We’ve been a bit obsessed busy with LA City Council redistricting lately, but as we hope everyone’s aware, that’s not the only redistricting game in town right now. Redistricting is also going on for the Los Angeles Unified School District Board, the LA County Board of Supervisors, the California state legislature (Assembly and Senate) and U.S. Congressional districts . We won’t be covering all of these in the depth that we’ve been covering the changes in our local city council boundaries, but we do want to provide a quick overview of those other mapping processes, the status of each, and where you can learn more about them.
Los Angles Unified School District – https://redistricting2021.lacity.org/LAUSDRC/index.html
Although it has received much less attention than City Council redistricting, at least in our part of the city, LAUSD redistricting has been happening at the same time as City Council redistricting, is at the same point right now, and will also ultimately be decided by the City Council.
The LAUSD Redistricting Commission submitted its final report and recommended map to the City Council at the end of October. Then the Council’s Ad Hoc Redistricting Committee made some changes in response to specific public feedback (the issues here have included how districts and communities are split in East LA, and also how the proposed LAUSD District 4 stretches from Sherman Oaks in the north down most of the western border of the city, almost as far south as El Segundo). The Ad Hoc Redistricting Committee’s map, which has now received one of two scheduled public hearings, will have a second public hearing at a Special Meeting attached to the November 23 City Council meeting (the same day and meeting at which the recommended map of City Council districts will receive its second hearing). And as with the City Council redistricting map, the LAUSD map is scheduled to be approved by the City Council on December 1.
So for some quick study, here are the existing LAUSD district map…
The draft map recommended by the LAUSD Redistricting Commission…
…and the final LAUSD school board district draft map recommended by the City Council’s Ad Hoc Redistricting Committee:
For more information and relevant documents, see the city’s Council File page for LAUSD redistricting, and the city’s LAUSD Redistricting page. Public comments can be submitted to the Council File using this online form.
The Los Angeles City Council will be holding its second public hearing to take input from the public on the LAUSD Board of Education Adopted Draft Map on Tuesday, November 23rd at 2:15 pm. The meeting will be broadcast live on Cable Television Channel 35 and on the internet at: https://clerk.lacity.org/calendar (where you’ll also be able to find the meeting agenda a few days before the meeting).
LA County Board of Supervisors – https://redistricting.lacounty.gov/
Unlike the LA City Council redistricting process, in which the 15 elected Councilmembers chose their own representatives to the City Council Redistricting Commission (a practice many advocates have called for changing after the highly political nature of this year’s redistricting discussions), Los Angeles County – for the first time this year – is using a fully independent Citizens Redistricting Commission. The County’s redistricting website describes the three-stage selection process for the 14 commissioners, which began with an open call for volunteers:
“The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk (RR/CC) received 741 applications by September 8, 2020. The RR/CC then reviewed the applications and narrowed the applicant pool to 533 qualified applicants, based on Senate Bill 958. The RRCC assigned RR/CC staff to independently review the applications and separated demographic information from the review of subjective questions to eliminate potential bias. RRCC identified the pool of 60 most qualified names and submitted them to the Auditor-Controller after the 30-day public review period.”
Then:
“The Los Angeles County Auditor-Controller conducted a random drawing at the Board of Supervisors’ meeting on November 24, 2020, selecting 1 Commissioner from each of the 5 existing Supervisorial Districts and 3 Commissioners randomly drawn from the remaining 55 applicants.”
And, finally:
“The 8 randomly selected Commissioners met during four special meetings between December 14, 2020, and December 28, 2020, to select the remaining 6 Commissioners from the remaining 52 qualified applicants. On December 28, 2020, the list of the adopted 14 CRC Commissioners was finalized.”
Since January of this year, the Commission has held 45 regular and special meetings, workshops, and public hearings. But while there are only five LA County Supervisors, representing only five districts, there are currently six different maps in play for organizing those five districts. Last night, on Wednesday, November 17, the Commission held its second public hearing on the six draft maps – A1, B1, C1, D1, E and F .
Here is the current map of LA County supervisorial districts:
And here are the six new draft redistricting plans currently being discussed:
Draft Plan A1 modified (zoomable version here) – moves Catalina Island to SD4.
Draft Plan B1 Modified (zoomable version here) – keeps Burbank together; puts all of Santa Monica in SD4.
Draft Plan C1 Modified (zoomable version here) – puts Part of Sherman Oaks (POSO) with Sherman Oaks; keeps Van Nuys together in SD4.
Draft Plan D1 Modified (zoomable version here) – puts Catalina Island in SD4; includes Bell Gardens and Downey in SD4.
Draft Plan E (zoomable version here) –
Draft Plan F (zoomable version here) –
There are currently two more public hearings scheduled on the draft maps, one on Wednesday, December 1, and one on Tuesday, December 7.
A Special Meeting of the Commission, to discuss map feedback so far (and several other issues), is also scheduled for 7 p.m. on Monday, November 22. The Commission is scheduled to choose its final map later this month, and to fully wrap up its work by December 15, with the new district boundaries taking effect in January.
California State Legislature (Assembly and Senate) and U.S. Congress – https://www.wedrawthelinesca.org/
Redistricting for the California State Assembly, State Senate and U.S. Congress (as well as the state Board of Equalization) is all being done by a single commission, and information on all four processes can be accessed at the single website link above.
