of the Pacific's Anderson Y Center and a member of Stockton's Community Development Committee.

DiGuilio-Matz is a California native of Italian descent. In her application for the commission, she detailed her analytical skills, impartiality and appreciation for the state's demographic, geographic and social diversity.

She is among three whites on the commission. The others include four Asian Americans, three Latinos, two blacks, one Pacific Islander and one American Indian.