‘Minions’ were not behind the SLO County redistricting lawsuit | Opinion

Score one for voting rights.

With the gerrymandered map adopted by the former conservative majority of the Board of Supervisors on its way out, Republicans will no longer have an unfair advantage.

For that, we can thank a group of citizens who had the gumption to act.

They banded together to form San Luis Obispo County Citizens for Good Government, hired an attorney and sued the county to force a judicial review of the map that was manipulated to give conservative candidates an edge in future elections. The League of Women Voters of San Luis Obispo County later joined the lawsuit.

The case is a textbook lesson on the important role the public can play in overturning undemocratic decisions.

Now, however, some members of the far right are insinuating that these citizens are minions of Supervisor Bruce Gibson, whose district was eviscerated by the map named after Arroyo Grande resident Richard Patten, the man who proposed it.

Don’t fall for that.

As we’ve said before, we’ve rarely seen such a diverse group of citizens so righteously angry and disgusted by an action taken by the SLO County Board of Supervisors. While their opinions on the Patten map align with Gibson’s, that does not make them left-leaning puppets.

In fact, the leadership of the citizens group includes two retired chiefs of police — not exactly hair-on-fire radicals.

And the League of Women Voters, a minion? Please.

A good outcome

This case was never a slam-dunk for the county.

In an early hearing, a San Luis Obispo Superior Court judge ruled that the Board of Supervisors erred when it “failed to consider evidence that the adopted map favored or discriminated against a political party.”

In non-legal parlance, the old board blew it.

The supervisors should have at least considered the political party data, even if they had no intention of acting upon it. Instead, the old board majority stuck its head in the sand and refused to even look at the numbers.

That left the county in legal jeopardy.

It made sense to settle at this stage, even though the county is out nearly $650,000 in legal fees, including $300,000 to cover the plaintiffs’ costs. That bill could have been far higher had the case dragged on.

What’s next?

To replace the Patten map, the Board of Supervisors will reconsider three maps presented during the last round of redistricting talks, although it could also choose an entirely new version.

Here’s what we hope to see:

Create districts that are competitive as possible

Under the current, gerrymandered map, only two districts — 2 and 4 — are somewhat balanced. As of the most recent reporting period, Republicans had 1,354 more registered Republicans than Democrats in District 2, and 1,522 more in District 4.

The remaining three districts are hugely lopsided.

In District 1, Republicans lead by 4,528 voters, while Democrats lead by a whopping 8,460 voters in District 3 and 6,853 voters in District 5.

By packing Democrats into Districts 3 and 5, Republicans managed to retain their comfortable majority in one district while giving themselves an edge in two others.

Not that it helped them any. They still managed to lose those two districts where they held narrow leads, after voters saw through their underhanded charade.

Nevertheless, the new board should do some unpacking and create competitive, more balanced districts.

Reunite the North Coast

The North Coast stretch that includes Los Osos, Morro Bay, Cayucos, Cambria and San Simeon never should have been split up.

There is no question that these communities have common interests — especially now that offshore wind energy development is on the horizon.

The project will require major infrastructure that will affect all coastal communities. It makes sense to have one county supervisor as the point of contact, rather than three.

Include Cal Poly in a SLO district

Supporters of the Patten map insisted again and again that Cal Poly should not be in the same district as Atascadero, since the two have very little in common.

It would make sense to keep Cal Poly in a district south of the Cuesta Grade, if possible. After all, students have stronger ties to San Luis Obispo than its neighbor to the north.

But this should not be a deal-breaking concern as Cal Poly is state property over which county supervisors have no jurisdiction.

Split up SLO

With the Patten map, we saw the dreadful consequences of keeping the city of San Luis Obispo relatively whole.

The move necessitated splitting up the North Coast, wound up creating a Democratic super-majority in District 3 and, as a result, gave Republicans a countywide edge.

What’s more, state law never required that the city be whole.

Here’s what the law says: “To the extent practicable, the geographic integrity of a city ... shall be respected in a manner that minimizes its division.”

Supporters of the Patten map conveniently glossed over that “to the extent practicable” phrase.

The fact is, in a county the size of San Luis Obispo County, it is not practical to keep the county seat in one district.

On the contrary, a worthy argument can be made that it’s a good thing for multiple supervisors to have a stake in the county’s biggest city, so they don’t become too parochial.

Listen to Oceano residents

In another move that aided the Republican Party, Oceano, which is mostly Democrat, was moved from District 4 to District 3, even though many residents requested to remain in District 4.

If that’s still their desire, supervisors should make it happen.

Transition to an independent redistricting commission

Finally, while we expect the new board to be far more judicious in redrawing district lines, we remain convinced that redistricting should be handled by an independent, bipartisan commission.

That would go a long way toward removing even the appearance of a conflict of interest.

We strongly urge the current board to join other California counties and cities that are pursuing that alternative, so a commission can be in place when the process repeats in 2031.

We greatly appreciate what SLO County Citizens for Good Government accomplished, but private citizens should not have to take their counties to court every 10 years to ensure something as basic as fair representation.

As this debacle has more than proved, it’s time the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors took itself out of the redistricting process.