By Allen Payton, Publisher

The California Citizens Redistricting Commission took their first vote on the final maps for State Assembly, State Senate, Congressional and Board of Equalization district maps, yesterday, Friday, July 29 and the results mean many changes for Antioch.

STATE ASSEMBLY

All of Antioch will now be in a new Assembly district, labeled AD11, with the other East County communities of Oakley, Brentwood, Discovery Bay, Bethel Island, Byron, Knightsen and part of Pittsburg, as well as the majority of Solano County. The city will no longer be represented by Susan Bonilla (D-Concord) and will get a new Assembly member, since there is no incumbent who currently lives in the new district. A member of either the Assembly or State Senate must live in the district they represent.

CONGRESS

Antioch will also be getting two new members in the House of Representatives, with the western side of the city moving into Congressman George Miller’s (D-Martinez) district and the rest of the city into a district with no incumbent. However, Congressman Jerry McNerney (D-Pleasanton), who currently represents a portion of  San Joaquin County and Eastern Contra Costa County, announced he will be moving into the new district in San Joaquin County, although that’s not a requirement for Congress.

The new congressional district maps divide Antioch in a peculiar way, because each congressional district has to be equal in population, unlike State Assembly and Senate Districts, which have an approximate one percent population deviation from one to the other.

The new district line runs from Somersville Road, south of the James Donlon Blvd. intersection, down the middle of James Donlon Blvd., includes the Twin Creeks Apartments and then turns north down the middle of Contra Loma Blvd. Then the line runs along Putnam Street, then turns north along D Street to San Joaquin Avenue.  It turns east to West Tregallas Road, follows that road around the Post Office back to D Street, then heads north to the west bound lanes of Highway 4.

It then runs east to A Street, turns north and runs in the middle of A Street to 18^th Street. The dividing line then turns west and runs along 18^th Street to D Street, again, turns north to 10^th Street. It then makes a right turn and heads one block east along 10th Street to C Street, then south on C Street to Park Lane.

It then runs east on Park Lane back to A Street where it turns north and runs up to Beede Way, turning east, briefly to Almond Court, to Wilbur Avenue. It then turns east and runs down the middle of Wilbur Avenue to Fulton Shipyard Road. It turns north and runs along Fulton Shipyard Road to just east of the old shipyard and runs north out into the river.

In general, if you live on the northwest side of the dividing line, you’re in CD11 with the smaller portion of Antioch, all of Pittsburg, Bay Point, and most of the rest of Contra Costa County, and Eastern Alameda County. If you live on the southeast side of the line, you’re in CD9 with most of Antioch, Far East County and northern San Joaquin County.

STATE SENATE

State Senator Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord) will continue to represent Antioch and the rest of East County, as well as most of Contra Costa County, plus Dublin, Pleasanton, Livermore and Sunol in Eastern Alameda County, in State Senate District 9. Finishing his first term in the State Senate, he is up for election, next year and can run for only one more term.

For more information and to see all the maps of all the 177 new districts throughout the state, click here or visit either www.wedrawthelines.com or Meridian Pacific’s website at www.mpimaps.com/mapanalysis.

“Not a perfect plan…but the plan that most reflects the commonalities of communities” – Supervisor John Gioia

By Allen Payton, Publisher

Most of Antioch will have a new County Supervisor starting in September, while the northern part of the city will continue to be represented by Supervisor Federal Glover in District 5.

On Tuesday, July 26, the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors on a 3-2 vote, approved a final redistricting plan for their five districts which splits Antioch along Highway 4 and East 18th Street, with most of the city in an East County district with Oakley, Brentwood, Discovery Bay, Bethel Island, Byron and Knightsen.

The larger part of Antioch south of Highway 4 and East 18th Street will move into District 3, currently represented by Supervisor Mary Nejedly Piepho of Discovery Bay, as of September 8, which is 30 days after the August 9 scheduled final vote on the new plan.

Supervisors John Gioia, Karen Mitchoff and Glover voted for the new plan, while Supervisors Gayle Uilkema and Piepho voted against it. The latter two preferred a plan that did the least to change the current district configuration.

The new map was a variation of the plan proposed and submitted by the Contra Costa Citizens Redistricting Task Force (of which I was the Chairman), which was labeled Concept 6 and garnered the most support during the public process, including 14 workshops throughout the county, emails, postcards and letters.

