State Center college district board accused of gerrymandering in redistricting effort
Like other public jurisdictions, every 10 years following the decennial census, State Center Community College District is required to review its trustee area boundaries to maintain a proper population balance. The district is governed by seven elected trustees who represent seven unique trustee areas. SCCCD retained an experienced firm to study the current area alignments and make recommendations. Below is an edited version of the results:
Based on data from the 2020 Decennial Census, the firm of Cooperative Strategies has determined that trustee areas must be adjusted to maintain a proper population balance. They have created four proposed mapping scenarios that reflect adjustments to trustee areas to ensure compliance with legal requirements. (SCCCD Web Site: Trustee Area Redistricting AREA I: MAPS 1 – 4)
These four maps represented the professional recommendation for boundary changes. They all meet state criteria established as guiding principles to follow in consideration of new “redistricted” maps. The board was to select one from the four maps, which had some minor adjustment for population shifts. After these four maps (1-4) were presented by the firm’s independent professional study, a citizen’s plan (Proposal Redistricting Scenario 5/Map 5) was submitted. Map 5 offered a scheme that completely ignored the independent recommendation and completely revamped Trustee Area 1. Map 5 moved the following Madera County communities from Trustee Area 1 to Area 7 (currently entirely within Fresno Co.: Rolling Hills, Ranchos, Riverstone, Tesoro Veijo, Coarsegold, North Fork, Yosemite Lakes Estates, Oakhurst, Bass Lake and more).
At its Jan. 11 meeting the board voted 4-3 to approve Map 5 and thereby tossed out Maps 1-4 and completely separated eastern Madera County from Trustee Area I. The only reasoning put forth by this “citizen plan” was a vague assertion that Area I should include predominately Hispanic communities in northwest Fresno County and that SCCCD trustees should better reflect the population of the district. This sentiment was echoed by the four trustees voting in favor. A major flaw in this thinking is that the facts do not support the assumption that Latinos are not represented on the Board and that change in boundaries deludes such representation.
The ethnic/gender breakdown of the trustees is this: three Latinas, one Asian-American female, one South Asia-American female and two white males. The current Area I Trustee is a white male, but his predecessor was Latina. While there is no perfect representative order for these types of elective positions, it is encouraging to see a strong ethnic and gender representation on the current board.
But the dissected, newly approved Area 1 map is not the appropriate action. The original, nonpartisan, professionally developed boundaries (Maps 1-4) indicate Area 1 with approximately 55% Hispanic/Latino population, which is at the median of the other six areas. With the shifting of the boundaries of Area I: by eliminating the communities of eastern Madera County and adding an area of northwestern Fresno, it increases to 66%. Something not considered was that under Maps 1 – 4, the approximate percentage of Hispanic in Area 7 was 51%. However, with the movement of the above referenced eastern Madera communities into Area 7, the Hispanic population decreases to 25%. Why would the proponent desire to dilute the percentage of Hispanic in this trustee area? Because this gerrymandering has little to do with racial balance.
The possible answer may be found in the organizations supporting this change. The two major SCCCD labor groups spoke in favor of the dramatic change. The board majority, seeking favor with these groups, made an entirely political decision while redistricting guidelines regarding contiguity, preservation of existing political communities, and racial fairness were tossed out the window.
This is gerrymander, pure and simple, and should not be tolerated regardless of who is pulling the strings behind the scenes.
