Thousand Oaks facing supervisor split

REDISTRICTING



In Map 1, Thousand Oaks is split into multiple districts, with the western portion of the city and unincorporated Casa Conejo in Newbury Park grouped with Camarillo. Courtesy of County of Ventura

Lines have been drawn in the sand . . . and in the hills, valleys and agricultural farming plains of Ventura County.

As is the case every 10 years, the county, per the U.S. Constitution, must redraw lines for its supervisory districts, taking into account data from the latest census.

After final 2020 census data became available Sept. 20, the county and its consultant, Sacramento-based Redistricting Partners, began looking at how best to divide the area. The county must complete the redistricting process by Dec. 15.

At its meeting Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors discussed the first four draft maps the county released last week showing potential changes to the lines, which determine representation on the board.

Currently, supervisors are separated into five districts: District 1 (Ventura, Ojai and parts of Oxnard), District 2 (Conejo Valley, coastal areas, Santa Rosa Valley and Bell Canyon), District 3 (Camarillo, Port Hueneme, Fillmore, Santa Paula, parts of Oxnard), District 4 (Simi Valley/Moorpark) and District 5 (Oxnard, northern coastal areas, El Rio).

“These maps have been, really, driven by public input,” said Chris Chaffee, Redistricting Partners’ chief operating officer, noting that 25 hand-drawn and 33 online maps had been submitted by members of the public.

While county staffers and consultants attempted to follow the same guiding principles for their four maps, including having roughly the same number of people in each district and keeping each district contiguous (except for those covering the Channel Islands), they did not achieve the goal of respecting city and census-designated boundaries in any version.

Only two of the four maps create two majority-minority districts, a requirement, according to the county, of the California Voting Rights Act. Currently only District 5 (which is majority Hispanic) qualifies.

In Map 2, Thousand Oaks remains whole but adds part of eastern Camarillo. Courtesy of County of Ventura

A majority-minority district is an electoral district in which the majority of the constituents in the district are racial or ethnic minorities.

“The difference between (Maps) 1, 2, 3 and 4 is 3 and 4 really tried to minimize city splits . . . and Maps 1 and 2 really sought to maximize Latino representation through drawing majority-minority seats,” Chaffee told the supervisors at the Oct. 19 meeting.

Because majority-minority districts are required, the supervisors voted 4-1 to remove the latter two maps from consideration.

Supervisor Kelly Long was opposed, saying she wanted to keep those maps on the table to offer flexibility and honor requests by cities not to be split into more than one district.

Chafee indicated that while his firm could look at various configurations to minimize splits, having two majority-minority districts and no splits is an impossibility.

“If you’re going to have two majority-minority districts . . . you’re going to have city splits. There’s no way around it,” he said. “It’s determining which ones you don’t want to split, like an ordering of cities; picking your favorite child, to an extent on this, unfortunately.”

For the time being, the supervisors will only contemplate Maps 1 and 2 of those submitted by the consultant.

Map 1

The first map calls for a district encompassing all of Ventura, Ojai, Meiners Oaks and Oak View plus parts of Saticoy, Oxnard and Port Hueneme. It would be predominately Latino.

Another district groups Camarillo with the western portion of Thousand Oaks and unincorporated Casa Conejo in the Newbury Park area—but that border ends at the Santa Monica Mountains and does not appear to include the Dos Vientos neighborhood or anything south to the ocean.

A third district, the second of the two majority-minority districts, would group the northwest portion of Oxnard with the other portion of Saticoy, Santa Paula, Fillmore, Piru, Somis, the Santa Rosa Valley and about half of Moorpark.

Another district would group the remainder of Moorpark with all of Simi Valley, Santa Susana, Bell Canyon, Oak Park and the remaining third of Thousand Oaks.

The final district would encompass the rest of Oxnard plus the southernmost portion of the county, including the final portion of Thousand Oaks, Lake Sherwood and unincorporated mountain and farm land.

Map 2

In the second map, Thousand Oaks, Moorpark and Simi Valley remain whole but Oxnard and Camarillo are split among three districts each.

Like in the first map, the northernmost district would include all of Ventura to Ojai and northward. It appears to only include a small portion of Oxnard.

In another district, Thousand Oaks would be grouped with Oak Park, the Santa Rosa Valley, Lake Sherwood, Casa Conejo, the western portion of Camarillo, some of the Santa Monica Mountains and a tiny sliver of Simi Valley.

A third district would include a section of Oxnard, the northern part of Camarillo, Santa Paula, Fillmore, Piru and everything north up to the county border.

All of Moorpark, Santa Susana and Bell Canyon plus most of Simi Valley would be grouped in a fourth district, and the final district would place the remainder of Oxnard, Port Hueneme, and unincorporated areas of the Oxnard Plain and Santa Monica Mountains together.

Though the consultant only presented four maps, County CEO Mike Powers made it clear the supervisors were not limited to those options.

“These are four choices but they are not the only four choices,” he said. “If there’s some other things you’d like to see, it’s open for that.”

In addition to Maps 1 and 2, the supervisors indicated they would like to consider three community-created maps along with others yet to come from the public when they next convene to discuss maps on Nov. 9.

The maps are available for viewing on the county’s website. The page also includes links for sharing comments about the maps.