By unanimous vote, the Los Angeles City Council approved a proposal for creating an Independent Redistricting Commission to draw future City Council District boundaries.
The proposal is the work of the Ad Hoc Committee on City Governance Reform, led by Council President Paul Krekorian and Vice Chair Councilmember Nithya Raman. The Committee's proposal took shape over a dozen meetings held around the City, and was informed by seven hours of public comment, testimony from reform advocates and academic experts, and a 100-plus-page report from the City's Chief Legislative Analyst.
Speaking to the press prior to the Council vote, Common Cause Vice President of Programs Kathay Feng, a nationally recognized expert on redistricting reform, praised the Committee's work as “the gold standard” for independent redistricting.
Redistricting Reform: The Details
- The commission selection process is to be administered by the City Clerk's office. Volunteers can apply to become redistricting commissioners, but applications will not be accepted from elected officials, their family members, their staff, candidates, lobbyists, or political consultants.
- Applications will be published for public review and the City’s Ethics Commission will screen applicants for conflict of interest.
- Applicants will be chosen at random from eight large geographic divisions of the City, all roughly equal in population.
- The first eight commissioners will select eight more from the same citywide pool of applicants, to balance the diversity of the Commission, taking race, gender, age, income, and other factors into account.
- The commissioners will be tasked with drawing districts that are roughly equal in size, based on the latest census data.
- Districts will comply with state and federal laws requiring that no recognizable group, such as a race or ethnicity, may be arbitrarily divided into multiple districts to dilute their opportunity for representation.