In a further follow up on this post, Nicole Wnger of the California Secretary of State’s office sends along these comments for posting:

Since Tony Quinn has misspoken on the topic at least a couple of times now, the Secretary of State’s office wants to set the record straight.
The Citizens Redistricting Commission, created after California voters approved Proposition 11 in 2008, is an independent body. The Secretary of State’s office did not make any of the Commission’s decisions on hiring or staffing.
Like several other state government entities, the Secretary of State’s Office was required to serve a brief role as the Commission got started. The Secretary of State’s office was charged only with providing temporary administrative support until the Commission could hire its first staff and start functioning with its own office space and equipment. During the few weeks of temporary support, the Secretary of State’s office provided whatever assistance the commissioners requested — from photocopying to webcasting meetings to posting job announcements — but never made the Commission’s decisions on process or policy.
The Secretary of State’s Office assisted the Commission in publicizing its first job openings through the California State Personnel Board, on the Commission’s website, and in the Capitol Morning Report, and simply collected the job applications for the CRC. The CRC developed the hiring process and made staffing decisions entirely on its own.