U.S. Inquiry Targets 1982 L.A. Council Redistricting

The Justice Department has launched an investigation of the Los Angeles City Council’s 1982 redistricting plan to determine whether it abridged the voting rights of Latinos, Asians and blacks, department officials said Monday.

The preliminary investigation was conducted by four civil rights attorneys who spent two weeks in Los Angeles this month interviewing election officials and others. The results are under review.

Because information continues to be submitted, a decision on whether further federal action should be taken is unlikely for months, a department spokesman indicated.

If violations are found, the Justice Department first would seek to negotiate changes to eliminate the alleged discrimination and, failing that, would file suit.

Panel’s Criticism

In January, 1984, the California advisory committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission issued a report sharply critical of the council’s 1982 reapportionment plan, which for the most part retained existing voting district lines.

These lines had been under attack for a decade by Latino and Asian activists, who protested that the Hollywood-area 13th Council District should have been redrawn to reflect a growing Asian population and that the 14th District, which includes predominantly Latino East Los Angeles, continued to include areas with large Anglo populations.

The advisory committee called for a Justice Department inquiry into whether the plan had violated the federal Voting Rights Act, which bars any practice or procedure that abridges a person’s voting rights.

The advisory committee’s report was never acted on by the Civil Rights Commission. One source said the commission’s legal staff was critical of the report, contending it “wasn’t legally sufficient.”

Alerted by Complaints

But Justice Department attorneys, who visited California last year in an investigation of state legislative reapportionment, heard complaints about the City Council’s redistricting and obtained a copy of the state advisory committee’s report.

“Hispanics and Asians comprise 34% of the city’s population, yet no Hispanics or Asians are represented on the City Council,” the report stated. “Only one Hispanic and no Asians have been elected to the council in the last 100 years.”

Moreover, it said, “Los Angeles city’s election system and its 1982 reapportionment plan for council districts appear to violate the federal Voting Rights Act and the constitutional guarantees of the right to vote and equal protection of the laws.”

The state committee advised that if the Justice Department decided to sue, it should consider seeking additional council districts as one way of remedying the situation.

A proposal to create two new council seats will appear as Charter Amendment No. 2 on the April 9 city ballot. If it is approved by Los Angeles voters, the number of council seats would increase, starting in 1987, from 15 to 17.

Mayor Tom Bradley and other supporters say the added seats would improve chances for Latino or Asian council candidates.

Complaints about the effect of Los Angeles’ 1982 council reapportionment “have centered on Hispanics,” although the department’s review also will consider Asians and blacks, one source familiar with the matter said.

Amendments to the Voting Rights Act in 1982 made it easier to bring such complaints, requiring that a “totality of the circumstances” demonstrate that a reapportionment plan denies a group of citizens the same right to vote as that afforded other citizens. Previously, a plaintiff had to prove that the redistricting intentionally discriminated against a group.