CARLSBAD TACKLES REDISTRICTING

Council chooses to have independent commission handle project based on census

Carlsbad has kicked off an effort to redraw the boundaries of its four City Council districts with a decision to create an independent redistricting commission.

Cities across San Diego County have switched from traditional at-large council elections to district elections in recent years, and all are required to reexamine their district boundaries in light of the 2020 census.

The city of San Diego, which has had council districts for many years because of its large population, approved a $450,000 budget in December to start its redistricting process, which is expected to take two years of community meetings and map-making.

City councils, school boards and other public agencies that use the district voting system redraw their boundaries every 10 years to balance the district populations and reflect demographic changes. The city of San Diego complicated the process in 2010 by adding a ninth City Council district to accommodate its increasing population, though this year it will only adjust the boundaries of the existing nine districts.

San Diego County has a 14-member independent redistricting commission that reviews and resets the boundaries for the county’s five supervisorial districts every 10 years based

on census results.

Oceanside, which created its four council districts in 2018, will begin the redistricting process later this year when it gets the results of the 2020 census, City Clerk Zeb Navarro said Wednesday.

Escondido, which switched to council district elections in 2013, has a seven-member independent redistricting commission. Three retired judges appoint the commission’s members based on racial, geographic, social and ethnic diversity.

Carlsbad launched the process with a 3-2 vote Tuesday to create a nonpartisan, independent redistricting commission that will oversee the process and create the new boundaries.

Mayor Matt Hall and Councilman Keith Blackburn opposed forming the commission, saying that the system worked well when the City Council oversaw the districts’ original formation in 2017 without a commission.

“Politicizing was not an issue last time,” Blackburn said. “It worked out well.”

Carlsbad’s four districts each share a piece of the coast, from District 1 at the Oceanside border to District 4 at the Encinitas border.

“The less changes we make to those boundaries the better,” Blackburn said.

Hall said the City Council was “fair to all concerned” when it created the districts.

“What worked before was simple, had a lot of public input, and I don’t think it was ever political,” the mayor said.

Other council members said it was best to create the commission to avoid any chance of political bias.

“There have been instances across the country where political officials have sway over how the lines are drawn,” said Councilwoman Priya Bhat-patel, and it would be best for the council to remove itself from the process.

Councilwoman Cori Schumacher said there were “significant issues with the politicization of the last process,” and that the city would be better off using an independent commission.

Most San Diego County cities use retired judges to appoint the members of the commission, said Assistant to the City Manager Sheila

Cobian. Sometimes city clerks or other officials do it.

Commission members must meet certain qualifications, such as they can’t recently have run for office or made large campaign contributions. Staffers will present more details on the process at an upcoming council meeting, Cobian said.

The 2010 census determined Carlsbad had 105,328 residents. City officials say the city has added 8,000 to 10,000 residents since then, many of them in the newly built neighborhoods of Quarry Creek, Robertson Ranch and La Costa Oaks.

Carlsbad, Oceanside and several other cities and school districts in the county voluntarily switched from atlarge to district elections after receiving letters from Malibu-based attorney Kevin Shenkman threatening to sue under the state Voting Rights Act.

Courts have upheld the district election process on the basis that at-large elections dilute the votes of minorities, and make it more difficult and costly for new or little-known candidates to run for office.

philip.diehl@sduniontribune.com