Last night in Berkeley politics: The council majority faction unilaterally decided to place the BSDC redistricting map referendum on the ballot in November. Council had the legal option to simply repeal the map on their own but the majority faction decided to instead put it on the ballot. In so doing the majority faction has unilaterally declared that no compromise is possible and, therefore, they would not agree to pick different redistricting lines in time for November. The majority faction had the legal option to pick any compromise map they want -- so long as it was not too similar to the BSDC map -- but they declined. In declining to pick a new map the Council majority faction has unilaterally decided that council will hire an outside attorney to sue the city (presumably to sue the city clerk). In effect, under the leadership of the majority faction, the city will now sue itself. The lawsuit will ask a judge to pick temporary district lines to be in effect this November. Presumably, as with the BSDC map, the majority faction will ask the judge to pick lines that push traditional progressive precincts out of district 7. Meanwhile, Jesse Arreguin and Anthony Sanchez have filed a ballot initiative petition with the City Clerk and will presumably now begin a campaign to gather signatures. If successful the initiative will do two things: (1) It will modify the charter so as to put redistricting in the hands of an independent commission rather than in the hands of the council majority faction. As part of this reform I think I heard Jesse say it will remove the requirement that new district lines guarantee existing council members remain in their current district. (2) The initiative will install for now a new compromise map for district lines. In a clever twist, the new compromise map not only respects progressive precincts that are already in district 7 but, additionally, *it will create a proper West Berkeley district west of San Pablo. As Jesse put it at the meeting, by forcing this initiative to the ballot the Council majority faction stands to lose everything they fought for: They fought against and thought they had eliminated a progressive district 7 and can lose that fight in November. They fought against and thought they had prevented a West Berkeley district and they can lose that fight in November. With Measure R in 2012 the majority faction gave themselves extraordinary freedom to gerrymander by drawing whatever district lines suited their whimsy -- yet by doing so in the form of the BSDC map they have pushed charter reform towards the November ballot and stand to lose their power to redistrict at all. In the midst of this Capitelli protested that he was offended to have been accused of gerrymandering. No report at this time on whether, once again, Maios hands were trembling with rage at the suggestion she had been a less than honorable participant in the council majority bullshit.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 16:58:27 +0000