Current and former local officials are pushing to unify Santa
Cruz County and the Monterey Bay Area under new legislative maps
being drawn by a citizen-led state redistricting commission.
Jason Hoppin
Current and former local officials are pushing to unify Santa Cruz County and the Monterey Bay Area under new legislative maps being drawn by a citizen-led state redistricting commission.
The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to send a letter to the 14-member commission, asking that it restore Santa Cruz, San Benito and Monterey counties into one state Senate district, which was the case until 2001, when the state Legislature redrew the maps. Since then, the county has been split through with as many legislative boundaries as there are fault lines, and is represented by several state and federal elected officials.
“We lost our Central Coast voice, that unified, coherent Central Coast voice that was always speaking for the Central Coast,” said Fred Keeley, a former Assemblyman from Santa Cruz who now serves as the county’s treasurer.
Keeley, a Democrat, has joined with former Republican state Sen. Bruce McPherson, who represented the district, to ask the California’s Citizens Redistricting Commission to recognize the three counties as a community of interest, one of the criteria the group uses as it draws new boundaries for the next 10 years.
The three-county area is “a good mixture of coastal interests, agricultural interests, tourism interests,” McPherson said. “Historically it’s worked very well. It didn’t mean that somebody from Santa Cruz County was always going to get elected to this district per se, but we were well-represented.”
Supervisor Neal Coonerty put a finer point on it in a letter announcing the county’s wishes. While praising the area’s current representatives, Coonerty said keeping the region whole when it comes to district maps makes sense, singling out common economic, transportation, media and regulatory interests.
“We share the same news and media, the same small-town economics – from whale watching to wine tasting – as it is all within the three-county region,” Coonerty wrote. “To work well with public and private sectors, our governance needs to be unified at the state and national levels.”
A committee of Monterey County’s Board of Supervisors will take up whether to have the region identified as a community of interest on May 26. However, the deadline for local input on a rough draft of legislative boundaries is May 23.
Coonerty also asked the redistricting commission to hold a meeting locally. Two nearby meetings are planned within the next week — one in Salinas and one in San Jose – but so far no Santa Cruz meeting is planned, though that could change.
The voter-approved commission has sole responsibility for redistricting, with the Legislature officially cut out of the process. A tentative map is scheduled to be released June 10, with a final map due Aug. 15. The commission weighs census data, federal voting rights issues and communities of common interests in drawing new boundaries.
Local legislative boundaries, including those affecting the county board and local city councils, are up to the individual bodies.
The area does have one advantage when it comes to statewide redistricting – Capitola resident Vince Barabba, a former U.S. Census Bureau director, won a seat on the 14-member body.
During a recent talk with the Sentinel, Barabba said the commission was focused on keeping out the influences that have led to criticisms of past district boundaries, including that they are aimed at protecting incumbents.
“I would be startled if anybody caves on this commission,” Barabba said.
Keeley said he believes Barabba understands that the area has a compelling case for unity, and said he liked the chances of a change, which would create a new, Democratic-leaning Senate district. No current resident from the area is represented in the state Senate.
“The case is compelling,” Keeley said. “The numbers work out well.”
Coonerty asked that current Assembly and congressional districts be “maintained,” though census changes would require at least slight adjustments.
Any change in a district that includes Monterey County is complicated by it being one of five California counties under a federal Voting Rights Act consent decree – one reason why the 28th Assembly District, represented by Democrat Luis Alejo, includes Watsonville. Any change requires getting clearance from the U.S. Justice Department.
In other business Tuesday, the board recognized local emergency personnel as part of Emergency Medical Services Week.
In a moving ceremony, EMS personnel were reunited with people whose lives they helped save. They included Ainsley Carmichael, a 9-year-old girl whose head was crushed by a falling boulder last year while playing at Pajaro Dunes, and Chinmay Gharpure, a young boy who suffered a life-threatening asthma attack while at a school camp.
“Thank you for saving my life,” Gharpure told the assembled paramedics and emergency personnel.
