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Civic Circus with Ankur Patel breaks down local politics, with a weekly report on city, county, and state bureaucracies.

You may have heard about the Citizen’s Redistricting Commission, the 14 member citizen body that drew the lines for the State Senate, State Assembly, Board of Equalization, andCalifornia’s House of Representatives. They had dozens of public meetings across the state, took input from who knows how many lobbyists and special interests, and finally published official maps a few months ago. Unsurprisingly, those arbitrary lines on maps are already being challenged in court. Beyond that, redistricting also happens at the county and city level. Of course, each has its own confusing and convoluted process that is, in my opinion, designed to keep us, the public, from paying attention and understanding how our vote is being gerrymandered. You might not even know that there are 5 districts in Los Angeles County, making up the County Board of Supervisors, but Supervisors Antonovich, Molina, Knabe, Yaroslavsky, and Ridley-Thomas are considered to be some of the most powerful politicians in the state of California, as the 5 of them control a $20 billion dollar budget. The big controversy during the county’s recent redistricting process which came to a conclusion on September 27th was over a 2nd majority Latino district, the first being Molina’s first district. At the county level, each supervisor appoints two members to the redistricting commission, which despite its obvious conflicts of interest, at least made it clear who was for and against each plan. In the end the lines remained similar to the status quo and a 2nd Latino majority district was not created, which I think is neither good nor bad. It doesn’t matter if the person in office is a person of color if the only color they are thinking about is green. With the state and county’s redistricting processes both producing official maps, Los Angeles City’s redistricting process is just beginning. Yes, we have redistricting at the state, county AND city level. The only lines subject to being redrawn in LA City are the lines for City Council districts, so naturally the City Council along with citywide elected officials appoint all 21 members of the Los Angeles City Council Redistricting Commission (LACCRC). City Council Member Jan Perry last week resigned from her leadership position as President Pro-tem with the Council, without giving up her City Council seat, citing a combination of behind the scenes maneuvering about the future of council leadership and boundary lines for council districts already being drawn. Because of course, Jan Perry has been all about transparency in her 10 years as a power broker amongst Los Angeles developers and her role in plowing the South Central Farm. The City Redistricting commission will hold two sets of public hearings between November and February and will be required to submit its final redistricting maps to the Los Angeles City Council by March 1, 2012 — so we are still a ways away from the completion of the process despite Perry’s hissy fit. With that said, the first set of public meetings is supposed to give the commission a heads up on issues that should be taken into consideration before maps are drawn, such as communities of interest and how neighborhood councils interface with city council districtsThe commission is currently in the process of developing a master calendar and venue location to conduct the hearings. With so much power hinging on where district lines are drawn, it can become a serious tightrope act to please everyone. And, just in case you forgot, it’s Election Day today! But if you didn’t know what you were supposed to be voting on, I wouldn’t be surprised. As a reminder from last week, to find out what elections are happening in your district today, go to www.lavote.net/locator and enter your address.