Ever wondered why Oakland shares a state senator with Livermore, but not with San Leandro?

Maybe not, but that’s the kind of detail Oakland resident Connie Galambos Malloy will have to ponder now that she’s been appointed to California’s first-ever Citizens Redistricting Commission. 

Her job sounds like a mix between a reality-show premise and a graduate school project: Between now and Aug. 15, 2011, Malloy and 13 strangers will draw the lines that carve California into new electoral districts. 

It’s a process that happens every 10 years. Until now, it’s been the job of state legislators. But in 2008, voters passed Proposition 11, which wrenched that power out of the hands of potentially self-interested politicians and turned it over to the people. Prop. 11 applied to state legislative districts and Board of Equalization seats. This year, Proposition 20 added U.S. congressional districts to the mix.

Nearly 30,000 people applied to be on the commission. That pool has now shrunk to 36 finalists, eight of whom were selected randomly last Thursday to fill the first seats. Their first job will be to select the other six members from the remaining finalists. The commission must include five Democrats, five Republicans and four people not belonging to either party.

For Malloy - an independent - applying to the commission was a natural extension of her work as program director of the environmental justice group Urban Habitat. The Oakland nonprofit runs a training institute to help people from low-income communities and communities of color move into decision-making roles, including serving on commissions in their communities.

“It’s always been one of my values,” Malloy said.

A background in urban planning should help Malloy navigate the public workshops she’ll have to help host and the data she’ll need to parse in her new role. She also brings a personal understanding of California’s diversity to the job.

“When we submitted our applications we had to check a box on race and ethnicity. I picked African American, but my family’s Latino, as well,” said Malloy, explaining that her parents are from Colombia. “I feel like I’m definitely representing different perspectives and different communities.”  

Her first priority as a commissioner will be transparency, she said, adding she wants the public to be able to weigh in on the commission’s work.

Malloy said she also hopes to make sure the remaining six commission seats go to applicants who reflect a full range of Californians.

“I know certain regions are not represented at all. There’s one Latino, I’m the only African American. There’s a lot work of to be done on balancing all those different things, and we only have so many seats left to work with.”

Exactly how the redistricting effort will be structured remains to be seen. Malloy does know that the eight commissioners will begin choosing who will join them on Nov. 30. But even that process holds some mystery.

“There’s no end time to the meeting,” Malloy said. “They just said show up in the morning.”

To see an interactive map of California's current electoral districts, visit the Statewide Database.