However, in that plan only Concord – the county’s largest city – was split and it had the smallest population difference from one district to the next at 3.56%.  That was opposed by Mitchoff of Pleasant Hill who currently represents Concord and made keeping that city whole one of the key requirements for her vote.

So, in order to obtain her support, Gioia made changes to Concept 6 and it was relabeled Proposal 17, splitting Antioch, Pinole, Walnut Creek and Concord by 10,000 to 11,000 residents each and presented it at the July 12 Board meeting.

But, Mitchoff still opposed that. So Glover, who was prepared for such a possibility, presented Proposal 17D at the same meeting, which made Concord whole, but split Antioch further and the San Ramon Valley, moving Diablo, Blackhawk and Camino Tassajara into the East County district.

Further changes were made to that plan to bring it under an 8% population deviation between districts and labeled Proposal 17D Amended, and presented at the July 26 meeting.

Uilkema, who is up for reelection next year and will now have half her district new, with the San Ramon Valley in and Hercules, Rodeo, Crockett and Martinez out of the district, argued for making the least amount of change.

“The law says it is a mandate for adjustment,” she stated. “I will be supporting map 15.”

Gioia, the main member pushing for what Uilkema labeled “radical change”, spoke of the current districts in support of the new plan.

“We’re correcting an error that occurred 10 years ago,” he said. “With the goal of keeping as many cities whole. While 17D Amended is not a perfect plan, it is the plan the most reflects the commonalities of communities.”

Before the vote, things got heated between Mitchoff and Piepho.

“We’re not making a major change, here,” Mitchoff stated. Piepho rolled her eyes and tilted her head back and looked at the ceiling in response. “If we ever thought we were going to get a perfect map, we should be recalled.”

Piepho who lost part of Walnut Creek and the entire San Ramon Valley from her district, gave an empassioned speech in favor of her Proposal 15, which kept whole all the cities and communities in the county, and had the lowest population deviation of the final five plans under consideration by the Board, that day.

“How can you split Antioch, Pinole, Walnut Creek and the San Ramon Valley and meet your definition of keeping the commonalities of communities (quoting Gioia’s earlier comments)?” she asked of her fellow Board members.

One last effort by the task force was made at that meeting, by presenting a plan labeled 17E, which revised Proposal 17, making Antioch and Pinole whole, keeping Walnut Creek split by leaving only Rossmoor in District 2 and splitting Concord by about 5,000 less than in Concept 6. A variety of individuals spoke in favor of the proposed plan, including Antioch Councilwoman Mary Rocha and East County Democrats for Action President George Van Hasselt.

Rocha also argued from the standpoint of which plan had the highest percentage of Latinos in each district. Both Proposal 17D Amended and 17E have three districts that are close to or more than 30% Hispanic.

But, none of the Supervisors would bring up17E for consideration and in the end it was Proposal 17D Amended which was adopted.

“This was the compromise,” Glover said following the meeting. “I felt it gave everyone a little bit of what they wanted. The magic here was getting to three. It keeps me representing part of Antioch, dealing with issues of power plants and the annexation.”

“It was a good process,” he added. “One of the best in terms of public engagement. The plan reflects that input.”

Glover gave up Oakley, Bethel Island and most of Antioch, and picked up Clyde, Martinez, Pacheco, Port Costa, Crockett, Rodeo, Hercules and part of Pinole in his new district.

Piepho offered her thoughts following the meeting.

“I already represent Antioch,” she said. “It will now be more direct in the future.”

“I look forward to continue working on delta water issues, transportation issues of Highway 4, the Bypass and Vasco Road.”

Both Glover’s and Piepho’s terms end and they will be up for election, next year.

For more information on the new map, with detailed population and demographic information, vi sit www.ccredistricting.org and click on Maps and Data.

Final Vote Could Happen Tuesday

By Allen Payton, Publisher

The Contra Costa Board of Supervisors have narrowed down the field of redistricting plans to three final maps, of which two of them split Antioch. The third one, while keeping Antioch and all the other 52 communities in the county whole, continues the current gerrymandered Districts 2 and 3 in an attempt to preserve the status quo, as much as possible. One of the plans that splits Antioch, also creates a district that places most of the city and far East County in the same district as part of Walnut Creek.

