Latinos are a majority in Fresno County. How new voting boundaries could limit their power
This story is part of the Central Valley News Collaborative — a bilingual, community journalism project funded by the Central Valley Community Foundation and with technology and training support from Microsoft Corp. The collaboration includes The Fresno Bee, Valley Public Radio, Vida en el Valle, Radio Bilingüe and the Institute for Media & Public Trust at Fresno State.
The process to redraw Fresno County’s supervisor district boundaries is nearing its end, with the Board of Supervisors indicating this week they want to move forward with a new map that some say fails to provide the Latino community with the political representation it will need for the next decade.
Now, community advocates are questioning what the proposed map — crafted by a conservative political strategist — could mean for the future of Latino representation in a majority-Latino county.
“This Board of Supervisors is not interested in listening to the people that they are failing to represent,” said Lori Pesante, director of civic engagement and government relations at the Dolores Huerta Foundation, which drafted a map that the supervisors rejected.
“It really should bother every person in Fresno County that these folks seemed to already have their minds made up before they even went into that hearing.”
While Board of Supervisor elections are nonpartisan, three members are Republic and two are Democrats. The body on Tuesday decided to support a controversial map created by a coalition led by Alex Tavlian, who runs a conservative news outlet called The San Joaquin Valley Sun. They directed county staff to use Tavlian’s map as the basis for making a final decision on boundaries at the next public hearing on Nov. 16.
The Dolores Huerta Foundation’s map, which was backed by numerous local nonprofits and community leaders, intended to redraw local political boundaries to boost representation for the county’s unincorporated, low-income areas and communities of color. Advocates said the map aimed to maximize Latino representation to correct a longstanding history of political marginalization in a county where voting power has largely been concentrated in white, affluent areas.
Supporters of the foundation’s map said it would have provided Latino community members with the opportunity to elect supervisors who could better advocate for their needs, including road and infrastructure improvements, access to clean drinking water and addressing pollution concerns.
“We are a majority represented by people who don’t care about our future,” Fresno County resident Sol Galoza, who lives in District 4, said in Spanish during the meeting. “The (foundation’s map) puts my community at the top — the farmworkers, the low income families and the next generation.”
Fresno County supervisors weigh district maps
The redistricting process requires redrawing district lines every ten years to reflect population changes. It determines which communities are grouped together to elect county supervisors.
In Fresno County, the Board of Supervisors operates a budget of $3.9 billion and makes decisions on public health, public services and public works projects, among others.
Fresno County grew by 8.4% over the past decade, with the population increasing from 930,450 residents in 2010 to 1,008,654 in 2020. Latinos now represent nearly 54% of the population, according to the most recent census.
Despite this change, there is currently just one Latino representative sitting on the five-member board. The remaining members are all white.
Critics of Tavlian’s map said it would continue to disenfranchise residents in rural areas, such as some farmworkers and immigrants who may not be eligible to vote but are a constitutionally protected class that is entitled to fair representation.
“You cannot pair rural farmworker communities with super affluent, super high propensity voters that don’t share their interests,” said Pesante of the Dolores Huerta Foundation.
“Because of historic disenfranchisement, they will never be able to out-vote some of those other areas. So you’ve got to draw a balance that takes into account how many total people have a constitutionally protected class.”
The supervisors did not take an official vote at the meeting, but the majority indicated that they would not consider the foundation’s proposal.
Some supervisors expressed opposition to the foundation’s map because it would split up historic neighborhoods like Old Fig Garden and Sunnyside. Instead, the supervisors opted to make slight modifications to the map proposed by Tavlian to change the district borders to “balance out the population.”
“It divides up the neighborhoods around Old Fig and that’s a problem for me,” said Supervisor Steve Brandau, who represents District 2.
Supervisor Sal Quintero — the only Latino on the board — told The Bee Wednesday that he was “disappointed” by the majority’s decision. He had moved to push forward the foundation’s map, but his motion failed to gain the four votes needed.
“I felt that all of the other maps basically maintain the status quo,” Quintero said. Including himself, he only recalls only four Latino members ever being elected to the board.
Some call for maps that maximize Latino representation
Still, Quintero is hopeful that by the next election, community organizations and leaders will educate the Latino community on their voting rights and conduct outreach to increase voter participation rates.
“I believe there should be a concerted effort by the (community) groups, that they do an education project within the different communities that they want to target,” he said. “They should seek to educate the residents about the importance of voting and what it means as far as economics and also help for their communities.”
Former Supervisor Juan Arambula, an outspoken critic of the Board of Supervisors, criticized the board’s decision. He said the supervisors “were protecting themselves and the status quo.”
“Their actions did us all a huge disservice,” he told The Bee Wednesday. “We will continue looking at ways to convince the Board of Supervisors to change direction before they finalize their supervisorial boundaries. If they persist, we believe they will have broken the law.”
It’s unclear what the next step is for supporters of the foundation’s map or if any legal action will be taken to push back against the decision.
This story was originally published November 4, 2021 at 5:00 AM.