Latinos Submit Radical Council Remapping Plan

A Los Angeles city redistricting plan that would deprive City Councilman John Ferraro of the affluent mid-Wilshire area he has long represented and take away a large part of Councilman Joel Wachs’ hillside political base was presented to the City Council Friday by the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund.

The fund, a Latino legal and political rights group, presented its plan after intervening on behalf of the U.S. Justice Department’s suit against the city alleging that Los Angeles’ 1982 council reapportionment plan discriminated against the city’s growing Latino population.

City Council President Pat Russell said the proposal will be discussed at a closed council meeting on Tuesday as one of several possible answers to the Justice Department suit. Pretrial proceedings have begun in U.S. District Court.

Council members opposed the Legal Defense Fund’s plan. Whether it was intentional or not, the organization drew lines in a way that might gain the favor of the alliance of Russell and other council members who control the legislative body. The proposed boundaries would badly hurt two of Russell’s biggest opponents, Ferraro and Wachs.

Thus, when the closed-door bargaining sessions begin, the fund’s entry may be appealing to a majority of the 15-member council. Mexican American Legal Defense Fund officials declined comment on the specific district lines that they proposed.

Under the plan, Latinos, now dominant in only one council district, Richard Alatorre’s 14th on the Eastside, would have a better chance of winning in one more district.

4th District Picture

The district would be the 4th, represented by Ferraro. The 4th’s lines would be moved several miles eastward. Where now the western boundary is in the mid-Wilshire area, it would shift to just west of the Harbor Freeway. The change would take away from Ferraro the wealthy Hancock Park residential area and development-heavy Wilshire Boulevard, both sources of votes and campaign contributions.

Generally, the mid-Wilshire and Hancock Park areas would go to Councilmen David Cunningham and Michael Woo.

Ferraro’s home, in Hancock Park, would no longer be in the 4th District.

From its new western boundary, District 4 would extend to the city’s eastern boundary and become a heavily Latino area. When Ferraro ran for mayor against Tom Bradley last year, he ran poorly there.

Wachs would lose the prosperous Santa Monica Mountains area to City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, a Russell ally. In return, Wachs would get a narrow stretch of the city running from around Dodger Stadium almost to Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. That would force Wachs, who for the most part has represented upscale communities, to campaign among working-class minority voters.

Ferraro was outraged. He said he first heard of the plan from Mexican American Legal Defense Fund representatives.

“They came and showed me the map and told me that I had been a friend” to the Latino community, the councilman said.

“I said, ‘Thank God I’m not your enemy. You might have banished me to outside the city,’ ” Ferraro said.

Other council members also opposed the plan.

“It’s ridiculous,” said Councilman Ernarni Bernardi of the mid-San Fernando Valley’s predominantly working-class 7th District. The lines of his district were moved west, giving him more affluent voters than he now has.

“It’s about as gross a case of gerrymandering as I have ever seen,” Bernardi said. “I don’t see how a court would ever accept this.”

Councilman Howard Finn of the Valley’s northeast 1st District, said, “I just don’t see any way it makes sense.”

Base of Support

Finn’s district, already with a large number of Latinos, would gain even more, and he would lose his strongest base of support in the predominantly Anglo foothill area. That area would go to Councilman Hal Bernson, whose 12th District includes the West Valley.

However, Councilwoman Joy Picus said she did not believe that Finn, a Russell ally, would be hurt by the shift.

Picus, another Russell teammate, would emerge relatively unscathed, although she objected to the plan’s suggestion that she share Warner Center, site of heavy development and now completely within her district, with Councilman Marvin Braude of the 11th District.

In the center of the city, the proposal would take away downtown Los Angeles from Councilman Gilbert Lindsay, who has long benefited from contributions from developers, and give it to freshman Alatorre, who is chairman of the council’s reapportionment committee.

Lindsay would get a section of Watts now represented by Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores. Although Flores said she “will never give up Watts without a fight,” the proposed lines would not not hurt the reelection prospects of either her or Lindsay. Lindsay, however, is likely to vigorously oppose losing downtown Los Angeles.

Disclosure of the plan touched off controversy.

‘Real Problems’

Richard Fajardo, the Latino legal defense fund’s chief counsel in the federal lawsuit, said, “We submitted it at the request of the council and asked them to keep it confidential. The fact that it is out is evidence that they have not acted in good faith and presents a real problem.”

Russell said, however, that neither she nor city lawyers handling the case had intended to make it public.

Word leaked out when Bernson began showing the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund map to his colleagues during the council session.