VOICES - Having served as a commissioner on charter reform and as a commissioner on redistricting (represented CD 15), my comments may be of some value to your (LA Times) editorial "Redistricting done wrong."
We Charter Reformers sought to enlarge the city council to either 21 or 25 council districts. Some 250,000 citizens per council district is a challenge in delivering services and having local candidates reflect the demographics of various regions of the city.
The voters rejected either option fearing enlarging the council would add to the costs of city government, even though we argued that identified council expenses would be redistributed among the larger council at the same total cost for council support committed to the current 15 council districts. We believed smaller council districts would achieve more transparent and accountable elected council members.
We Redistricting Commissioners struggled with the latest demographic census data to make the total city citizen population fit within the existing 15 council districts within 460 square miles. The present 15 districts limit the options available for enabling specific ethnic groups to have a greater opportunity to elect candidates from their local neighborhoods. As the Times suggests, a larger number of council districts would improve voting opportunities for specific ethnic based communities.
Redistricting is a political exercise. There was limited transparency in redistricting directly by the City Council before charter reform introduced redistricting commissions. The recent redistricting commission held some 22 hearings throughout the city and had an aggressive outreach program. Many more citizens attended hearings for the city than citizens throughout the state attended state redistricting hearings. Analysis to date on the state redistricting commission has shown that politics was an influence on the redistricting process even though commissioners were selected independently from elected officials.
I suggest that Los Angeles revisit the method of selecting redistricting commissioners, seeking to replicate the state selection process rather than return to the old back room process. True there was political pressure on our commission, but we worked to follow the legal process under the guidance of the city attorney, even though some are challenging the work product of the commission and the approval of it by the City Council. Regardless, politics is a part of the process of redistricting within any democratic governance structure.
(Jerry Gaines lives in San Pedro and served on the LA City Appointed Charter Reform Commission and the LA City Redistricting Commission representing the 15th Council District. The author provided this article to CityWatch.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 65
Pub: Aug 14, 2012