City Council to Deliberate on LAUSD Redistricting Puzzle

The City Council's Rules, Elections and Intergovernmental Relations Committee began deliberating new district boundaries Wednesday for seven Los Angeles Unified School District board seats.

The committee is considering a map of the seven districts drawn by a 15-member redistricting commission appointed last fall by Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa, City Council President Eric Garcetti and school board members.

The City Attorney's Office expressed some concern about the map. Deputy
City Attorney Harit Trivedi told the council committee that the commission's
decision to dramatically rearrange board member Bennet Kayser's Fifth District
could draw scrutiny from a judge in the case of a lawsuit.

The LAUSD Redistricting Commission created a very narrow stretch to
connect a southeast portion of Kayser's district that includes Vernon, Maywood,
Bell and South Gate to a northeast portion that includes Silver Lake, Echo
Park, Highland Park and Eagle Rock.

"In the area of redistricting, shapes of districts matter, especially when there's a narrow connector between two larger portions of a district,'' Trivedi told the committee. "Courts may exert greater scrutiny on that type of configuration to see whether it was justified by following traditional redistricting criteria or not.''

Council Member Tom LaBonge, who serves on the Rules Committee, said he was
concerned that some middle and elementary schools were moved into different
districts from the high schools they feed.

City Council President Herb Wesson, who chairs the Rules Committee, told
the city attorney and chief legislative analyst to work together to "try to
make sure that we're not placed in an uncomfortable situation.''

The committee is scheduled to host two public hearings on the map next
week. The full City Council is expected to approve a final district boundaries
on April 20.