County supervisors must redraw their district lines because of population growth over the past decade, a task that could have them trading neighborhoods like Monopoly game properties.

All five Board of Supervisors districts grew from 1990 to 2000, according to recently released U.S. Census data.

Meanwhile, state election law calls for dividing the five districts into even slices, each with about 20 percent of the county's population.

Supervisor John Flynn's District 5, Frank Schillo's District 2 and Judy Mikels' District 4 all have inordinate shares of the population and must shrink in size, while Steve Bennett's District 1 and Kathy Long's District 3 must grow.

A best-case scenario is a district population of 150,639, according to a staff report prepared by county demographer Steve Wood. The board will discuss the report at its meeting today.

"Potentially, all (the districts) may be affected to reduce the population of the one that's the highest, which is Flynn's," Wood said.

Flynn's district, which contains most of Oxnard and all of El Rio, has 159,039 people, about 6 percent over the target population for a district.

Schillo, representing most of Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, half of Newbury Park, all of Port Hueneme and parts of south Oxnard, now has 155,077 constituents, roughly 3 percent over the goal.

Mikels, who represents Simi Valley, Moorpark and parts of Las Posas Valley, has 152,269 in her district, about 1 percent over the target.

Bennett's district, covering Ventura, the Ojai Valley and parts of Oxnard, has the fewest people with 139,828, about 7 percent under the target.

Long's district, whose lopsided design includes unincorporated parts of Newbury Park, all of Camarillo, Fillmore, Santa Paula, Ojai and the rural enclaves of Piru, Lockwood Valley and the Rincon, has 146,984 people, about 2 percent below the goal.

Redrawn districts must be as "nearly equal in population" as possible, according to state law. But officials must also consider topography, geography and "communities of interest." The latter means not breaking up groups defined by factors such as school or city boundaries.

Federal law also forbids forging new boundaries that diminish voting powers of any racial or ethnic group, County Counsel Frank Sieh said. For now, it's unclear exactly what boundary changes will occur.

"My instructions are to get it as close as possible (to the target population), and if the supervisors want to discuss it further, that's up to them," Wood said.

Chief Administrative Officer Johnny Johnston said he hopes to present supervisors with three choices, one based on geography, one on topography and the last on "communities of interest." He also expects proposals from the Ventura County Redistricting Task Force, an ad hoc committee of 15 people studying the issue.

Supervisors must hold two public hearings on the issue, hopefully by late August, when candidates begin filing papers for the March 5, 2002, primary election.

Ten years ago, new census figures had supervisors trading neighborhoods and unincorporated areas like Monopoly players.

Flynn acquired El Rio from then-District 1 Supervisor Susan Lacey. But he lost some south Oxnard neighborhoods to Schillo, who added Port Hueneme to District 2.

Lacey, meanwhile, picked up some north Oxnard neighborhoods near The Esplanade shopping center from Flynn and some areas east and west of Ojai from Long.

In District 3, Long got the unincorporated area of Newbury Park from Schillo. Mikels' District 4 was unchanged.

In 1991, Flynn got angry when he lost several Oxnard neighborhoods. The County Counsel's Office had recommended maximizing the Latino voting clout in Flynn's district to increase the chance of eventually electing a Hispanic supervisor there.

Flynn lost some neighborhoods with lower concentrations of Latinos, "where he had established a personal relationship," Wood said. "It was very painful for him. He took it very personally."

Flynn said last week that the decision upset him because it increased a Latino majority where one existed already. The district, Flynn said, was already more than 60 percent Latino, so "to use the excuse to maintain a racial balance in numbers didn't make any sense to me."

Flynn said he hopes the districts can be redrawn with population numbers as much as 5 percent above the target, a trend backed by recent court decisions.

When he campaigned last year and won a seventh term, Flynn said this would be his last. But last week, he didn't sound like a politician nearing retirement.

"You never know what's going to happen," he said, laughing. "I did say I wouldn't run again, but some people have asked me to keep my mind open on the issues. Out of courtesy to them, I think I will."

Schillo said he also was upset about possibly losing constituents.

District 2's design, straddling east and west county, allows him to better understand issues, Schillo said.

Still, Schillo said, he'd give up the upscale, gated community of Bell Canyon, east of Thousand Oaks, to Mikels if there has to be some horse trading.

Bennett has the most people to gain.

"The issue is what's going to be added," Bennett said. "There's probably an unlimited number of possibilities. My district's going to grow and that's fine."

Bennett declined to speculate on specific changes.

Long also said she couldn't guess about boundary changes. But she said her district acquiring rural Somis, east of Camarillo, might make sense. It's already part of Camarillo's library services district, she said.

"I will look at the census numbers, and as everybody else will do, I'm going to look at voting patterns, and then I'll have some more thoughts here," Long said.

Many Somis residents have criticized Mikels for supporting a Caltrans project to widen the intersection of highways 34 and 118. They believe it will open the door to growth in Las Posas Valley.

Mikels said she wouldn't want to lose Somis but would do so if it makes sense. Citing the "communities of interest" factor, Mikels said it wouldn't make sense to split Somis or any other neighborhood.

With the least to lose, "I'm just going to sit on the sidelines and say, 'Let me know what you guys want to do,' " Mikels said. "My only hope is that when we're done, that it's logical and the lines makes sense."

-- Charles Levin's e-mail address is clevin@insidevc.com.