An April 8 Tribune editorial (“Charter plan looks like another power grab by SLO County’s conservative supervisors”) describes the lack of respect for the SLO County citizens by the Board of Supervisors majority. It appears that the majority is working to ensure that partisan gerrymandering will continue into the foreseeable future. I fully support the establishment of an Independent Redistricting Commission to take the job of drawing district lines out of the hands of the politicians and give it to the local citizens.
It should have not come to this. The five-member SLO County Board of Supervisors, regardless of party affiliation, should have asked themselves: “If we let the citizens vote on their preference for a redistricting map, would the Patten Map have been selected?” Having voted without considering the answer to this question indicates the importance of bringing in independent bodies to create fair, nonpartisan district maps.
This course of action would reveal our supervisors to be true statespeople, instead of just politicians. Statespeople serve the interests of the people. Politicians serve their personal interests. Statespeople receive respect regardless of party affiliation. Politicians do not.
The establishment of an independent redistricting commission would improve local morale and regain local trust in future redistricting considerations.
Harvey Levenson
Pismo Beach
This article appears in Apr 14-21, 2022.
Harvey doesn’t like the outcome of the most recent elections for Supervisor so he wants to appoint non elected officials to redistrict in accordance to his wishes. Hey Harvey, rather than whine, organize and get your people elected. Then govern making the changes that you desire. We aren’t buying having unelected “officials” determine our outcomes.