Greater Outreach, Transparency Mark Redistricting Commission Hearing Requests

On Jan. 18, the 14-member California Citizens Redistricting Commission held a public input meeting at Culver City Council Chambers to hear possible amendments to the California Government Code sections 8251-8253.6.

A group presentation was submitted by California Common Cause; the Asian Pacific American Legal Center; California Forward; Claiming Our Democracy; The Greenlining Institute California; the California Citizens Redistricting Commission; the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) and the League of Women Voters of California.

The main focus of the group’s suggested changes centered on budget and timing issues, including ensuring the public has adequate time to comment on the process and that transparency remain key.

Eugene Lee of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center said, “It is incredibly important for the commission to release a statewide map that shows how all of the districts fit together and reflects the Commission’s best California Citizens Redistricting Commission

efforts to comply with all of the Constitutional criteria, and that it build in adequate time and opportunity for the public to review and provide feedback to this statewide map. This map should be released with the data and in a format necessary to allow for full analysis by the public. “

Michelle Romero of The Greenlining Institute also focused on how important it was for the Commission to be user-friendly when it came to hearing public testimony on the process.

“Providing testimony should be both pleasant and consistent across communities,” she said, citing difficulties in the different public hearings the commission held throughout 2011. She spoke of people who had to wait 5, 6 or 7 hours to have their input heard and then having not much time to speak.

Roslyn Gold of NALEO added that inconsistencies on hearing hours also hampered the hearings. She said one hearing in Culver City stayed open till 11 p.m. while a hearing in Whittier only remained open till 9 p.m.

“People were really excited and wanted to testify,” she said. “Yet it ended up with many people being turned away. One of our recommendations is that there be consistency [going forward].”

Commissioner Vincent Barraba said part of the consistency issues had to do with the fact that the venues were provided to the commission for free.

“If you go in asking without any compensation, you’re at the mercy of what [the venue owners] are willing to do,” he said. He asked if he thought that the commission should request additional funding so that they could rent venues and therefore pay to keep the hearings open.

“I understand the value of consistency,” he said, “but it does bring up complications. Not every community can do everything.”

Malka Koppell of California Forward said one of the joint group’s recommendations was to provide the commission with a greater budget, “to improve interaction with the public. The details are something [the commission] can work out but that would be one example where the money might be worth it.”

Gold also spoke of the need for greater outreach, particularly amongst those protected under the Voting Rights Act including African American and language minority groups.

Commissioner Andre Parvenu who is also a Culver City resident asked what the commission could do to help people understand the redistricting maps.

Chris Carson of the League of Women Voters said if people have to deal with really detailed maps they’re not going to want to look at them.

“Our experience is that most people are not really concerned about what District number they’re in.” Rather, she said, they want to know who is going to be on the ballot and they’ll be alarmed if they’re suddenly voting for a group of candidates they’ve never heard of before.

Gold also suggested that there might be an opportunity for the commission to work with County registrars as part of their voter education programs to help educate people about their new district numbers.

Following the meeting, Chairman Stan Forbes told Patch he was pleased with the input.

“I thought most of the suggestions were excellent,” he said. “There was a lot of discussion about budgets and timing and this was exactly what I hoped to get. There are certainly a lot of things [the commission] needs to discuss.”

Forbes added he was also delighted that the previous day the Department of Justice signed off on the commission’s four Northern California county districts.

“I think this speaks to how well our commission did in complying with the Voting Rights Act,” he said. “Just look at the mess Texas is in,” he added, referring to the fact that Texas’ new redistricting maps went all the way to the Supreme Court.

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