Commission looks at new boundaries

Brian Bullock
Santa Maria Times
April 12, 2011

Look up the definition of “gerrymandering” — the practice of drawing district boundaries to enhance the power of a political party — in the dictionary, and you might find the map of a Central Coast assembly or senate district.

This week, California is beginning a process to draw up “non-partisan” district boundaries with the first public hearings held by the California Citizens Redistricting Commission.

The first meeting in Region 5, which includes San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, is Wednesday from 6 to 9 p.m. in the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors chambers, 1055 Monterey St. in San Luis Obispo.

The commission was formed after voters passed Proposition 11 in 2008 and Proposition 20 in 2010, which transferred authority of establishing district boundaries from elected representatives to an independent commission.

Prop 11 included the state senate, assembly and Board of Equalization redistricting. Prop 20 added congressional districts to the process.

The 14-member commission was selected from 5,000 applicants, and is made up of five Republicans, five Democrats and four not affiliated with either party. It’s charged with redrawing California’s 80 assembly districts, 40 senate districts, 53 congressional districts and the state Board of Equalization boundaries.

The process includes a series of public meetings — in each of nine regions — during which the commission will accept public comment. A second round of public meetings is scheduled for June following the release and review of the first draft maps. A third round of meetings will begin in July after the second draft map is released and reviewed.

Final district maps and reports will be released July 28, and the maps must be certified and forwarded to the secretary of state by Aug. 15.

The Central Coast features some of the most gerrymandered districts in the state — some stretching hundreds of miles over several counties.

The 23rd Congressional District, Lois Caps (D-Santa Barbara) snakes along the coast from the northern San Luis Obispo county line to Port Hueneme, including portions of three counties.

Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Bakersfield) 22nd Congressional District includes portions of San Luis Obispo, Kern and Los Angeles counties.

The 19th Senate District, represented by Tony Strickland (R-Thousand Oaks), contains parts of three counties — Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles — reaching from Orcutt south to Thousand Oaks and east to Santa Clarita.

The 15th Senate District, represented by Sam Blakeslee (R-San Luis Obispo), includes portions of five counties — Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Santa Cruz and Santa Clara — and stretches from Santa Maria all the way to a tiny portion of San Jose.

The 33rd Assembly District of Katcho Achadjian (R-Arroyo Grande) is the most cohesive and compact of the local districts, including all of San Luis Obispo County and northern Santa Barbara County to Lompoc and Los Alamos.

Das Williams (D-Santa Barbara) represents the 35th Assembly District, which includes Santa Barbara County from Santa Ynez south and a portion of Ventura County — all of Ventura, El Rio and approximately half of Oxnard.

“Most politicians dread redistricting,” Williams said. “I’m one of the folks who supported Prop 11.”

Williams, who defeated former Santa Barbara County Supervisor Mike Stoker in the Nov. 2 general election, said he thinks his district’s boundaries are a “disservice” to citizens of both Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

Stoker also thinks the 35th district should be reconfigured, but his idea is to include all of Santa Barbara County, not just the lower half. It’s an idea he intends to deliver to the commission.

The Buellton-based land-use attorney said he will run for the Assembly office again next year if the district’s new boundaries include all of Santa Barbara County.

“Right now, the current 35th district is really a bad district. People from both Santa Barbara and Ventura county are not well represented by it,” the outspoken Stoker said.

How the districts are redrawn will be based on new 2010 census information and specific criteria laid out by the two propositions that California voters passed, according to Commissioner Michelle DiGuilio.

She said none the criteria includes political opinion.

The districts will: have roughly equal populations; comply with the federal Voting Rights Act; be contiguous; respect county, city, community and neighborhood boundaries where possible; be compact where practicable; and nest within each other, meaning each senate district would contain two assembly districts.

With those criteria in mind, the commission is starting from scratch.

“I think we’re all kind of upset with how things have been done and how things are going on right now,” said DiGuilio, a mother of four from Stockton who holds a master’s degree in urban and regional planning. “I think with this commission, our goal is to draw fair and representative districts. We’re hoping we can change the way a process in government operates.”

Eleven other states utilize non- or bi-partisan redistricting commissions.

DiGuilio said part of the reason the coastal districts are so long and irregular is because of their population requirements and their communities of interest. She said coastal communities share regional interests, and because their populations are spread so thin along the Central Coast, those districts are often spread out.

According to the new census numbers, the population targets are 465,674 for Assembly districts, 931,349 for Senate districts, 702,905 for congressional districts and 9,313,489 for the Board of Equalization. The process considers total population, not just registered voting numbers.

“In order to capture that population,” DiGuilio said, “if you want to remain coastal, you have to go very far north and south to capture that population.”

Creating more compact districts is one of the aims of the commission. Commissioner Gabino Aguirre, a 30-year educator and school administrator, said creating more manageable districts is a desire of both legislators and constituents.

“You’d be amazed how many individuals come and ask, ‘Who made up these maps?’” Aguirre said with a laugh. “There doesn’t seem to be any logical reason about how these maps were stretched out like that. The more compact these districts are, the better the community will be served. Compactness is one of the variables we’re focusing on.”

Both commissioners said because of population requirements for the districts, creating compact districts won’t always be possible.

For that reason, DiGuilio recommend that people pay attention to meetings in neighboring regions, because final district boundaries could cross regional lines.

Region 6 — Kern, Kings, Tulare, Inyo, Fresno, Madera, Merced, Mariposa, Sanislaus, Tuolumne and Mono counties — meets Thursday in Bakersfield, Friday in Hanford and Saturday in Merced. Region 7 — Monterey, San Benito, Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties — meets May 22 in Salinas and May 23 in San Jose.

“There’s a word in government — transparency — that’s thrown around these days like candy. This commission is really set up to be as transparent as possible,” DiGuilio said. “When we actually start drawing these maps and having these deliberations, you can actually see if we are being accountable.”

All of the meetings and the commission’s work with the company contracted to physically draw the lines, Q2 Data and Research LLC, can be followed via streaming online video at www.wedrawthelines.ca.gov on the web.