After two months of public input, including 14 workshops throughout the county, and with a variety of maps submitted by members of the public, as well as county staff and the Supervisors, and an overwhelming majority of residents supporting what became know as Concept 6, the Board could decide Tuesday at their regular weekly meeting to adopt a new map for their districts, in the decennial redistricting process. But, it takes three votes to make that happen and so far there is not consensus of which three Supervisors will support which plan.

Concept 6 was submitted by a group of citizens from throughout the county, from various political parties and walks of life, known as the Contra Costa Citizens Redistricting Task Force, of which I am Chairman. It’s the only plan that splits only one city, Concord – the county’s largest – while creating the most compact districts and the smallest population difference from one district to another. Both compactness and as equal population as possible are legal requirements in the redistricting process. Our group is continuing to push for adoption of our Plan A2/Concept 6 as the best plan submitted with the most  public support, countywide.

The county staff created Concept 4 and columnist Dan Borenstein of the Contra Costa Times published a plan on May 1st, which the Supervisors included in their process and labeled Concept 5, both of which were similar to Concept 6. Then Supervisors John Gioia and Federal Glover submitted plans which were also very similar to Concept 6. All of those plans split just one or two cities, Walnut Creek and/or Concord.

The final three plans are known as Proposals 15, 16 and 17.  Proposal 15 is a modification of Proposal 9 which was submitted by Supervisor Gayle Uilkema of Lafayette. It keeps Antioch whole and in the same district with Pittsburg, Oakley and Bethel Island, as it is now, but places Bay Point into a district with Concord, Pleasant Hill, Clayton, Pacheco, Clyde and an unincorporated section of the county next to Martinez known as Vine Hill. It also places all of Walnut Creek in District 2 which will continue to be gerrymandered by including Lafayette, Moraga and Orinda with Hercules, Rodeo, Crockett, Port Costa and Martinez. That district was created in 1981 to hurt then-Supervisor Nancy Fadden by lumping in two distinct parts of the county with differing views into the same district, so as to hurt her for reelection, because it was assumed every time she took a vote for one part of her district the other part would be unhappy.

Finally Proposal 15 keeps the San Ramon Valley in the same gerrymandered District 3 with Brentwood, Knightsen, Byron and Discovery Bay, where Piepho lives. That district was created in 2001 to hurt the chances for higher office of then-Supervisor Donna Gerber. It crosses to hill ranges and in order to get from one part of the district to the other, you have to either drive through one or two other districts or out of the county. The plan has a population deviation of 5.39% so it is the closest to the Supervisors’ criteria they adopted in February, this year and the maximum rule of thumb in redistricting of 5%, of the final three plans.

Proposal 16, a modification of Proposal 12, submitted by Supervisor Karen Mitchoff of Pleasant Hill, splits Antioch down Lone Tree Way with the western half in a district with that stretches to Hercules, much like the current 11th State Assembly District. The eastern half of the city would be in a district with the rest of East County and a part of Walnut Creek – which the plan also splits – in an attempt to satisfy the desires of Piepho who grew up in Walnut Creek and wants the city in her district. However, she has stated her top priority is to keep Walnut Creek whole, unlike the current three-way split which the city experiences, today. (Only Proposal 15 accomplishes that, but it doesn’t include the city in her district). With a population difference of almost 7% between districts, Proposal 16 violates the 5% criteria.

Proposal 17 appears to be a compromise plan as a revision to Concept 6 and the Gioia and Glover plans, and the desires of Mitchoff to keep Concord whole, plus Mt. Diablo and the Concord Naval Weapons Station in her district. However, it splits off about 10,000 to 11,000 residents from each of four cities – Antioch, Concord, Walnut Creek and Pinole. Another downside is that the population deviation is almost 8% at 7.95% which could be legally challenged in court and might not stand up, especially since the plan splits four cities.

The Board has until August 15 to adopt a plan or the process is handed over to the County Assessor, Registrar of Voters and the District Attorney to draw the new district lines.

All three of the latest map proposals, plus Concept 6, as well as all of the other maps and public input submitted throughout the process, can be found on the county’s redistricting website at www.ccredistricting.org.

