CITIZENS WANTED - Proposition 11, which voters passed last year, took the job of setting district boundaries for state Senate, Assembly and Board of Equalization seats out of the hands of California legislators.
Instead, a 14-member Citizens Redistricting Commission will be drawing those maps next year after the 2010 Census tallies its numbers.
Who got the job of figuring out how citizens would apply? And who will oversee the process of winnowing the applicants down to a 60-person pool of those most qualified?
Meet Elaine Howle, state auditor. (For the full SacBee.com article from Elaine Howle see below.)
"Some have asked why a fairly obscure, non-elected state official would be charged with such an important new job," Howle writes in a guest op-ed in today's Bee.
"First of all, because I am a non-elected state official, I have not engaged in, and in fact am prohibited from engaging in, the kinds of political activities that elected officials do every day: e.g., fundraising; meeting with lobbyists; becoming active in parties or partisan politics; engaging in statewide or local political campaigns.
"Voters wanted someone without any ties to politics per se, beholden to no one, and who is not looking past the commission's role to their own next election," she adds.
The state auditor's office will be accepting applications from Dec. 15 through Feb. 12 for the commission, which must be established by the end of next year.
• Send an e-mail to votersfirstact@auditor.ca.gov.
• Visit the state auditor's Web site at www.wedrawthelines.ca.gov and click on the words "Citizens Redistricting Commission" and then click "Partners."
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