The commission charged with drawing districts for electing county supervisors sought more public input this week, offering online tools which let residents draw their own recommended boundaries.
The co-chair of the Los Angeles County Citizens Redistricting Commission (CRC) said it is important for the public to see what the commission is up to.
“We want the process of drawing the supervisorial district lines to be transparent. We will be making all submitted maps available for the public’s review,’’ said CRC co-chair Carolyn Williams.
Mapping software available at redistricting.lacounty.gov/mapping- software/ enables individuals and organizations to draw maps to identify the geography of their “communities of interest.’’ Keeping those communities intact, as much as possible, is one of the goals of the commission.
The software—which uses 2020 Census data and other data sets—also allows users to draw the five Supervisorial Districts.
The key requirements for new districts are:
— District populations that are reasonably equal
in population (about 2 million population
each);
— Districts that are geographically contiguous, while considering topography, geography, cohesiveness, contiguity, integrity and compactness.
Suggested maps will join a host of other input to be reviewed by the commission, according to co-chair Daniel Mayeda.
“We’ve received extensive input regarding communities of interest (COI) through written letters, public testimonies, completed COI forms and emails,’’ Mayeda said. “We will be integrating that input with the public’s recommended maps.’’
The work to redraw the boundaries of the supervisorial districts takes place every 10 years, after the U.S. Census Bureau publishes updated census information.
In the past, the Board of Supervisors appointed an advisory committee to study proposed changes and had the opportunity to make revisions before adopting the final districted boundaries.
When new districts were last drawn, in 2011, critics accused some supervisors of favoring a plan that made it more difficult to elect a second Latino board member. Gloria Molina was the lone Latina supervisor at that time, and was replaced by Supervisor Hilda Solis, who remains the sole Latina elected to the board.
The county’s population is now more than 48 percent Latino or Hispanic, according to census estimates.
As a result of state legislation passed in 2016, the L.A. County CRC is now independent of the Board of Supervisors.