The Board meeting is at 11:15 a.m., Tuesday, July 12 in the Board Chambers, Room 107, Administration Building, 651 Pine Street in Martinez. For those wishing to email or call the Supervisors with your opinions, their contact information can be found by clicking here.

by Edi Birsan

Courtesy of HalfwaytoConcord.com

The mayors of Oakley ( Jim Frazier), Brentwood ( Robert “Bob” Taylor) and Antioch (Jim Davis) joined with the Vice Mayor of Pittsburg (Ben Johnson) at the Antioch City Council Chambers, in a recent non-partisan forum hosted by the East County Democrats for Action club.

Questions asked from the audience covered the following topics:

1. Brentwood has a substantial kids shadow government program where the kids spend time with council members and city staff. It took a few years to develop but the kids have come around to incorporate it into the education culture of the city.

2. Both Oakley and Brentwood have substantial financial reserves 29-30%

3. Oakley recently cut all its building fees by 50%

4. Frazier of Oakley is looking forward to the development of its $1 billion state power plant that has committed sizeable contributions to the city’s income base. He was also very involved in Highway 4 improvements.

5. Antioch and Pittsburg have several Council members involved in direct meetings with respective school boards.

6. Antioch has an Academy program to help you based on a Tennessee model, the details of which were not given.

7. Davis of Antioch said he had to be careful in answering about Section Eight impacts on his city because of pending lawsuits, but said he holds the position that the program has to be a “hand up not a hand-out” approach.

8. Redistricting was very interesting because of my own interest in the matter, with Frazier, Davis and Taylor all echoing the positions of wanting an East county district. Brentwood emphasized its association with Oakley and Antioch. Johnson of Pittsburg simply said they were happy with Glover an opening not taken by the others, nor did he talk about any association with Antioch. I suspect that Frazier and Davis are far more interested in the Redistricting than the two other representatives which may give us some indication of future moves.

9. Taylor of Brentwood came back repeatedly that much of their problems come from higher levels of government including Sacramento and Washington including the White House.

10. There were various comments about Mayor Taylor’s Turkey routine where he dresses up as a turkey to raise money for turkey’s to be donated at Thanksgiving. There was mention of over 750 turkeys’ that were raised and he apparently gave 200 plus to Oakley folks.

11. Frazier was very proud of La Clinica Raza coming to Oakley to help the community’s needy. He said he has donated half his salary to them with other chunks going to various charities.

The audience included East County Supervisor Mary Piepho, Councilmember Rocha from Antioch, as well as other organization leaders such as Chuck Carpenter, Chairman of the Democrat Central Committee.

The event was the first of its kind for the club and it is expected to be held annually.

By Ed Diokno, Policy Analyst, Office of Supervisor Federal Glover

Redistricting is the redrawing or adjusting of electoral district boundaries following the federal Census to account for population shifts and growth during the previous decade. The redistricting process is governed by the U.S. Constitution, State and federal law.

California Elections Code § 21500 requires the County Board of Supervisors to adjust the Supervisorial district boundaries every ten years following the federal Census so that the districts are as “nearly equal in population as may be” and comply with the Voting Rights Act. This year, the Board of Supervisors is required to redistrict the five Supervisorial districts using 2010 Census data. The County’s redistricting process will include broad opportunity for public review and input.

Contra Costa County is committed to an open and transparent redistricting process by hosting community workshops throughout the County, providing all maps and data on-line, and potentially the ability to create redistricting options on-line.

The 2010 Census revealed that Contra Costa County has 1,049,025 residents. Extracts of the data for California, counties, places (incorporated cities and Census Designated Placed or CDP) and census tracts are available on the Demographic Research Unit website.

American FactFinder will also provide on-line access to more Census 2010 results.

July 12, 2011: Continuation of Board of Supervisors Public Hearing on Map Proposals.
The Board of Supervisors will continue the Public Hearing to Consider Proposal to adjust the boundaries of county supervisorial districts based on the 2010 Census at 11:15 am on July 12, 2011.

These are the 3 options being considered for the new Contra Costa County supervisors’ districts. Most likely there will be further revisions and proposals.

