City Council Endorses Redistricting Reform Initiative

Pasadena Monday became the first California city to endorse a proposed state ballot initiative that would take the job of redrawing the state's assembly and senate districts out of the hands of the state legislature and give it to a citizen panel.

The Council passed a resolution supporting the California Voters FIRST Act initiative sponsored by California Common Cause and supported by the League of Women Voters of California and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The 2001 redistricting by the state legislature resulted in districts "in very strange shapes that can really only be explained by ... individual incumbents looking to protect themselves against potential challengers," Kathay Feng, executive director of California Common Cause, told the Council last week.

If passed by voters, the Voters FIRST initiative would create a 14-person citizen commission that would redraw state Board of Equalization, state Senate and state Assembly districts after each census.

The commission would consist of five democrats, five republicans and four people who designated "decline to state" or state another party affiliation on their voter registration.

The commission would be required to meet in public and follow a set of mapping criteria. In order of priority, it would be required to create districts with equal populations, that respect the Voting Rights Act and are geographically contiguous.

The districts are to respect communities such as neighborhoods, cities and counties; be compact and, where possible, be nested so that two Assembly districts fit into a Senate district.

Rosalind Gold, senior director of policy, research & advocacy for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund, and Steven Ochoa, director of voting rights and policy research at the William C. Velasquez Institute, told the Council their groups oppose the initiative.

The requirement that districts be nested, they said, conflicts with the Voting Rights Act.

But Feng said many people, including those at the state Office of Legislative Counsel, have reviewed the Voters FIRST initiative and concluded it does not conflict with the Voting Rights Act. She noted that the Voters FIRST initiative only requires nesting to the extent it does not conflict with the Voting Rights Act.

Local seniors activist and American Civil Liberties Union board Member Marvin Schachter told the Council the American Association of Retired Persons supports the initiative. After the hearing, he told Pasadena Now the ACLU specifically looked at the question of whether the Voters FIRST initiative conflicts with the Voting Rights Act and concluded that it does not.

After saying they didn't feel comfortable supporting the initiative without more time to study it, Councilmembers Steve Madison and Victor Gordo abstained from the vote. Mayor Bill Bogaard and Councilmembers Chris Holden, Sid Tyler, Steve Haderlein, Margaret McAustin and Jacque Robinson voted in favor of the resolution.

"I think we're all so thirsty for reform in this arena that we're willing to ... say yes to the first suitor that comes along," Madison said. "What's the acute problem in Pasadena here that we're rushing to solve?"

"The acute problem in Pasadena," answered Haderlein, "is that the state districts have been created to be highly partisan, and what that creates is safe districts. So, you get tremendously partisan candidates. When you're dealing with tremendously partisan candidates ... compromise is out of the question. That brings gridlock to our state government."

"Our schools are suffering," Haderlein continued, "because of the budget problem that is the result of unwillingness to compromise because you have highly partisan individuals in those seats."

"The budget is suffering," he added. "We are suffering because of a state government that is set up not for compromise, but rather for partisan bickering."

Madison countered that he doesn't believe Pasadena's state representatives act that way and the state budget problem is caused by the fact that the budget has to be passed by a two-thirds majority of the legislature.

"Granted there are unknowns to this thing," Tyler said. "One just simply can't be sure of all the things it should really live up to be."

"But ... I don't see anything better," he added, "and this is a substantial improvement over what we've been having to live with over the years."

"This is an important opportunity for us," said McAustin, "to stand up for the voters of California and the voters of Pasadena for redistricting reform and I think this is a very good proposal we have before us, though it isn't perfect."

"I don't see what the rush is," Gordo said. "Being first may be important, but in this case ... I'd rather be right. Personally I just don't have all the facts that I need to be able to say to people this is the solution to the problem."

"Sometimes we can't wait for the perfect solution," McAustin replied, "and we have to stand up and say, 'I think this meets our goal.'"

Feng said Common Cause will be gathering signatures for the initiative through April 15 and hopes to have the initiative on the November 2008 ballot. Almost 700,000 signatures are needed to put it on the ballot, she added.