L.A. politicians will still have final say over local districts
City and county government leaders will soon be drawing new election districts too — but they will be doing it the old-fashioned way.
Local politicians will still have final say in mapping the areas in which candidates must live before seeking seats on the Los Angeles City Council, the county Board of Supervisors and the Board of Education for the Los Angeles Unified School District.
At City Hall, officials will appoint committees to do the heavy work of drawing the new boundaries, which will account for any shifts in population based on the new national census.
The committees making the recommendations will consist of 21 people: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa appoints three; City Atty. Carmen Trutanich and Controller Wendy Greuel each select one; Council President Eric Garcetti chooses two; and the remaining 14 council members pick one each. The appointments will be made this summer.
The council members and the mayor will have final authority to approve boundaries for the 15 council seats and the seven seats on the Board of Education. Those lines must be drawn no later than July 1, 2012, and would go into effect for the 2013 elections.
A separate L.A. Unified redistricting committee will be made up of 15 members, with each of the school board’s seven members getting one appointment and Villaraigosa and Garcetti each selecting four.
The panels will each hire advisors to analyze population figures and hold public hearings. Each commission will submit its recommendations to the council. The new map must be approved by a council majority and signed by the mayor.
At the County Hall of Administration, each of the five supervisors last year appointed two voting members and two alternates to a boundary review committee to determine if their district lines should be adjusted.
The county committee is expected to submit a redistricting plan in July; the supervisors will then hold public hearings on the recommendations.
If four out of the five supervisors cannot agree on a final map before Oct. 31, a redistricting commission consisting of Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, Assessor John R. Noguez and Sheriff Lee Baca will take over the process.
That map will be in effect for the June 2012 primary elections.
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