LUCERNE, Calif. – A committee tasked with providing options on how to redraw county supervisorial districts is hosting meetings around the county, but so far the group isn't drawing much public input.
The 2011 Supervisorial Redistricting Advisory Committee held the third of five planned public
redistricting discussions at the Lucerne Alpine Senior Center on Thursday evening.
Discussions held earlier in the week took place at the Board of Supervisors chambers at the Lake County Courthouse in Lakeport and the Calpine Visitor Center in Middletown on Wednesday.
Maps of the options for changing the district boundaries can be seen at http://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=3f17f01596e84337b3ce275414918e05.
So far, attendance has been sparse, said Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley.
At Monday's discussion, no community members showed up, she said. Two appeared in Middletown on Wednesday, and one or two came in to look over five maps showing redistricting options at Lucerne's senior center on Thursday night.
County officials outnumbered community members appearing for the events. In attendance Thursday night were Fridley, District 3 Supervisor Denise Rushing, Deputy Redevelopment Director Eric Seely, Deputy Registrar of Voters Maria Valadez, former planner and new redevelopment agency staffer Alan Flora and Assessor-Recorder Doug Wacker.
Fridley said this has been her fourth redistricting process. The work takes place following every US Census.
This is the first time that community discussions have been part of the process, said Fridley, who wanted to include them this time around.
The redistricting process is meant to achieve a target number of residents in each of the county's five supervisorial districts. Fridley said that based on the 2010 US Census, the optimal number of constituents for each district is 12,933.
According to a report Fridley presented to the Board of Supervisors in early June, as the district boundaries currently are drawn, Districts 1, 2 and 5 all have too many residents and Districts 3 and 4 have too few.
Fridley reported the following residency numbers for each district: District 1, 13,259, over by 326; District 2, 13,719, over by 786; District 3, 12,362, under by 571; District 4, 11,913, under by 1,020; and District 5, 13,412, over by 479.
Some of the options include proposed shifts that would have Cobb going to District 1 from District 5, with District 5 picking up more of Kelseyville and Finley. Another proposal has District 4 moving more toward Upper Lake.
Both District 4 Supervisor Anthony Farrington and Rushing have homes that are just on the boundaries of their districts. In at least one of the proposals, Rushing would find herself just inside the District 4 boundary, but Fridley had said previously that the law allows elected officials to serve out the rest of their terms if the redistricting process puts them out of their districts.
Mapping new district lines is the easy part, said Fridley. Still to come is reorganizing the county's many voting precincts, she said.
Fridley had explained in a previous interview with Lake County News that all of the redistricting work must be completed more than 30 days ahead of Dec. 30, when candidates for county elected offices can begin taking out papers to gather signatures in lieu of paying filing fees.
The committee will host two more meetings for the community: Wednesday, July 6, 6:30 p.m. at the Gard Street School, Kelseyville; and Thursday, July 7, 6:30 p.m., council chambers, Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.
Just how the final boundaries are drawn, ultimately, will be up to the Board of Supervisors, which has scheduled a discussion at 9:15 a.m. Tuesday, July 26, to discuss the options.
At that time Fridley said the board can either consider the options presented by the committee or draw new lines.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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