LA County Redistricting: Almost Done!

The last time we wrote about the LA County redistricting process, on Friday, the Citizens Redistricting Commission had just narrowed down to two its choices for a final base map of new Supervisorial Districts.  Between Friday and Sunday, the Commission met three more times, and as of Sunday evening, it has now picked a final map, which will undergo some technical verifications and corrections over the next few days.  It is scheduled to be approved, along with a final draft of a report detailing the Commission’s work over the last year, at the Commission’s final meeting, this coming Wednesday, December 15.

At the first of the three most recent meetings, on Friday, the Commission heard public comments on what were then the two final maps in contention, at that point called B4 and F3 after revisions made on Wednesday, December 8.  Speakers with a preference during Friday’s comment session unanimously voiced support for Map F3, though there were still numerous requests for further revisions in the Pomona/Fairplex, Whittier, “Beach” Cities, Gateway Cities, the Ballona Wetlands area, the NW and NE San Fernando Valley, and a few other areas that have also figured prominently in the ongoing mapping discussions.

After the public comments on Friday, the Commissioners, too, expressed their preference for Map F3 over Map B4, and after spending some time suggesting specific changes to Map F3, based on the public comments, the Commission voted by a margin of 10 votes in favor and three opposed to eliminate Map B4 from further consideration, and to thereby advance only map F3 to the next round of discussions.

Next, at Saturday’s meeting, the Commissioners heard a much briefer round of public comments, all of which still generally supported the selected Map F3, while making suggestions for further revisions in many of the areas previously mentioned.  The Commissioners then went through the map district by district, with each making suggestions for the various sticking points in each district.  After this process, a motion to also consider Map OP101, which several commissioners felt addressed several of the remaining issues, failed, and a motion to once more advance the further corrected version of Map F3 for further consideration passed by a margin of 10 votes in favor and two abstentions.

Finally, in yet another 4 1/2-hour meeting on Sunday, the Commissioners continued their discussions of what had been re-labeled Map F4 after Saturday’s meeting, focusing on still unresolved questions in the NW and SE corners of the San Fernando Valley, the “Beach” cities (Manhattan, Redondo, and Hermosa), the Ballona Wetlands and Torrance areas, the Florence/Firestone area, Azusa, Pico Rivera, and the Pomona/Fairplex area.  A new version of Map F4 was then approved and labeled “Final Map Pending Formal Resolution.”

For our GWNC area, the “Final Map Pending Formal Resolution” stands much as it did on last week’s Map F3, with most of the area in Supervisorial District 2 (currently represented by Holly Mitchell), and the northern part, mostly above Beverly Blvd., in SD 3 (currently represented by Sheila Kuehl, who is now termed out and will be replaced with a new supervisor in an election next year).

After approving the Final Map yesterday, the Commissioners also reviewed a draft of their final report, which is also scheduled to be approved, with the Final Map, at their next and final meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, December 15, at 5 p.m., via Zoom.