Little discussed in the Supervisorial redistricting is the effect it will have on Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) seats. Each supervisorial district has three seats on the OCTA board: one for its Supervisor, one elected by its cities where the city votes are weighted by population, and one elected by its cities where each city gets one vote. When a city is in multiple districts, then its vote goes to the district where the majority of its residents resides.
What this means is three cities are now guaranteed seats on the OCTA board because they wield the majority of the voting power in the population-weighted vote: Anaheim in the 4th, Santa Ana in the 2nd, and Irvine in the 3rd. Under the old map, only Santa Ana held such weight (in the 1st).
Although they can continue to serve their current board terms until those expire, five OCTA Board members will eventually need to find new seats:
· 1st District (population-weighted): Vince Sarmiento (D) (Santa Ana is now in the 2nd District)
· 2nd District (population-weighted): Barbara Delgleize (R) (Huntington Beach is now in the 1st District)
· 2nd District (one city, one vote): Patrick Harper (R) (Fountain Valley is now in the 1st District)
· 3rd District (population-weighted): Mark Murphy (R), who is also Vice Chairman of OCTA (Orange is now in the 2nd District for OCTA purposes)
· 5th District (population-weighted): Brian Goodell (R) (Mission Viejo is now in the 3rd District)
Of the above, Harper and Murphy’s terms expire at the end of 2022, and the others expire at the end of 2023, though Delgleize will leave earlier as she is termed off the City Council at the end of 2022.
Santa Ana Mayor Sarmiento (D) can just vote himself a seat: the former 2nd District’s population-weighted seat held by Huntington Beach Councilwoman Delgleize (R). And if
Huntington Beach needs to be able to cobble together the votes to take Sarmiento’s former 1st District population-weighted seat. Huntington Beach wields 31.97% of the vote, while Garden Grove wields 21.80%. Together, they hold 53.77% of the vote. If Garden Grove does not vote with Huntington Beach, then Huntington Beach will need at least two other cities to vote for its candidate to succeed Delgleize.
Assuming he wins re-election as mayor this November, Orange Mayor Murphy (R) only needs one city to vote with him (either Tustin or Santa Ana) in order to take Fountain Valley Councilman Harper’s (R) former 2nd District one-city-one-vote seat.
Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan (D) now controls the only vote that matters for taking over Murphy’s former 3rd District population-weighted seat.
If Harper (R) wishes to stay on the OCTA board, he will have to contend with Garden Grove Mayor Steve Jones (R) for the 1st District’s one-city-one-vote seat. One possibility is some sort of deal that moves Jones into the 1st District’s population-weighted seat and lets Harper take the 1st District’s one-city-one-vote seat. (Together, Garden Grove and Fountain Valley hold 36.86% of the new 1st District’s population-weighted vote. If the Little Saigon cities vote together, Westminster would put them at 51.49% of the population-weighted vote, but that is only three of the eight cities for the one-city-one-vote seat.)
If Mission Viejo Councilman Goodell (R) wishes to stay on the OCTA board, he will have to contend with Yorba Linda Councilman Gene Hernandez (R) for the 3rd District’s one-city-one-vote seat.
Goodell’s (R) former population-weighted 5th District seat is wide open. This seat has the most population balance among its cities. The largest city, Costa Mesa, wields only 21.61% of the vote. However, it is unlikely the cities of South County, who wield the majority of the population, will allow Costa Mesa to gain the seat.
Next: County Redistricting – Three Approaches To OC’s Three Biggest Cities
