Filipina named member of San Francisco redistricting task force

SAN FRANCISCO, California—A Filipino American was appointed to a task force that will redraw the boundaries for San Francisco’s 11 supervisors’ districts, laying the groundwork for the city’s political future for the next decade.

San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee named Marily Mondejar, president of the Filipina Women’s Network,  as member of the San Francisco Redistricting Task Force, said Francis Tsang, chief deputy communications director at the mayor’s office.

Also appointed to the nine-member task force were Myong Leigh and Sonia Melara.

“The census has shown the population of San Francisco grown, and changes to our voting districts must adequately reflect our communities and our city,” said Mayor Lee. “Leigh, Melara and Mondejar all will bring valuable community involvement and experience to the Redistricting Task Force that will have lasting impacts on our residents and our City.”

Every 10 years, the Federal Government conducts a census to determine the population of the United States. After the census is completed, the City Charter requires the Director of Elections to find out whether the existing supervisorial districts meet the legal requirements established by federal, state and local law.

If the existing supervisorial districts no longer comply with these legal requirements, the Charter requires the Board of Supervisors to convene the Redistricting Task Force to redraw the supervisorial district lines. The process of redrawing the supervisorial district lines is known as redistricting.

Based on the 2010 census, San Francisco has a total population of 805,235 or an increase by 3.7 percent from 2000 population count of 776,733 people. But the reported increase in population was not uniform amongst the 11 supervisorial districts.

“The Director of Elections made this determination that the districts must be redrawn,” Tsang said. “The Board of Supervisors convened the Redistricting Task Force, which will consist of nine members. The Mayor, the Board of Supervisors and the Elections Commission each appoint three members.”

Mondejar is a senior business leader with 25 years of global experience as an entrepreneur, strategist and advisor to Fortune 500 organizations including Cemex, Siebel (Oracle), and Webex (Cisco). She advised executives on leadership and career derailment issues, and consulted on corporate image strategies, merger implications, scenario planning, and how to maximize performance, through work with executive teams, alliance-building, and inter-cultural communications.

Mondejar serves on nonprofit boards and commissions including the Friends of the San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women, Leadership California, Sweatfree Procurement Advisory Group and the Justice and Courage Oversight Panel.

She earned both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in organization development and leadership from New College of California, graduate coursework in public relations at Golden Gate University. She has also completed doctoral course work in organizational psychology at Alliant International University.

The Redistricting Task Force must present a final plan outlining the new supervisorial district lines to the Board of Supervisors in April 2012.