Redistricting panelist resigns, citing conflict

A panel of volunteers redrawing San Diego’s City Council district boundaries has lost one of its members just as the once-a-decade process moves into the final stretch.

Mitz Lee resigned Oct. 8 from the city’s Redistricting Commission based on controversy over whether San Diego will continue to have a heavily Asian council district and which neighborhoods it would include.

Lee said in her resignation letter that she felt there was a conflict between her loyalties to the city and the Asian Pacific American Coalition, a group she helped create.

“It is extremely hard for me as a member of the commission to balance the responsibility and obligation to the city of San Diego and the organization that I strongly believe in its mission,” Lee wrote in an email to Tom Hebrank, chairman of the Redistricting Commission.

The city already has heavily Asian Council District 6, which includes Mira Mesa, Kearny Mesa, eastern Clairemont and a sliver of Rancho Peñasquitos.

But a group of UC San Diego students is lobbying for a differently shaped Asian district that would tie the university — now in north coastal District 1 with La Jolla — to Mira Mesa, the Convoy district and other heavily Asian areas.

The nine-member Redistricting Commission had one member representing each of the city’s nine council districts. Lee, who is Asian, was the District 6 representative.

She was replaced last week by first alternate Kristen Roberts, who is also Asian. But Roberts lives in coastal District 2, giving that district two of the panel’s nine slots and leaving District 6 with none.

The change comes just as a demographic consultant unveils three proposals this week to potentially redraw the council district boundaries based on new census data and public input gathered at a series of meetings this year.

The commission is scheduled to meet Thursday to discuss those proposals and possibly select one of them or recommend a different map that combines elements of all three. A final decision is scheduled for Dec. 15. Hebrank said the commission would miss Lee. “Ms. Lee was a very hardworking and dedicated member,” he said.