Proposal 15:
http://64.166.146.155/docs/2011/BOS/20110712_154/8406%5FDraft%5F11x17%5FProposal%5F15%2Epdf
Proposal 16:
http://64.166.146.155/docs/2011/BOS/20110712_154/8406%5FDraft%5F11x17%5FProposal%5F16%2Epdf
Proposal 17:
http://64.166.146.155/docs/2011/BOS/20110712_154/8406%5FDraft%5F11x17%5FProposal%5F17%2Epdf

The Redistricting Board item is listed as D.4 on the Agenda. Please follow the link to view the Board’s Agenda. http://64.166.146.155/agenda_publish.cfm#ReturnTo0. You may also find this information on the website at www.ccredistricting.org

Publisher’s Note: You can view the Contra Costa Citizens Redistricting Task Force plan, labeled Concept 6, which garnered the most support throughout the recent public process, by clicking  here and the data for the map by clicking here.

By Allen Payton, Publisher

The California Citizens Redistricting Commission released their first draft maps of state legislative, congressional and Board of Equalization district maps during a press conference on Friday, June 10 and no one was completely pleased. That could mean they probably did something right.

It could mean most of Antioch and far East County will get new representation in Washington, D.C., because the proposed maps include Antioch in a northern San Joaquin County congressional district where no member of Congress currently lives.

While leaving most of the cities and communities in Contra Costa County whole, they split the county into four congressional districts, four Assembly districts and three State Senate Districts. The congressional districts must be equal in population of either 702,904 or 702,905 (since the state’s total population of 37,253,956 isn’t evenly divisable by 53). But a one percent (1%) deviation has been allowed by the Commission for the Assembly districts (which have an equal population of 465,675) and State Senate districts (which have an equal population of 931,349).

The proposed congressional district map combines Antioch, Oakley, Brentwood, Discovery Bay, Bethel Island, Knightsen and Byron in Contra Costa County, with Mountain House, Stockton, Lathrop, Lodi and most of the rest of the communities in San Joaquin County to the north, connecting the two areas by Highways 4 and 12. Just like the current congressional districts, the line is split at the Antioch-Pittsburg city limits, except for a small section of Antioch, in the southwest part of the city, with a population of about 4,800 residents, that was cut off from the rest of the city along Somersville Road.

In order to recombine that area with the rest of the city, other parts of the proposed district need to move into an adjacent district. If it’s not the same district from where the population was transferred, then a domino effect takes place and changes to multiple districts must be done by the mappers.

The good news is, following the press conference, a variety of the Commissioners stated that if the population shifts can be made and the districts remain balanced (that is equal in population), then they will consider alternative maps. So changes to the proposed maps are still possible, before the Commission must make its final decision by August 15.

The proposed State Assembly district map keeps Antioch with Pittsburg and Bay Point, as well as combines it with Brentwood, Concord, Pleasant Hill, Martinez, Pacheco and Clayton. However it splits off Oakley, Discovery Bay and the other far East County communities and combines them in a district with Galt in Sacramento County, Lodi in San Joaquin County, most of Solano County, plus Woodland and Willows in Yolo County.

Nesting is the final criteria on the list in Proposition 11, which the voters passed in 2008 that created the commission and gave it the responsibility for redrawing the state legislative district lines (Proposition 20, which voters passed last November, added the congressional districts to the commission’s process). That places two Assembly districts inside a State Senate district, since there are 80 Assembly districts and 40 Senate districts.

The Commission’s proposed map takes the Assembly district in which Antioch was placed and combines it with the adjacent district which includes Lamorinda, Walnut Creek, the San Ramon Valley and the Tri Valley cities of Dublin, Pleasanton and Livermore in Eastern Alameda County.

The Commission will hold hearings in the Bay Area and Northern California over the next two weeks, in Stockton, San Jose, San Francisco and Sacramento to receive input on the draft maps. They will then direct their consultants to draw the 2nd draft maps for which they’ll receive written and emailed input before deciding on the final maps.  For more information visit the Commission’s website at www.wedrawthelines.com.

This past week, Congressman John Garamendi, who represents Antioch in the U.S. House of Representatives, was interviewed by irreverent funny man Stephen Colbert during his Comedy Central television show, the Colbert Report.

It was one of the many “Better Know A District” segments on the satirical show that pokes fun at politics.

Click here to watch the funny, bizarre and, at times uncomfortable, excerpt.