City Council Redistricting Commissioner Provides Local Updates at PPCC Meeting

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

City Council Redistricting Commissioner Michele Prichard—appointed by Councilmember Mike Bonin to the 2021 Los Angeles Redistricting Commission—gave a presentation about the process at the April 22 Pacific Palisades Community Council board meeting.

“The key goal of the commission is to develop new political boundaries,” Prichard explained.

The commission’s mission statement is “to strengthen the governance of the city of Los Angeles by empowering its communities to have their diverse needs served through fair and inclusive representation,” according to a slide Prichard showed during her presentation.

The updated boundaries will be based on 2020 Census data, creating equal-sized districts in the city of Los Angeles. The commission is composed of 21 members appointed by LA elected officials, including one representative for each of the city’s 15 districts.

“Prior to 2000, the LA City Council actually drew their own political city council district lines,” Prichard said, “but in 1999, LA City voters passed charter reform, which authorized the creation of an appointed commission to draw and to recommend boundaries for the council districts.”

The commission’s recommendations—partially based on information obtained from residents during a series of board meetings over the course of summer 2021, written comments, recommendations and map tools—will go before the City Council for final approval.

Because neighborhoods can change, including demographics, homeownership patterns and employment base, redistricting is completed every 10 years, Prichard explained.

A number of foundational laws are considered when redistricting, including the U.S. Constitution, Los Angeles City Charter and Federal Voting Rights Act. The constitution requires that every American receive as close to equal political representation as possible, with a deviation of less than 10%, based on criteria like natural boundaries, neighborhoods and communities of interest.

“For redistricting purposes this really means that we have to avoid over-representing or under-representing any people or community,” Prichard explained. “Essentially, our assignment is to seek districts that are equal in population size as much as possible.”

Prichard added that after the Census Bureau publishes the 2020 count, every political jurisdiction across the country—including California state, LA County and LAUSD—has to update their boundaries to create equal districts, with the census delay causing entities to amend their timelines.

Initially, data was supposed to be released at the end of March, but the latest update Prichard shared was that specific counts won’t be available until the end of September.

The commission is charged with gathering public input, with Prichard offering three steps to participate: describing a community, drawing a community on a map and sending testimony to the commission.

“Political boundaries can make all the difference in the amount of political power any community can exert, and our job is to try to make it as fair and effective as possible, and not provide advantage or influence for any one community over another,” she said.

The commission will host a series of hearings over the next few months, as well as launch a website that allows residents to manipulate maps and see how changes to the boundaries can impact population.

“My personal comment—I can’t speak for everyone, but I bet others have the same feeling—the primary thing that we want to leave you with informally is we have great ties of community interest with the community of Brentwood,” said PPCC Chair David Card, adding that in addition to sharing a common charter school complex with the community, there is also a shared community plan. “We’ll be sure to tell you over and over again that we like Brentwood and they like us.”

He then added that though people may not think of it this way, Pacific Palisades is a beach town, identifying with other areas of the city of LA along the Santa Monica Bay.

Prichard took questions from members of the board, including one from Vice Chair David Kaplan asking how far above or below the average number of residents CD 11 currently is.

“As to which parts of the city have grown and which have diminished in population size,” Prichard responded, “I don’t know any of that yet, but that is what we will be delving into.”

An interactive website is in the works, but in the meantime, residents can submit comments to the commission at redistricting.lacity@lacity.org or by mail to Los Angeles City Council Redistricting Commission, Los Angeles City Hall, 200 N. Spring Street, Room 275, LA, CA 90012, Attention: Mr. Frank Cardenas, Executive Director.