Riverside County’s redistricting effort is moving forward. On Oct. 6, the Executive Office Technical Committee presented four draft maps to the 2021 Advisory Redistricting Commission, that the five planning commissioners composed.

At the very beginning of the session, Deputy County Executive Officer and EOTC Co-Chair Rania Odenbaugh stressed that these maps were starting points for the redistricting process.

“They are a baseline, not necessarily where we’re headed or our destination,” she added.

While several commissioners offered comments on the draft maps, the issue which drew the most attention was what criterion is the highest priority as they formulate their recommendations to the board of supervisors.

“Of all the information gathering and different elements of that to figure out where the lines go, what takes precedence? What are the most important criteria?” asked Commissioner Guillermo “Bill” Sanchez (4th District).

Or, as Commissioner Gary Thornhill (3rd District) posed it, “How are we balancing [our] intent to try to equitably balance all the racial and ethnic segments to balance out in every district?”

While Tom Mullen of the EOTC and the county’s chief data officer replied that the EOTC’s intent was to follow the rule of law, they should try to address and to reflect all the components.

“All are equally important,” Mullen said. “Our task is to comply with all.”

But Odenbaugh emphatically stressed that “our number one goal is equal population.” The Voting Rights Act and other criteria, such as communities of interest and geographic contiguities, would be met to the “best practical extent …

“It’s a juggling act,” she noted.

The next public hearing on the supervisorial redistricting will be a special board of supervisors meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 19.

At that meeting, Odenbaugh and Mullen expect to have more maps, as well as more data (such as voting age population), describing the individual districts and their differences.

Second District Commissioner David Leonard suggested that all five supervisors should have some county unincorporated constituents to represent.

Thornhill recommended including Hemet and San Jacinto in the same district. He suggested that district should be associated with the Pass area since he believes the San Jacinto Valley communities identify with it.