Some Contra Costa County residents will find themselves represented by a new supervisor in the coming months following the approval of a redistrict map that reunified the city of Pinole, split up Concord and redrew the boundaries that divide Antioch and Walnut Creek.
The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously signed off on the county’s five newly configured districts. Geographical boundaries are redrawn every 10 years to ensure that districts represent roughly the same number of people as reflected by updated population totals counted by the U.S. Census Bureau.
As a result, a small northern section of Concord will be included in Supervisor Federal Glover’s District 5, which includes Martinez, Hercules and Pittsburg. The rest of Concord will remain with much of Walnut Creek and Pleasant Hill in Supervisor Karen Mitchoff’s District 4.
During the last redistricting process a decade ago, the city of Pinole was divided between Glover’s District 5 and Supervisor John Gioia’s District 1, which also includes the west county cities Richmond and El Cerrito. The city will now be reunified in Gioia’s district.
Walnut Creek will be further split between Mitchoff’s District 4 and Supervisor Candace Andersen’s District 2, so that Acalanes Ridge, a swath of open space north of the Interstate 680 and State Route 24 junction, will now be represented by Andersen.
Other areas going to District 2 are Diablo, Blackhawk and Camino Tassajara, which now will join neighboring Danville and San Ramon.
Supervisor Diane Burgis’ District 3, which encompasses the more rural east county and the region’s agricultural core, will lose Diablo, Blackhawk and Camino Tassajaraas as well as the Morgan Territory ranching area, which is part of the Mount Diablo Unified School District.
The Tuscany Meadows residences in Pittsburg will move from District 3 to District 5, as will more of Antioch.
All told, the population totals of each district will meet a state law that dictates how much larger one district can be than another. There will be about 244,000 voters in District 2, and 220,000 voters in District 3, a large gap but not enough to break the state cap of a 10% variance between the largest and smallest districts.
The Board of Supervisors held several public hearings on the redistricting process, during which some Concord residents spoke out against having their city split between districts. They expressed concern that Concord’s large Latino population would be spread between two districts and see its voting force diluted.
“Those other areas are less diverse than this area you’re splitting up in Concord, said Addy, a speaker who attended multiple redistricting meetings but didn’t provide a last name. “Taking away that voting power from communities of interest in Concord I think will hinder them in the future.”
At Tuesday’s meeting, the supervisors pushed back against the idea that Concord residents are any less represented, pointing out they live in an incorporated city and don’t rely on county services the way other smaller communities do.
“Frankly, when one looks at these lines, you don’t see squiggly lines and arms reaching across vast areas,” Gioia said in explaining why the map couldn’t be construed as political gerrymandering.
Burgis said two supervisors representing a city is actually a good thing. In Antioch, for example, she and Glover now can double up on its behalf.
“I don’t say, ‘Well, where is that? I say, ‘Oh it’s Antioch, I’m going to help them,’ ” she said. “We don’t look at the lines.”