In the aftermath of the leaked audio scandal that included Los Angeles city councilors behind closed doors discussing redistricting and making racially charged statements, new state legislation could curtail the council from making final decisions that delineate their districts.
Redistricting, which takes place every decade following updated U.S. Census data, requires the Los Angeles City Charter to redraw council lines so each of the city’s 15 council districts has an equal population and political representation.
California Senate Bill 52, introduced by state Sen. María Elena Durazo, a Democrat, on Dec. 5, would establish an independent committee of 24 to redraw the districts in Los Angeles—removing the power from the city council.
Under the city’s current model, each elected council member appoints up to three members to a redistricting committee. The council then holds the final decision on the committee’s recommendations for the reworked maps.
The independent commission, as outlined in the legislation, would require the Los Angeles controller to “conduct a random drawing to select one commissioner from each of the 15 subpools established by the city elections official.”
The prospective commission members would be chosen based on “relevant experience, analytical skills, and ability to be impartial, and to ensure that the commission reflects the city’s diversity, including racial, ethnic, geographic, and gender diversity,” the legislation’s text reads.
The measure will be heard on the California Senate floor sometime in 2023.
According to the text, the political party preferences of the independent commission would also reflect those of the city’s registered voters.
Although the Los Angeles City Council positions are nonpartisan, the current council is composed entirely of registered Democrats.
The proposed legislation also requires that all “records of the commission relating to redistricting, and all data considered by the commission in drawing a draft map or the final map, are public records.”
City officials came under fire in October when an anonymous Reddit user leaked an audio conversation, which reportedly took place at a Los Angeles County Federation of Labor’s office sometime last year during the redistricting process.
Besides then-City Council President Nury Martinez, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera and Councilmen Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León could be heard in the conversation saying racially charged remarks about a fellow councilor and other ethnic groups.
The group also discussed the need to keep Latino councilors so that those districts wouldn’t lose important financial assets, such as the Van Nuys Airport and the University of Southern California.
The recording surfaced just weeks before the Nov. 8 election and was removed soon after. Herrera resigned from his position the next day, followed by Martinez a few days later.
Since the leak, protesters have disrupted city council meetings, calling for Cedillo and de León to resign, and spurred several high-profile California officials to respond. In October, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said his office would be investigating how Los Angeles divvied up its lines to “restore confidence in the redistricting process.”
