LAKEPORT — The Lake County Board of Supervisors (BOS) Tuesday held its first public hearing on adjusting the boundaries of the supervisorial districts.
The Supervisorial Redistricting Advisory Committee, led by Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley, presented the BOS with six possible maps.
Fridley said the goal was to get all five districts to be as even, in terms of number of residents per district, as possible. She said districts 3 and 4 needed more people and the other three districts needed to downsize.
Five of the maps were presented at public discussion meetings held in each district, Fridley said.
A sixth map was created following the meeting held in Kelseyville after some residents expressed their dissatisfaction with being put into District 4. Lon Sharp created a sixth map for District 5 Supervisor Rob Brown in order to address these concerns. Fridley said the attendees at the Kelseyville meeting were the most vocal of all the meetings and wanted to stay in District 5.
Brown said District 4 should expand equally into districts 3 and 5.
District 2 Supervisor Jeff Smith said such a move would complicate matters. Moving District 4 into District 3 would require District 3 moving south into a portion of the City of Clearlake, he said. This would make three supervisors representing the city for the first time, he said.
Smith said the most effective way to fix boundary issues was to take the existing boundaries and move them around minimally until the districts are balanced. He said this method would make the least amount of work for the committee.
District 3 Supervisor Denise Rushing said all the options are “bad” because they expand her district”s landmass. Rushing said her district is complex because of its size. She also said it would be “disastrous” to have three supervisors representing incorporated Clearlake.
The committee should aim to make the least amount of disruptions as possible, Rushing said.
District 4 Supervisor Anthony Farrington was on vacation and had County Administrator Kelly Cox voice his concerns in his absence. Cox said Farrington doesn”t think District 4 should expand into District 3 but into District 5.
A few members of the public addressed the BOS on the matter. Two people said it would not be good to have three supervisors representing Clearlake.
BOS Chair Jim Comstock said he would like to see Cobb back in his district. Comstock got consensus from the BOS to hold a second public hearing.
The BOS will discuss the matter further at next week”s BOS meeting at 1:30 p.m.
Kevin N. Hume can be reached at kevin.n.hume@gmail.com or call directly 263-5636 ext. 14.
