Commission favors Fallbrook remaining in District 5

Rick Monroe

Special to the Village News

A new draft map of San Diego County supervisor districts shows Fallbrook could be joining Escondido and other Highway 78 corridor cities, minus Carlsbad The need for the new district lines came about after completion of the 2020 census.

Fallbrook is currently in District 5 with the Highway 78 cities of Carlsbad, Oceanside, Vista and San Marcos – minus Escondido – east to Borrego Springs. However, the 2020 census population numbers show the county needs to modify its districts.

Supervisors appointed the County of San Diego Independent Redistricting Commission for the task of redrawing the boundaries for the county's five supervisorial districts. Tonight, Dec. 9, at 5:30 p.m., the ICR will select its draft map for adoption at the County Administrative Center on Pacific Coast Highway.

Since January, the 14-member volunteer group has held numerous public hearings and commission meetings to consider multiple map suggestions from staff, the public, and their own considerations. More than 1,000 comments from individuals and groups have been recorded, not only at the public hearings but also virtual comments, emails and letters.

The commission met Thursday afternoon, Dec. 2, for two hours before continuing with a public hearing that lasted more than five hours into the evening. The meeting continued Friday morning. Then, in the early afternoon, members voted for their preference between the two map finalists 13A and 14.

The Dec. 3 vote was eight to five in favor of Map 13A over Map 14. The two maps have a lot in common but also significant differences. The maps identify Fallbrook to be represented by different districts. In Map 13A, Escondido and Fallbrook are both in District 5, but not Carlsbad. In Map 14, Carlsbad and Escondido are both included in District 5, but Fallbrook would move to an eastern district which would include practically all of the unincorporated portion of the county, some 75 miles from Fallbrook.

Before the vote, commissioners were allowed one minute each to express how they would vote.

John Russ noted there were 1,000 to 2,000 responses from the county's 3.3 million residents and said he considered many to be coordinated and redundant. He favored Map 13A.

Kenneth Inman said he favored Map 13A because it maintained cultural communities of interest.

Barbara Hanson said she liked Map 13A because it kept rural Fallbrook and Bonsall with North County since it had no connection with most of East County, some areas 75 miles away.

Chris Chen said he liked Map 14 because Carlsbad should be included in District 5 instead of coastal cities to its south.

Colleen Brown said Map 13A would keep District 5 cities connected with Escondido and Fallbrook, and said she was uncertain about the El Cajon options, another subject of contention during the public hearing.

Ramesses Surban noted that people speaking at the public hearing seemed to favor Map 14 by 75% and that was how he would vote.

Fernando Ponds said he favored Map 14 because of El Cajon and North County issues.

Elidia Dostal said she favored Map 13A because it was a better solution to Tribal Land continuity.

Amy Caterina, co-vice chair, noted the commission couldn't make everyone happy, but she favored Map 13A because it included Escondido and Fallbrook in the same district.

Rosette Garcia, co-vice chair, said both maps were imperfect, but that the COIs in Map 13A were important.

Commissioner Kristina Kruglyak was not present Friday, but at Thursday's meeting she indicated she would support Map 14.

Commission Chair David Bame recused himself from voting.

The vote was not a final official action, but rather moved forward with developing a final map so they could vote on a final report on Tuesday, Dec. 14. The statutory deadline for ICR to file the adopted map and final report with the clerk of the Board of Supervisors is Dec. 15.

After the 8-5 vote last Friday, commissioners looked at the proposed districts in Map 13A and fine-tuned numerous areas. One of the main concerns was El Cajon. At the previous day's public hearing, many speakers called it the "Gateway to East County" and opposed the plan to create a new district that removed it from being with other East County cities and communities.

The reason for the new district was to align the communities of interest into a single district that would stretch from El Cajon to the west to include the communities in Lemon Grove, La Mesa and others. The commissioners voted to maintain their earlier decision to form the new district.

The commission also identified Asian Pacific Islander communities and grouped them together with coastal cities from Carlsbad to Point Loma. Coronado would be aligned in District 1 unless that population area is too high.

Chair Baine pointed out that there will remain five districts in the county, but that the numbering of some may be changed and it's confusing to identify the southern districts by number, other than the highly Hispanic-dominated southern District 1.

Legal counsel and the advice of demographer FLO Analytics were given to the commissioners, who were admonished to observe the criteria for establishing the districts.

FLO Analytics would review all the decisions made on Friday to create a new map for review at the Dec. 9 meeting, making sure each of the new districts projected would maintain the population requirement to be within 10% variance.

The new District 5 would extend from the north to the east but not Borrego Springs, to consolidate North County Tribal reservation land.

Several Fallbrook residents spoke in favor of Map 13A at the public hearing – live or virtually – including Jennifer Jeffries, Ricardo Favela, Ross Pike, Michelle McCaffery, and David Sperano.