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Politics Oct 09, 2023
Gov. Gavin Newsom. | Photo courtesy of Gage Skidmore/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
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In response to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s vetoing of two bills that would have required Los Angeles to create an independent redistricting commission, City Council President Paul Krekorian said Monday that city governance should be up to the voters in the city.
“As I have said all along, decisions about how to govern Los Angeles should be left to the voters of Los Angeles, not mandated by Sacramento,” Krekorian said in a statement. “The governor’s veto puts that question to rest with finality, and I am grateful to him for that.
“But to be clear — with or without state legislation, this Council will continue to advance our proposal to scrap the current scandalously broken redistricting system entirely, and replace it with a truly independent commission that is shielded from any political influence whatsoever from the Council,” he added.
State Sen. María Elena Durazo, D-Los Angeles, introduced Senate Bill 52, which would have required cities with a population of at least 2.5 million people to establish an independent redistricting commission.
Los Angeles is the only city in California with at least 2.5 million people.
Assemblyman Isaac Bryan, D-Los Angeles, authored another bill that would have required large cities, counties and school districts to adopt independent redistricting commissions by 2030. The two bills were designed to work together, and have provisions to ensure that they do not overlap.
Under the current system, city council districts are drawn up by a panel whose members are appointed by the council, which then has the final say on those boundaries.
Council leaders are trying to change that by placing a more independent plan before voters. A City Council group has called for the creation of two independent redistricting commissions to draw boundaries for the City Council and the Los Angeles Unified School District.
“I remain absolutely committed to establishing the first fully independent redistricting process in this city’s history. Over two years ago, Councilmember (Nithya) Raman and I proposed such an independent commission, but our reform efforts were stifled by Council leadership at that time,” Krekorian said in a statement.
“That’s why my first action as Council president was to create the Ad Hoc Committee on City Governance Reform,” he added.
Last week, the committee approved a proposal for an independent redistricting commission.
“After an exhaustive process, that committee has produced a detailed plan that will take redistricting out of the hands of the Council completely and give it to a truly independent commission,” Krekorian said in a statement. “I am very proud of the difficult work that the committee has done, working closely with reform advocates, community organizations and leading experts, to develop this plan fully. It will now be the Council’s responsibility to put this plan on the 2024 ballot and let the voters decide.”
The proposal will be considered by the full City Council at a future meeting in November, and will require an amendment to the City Charter, which would be decided by city voters.
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