Redistricting efforts which occur every ten years after the census have heated up as drama ensues between the trustees who have a history of bad blood.
As a public institution, LBCC must adjust its districts based on the census. The education code says that the districts must be proportional and fair.
However, in a suggested map one of the trustees, Sunny Zia, would be written out of her district and be forced to run the next time a seat opened. This opening wouldn’t present itself until 2024 by running against Vivian Malauulu of District 2.
On February 15 a special meeting was held in which this map was presented. In a comment to the Long Beach Post, Zia said it was, “a purely political ploy.” This map was rejected to diffuse the situation with a less controversial one being accepted in the interim.
Trustee Uduak-Joe Ntuk of District 1 who also serves as the president of the board responded on the matter calling it, “false hysteria.”
“What I saw was misinformation that she (Sunny) put out in specific. She misrepresented the nature of the meeting, that it was about her and not the input or laws.”
Upon reaching out to Sunny Zia with multiple messages, no call was returned for a comment on the situation.
The census, which faced its own national controversy, yielded a change in demographics that required two districts to grow and one to shrink which would thus require all the districts to change to meet this according to Ntuk. Sunny Zia, isn’t buying this.
Sunny has been the subject of intense scrutiny from her colleagues, having faced a censure from the board in 2019 and even a lawsuit when the board tried to block her from closed door meetings.
The board will hold a regularly scheduled meeting on February 23 to make a final decision on the new map.