San Francisco Redistricting Task Force hit with lawsuit after missing its deadline

Activity pressure members narrowly voted final week to blow previous the April 15 deadline that town constitution set for having new districts in place, opting to proceed engaged on shaping the brand new district boundaries amid intense public scrutiny and political controversy.

Now, the lawsuit raises the likelihood that the ultimate map could also be picked by a San Francisco Superior Court docket choose as a substitute of the duty pressure, a step that would have far-reaching penalties for metropolis supervisor elections.

The Metropolis Lawyer’s Workplace additionally contributed to the authorized stress Tuesday, publishing an opinion that stated the duty pressure should undertake a brand new remaining draft map when it meets once more Thursday and approve it as the ultimate map, after two extra hearings, on April 28. Legal professionals for town stated within the memo that “there will be no additional delays” now that the duty pressure has missed its charter-mandated deadline.

The authorized developments mark the newest twists in an unusually tumultuous course of over which neighborhoods fall into which of San Francisco’s 11 supervisor districts. The consequence might have an effect on the political steadiness on the Board of Supervisors relying how the strains are drawn.

Todd David, a San Francisco housing activist and one of many individuals who filed the lawsuit, stated he was motivated by a want to defend the democratic course of towards what he noticed as unwarranted political intrusion.

“It was very disturbing to me to observe a bunch of hardworking volunteers be bullied by the acute NIMBY left,” David stated, referring to individuals who oppose growth. “From a political standpoint, no one liked the maps. It appeared to me that (process pressure members) did their job.”

The map that the duty pressure had ready to undertake final week was met with outcry from political activists, neighborhood leaders and different residents who considered it as an assault on progressive illustration. They particularly objected to proposals that will have put the Tenderloin and South of Market into completely different districts whereas additionally splitting up the Bayview and Potrero Hill, amongst different modifications.

The swimsuit filed by David, together with plaintiffs Jon Schwark and Drew Min, asks a choose to carry a listening to early subsequent week and undertake a remaining supervisor district map earlier than Might 2, the date by which the Division of Elections wants the map to arrange for candidates operating within the November election. Along with the duty pressure, the swimsuit additionally names town elections director John Arntz as a defendant.

Jen Kwart, a spokeswoman for the Metropolis Lawyer’s Workplace, responded to the lawsuit with a press release saying her workplace continued to advise the duty pressure “in order that it could possibly full its work by Might 2.” She stated metropolis officers had not been served with the swimsuit however would “evaluate it and reply appropriately.”

David stated he hoped the duty pressure would log out on a map of latest districts Thursday, rendering intervention by a choose pointless. However his swimsuit will stay within the meantime as a “security valve” in case the duty pressure continues to delay, he stated.

“The purpose of the lawsuit is to get a authorized map finished as quickly as potential,” David stated. “We will surely come collectively and have a dialog and would severely contemplate dropping the lawsuit if the map is finished in a really fast timeframe.”

The duty pressure’s choice to take extra time to work on the 11 supervisor district boundaries was met with reward by progressive leaders who noticed the group’s earlier proposals as politically tainted. By probably transferring neighborhoods just like the Tenderloin out of the districts the place they’re at present situated, the duty pressure would separate communities with longstanding ties and shared pursuits, diluting their political voices, critics say.

For instance, the draft map the duty pressure voted down final week would have made town’s Transgender District — which spans components of the Tenderloin and SoMa — represented by completely different supervisors. It additionally would have finished the identical to hundreds of Filipinos who stay in San Francisco, stated Raquel Redondiez, director of the neighborhood group SOMA Pilipinas.

“When you have a look at the wealth disparity between the communities they preserved and the communities they broke up, they went after essentially the most weak and marginalized communities,” Redondiez stated of the draft map.

Redondiez was amongst greater than 20 neighborhood leaders who signed on to an April 13 letter denouncing the now-failed draft map as “racist, anti-working class, and a blueprint for gentrification.”

The duty pressure is answerable for updating the supervisor district strains to account for inhabitants shifts mirrored within the final census. The group’s 9 members are appointed in equal numbers by the mayor, the Board of Supervisors and town Elections Fee.

As the duty pressure’s deadline neared and controversy across the proposed boundaries escalated, the Elections Fee thought-about eradicating its three appointees however finally determined towards doing so. The fee’s transfer was prompted partly by issues raised by the League of Girls Voters of San Francisco and Asian People Advancing Justice.

Alison Goh, the league president, referred to as the following assembly of the duty pressure a “constructive signal” that members “actually intend to hearken to neighborhood enter.”

“We actually hope the neighborhood continues to point out up and make their voices heard,” Goh stated. “If any of the neighborhood members, particularly essentially the most weak, underrepresented people, really feel unheard, that is actually the assembly the place they should present up and provides remark.”

Thursday’s process pressure assembly begins at midday in Room 406 of Metropolis Corridor.

J.D. Morris is a San Francisco Chronicle workers author. E-mail: jd.morris@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thejdmorris