The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to add some measures of transparency and ethics training requirements to the process of changing council and board of education district boundaries based on 2020 U.S. Census data.

Council President Nury Martinez moved to include requiring all redistricting commission nominees provide a resume and background information and to complete ethics training before they begin work on the commission.

“In order to improve the city of Los Angeles’ redistricting process and make it more accessible, transparent and fair to all Angelenos, I introduced a number of amendments to be included in the Redistricting Report that the City Council approved today,” Martinez said.

Martinez also moved to have city staff provide demographic information on each region and have the city attorney draft an ordinance to require the disclosure of any outside communication commissioners have with elected officials and city staff. The new rules would require the commissions to post public hearing notices 72 hours in advance and for the commissions to conduct weekend and evening meetings when possible to “encourage participation,” she said.

The City Council Redistricting Commission and the Los Angeles Unified School District Redistricting Commission will have to prepare and present budgets to support their work.

According to Martinez’ office, the commissions’ work can’t begin until this year’s census data is completed.

LAUSD and City Council districts are redrawn every 10 years, and the redistricting process must be completed no later than December 2021 before the next city election in March 2022.

According to city documents, the plans prepared by the commissions are advisory, and the City Council can amend the district boundaries proposed by the commissions or adopt entirely different plans.

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