Dolores Huerta Foundation map for new Fresno County Supervisor districts strikes out before redistricting commission

Editor’s note: The Fresno County Redistricting Commission voted to advance three maps with new districts to the Fresno County Board of Supervisors following a contentious meeting Thursday night (Oct. 21) that lasted more than 5 hours.

The map backed by the Central California Coalition for Equitable Realignment, which worked with the Dolores Huerta Foundation – got a 5-4 vote, short of the 6 votes needed to advance. Two of the 11 commission members were absent.

Coalition member Juan Arámbula, a former supervisor and former state Assemblymember, said “it is too soon to know” if the three maps that were approved meet requirements of the Fair Maps Act. The legislation mandates certain requirements for redistricting that were not in place 10 years ago.

“I don’t think the commissioners know,” said Arámbula.

The following is from a story in the upcoming Oct. 27 edition of Vida en el Valle that was written in time for publication deadline.:

Ten years ago when the Fresno County Board of Supervisors was determining how to accommodate a Latino population surge that made it the majority, they kept the five legislative districts largely intact in its redistricting.

Other than tweaking district lines here and there, the board held onto districts that looked pretty much the same in 1990 when the Latinos accounted for 35.5% of about 667,00 county residents.

Yet the board struggled for months to agree on boundaries that moved 25,000 residents into what is now Supervisor Sal Quintero’s District 3, and 8,500 people into District 2 now represented by Steve Brandau.

That might not be the case this year because of a more potent force in the biennial redistricting battle and a new state law (the FAIR Maps Act authored by now-State Attorney General Rob Bonta) that dictates how legislative districts are redrawn.

Lori Pesante – director of civic engagement and government relations for the Dolores Huerta Foundation – sees the old districts as “misaligned” because they have not been created to keep up with the growing changes of the population.

“The basic reality is that the demographics have been shifting steadily every decade for 50 years now,” said Pesante. “The law has finally caught up to the need, and the (FAIR Maps Act) is not going to allow it.”

Pesante is working with local groups in Fresno, Tulare, Kings and Kern counties to come up with maps that provide Latinos a better chance of electing a Latino/Latina or their candidate of choice to their county boards of supervisors.

Currently, Latinos represent the majority of residents in Fresno (53.6%), Tulare (65.5%), Kings (56.8%) and Kern (54.9%) counties, but each county has only one Latino on those boards. The same is true in Madera (59.6%) and Merced (61.8%) counties.

The foundation, which won a court case in Kern County in 2018 to force a second Latino-majority district, has enlisted the help of demographer Jesús García in coming up with maps that create three Latino-majority districts in Fresno, Tulare and Kern counties; and, two Latino-majority districts in Kings County.

(The group is not involved in Madera or Merced counties, at least not yet, said Pesante).

“The misalignment of those seats just can’t happen again,” said Pesante.

There are three supervisoral districts in Fresno County with a Latino majority: Quintero’s at 62.7%; Brian Pacheco’s District 1 at 59.4%; and, Buddy Mendes’ District 4 at 72.7%.

But that doesn’t necessarily make them compliant with the FAIR Maps Act, said Pesante.

“It’s not about Latinos,” said Pesante. “It’s about any constitutionally protected class that triggers the legal obligation of a jurisdiction.”

That is why the foundation’s proposed map for Fresno County – which is supported by the Central California Coalition for Equitable Realignment – drastically changes the western and southern districts.

Pacheco’s District 1 – which covers the farming cities of Firebaugh, Kerman, Mendota and San Joaquín along with unincorporated communities like Cantúa Creek, Tranquillity, Highway City and Rolinda – would swallow up a big chunk of Mendes’ District 4.

That would include Coalinga, Caruthers, Raisin City, Riverdale and other communities butting up to Highway 41.

The new District 4 would take in Easton and stretch eastward to Orange Cove and southward to Laton. It would include Sanger, Parlier, Kingsburg, Selma and Reedley.

Why break up those districts?

Coalition member Amy Arámbula said Mendes’ current district isn’t compatible.

“The rural west side is very distinct as a community from the rural east side,” said Arámbula, whose husband, Juan Arámbula, is one of four Latinos who have ever served on the Fresno County Board of Supervisors.

“Whether you’re looking at the size of the farms, they’re much larger on the west side, they’re more mechanized with less labor. On the east side, the farms are smaller, (with) more rural towns that are much bigger and more densely populated,” she said.

Even the crops grown are different, she said.

“Even if you look at things like rural transit, none of it goes east-west; it all kind of goes from the west side and feeds either other west side communities or into the City of Fresno,” said Arámbula.

The foundation’s map would also leave Clovis represented by one supervisor instead of two.

Foundation, coalition make their case

At an Oct. 20 press conference just feet from where the board of supervisors will decide sometime in December what district maps it will adopt, representatives from the Dolores Huerta Foundation joined local organizations in demanding the board choose their proposal.

They said the board has been slow in responding to the COVID-19 needs of rural communities, and have been absent recently while foster youth slept in offices of Child Protective Services. A more-representative board, they said, would have addressed those issues.

“Now that we get a chance to redraw those boundaries to make sure that (board members) understand that they’re connected to the communities, to that residents that live in those communities, there’s an opportunity to reshape the type of services – or the lack of service – that never trickled down to these rural areas,” said Eliseo Gamiño of the Central Valley Leadership Foundation.

Gamiño, whose group represents mostly rural communities in the west side, said clean drinking water and help with utility payments and rent are top priorities.

The coalition, he said “has done its homework” in coming up with the best map. “Our communities have always been abandoned,” said Gamiño.

The supervisoral districts have changed little since 1990.

Heather Evans, a county library assistant, said a big change is needed.

“They’ve drawn themselves comfy seats a decade ago,” said Evans. “That decade has seen our wages stagnate and our county remains at the top of the state’s poverty rate. Until we get an equitable map that reflects the community that is here in Fresno, it will go on this way.”

Possible legal challenge

Juan Arámbula, a former state Assemblymember, said the supervisors “need to keep up with the times.”

He points to the FAIR Maps Act as the reason the new district boundaries must change.

“I urge the current supervisors to give serious consideration to the equity coalition map because it reflects what the county is today, not what it was 20 years ago,” said Arámbula, a coalition member. “

Arámbula, an attorney, said that if the new district boundaries are “substantially similar” to the current ones, “there’s going to be a serious challenge to their actions.”

“We want to go forward; we don’t want to go back,” he said.

The ACLU sent a letter to the board last month reminding it of the Fair Maps Act and other criteria that is now in play when redistricting.

“A review of demographic changes over the past two decades strongly suggests that the Board has for decades prioritized largely maintaining existing lines over ensuring that lines capture communities of interest,” said the letter.

Supervisor Nathan Magsig told KFSN Channel 30 that the board will follow the law.

“I do know that there are interest groups that would like to maybe make shifts in one direction or the other but for me, I can’t use politics when I make my decision,” said Magsig. “I need to make sure that I follow the law, and use a balanced approach when it comes to re-drawing these new lines.”

The Fresno County Redistricting Commission met on Thursday (Oct. 20) to review 22 proposed maps and make recommendations to the board, which will meet on Nov. 2 to consider draft maps before taking a vote on Nov. 16.