Los Angeles City Council committee plans to reform redistricting process

Committee Los Angeles City Council Plans to Reform Redistricting Process from the city.

Over the next three months, The City Council Governance Reform Committee will listen to the opinion of the townspeople.

Previous meetings have been held at Exposition Park, Van Nuys and Cheviot Hills, and Monday’s city hall meeting was the city council’s last before summer break.

Residents who gave their opinion were concerned about how neighborhood maps are definedif they include or exclude certain areas, or if they separate certain areas belonging to a particular racial or socioeconomic group.

“His own experience with local governments really showed a lack of trust. There is a fear of corruption,” said Alejandra Ponce de Leon, who works for racial equality nonprofit Catalyst California and who was one of those who spoke before the committee.

Audio recordings leaked in October between city council members such as then-president Nuri Martinez, Kevin de Leon and Gil Zedillo, and a Los Angeles County labor leader who was charged with racist slurs, are an example of how the zoning process can represent a confrontation between different cultures.

Ponce de Leon believed that everyone could redistribute the districts, but changing the system for equity requires commitment from residents.

This Monday’s meeting started at 10:00 am and is available in English with Spanish translation.

The meeting was attended by representatives of non-profit organizations.

“The original people here have been erased from the process or from the political representation of power. So when we look at all 15 counties, there is not one where there is a concentration of Native American voters,” said Joey Williams on behalf of the California Native Voting Project.

Williams was just one of many voices opposed to the number of counties, and opinions on adding more wards and therefore more city council seats.

Candice Cho of the AAPI Equity Alliance stated that they do not feel represented by the current City Council.

“The current city council with 15 members means we are one of a quarter of a million people in every borough,” he said.

Cho, along with other speakers, called for an independent redistricting commission to transfer power to members of the Los Angeles City Council..

The committee plans to announce more gatherings in the future to hear more feedback from residents, and plans to review and vote on final recommendations in mid-September.

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