The Santa Barbara County Citizens Independent Redistricting Commission is in the process of reshaping all five supervisory districts to supposedly comply with federal and state election laws following the 2020 census.
Even though the Federal Voting Rights Act specifies that the redistricting plan must “Identify neighborhoods and communities of interest” and keep them together, that hasn’t always been the case as previous efforts always maintained the dominance of the “South County voting block” at the expense of the Lompoc Valley.
It would seem to me that the communities of Lompoc, Mission Hills, Vandenberg Village, Mesa Oaks, and the surrounding ranches would easily fall into the category of “communities of interest.” Only one map submitted by citizens number Public 821B, seems to accomplish this goal. The other four maps under consideration dissect the Lompoc Valley and should be rejected.
In the past, similar exercises to redistrict the supervisory districts by the Board of Supervisors have divided the North County population to favor one political agenda. Considering the current maps under consideration were submitted by the public, we’ll have to wait and see if the commission ignores these two maps to continue that trend.
The Lompoc Valley has very little in common with the South Coast, with the exception that many working people travel south each day to provide services to south county residents. While the South Coast is choked with cars whizzing frantically from place-to-place all day long, our valley is less congested with the exception of an hour or so each afternoon.
Since these two maps shift the political center of gravity north, I seriously doubt either of them will be chosen. Instead, I am guessing the highly partisan commission will chose one of the other maps so the current south-county political influence is maintained.
This whole process was supposed to be completed by an independent, politically diverse group of citizens. However, this concept was tossed aside as the 11-member group was completely taken over by one political party, some of whom were actively involved in electing South Coast supervisors.
How could the commission be considered an “independent group” when members come to the table with political biases?
And could we expect the commissioners to disenfranchise supervisors they helped to elect by changing district boundaries?
The Lompoc Valley has been consistently split in each redistricting effort; this needs to stop and instead the commission needs to focus on maintain neighborhoods and communities of interest.
— Ron Fink, a Lompoc resident since 1975, is retired from the aerospace industry. He has been following Lompoc politics since 1992, and after serving for 23 years appointed to various Lompoc commissions, retired from public service. The opinions expressed are his own.
