SLO County redistricting plans violate laws

September 1, 2011

OPINION by WILLIAM PELFREY

The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors’ plan to split Templeton into three supervisory districts is not only impractical, but it appears to break laws set to keep lawmakers from setting boundaries for their own political gain.  Several comments made at meetings during the past month demonstrate the boards’ failure to follow California laws.

It was stated that there were other school districts that were split between two supervisory districts. However, the examples used were school districts that were affiliated with incorporated communities where the Board of Supervisors has little or no legal status.

Therefore, the examples have no bearing on the first splitting of a school district between three supervisory districts when that school district is located in an unincorporated community.

There have been references made during the hearings that Templeton was not united in what the community wants. There is testimony and evidence contrary to this going back to the first workshop held on May 26, 2011 when Templeton citizen stated they wanted to stay whole as defined by the Templeton Unified School District (TUSD) and be in one supervisory district.

It was only after Templeton was led to believe that the Board of Supervisors would never let that happen that some of the community members accepted a compromise.

It is painfully obvious that the splitting of the Templeton Unified School District and the Templeton Area Advisory Group sphere of influence area is politically motivated to ensure the present make up of the Board of Supervisors and

Political motive and future development are not supposed to be taken into account.

There was no pre-notice on the agenda of a Board Member’s presentation of Option B-1 or Option C- 1. Therefore, these Options could not be reviewed by the public as they were not on the Board of Supervisor website, nor could they be found at the mapping website, or the redistricting website for public review.

Therefore, the choices before this Board are either Option B or Option C and of those two choices Option B would put this Board in violation of the Brown Act, i.e. if all three Board of Supervisors attended any community meeting, therefore it would deny fair representation to the citizens of Templeton and TAAG. The definition of Templeton being the Templeton Unified School District and the area covered by TAAG as accepted by this Board of Supervisors 20 years ago.

I therefore, submit that the only choice that is legal and that is before this Board is Map Option C and moving forward with any other Map choice would and should, as my fellow citizens have suggested, be submitted to the Grand Jury, the States Attorney General and/or the court system.

William Pelfrey is a Templeton resident working to keep the community intact.