Talks to Redraw County Districts

Ventura County supervisors this week will begin the potentially touchy debate on how to redraw their political districts, which federal law requires be adjusted every decade so that all five remain roughly equal in population.

The board on Tuesday will discuss six redistricting proposals presented by county Chief Executive Johnny Johnston.

But questions and concerns are already being raised over possible changes to some districts, particularly those represented by Supervisors Judy Mikels, John Flynn and Frank Schillo.

Somis residents angered by Mikels’ support of a road-improvement project want their community transferred to an adjacent supervisorial district under boundary changes that will be debated Tuesday.

A vocal band of Somis residents have long opposed widening California 118 in the Las Posas Valley, a project Mikels has supported. In letters to the Board of Supervisors, they are requesting to be moved out of Mikels’ District 4 and into District 3, represented by Kathy Long.

Mikels declined comment until she studies the proposals.

Somis residents argue that the Las Posas Valley is artificially divided by current political boundaries and should be reunited in a common district that shares a rural basis. Inclusion in Long’s Camarillo-based district makes sense because that’s where Somis residents shop, go to movies and send their children to high school, said Mary Lou Ash, a 38-year Somis resident.

Long, who represents the farm-rich Santa Clara River Valley, would better understand residents’ interest in keeping Somis a rural community than Simi Valley-based Mikels, Ash said. Opponents of converting the 118, which runs north of the farm community, from two to four lanes say it would bring unwanted development.

“Judy Mikels has been in favor of the widening and has not been responsive to our feelings on that,” Ash said. “She doesn’t have a sense of what the people in this community feel would best serve them.”

In Flynn’s Oxnard-based District 5, recent census figures show it has gained a disproportionate number of residents--bringing the total to 159,039--while Steve Bennett’s District 1 covering Ventura and portions of the Ojai Valley has shrunk, to 140,093. To bring variance to less than 1%, Flynn will have to lose some neighborhoods and Bennett pick up some.

Schillo, of Thousand Oaks, and Mikels are also above the 150,000-per-district population target, and Long is about 4,000 below. The supervisors may opt to make changes based on topography, geography and a community’s shared interests. Ethnic balance is also taken into account.

Changes in boundaries are sensitive for politicians not only because they might change who votes for them, but they also determine where future challengers might appear.

In Flynn’s district, for instance, several members of the Oxnard City Council live in the north Oxnard neighborhood of River Ridge. Those potential candidates would be eliminated if a region north of Gonzales Road is shifted to Bennett’s District 1 as proposed.

Mikels and Schillo, who face reelection next year, also have concerns. Schillo, for example, wants to keep Port Hueneme within his District 2.

He has spent a lot of time getting to know Port Hueneme city and school officials and recently got funding for a social services hub, Schillo said.

“It’s the thing that balances my district and keeps my feet in both sides of the county,” Schillo said. “If I just had Thousand Oaks, it would be kind of insular.”

Still, his district has 5,000 residents too many, and he knows he has to sacrifice something.

“It’s going to be traumatic for me to give up anything,” he said. “There’s going to have to be pretty good reasoning for me to do so.”

Flynn said he, too, knows that he will have to lose some neighborhoods. Three of the alternatives propose removing El Rio, north of Oxnard, from his district, something Flynn said he doesn’t like.

In recent years, he has helped the unincorporated community put in new sewer lines, build a gym and install a sheriff’s substation.

“I know I have to give up something, and [El Rio] could be a prospect,” Flynn said. “But I’d hate to see it happen because we have done a lot of work out there.”