DIVVYING UP DEMOCRACY - REDISTRICTING EFFORTS LIKELY TO OVERLAP IN COMPLEX WAYS

J.N. Sbranti
The Modesto Bee
March 27, 2011

A massive effort to redraw political boundaries is under way to ensure every American is equally represented by elected officials.

California's congressional and state legislative districts will be redrawn by a politically neutral citizens committee.

But there's no such standardization in how Stanislaus County's local agencies are shifting boundaries in response to 2010 Census population counts.

County supervisors, city council members, irrigation district directors, and school and community college trustees are among those whose election boundaries will be rebalanced.

Redistricting didn't used to be such a big deal. During the last decade, however, the number of governing board members elected by district has expanded.

Modesto's City Council and the school boards in Turlock and Ceres now are dividing their territories into geographic regions with roughly equal populations -- one for each elected official.

Those new lines will crisscross boundaries being drawn for dozens of other federal, state, county, city and special district office holders.

"It gets very, very complicated," said Lee Lundrigan, Stanislaus County's clerk-recorder who oversees elections. "Every resident is in all kinds of districts."

Lundrigan said those jagged-edge district lines too often don't coincide with each other.

So people living on different sides of a street may be in different supervisorial districts, while those living one block north may be in different city council or congressional districts while those living one block south may be in different irrigation or college trustee districts.

Every different combination that requires a separate ballot type be created for elections, which Lundrigan said is expensive, time-consuming and confusing.

"Whenever possible, it would be a huge advantage to voters and the districts themselves to use the same delineations when drawing lines," Lundrigan said. "The more boundaries that can be lined up, the better."

RESTRICTIVE GUIDELINES

But that is not the highest priority for agencies redrawing lines.

Ever-more restrictive legal guidelines require the population in each district be balanced, according to Douglas Johnson, president of the National Demographics Corp.

Johnson said federal law also requires districts be crafted in ways that provide an equal opportunity for people from racial and language minority groups to get elected.

"The courts are getting more and more particular about exactly equal populations," said Johnson, whose firm helped create Modesto's City Council districts three years ago and will help Turlock schools form trustee districts.

Turlock's school district will be split seven ways, creating a separate district for each member of a governing body.

As a rule of thumb, Johnson said, it used to be considered satisfactory for the number of people in each such district to be 5 percent higher or lower than the overall average.

In fact, that plus or minus 5 percent standard is what the Yosemite Community College District used when it shifted lines a decade ago. The seven trustee areas it created ended up with population counts that ranged from 75,200 to 81,954.

That won't be good enough this time, Johnson warned. He said courts now require populations be balanced within 1 percent or less, unless there's a very clear record documenting why that cannot be done practically.

Fortunately, the 2010 Census provides block-by- block population counts that allow nearly endless shifting of boundaries to attain balance.

Unfortunately, computerized redistricting software designed to map those detailed population statistics costs $7,000 and is complicated to use, said Johnson, whose company makes its money selling redistricting services to government agencies.

Some local agencies, however, plan to redistrict without professional help.

Stanislaus County's Chief Executive Officer Rick Robinson said the Board of Supervisor district lines will be drawn by county staff members, as they were a decade ago. He said redistricting guidelines will be discussed at a supervisors' meeting in mid-April.

"We're working to develop an inclusive process," said Robinson, noting how community input will be sought this spring and during public hearings in August. "We really want to do this right ... and be as transparent as we can."

LATE AUGUST DEADLINE

Robinson said supervisors will be given "a range of district options to select from," and he plans to recommend a 5 percent variance population be allowed.

"We have to have the Board of Supervisors act by the end of August," Robinson said. The new boundaries will take effect with the supervisors' 2012 election.

Robinson said the county still is deciding its redistricting process, saying, "There's a possibility we'll put together a citizens advisory task force" to help draw the lines.

Modesto already has committed to appointing a Citizens Districting Commission to work on the lines. The first time council lines were drawn three years ago, the nine-member commission worked with demographer Johnson.

Modesto City Clerk Stephanie Lopez said Modesto must start the redrawing process within nine months. But the new City Council lines won't go into effect until elections in 2013.

Turlock's school board also will shift to district election in 2013, but there's a twist: Those district lines will be drawn this June so candidates running in this November's election will know whether the new boundaries would force them out of office in two years.

Superintendent Sonny Da Marto said Turlock schools hired Johnson to develop options. The boundary-drawing process will be discussed by the school board and with community groups in May. Public hearings on several map options will be held in early June, and approval is planned by late June.

"Our board wants districts to be as fair and equitable as possible based on population," Da Marto said. He said Turlock opted to divide itself "before we were forced to by an outside force."

MODESTO FORCED TO ACT

Modesto, by contrast, lost an expensive legal battle, which forced it to reconsider how council members were elected. Voters approved an advisory measure in November 2007 favoring district elections and then a City Charter amendment the following February. The first council members elected by district were in 2009.

The same law firm that sued Modesto contacted Ceres' school board in 2008 about the need for districts there. Rather than fight its own legal battle, Ceres agreed to district elections for its trustees, Superintendent Scott Siegel explained.

"We'll start the process after this November election" because the seven new boundaries won't go into effect until the 2013 election, Siegel said. "We'll probably spend the 2012 year putting it into place."

Siegel said Ceres schools will hire a demographer to ensure the boundaries fairly represent the population.

Several Stanislaus agencies still have to decide exactly how to redistrict.

The Modesto Irrigation District must adjust lines in time for the 2013 election. It hired a consultant to redraw boundaries 10 years ago, and it expects to do so again this time. MID will seek proposals from demographers wanting the job, but it hasn't started that process.

TID, YCCD TOO

The Turlock Irrigation District also must adopt new boundaries in time for the 2013 election.

The Yosemite Community College District, which includes Modesto Junior College and Columbia College, has seven trustee areas that spread across Stanislaus and Tuolumne counties and parts Calaveras, Merced, San Joaquin and Santa Clara counties.

"This summer. we'll be digging into this," YCCD spokesman Nick Stavrianoudakis said of the redistricting process. He said staff members drew the lines a decade ago using the plus or minus 5 percent population standard. Whether a consultant will be hired this time has yet to be determined.

Congressional House of Representatives, state Assembly, state Senate and state Board of Equalization district boundaries will be redrawn by California's Citizens Redistricting Commission. It will finish redrawing lines by September, and the new boundaries will take effect in 2012.

Bee staff writer J.N. Sbranti can be reached at jnsbranti@ modbee.com or 578-2196.

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* For population and racial breakdowns by Stanislaus County census tract and Board of Supervisors district, use the searchable database at www.modbee.com/databases.
Caption: (BART AH YOU / bahyou@modbee.com) The double yellow line on Rose Avenue is the border between the 18th and 19th congressional districts in Stanislaus County -- at least for now. (THE BEE) District Population Breakdowns (THE BEE) Population Breakdown
Memo: e microfilm or PDF archive for map and chart information.