BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SB 958 (Lara) - County of Los Angeles Citizens Redistricting
Commission
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|Version: April 26, 2016 |Policy Vote: E. & C.A. 4 - 1, |
| | GOV. & F. 5 - 2 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: Yes |
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|Hearing Date: May 9, 2016 |Consultant: Robert Ingenito |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: SB 958 would create a citizens redistricting commission
to adjust the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors' district
boundaries after each decennial federal census.
Fiscal
Impact: This bill would likely result in a reimbursable state
mandate. Estimated costs to the State are unknown; but could
potentially reach the high hundreds of thousands of dollars
(General Fund) every ten years. As an upper bound, the statewide
Citizens Redistricting Commission incurred costs of $6 million
(General Fund) to draw the 2010 decennial boundaries for the
State's congressional delegation, State Senate, State Assembly,
and the Board of Equalization (see Background, Staff Comments).
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Background: Current law requires county boards of supervisors, following
each decennial federal census, and using data from that census,
to adjust the boundaries of any or all of the supervisorial
districts of the county such that they are (1) as nearly equal
in population as possible, and (2) comply with the applicable
provisions of the federal Voting Rights Act (VRA), as amended.
When adjusting the boundaries of supervisorial districts, a
board of supervisors may give consideration to several factors,
including (1) topography, (2) geography, (3) communities of
interests, and (4) cohesiveness, contiguity, integrity, and
compactness of territory. A board of supervisors must hold at
least one public hearing on any proposal to adjust the
boundaries of a supervisorial district before the public hearing
at which the board votes to approve or defeat the proposal.
State law allows a county board of supervisors, following a
decennial federal census, to appoint an advisory committee,
comprised of county residents, to study and make recommendations
on changes to supervisorial boundaries (SB 407, Bradley, 1970).
However, because the California Constitution specifically says
that "Charter counties are subject to statutes that relate to
apportioning population of governing body districts," charter
counties can't create citizens redistricting commissions to
redraw supervisorial districts unless state law is amended to
specifically authorize them to do so.
In 2012, at the request of San Diego County officials,
legislation was enacted to establish a redistricting commission
in San Diego County and charge it with adjusting the boundaries
of supervisorial districts after each decennial federal census
(SB 1331, Kehoe, 2012). The San Diego County redistricting
commission is comprised of five former or retired state or
federal judges who are residents and voters in the county. The
commission members are picked from among qualified applicants
through a random drawing.
Proposed Law:
This bill, among other things, would do the following:
Establish a 14-member Citizens Redistricting Commission
in the County of Los Angeles, which would be charged with
adjusting the boundary lines of the districts of the Board
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of Supervisors in accordance with specified criteria in the
year following the year in which the decennial federal
census is taken. The Commission must be created no later
than December 31, 2020, and in each year ending in the
number zero thereafter.
State that the selection process is designed to produce
a commission that is independent from the influence of the
board and reasonably representative of the county's
diversity.
Require that the political party preferences of the
commission members be as proportional as possible to the
total number of voters who are registered with each
political party in the County of Los Angeles, as specified.
Provide that each commission member meet specified
qualifications.
Provide that an interested person meeting the
aforementioned qualifications may submit an application to
the county elections official to be considered for
membership on the commission.
Require the county elections official to review the
applications, eliminate applicants who do not meet the
specified qualifications, and create subpools of
applicants, as specified.
Require, at a regularly scheduled meeting of the board,
the Auditor-Controller of the County of Los Angeles shall
conduct a random drawing to select one commissioner from
each of the eight subpools established by the county
elections official.
Require the eight selected commissioners to review the
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remaining names in the subpools of applicants and to
appoint six additional applicants to the commission. The
six appointees shall be chosen based on relevant
experience, analytical skills, and ability to be impartial,
and to ensure that the commission reflects the county's
diversity, including racial, ethnic, geographic, and gender
diversity. The eight commissioners shall also consider
political party preference, selecting applicants so that
the political party preference of the members of the
commission are as proportional as possible to that of the
registered voters in the county, however, formulas or
specific ratios shall not be applied for this purpose.
Provide that the term of office of each member of the
commission expires upon the appointment of the first member
of the succeeding commission.
Provide that nine members of the commission shall
constitute a quorum and that nine or more affirmative votes
is required for any official action.
