SLO County will create an independent redistricting commission. Here’s how it will happen

A panel of citizens — not elected officials — will get to choose San Luis Obispo County’s supervisor district boundaries in the future.

On Tuesday night, the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to direct county staff to work with state Sen. John Laird’s office to write a law creating an independent redistricting commission for the county.

The commission would be an appointed, nonpartisan group of citizens that replace the board in approving district boundaries.

“We’re here because we value creating an independent process where we can take the power out of the hands of the politicians and give it back to the people,” Supervisor Jimmy Paulding said.

Supervisors Debbie Arnold and John Peschong voted against establishing an independent redistricting commission.

Arnold said the board is better equipped than a commission to select a map.

“If you have run a campaign at this level — the county level — then you know your district, you know your people, you know your community, you know your boundaries,” Arnold said. “You can’t duplicate that with the Legislature in Sacramento.”

Community members asked for an independent redistricting commission after the previous board majority approved a radically redrawn district map that some said favored Republicans in 2021.

“That’s the abuse of power that we’re trying to prevent,” Paulding said on Tuesday.

San Luis Obispo County Citizens for Good Government, a local group that formed in response to the redistricted map, sued the county, arguing that the map was gerrymandered. The SLO County League of Women Voters joined the lawsuit.

On March 21, the new board settled the lawsuit, tossed out the redrawn map and selected a new one.

During public comment, Atascadero City Councilmember Susan Funk, who is running for the District 5 seat on the board, said establishing an independent redistricting commission could restore voters’ trust after a tumultuous redistricting process in 2021.

“You can’t guarantee that there will never be litigation, but you can set up a process that people believe in, that voters support and that will ensure a process which has integrity,” Funk said.

The changes between maps caused some hiccups in representation across the county. Some residents technically have two elected supervisors until the 2026 election, while others didn’t get to vote for a supervisor in 2022 and won’t have the chance to vote again until 2026.

Los Osos resident Ellen Perryess was one of the voters who didn’t get to cast a ballot for a supervisor last year.

“That was very painful for me. I feel very committed to local politics,” Perryess said. “It was a 2-3 board decision that took away my ability to vote in that election and now the next one, and I think that won’t happen again if we have a commission that is actually doing the job and takes politics out of it.”

Once state and county staff develop a framework for the commission, they will present it to the board for review, according to county counsel Rita Neal.

“With that report would come the option for public comment and potential suggestions by this board back to the Legislature,” Supervisor Bruce Gibson said.

Who will serve on the commission?

The board preferred an 11-member independent redistricting commission, the same size as Santa Barbara County’s commission, which was established in 2019.

Santa Barbara County’s commission was created by a ballot measure passed by voters, according to Neal.

Meanwhile, seven counties have independent redistricting commissions created by state legislation, Neal said.

The commissions formed by state law have 14 members because they exist in larger counties — but the board thought a smaller commission would be more appropriate for SLO County due to its size.

Members will need to meet a list of requirements. For example, they can not be “elected officials, lobbyists, candidates, campaign donors, or their close family members,” they must have analytical skills and the ability to be impartial, the staff report said.

Prospective members will apply to the county and undergo a selection process that will be outlined by state law, Neal said.

The commission will hold five public meetings before drawing the map — one in each district, and three public meetings after drawing the map.

Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg said that it’s critical to hold meetings in different parts of the county to maximize the public’s participation.

“Not everybody can come down to San Luis at 6 o’clock at night,” she said.

Within 21 days of adopting a map, the commission will be required to publish a report explaining its choice, Neal said.

State and county staff will solidify member requirements and the application process for commissioners as they develop the state law, according to Neal.

Why create a commission through state legislation?

The board had three options in deciding how to establish an independent redistricting commission: Create the commission with a law passed by the state Legislature, through an ordinance approved by the board, or via a ballot measure approved by SLO County voters, according to Neal.

Adding an ordinance to the ballot would have cost the county about $51,000, according to county administrator Sarah Hayter.

Additionally, the county will be required to fund the independent redistricting commission, which could cost between $750,000 and $1 million, Hayter said.

If the board put the ordinance on the ballot, voters would have to approve any future changes to the commission. Alternatively, if a state law created the commission, the state Legislature would have to approve any changes, according to Neal.

At public comment, some community members said they preferred a voter-approved commission.

“The No. 1 upside is that the voters in this county have a stake in what’s going to happen to them,” said Linda Seifert, a former Solano County supervisor and an officer of SLO County Citizens for Good Government. She was not speaking on behalf of the organization.

The League of Women Voters also preferred that the ordinance be placed on the ballot, according to co-president Ann Havlik.

Meanwhile, the SLO County Citizens for Good Government had no preference over how the commission was created — as long as one is eventually established.

“Finish the job,” organization vice president Patricia Gomez said. “Our community said loudly what it wants, and what it wants is democracy.”

While Gibson originally supported using a ballot measure to create a commission, he ultimately thought it would be more effective for the state Legislature to create the commission.

Gibson said the state is likely to eventually mandate that counties use independent redistricting commissions, which would come with their own set of rules. That would override a local ordinance, so it makes more sense to work with the Legislature from the get-go to draft a style of redistricting commission that suits San Luis Obispo County, according to Gibson.

The law drafted by Laird and the county could be used as a model for the state’s general mandate for independent redistricting commissions, Gibson said.

“Maybe we should be out there with what we want first as a means of getting something that is best crafted to this county,” Gibson said.

Additionally, Gibson noted that the majority of people who submitted comments to the board agree that the county needs an independent redistricting commission.

“There seems no controversy,” he said, so it doesn’t matter as much how the board creates the commission — as long as they get it done.

Supervisors Arnold and Peschong, however, wanted the state Legislature to stay out of it.

“I don’t think the Legislature always represents the people of San Luis Obispo County,” Arnold said.

Meanwhile, Peschong thought the effort was a waste of money.

“I believe the state is going to make a decision. They’re going to put together independent redistricting commissions, and they’re going to ask all the counties to do it,” Peschong said. “This does not make sense that we move forward with this and spend this money when the state is going to do it automatically.”

Gibson fired back, arguing that a redistricting commission is worth the cost.

“A million dollars over 10 years — that’s what it cost to redistrict fairly and independent of this board — is a trivial amount,” Gibson said. “This is about protecting our democracy.”