In the wake of recent scandals that have rocked Los Angeles City Hall, the simplest, least controversial reform should be the creation of an independent redistricting commission.
It was a good idea before a leaked audio recording caught council members scheming to draw council district lines to help themselves and hurt their foes. But now it’s an essential change to help restore faith in city government.
Politicians should not draw their own districts or choose their voters; it’s a conflict of interest that puts incumbents and their allies’ desires above what’s good for communities. We know there is a better way to draw political boundaries. Jurisdictions that have enacted truly independent redistricting commissions have high levels of public participation, less gerrymandering and districts that represent communities, not individual politicians’ interests.
Political districts are redrawn every 10 years to reflect the federal census’ updated population and demographic data. The goal is to make elected bodies more representative of their constituents. Redistricting does this by grouping communities of interest, including racial, ethnic, political and geographical, so they have more influence at the polls and on their elected leaders. When communities are split, their political power to elect a representative of choice is diminished.
The state of California, Los Angeles County, Long Beach, San Diego and several other cities and counties have independent and bipartisan citizen commissions draw the boundaries for congressional, legislative and local government seats and school board districts.
Commissioners are ordinary citizens, not elected officials or political operatives who have a personal interest in the outcome. And the independent commissions do their work in public, so voters know how and why the district boundaries were drawn. People may not like the new lines — redistricting is a balancing of interests — but at least they can trust that the maps were not the product of behind-the-scenes self-dealing.
That’s one reason why California was the rare state that didn’t have a lawsuit challenging its 2021 redistricting. The great majority of states allow the politicians who control the Legislature to draw districts that benefit their party. As a result of two ballot measures in 2008 and 2010, California voters created an independent citizens commission made up of Republicans, Democrats and independents to draw political boundaries for state legislative and congressional districts.
The state commission held months of hearings, took more than 36,000 public comments and — after some chaotic meetings and tense sessions of map drafting — unanimously approved the final maps in December. The new district boundaries have led to competitive races and more representative districts, including an increase in the number of legislative and congressional districts with a majority Latino citizen voting-age population, which is more reflective of the state’s population, and that’s good for democracy.
In Long Beach, the independent commission, which was new in 2021, finally got rid of the “whale tail,” the nickname for a City Council district that had been ridiculously elongated 20 years ago so a council member could locate his field office in a particular park far away from the bulk of his district, according to the Long Beach Post. Yes, the district did look like a whale and its tail.
After decades of having the city’s Cambodia Town split among four council districts — thus making it harder for the Cambodian community to elect a representative of its choice — the commission united the neighborhood into one district. (Long Beach is home to more Cambodian Americans than any other city in America.) The commission’s final maps drew two incumbents out of their districts.
Across the state, race, ethnicity and representation were actively debated during redistricting. Most independent commissions aim to…
Read More: Editorial: Why L.A. needs independent redistricting