Provide that the commission shall not retain a
consultant, as defined, who would not be qualified as a
commission applicant.
Require the commission to establish single-member
supervisorial districts for the board pursuant to a mapping
process using the following criteria as set forth in the
following order of priority:
o Districts shall comply with the United States
Constitution and each district shall have reasonably
equal population with other districts for the board,
except where deviation is required to comply with the
federal VRA or allowable by law.
o Districts shall comply with the federal VRA.
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o Districts shall be geographically contiguous.
o The geographic integrity of any city, county,
city and county, local neighborhood, or local
community of interest shall be respected in a manner
that minimizes their division to the extent possible
without violating the above requirements.
o To the extent practicable, and where this does
not conflict with the aforementioned criteria,
districts shall be drawn to encourage geographical
compactness such that nearby areas of population are
not bypassed for more distant population.
Provide that the place of residence of any incumbent or
political candidate shall not be considered in the creation
of a map and that districts shall not be drawn for the
purpose of favoring or discriminating against an incumbent,
political candidate, or political party.
Provide that, before the commission draws a draft map,
the commission shall conduct at least seven public
hearings, as specified, and require the commission to
establish and make available to the public a calendar of
all public hearings and to post the agenda for the public
hearings and the draft map at least seven days before the
hearings.
Require that the commission shall arrange for the live
translation of their hearings in an applicable language if
a request for translation is made at least 24 hours before
the hearing. An "applicable language" means a language for
which the number of residents of the County of Los Angeles
who are members of a language minority is greater than or
equal to 3 percent of the total voting age residents of the
county.
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Provide that the commission shall take steps to
encourage county residents to participate in the
redistricting public review process. These steps may
include (1) providing information through media, social
media, and public service announcements, (2) coordinating
with community organizations, and (3) posting information
on the Internet Web site of the County of Los Angeles that
explains the redistricting process and includes a notice of
each public hearing and the procedures for testifying
during a hearing or submitting written testimony directly
to the commission.
Require the board of supervisors to take all steps
necessary to ensure that a complete and accurate
computerized database is available for redistricting, and
that procedures are in place to provide to the public ready
access to redistricting data and computer software
equivalent to what is available to the commission members.
Require the commission to adopt a redistricting plan and
to file the plan with the county elections official prior
to August 15 of the year following the year in which each
decennial federal census is taken. The plan shall be
effective 30 days after it is filed with the county
elections official and shall be subject to referendum in
the same manner as ordinances.
Require the commission to issue, with the final map, a
report that explains the basis on which the commission made
its decisions in achieving compliance with the criteria
described above.
Related
Legislation: SB 1331 (Kehoe, Chapter 508, Statutes of 2012),
established a redistricting commission in San Diego County to
adjust the boundaries of supervisorial districts after each
decennial federal census.
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Staff
Comments: As noted above, SB 1331 (Kehoe, 2012), which
established the redistricting commission for San Diego County,
required the board of supervisors to provide for reasonable
staffing and logistical support for the commission. Because the
legislation was requested by local officials, costs associated
with SB 1331 were not state-reimbursable. Furthermore,
Proposition 11 required the Governor and the Legislature to
provide the state redistricting commission with funding and
adequate office space. This bill contains no similar
requirement.
More specifically, the "Voters First Act" (Proposition 11) and
the "Voters First Act for Congress" (Proposition 20) reformed
the statewide redistricting process and established an
independent 14-member Citizens Redistricting Commission to draw
the decennial district boundaries for California's Congressional
delegation, State Senate, State Assembly, and the Board of
Equalization. The Commission's work employed six PYs and cost $6
million, the majority of which was spent over two fiscal years:
2010-11 ($2.5 million), and 2011-12 ($3.5 million). Of the $6
million, $2.2 million was related to personnel, while $3.8
million was for operating equipment and expenses. Additionally,
the Commission has a small on-going annual cost of about $90,000
until the 2020 Census.
Staff notes that the Citizens Redistricting Commission redraws
the boundaries for a total of 177 districts. In contrast, this
bill would redraw the boundaries of only the five Los Angeles
County supervisorial districts. Thus, its costs, while unknown,
would be smaller, likely in the hundreds of thousands of dollars
every ten years.
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