Ask Paul: What's Happening with Redistricting?

Thanks for your continued questions -- we’re working hard to get to as many as we can as quickly as we can in the space we're allotted. I appreciate your continued active engagement in the issues that affect our great city! 

Paul, how do you feel about the redistricting plans for now, first draft? I'm sickened by the new plans and would like to keep you as a Councilman in Sherman Oaks. Can You help Sherman Oaks stay in your district? Do you want to have Sherman Oaks in your district? --Scott Killeen

Dear Scott, 

As you know, the 21-member Redistricting Commission, charged with drawing new voting boundaries for the all of the city's 15 council districts, submitted its first draft of proposed maps for public consideration last month. 

The release of the maps [which you can see here] follows the commission's receipt of testimony and comment from Los Angeles residents during months of public hearings held across the city, and in every council district.

Hundreds of public commenters, representing widely divergent points of view, provided input at the meetings, as well as by phone, email and letters to the commission.  That process of public participation is still continuing now that the draft maps have been released, and you can get more information about the schedule of hearings and other opportunities to participate in the process via the Commission's website: http://redistricting2011.lacity.org/lacity.

One of the clearest sentiments expressed during public comment was the strong desire by stakeholders to unite communities that had been arbitrarily divided.  CD2 currently includes portions of 11 different communities, and only two are entirely within the district; all of the other communities are arbitrarily divided by the current political boundaries of my district and others.

The proposed map for CD2 would unite four significant communities.
Based on the current drafts, Council District 2 would swing south and east as a result of changes in population, the impact of changes in surrounding council districts, and the shifting demographics of our population throughout Los Angeles.  The proposed map of CD2 would include the entire communities of Studio City, Valley Glen, North Hollywood, Toluca Lake and most of Valley Village.

The draft map would leave the district without the north Valley communities of Sunland, Tujunga, Shadow Hills, Sun Valley and Lake View Terrace.  As you point out, Sherman Oaks would be unified in another district, so CD2 would lose the portion of that community that I currently represent. 

I have great affection and concern for every block of my current district, and I've worked hard to serve each of the eleven communities that I currently represent. I would be delighted to keep CD2 intact exactly as it is now.  Unfortunately, population increases in the area require that Council District 2 shrink in size, and demographic changes make changes in the boundaries inevitable. Thus, under any scenario, I will be required to give up some neighborhoods that I care about very much. 

The Citizen's Commission still has more work to do and more public input will be required before the proposal is even considered by the City Council. Regardless of how the political lines of my district are ultimately drawn, I will always stand with the residents of Sherman Oaks and other parts of the San Fernando Valley in fighting for issues that matter to us, including protecting open space, preserving community character and quality of life, creating jobs and opportunity, and making our community stronger. 

Public hearings of the Commission will continue through February in anticipation of adopting a series of newly drawn maps by March 1. The City Council is required to adopt the redistricting ordinance by July 1 and the new council districts become effective upon adoption of the ordinance describing those districts.  

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