San Diego County’s redistricting committee meets today to consider plans submitted by the public on how to redraw the boundaries of the supervisors’ districts. Some trends are clear.
The five supervisors are each supposed to represent 1/5 of the county’s population. Because of change in the 2010 census, three districts will have to shrink in size and two will grow.
Michel Anderson, Chair of the redistricting committee, said Diane Jacob’s East County District 2 needs to add 48,000 people. Its boundaries will move west, either adding Rancho Bernardo or communities in the South Bay.
Meanwhile Greg Cox’s South Bay District 1, which is heavily Latino, must shrink by 36,000 people. Anderson said several cities in the South Bay have said they do not want to be moved to another district.
Growth in the North County means both Supervisor Bill Horn and Pam Slater Price must lose a few thousand constituents, which means losing ground. There is plenty of room for maneuvering there. Ten years ago, Horn swapped to include Rancho Santa Fe in his district, and gave Slater Price Escondido. Now Slater Price would like to give up areas of Escondido in return for parts of Carlsbad.
Anderson said only 17 people have spoken so far at the 11 public hearings the committee has held. Some of the written comments were actually misdirected comments from city residents, who are concerned about where a 9th city council district will be created. The county redistricting committee has no control over that.
But there could be significant changes to county representation.
“We received two plans that were submitted by members of the public,” Anderson said, “ and our committee itself has generated five plans. We are moving things around and trying to come up with something that is workable.”
Anderson said the committee can submit up to three plans to the board of supervisors on June 28th.
It will be the supervisors themselves who make the final decision.
