Oxnard-- The City Council held its seventh and final public redistricting meeting Wednesday, February 16, and adopted Map 203 A to bring forward on a 5-2 vote.
The fur flew during the meeting as Councilman Oscar Madrigal accused city staff of fixing the selection process with no regard to Map 2, which he said he changed to accommodate the feedback during prior meetings.
City Manager Alex Nguyen didn’t like the accusation, and he said that it did not sit well with him. He noted redistricting happens once every 10 years, and there is still time to debate the maps, but they did not choose to do so.
Councilman Bert Perello asked Madigal to provide facts and evidence about the process being underhanded, but Madrigal did not.
Demographer Kristen Parks from National Demographers Corporation (NDC) focused on the new maps received since the last meeting. The council has until April 18 to vote on a new map.
She noted that all the maps submitted by the public are population balanced and are under the 10 percent maximum for total population deviation.
“There are three new maps that I am going to show you this evening. Then I’m happy to take any…
