County Supervisors Reject Outside Help on Political Redistricting

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday rejected a proposed independent citizens commission to advise the county’s staff in developing reapportionment maps for the five supervisorial districts.

Maintaining that they will solicit comment from civic and ethnic groups, the board voted, 3 to 2, against Supervisor Susan Golding’s plan for an 11-member advisory commission. By an identical vote the board also refused to hire a consultant to help Chief Administrative Officer Norman Hickey’s staff with statistical computations.

Supervisors Brian Bilbray, George Bailey and Leon Williams voted against the proposal. Supervisor John MacDonald supported Golding.

After a series of public hearings over several months, Hickey’s staff has proposed six alternative reapportionment plans--all of which have been deemed insufficient by a panel of 10 minority-group members appointed to advise county officials.

Community groups have proposed four other plans, three of which focus on creating a heavily Latino district, said Deputy Chief Administrative Officer June Komar. The last attempts to maximize Asian-American voting power, she said.

The county is required to redraw district lines once every 10 years to reflect population changes.

The defeat of Golding’s initiative, proposed last week, led Chicano Federation official Jess Haro to charge that Williams and Bilbray are afraid that creating the advisory panel might increase pressure for a majority Latino district that could cost them their jobs. The Chicano Federation is lobbying for a district that will maximize Latino voting power.

“I don’t see any will on the part of the Board of Supervisors--the majority--to address the issues we brought forward,” Haro said.

Golding said the independent panel would have more time than the supervisors to delve into the issue and would be more open to community and ethnic group input.