San Antonio Express-News: Could the highly political redistricting process be more independent? San Antonio may find out

When Carlton Soules served on San Antonio City Council a decade ago, he had what seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime chance to influence the next 10 years of city politics.

Political boundaries are redrawn every decade based on population changes seen in the census. Called redistricting, the process often plays out as a contentious political battle across the United States. If they play their cards right, elected officials can essentially choose their voters by extending a boundary or moving a neighborhood out of a district — also known as gerrymandering. …

State and federal seats often garner a lot of attention for egregious maps. The Justice Department sued Texas in December over its redistricting, alleging it discriminated against minority voters in redrawing boundaries for state and federal seats.

But city and county positions have a huge impact on day-to-day life, with officials who determine things such as how much bond funding goes to drainage in a neighborhood or where parks will be built.

“We see some of the most bare-knuckled fights over political power at the local level,” said Kathay Feng, the national redistricting director of Common Cause, a government watchdog organization. …

While independent commissions are growing in popularity, San Diego’s has been around for decades.

The commission has nine members, one for each City Council district there, said Lora Fleming, who serves as its chief of staff. (She is a former communications director for a city councilwoman).

About 100 people applied to join the commission for the current cycle. Three retired judges picked who they thought were the best candidates for the job.

The judges chose commission members based on background and qualifications — it’s not blind. But the judges are selected at random, Fleming said.

Success also requires a large pool of commission applicants, said Feng of Common Cause. Sometimes members are chosen randomly and later vetted for diversity. It also works to have a nonpolitical entity, such as an ethics commission, choose members, Feng said. …

Cities and counties are increasingly turning to independent commissions to handle redistricting, but they aren’t perfect. It can be difficult for once-a-decade commissioners to know all the laws around redistricting or how to run an open meeting.

And despite the goal of independence, many commissions still are subject to residents with partisan politics or those with ill intentions who can show up to public meetings and give feedback like anyone else. That’s led some to worry that independent commissions aren’t insulated enough from politics.

“Plenty of people have tried creatively to get their way with the commission,” in California, Feng said. “But selecting a group of people who are savvy and listening for exactly that kind of thing makes them well inoculated to those lobbying efforts.”