Alatorre to Head Council’s Panel on Reapportionment

Richard Alatorre, who will take office on Friday as Los Angeles’ first Latino council member in 23 years, was named Tuesday to head a panel that will review the city’s controversial reapportionment plan, which is the target of a federal lawsuit alleging racial discrimination.

Alatorre, a Democratic state assemblyman who swept to victory in the 14th Council District last week, was appointed chairman of the council’s Charter and Elections Committee, which will study the redistricting plan denounced in a Justice Department lawsuit as biased against Latinos.

The civil complaint, filed two weeks ago in Los Angeles federal court, charges that Los Angeles officials with a “history of official discrimination” for the absence of Latinos from the City Council during a two-decade period in which the number of Latinos in the city rose sharply.

City Council President Pat Russell told reporters that she appointed Alatorre because he is a Latino and because he headed a state legislative committee that drew up the 1982 California reapportionment plan.

Russell also named Councilman Michael Woo, the only Asian-American on the council, and Councilman Hal Bernson to the committee. Like Alatorre, Woo was not on the council in 1982 when it unanimously adopted the redistricting plan that set the political and geographic boundaries for the 15 council districts.

Russell said she purposely placed council members with ethnic backgrounds on the committee.

The appointment was part of a shake-up of committee assignments after Alatorre’s election to succeed Arthur K. Snyder, who stepped down from office in the predominantly Latino 14th Council District.

The council has yet to decide whether to challenge the lawsuit, but Russell, who headed the Charter and Elections Committee in 1982, defended the plan.

Russell said she expects Alatorre’s committee to return with a report to the council within 30 days or in time for the city to respond to the Justice Department suit.