Supervisors: Don’t abuse your redistricting power

Politicians who draw their own district boundary lines hold a lot of power. And that’s what Kern County supervisors decided to do — keep a tight hold on their power.

Despite botching their redistricting plan a decade ago — when 2010 U.S. Census numbers were used to define the boundaries of Kern’s five county districts — supervisors will go full steam ahead again with their plan to draw their own new districts using 2020 Census numbers.

The only hope for a fair and equitable result will be for supervisors to heed their 2010 mistakes and put aside their political self-interests. Open the process to public input and scrutiny.

They must not once again privately doodle their own district lines behind closed doors, with their focus on assuring their reelections. Redistricting must benefit the communities each district and supervisor represents, rather than an individual political career.

A decade ago, supervisors brushed aside the notion that Kern’s population was becoming more ethnically diverse. The boundary lines supervisors drew severed neighborhoods and communities, and diluted the ability of Latino candidates to compete for seats on the board. Out of the five supervisorial districts, only the 5th, which is represented by Leticia Perez, was considered a Latino district.

After supervisors spent around $5.5 million fighting a lawsuit filed by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund disputing the 2010 district lines, U.S. District Judge Dale Drozd ruled Kern’s redistricting plan violated the federal Voting Rights Act that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or language. Drozd ordered supervisors to redraw boundary lines in time for the 2018 election to create a second Latino district.

Again, supervisors huddled mostly behind closed doors to hastily carve a new Latino district basically from the west and south sides of the county. The plan left 4th District Supervisor David Couch representing a predominately Latino district. But two Latino candidates split the Latino votes in the new district and Couch was re-elected in 2018. He was reelected again in 2020.

The next redistricting round that looms this year and is based on the 2020 Census numbers may again be contentious. In addition, pandemic lockdowns hampered the collection of population data and extended the deadline for federal officials to report the results of the nationwide count.

Increasingly divisive political contests across the U.S. are fueling gerrymandering, or the creation of politically skewed district boundary lines that disenfranchise voters, in many states.

California voters had enough of this kind of political mischief and with politicians creating their own “safe districts” when they passed the Voters First Act in 2008. The initiative created an independent citizens’ commission to draw district boundaries for state legislative seats and the Board of Equalization. In 2010, voters passed Proposition 20, which gave the commission authority to draw congressional boundary lines.

But this still left much redistricting mischief to be done in drawing local district boundary lines, such as those for the Kern County Board of Supervisors, Bakersfield City Council and school boards.

To check potential abuse, a new state law went into effect last year that put local politicians on notice that they must not use their redistricting powers to feather their own nests.

Assembly Bill 849 restricted how cities, counties and other local agencies draw their district maps. The law requires, among other things, that each district must “respect the geographic integrity of local neighborhoods and communities of interest.”

In retaining their power over drawing their own district boundary lines, Kern County supervisors must heed their responsibilities:

Begin now – While Census data will be late in arriving and will shorten the time to draft new boundary lines ahead of the 2022 election, form an advisory committee now to represent diverse communities. Hold public workshops. Increase public involvement in the process.

Make the process transparent – The closed-door, private sessions of past redistricting efforts must be replaced by transparency. Only when Kern citizens can monitor and understand decision making will they be confident that the process is fair and equitable.