Redistricting? Measure C? Aim of Fresno County leaders is to keep things the same
The more things stay the same, the more they won’t change.
Apologies to 19th century French critic Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr for butchering his famous phrase, but that’s the best description I can conjure for the veiled forces currently tugging at Fresno County residents. Forces that a good many people living here are either oblivious to or care little about.
Which is exactly how those controlling the power levers maintain their grip.
This applies to county redistricting as well as Measure C, the not-so-soon-to-be expiring transportation tax. In both cases, the ultimate aim by those in charge is to keep things pretty much as they are — with as little public fuss and legal hassle as possible.
Based on population imbalances revealed by the 2020 census, Fresno County has no choice but to redraw the boundaries of its five Board of Supervisors districts. The county has 1,008,530 residents, so ideally each district would contain an even split of 201,706. (A 10% deviation is permitted by state and federal laws.)
That isn’t the case currently. District 5, the Clovis and mountain area represented by Supervisor Nathan Magsig, has 229,862 residents according to census figures. Which is some 28,000 more than ideal. Meanwhile, Supervisor Buddy Mendes’ District 4 (cities and rural areas along Highways 99 and 41) and Supervisor Sal Quintero’s District 3 (central and south Fresno) are below the ideal figure by roughly 15,700 and 13,400 residents, respectively.
However they’re drawn up, the new maps will have to be more proportionally equal.
Although redistricting is a public process that’s purportedly nonpartisan — there’s even an 11-member advisory board — county supervisors ultimately have final say over the district boundaries in place for the next decade.
Meaning this assurance can be made without hesitation: The new lines will be drawn wherever the current supervisors believe gives them the best chance of getting reelected.
And two of them, Mendes and District 1 Supervisor Brian Pacheco, are up for a vote in 2022.
Keeping all this in mind, it should come as no surprise to learn that a map proposed by several civil rights groups including the Dolores Huerta Foundation failed to muster the necessary support at a recent meeting of the Fresno County Redistricting Commission.
New district maps will look familiar
That map would’ve drawn Mendes, a Riverdale resident, out of his own district and potentially pitted him against Pacheco next year.
Fat chance of that happening.
At the same meeting, the commission recommended (by unanimous vote) a map drawn by a group called the Fair Representation Coalition of Fresno County whose chief counsel is a Republican operative who runs a right-wing “news” website in his spare time.
In addition, commissioners recommended and forwarded two other maps formulated by a consulting group hired by the current Board.
What do all three maps have in common? They don’t draw any of the five supervisors out of their districts and keep the boundaries more or less the same.
Shocking, I know.
Fresno County, politically and otherwise, has changed significantly over the last decade. The current districts were drawn based on the 2010 census, back when there were roughly equal numbers of registered Republicans and Democrats living here. (In the 2010 midterms, both parties had 40.9 percent of registered voters according to election data supplied by the Secretary of State.)
That is no longer the case. Registered Democrats outnumbered Republicans 199,231 (39.7%) to 161,515 (32.2%) in Fresno County as of the September recall election with another 106,168 (21.2%) voters registered as No Party Preference.
Will the new boundaries reflect the shifting political allegiances of the local electorate? Don’t be naive. Republican supervisors Mendes, Magsig and Steve Brandau will do everything they can to maintain their current 3-2 majority. That’s Priority 1B.
Change, with as little change as possible.
Why the rush on Measure C renewal?
A similar strategy is being employed by county leaders striving to place a renewal of Measure C, the half-cent transportation tax, on the 2022 ballot. Even though the current iteration doesn’t expire until 2026.
Why Measure C backers are in such a rush has never been fully explained or dissected. It’s like they want to use the cover of COVID-19 — yes, we’re still in a pandemic — to help minimize public input and engagement, then sneak something onto the ballot when hardly anyone is looking.
Considering Measure C requires a two-thirds majority to pass, this doesn’t really sound like a winning formula.
Fresno County voters (in 2002) rejected a half-baked Measure C renewal that continued the emphasis on freeway expansion. It took until 2006, when funding for local streets, mass transit and trails was included, for the measure to pass.
The same playbook is being followed today. The 30-member Measure C executive committee comprised of local politicians, business owners and agency officials doesn’t come anywhere close to representing all facets of the community. Especially those whose needs have long been ignored by decades of freeway expansion paving the way for profit and sprawl.
Yet, by every indication, things are shaping up for a continuation of the status quo. Does Highway 180 really need to be pushed any further, west or east? Who exactly does that benefit? Certainly not the residents of many parts of Fresno, both city and county, living on crumbling roads and breathing polluted air with limited access to buses or safe routes to bike or walk.
The more things stay the same, the more they won’t change. Sorry again, Jean-Baptiste.