As with the redistricting commission for the LA County Board of Supervisors, the redistricting commission for the state and national districts was also appointed independently of the bodies for which they will be drawing district lines. According to the We Draw the Lines state-level redistricting website:
“California voters authorized the creation of the Commission when they passed the VOTERS FIRST Act (Act) in 2008. It authorized the Commission to draw the new district lines. In 2010, the Congressional Voters FIRST Act added the responsibility of drawing Congressional districts to the Commission.
The 14-member Commission is made up of five Republicans, five Democrats, and 4 not affiliated with either of those two parties. The Commission must draw the district lines in conformity with strict, nonpartisan rules designed to create districts of relatively equal population that will provide fair representation for all Californians.
The initial and supplemental applications were forwarded to an Applicant Review Panel (panel) consisting of three independent auditors from the California State Auditor. After the panel reviewed all the applications, the panel selected 120 of the “most qualified applicants,” who were then personally interviewed. The 120 applicants were divided into three equal sub-pools according to party affiliation, which was then narrowed down to 60 applicants.
The panel presented those 60 applicants to the California State Legislature, where leadership had the option of removing up to 24 names from the list—eight from each sub-pool. The names of the applicants not removed from the sub-pools were then submitted to the California State Auditor.
The California State Auditor randomly drew from the names remaining in the three sub-pools: three Democrats, three Republicans, and two from neither of those parties. These eight applicants became the first eight members of the Commission.
The first eight members of the Commission then selected the final six members of the Commission by selecting two commissioners from each of the three sub-pools.”
As with the other redistricting bodies now hard at work, the state-level redistricting commission has been meeting since July of 2020 to collect public input, draft maps, make recommendations, and seek public comment on the recommended maps. Meetings often focus on maps for a single body (Assembly, State Senate, Board of Equalization, or U.S. Congress), and the draft maps for all of those bodies are now in their final phases of discussions. You can find the full set of PDF maps here, with a handy zoomable version here (which lets you show any or all of the maps at the same time).
Individually, here are the current and proposed draft maps for the State Assembly, as shown through the zoomable link above :
Current and proposed draft maps for the State Senate:
And the current and proposed draft maps for U.S. Congressional district boundaries:
Because this Citizens Redistricting Commission is dealing with maps for four different governmental bodies, it has a much fuller meeting schedule than the other such groups. Remaining meetings include:
Wednesday, November 17, 3:00 PM – 8:00 PM (Congressional districts feedback)
Thursday, November 18, 3:00 PM – 8:00 PM (Assembly districts feedback)
Friday, November 19, 3:00 PM – 8:00 PM (State Senate districts feedback)
Saturday, November 20, 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM (BOE or any district type)
Monday, November 22 & Tuesday, November 23, 9:30 AM – 2:30 PM (Any district type)
For all of these meetings, you can:
Register here: https://www.wedrawthelinesca.org/draft_maps_public_input
Watch live: http://videossc.com/CRC/
Submit comments and feedback: https://airtable.com/shrQDD2ta2emnSzzO
View previously submitted comments and feedback: https://www.wedrawthelinesca.org/data
Also, December meetings will include:
December 1 – Review of Public Input/Line Drawing Meeting – 9:30 A.M. – 4:30 P.M.
December 2 – Review of Public Input/Line Drawing Meeting – 9:30 A.M. – 4:30 P.M.
December 3 – Review Visualizations/Line Drawing Meeting – 9:30 A.M. – 4:30 P.M.
December 4 – Review Visualizations/Line Drawing Meeting – 10:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M.
December 5 – Review Visualizations/Line Drawing Meeting – 10:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M.
December 6 – Review Visualizations/Line Drawing Meeting – 1:00 P.M. – 8:00 P.M.
December 7 – Review Visualizations/Line Drawing Meeting – 11:00 A.M. – 6:00 P.M.
December 8 – Review Visualizations/Line Drawing Meeting – 9:30 A.M. – 4:30 P.M.
December 11 – CRC Business Meeting – 1:00 P.M. – 8:00 P.M.
December 12 – Live Line Drawing Meeting -11:00 A.M. – 6:00 P.M.
December 13 – Live Line Drawing Meeting – 10:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M.
December 14 – Live Line Drawing Meeting -10:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M.
December 15 – Live Line Drawing Meeting – 10:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M.
December 16 – Live Line Drawing Meeting – 10:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M.
December 17 – Live Line Drawing Meeting – 10:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M.
December 18 – Live Line Drawing Meeting – 10:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M.
December 19 – Live Line Drawing Meeting – 1:00 A.M. – 6:00 P.M.
December 20 – CRC Business Meeting – 9:30 A.M. – 4:30 P.M.
December 21 – Final Report Meeting – 9:30 A.M. – 4:30 P.M.
December 22 – Final Report Meeting – 9:30 A.M. – 4:30 P.M.
December 23 – CRC Business Meeting – 9:30 A.M. – 4:30 P.M.
December 27 – CRC Business Meeting – 9:30 A.M. – 4:30 P.M.
Information for joining all meetings, and submitting comments and feedback at each meeting can be found at https://www.wedrawthelinesca.org/meetings
