Redistricting Proposal Would Cut Woo’s Base

A Los Angeles redistricting plan that would cost Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo his Hollywood base of political support while creating a second heavily Latino district has been proposed by the head of the City Council’s reapportionment committee, council sources said Monday.

Two sources told The Times of the changes proposed by City Councilman Richard Alatorre, chairman of the Charter and Elections Committee. Alatorre would neither confirm nor deny the reports.

The council has agreed to redraw its district lines in response to a U.S. Justice Department lawsuit alleging that the city’s 1982 reapportionment discriminated against Latinos by diluting their voting strength. The council must approve a new plan and submit it to federal court by July 31.

The new plan, sources said, would create a second heavily Latino district in northeast Los Angeles. Currently, Latinos make up a majority in only one of the 15 districts--Alatorre’s 14th on the Eastside--even though they comprise 27.5% of the city’s population.

An aide to Woo said his boss is “the guy who gets nailed” under the plan. The aide described Woo as furious and said the first-year councilman intends to fight the plan.

The aide, who spoke on the condition that he not be named, said Woo has asked for help from his former boss, Senate President Pro Tem David Roberti (D-Los Angeles), who has influence on the fate of city-sponsored bills in the Legislature and state aid to the city. If Roberti were to intervene, Alatorre, a former assemblyman, could call on his old friend, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), setting up a fight between the two legislative leaders.

Another City Hall source who asked not to be named said the plan “doesn’t enhance minority representation. It takes the only Asian on the council (Woo) and makes the Asians and Hispanics fight over a seat,” he said.

Under the plan, Woo’s 13th district would move east. The change would deprive Woo of Hollywood and the affluent Hollywood Hills where he enjoyed strong support in his defeat last year of Councilwoman Peggy Stevenson.

Hollywood would become part of Councilman John Ferraro’s mid-Wilshire district, and Councilman Joel Wachs’ district would extend farther south over the Santa Monica Mountains to include Hollywood Hills.

The 13th District would continue to contain Los Feliz and Silver Lake, where Woo lives, and would gain heavily Latino areas north of downtown, including Atwater, Glassell Park, Highland Park and Temple-Beaudry area. It also would gain Chinatown.

The district would go from 30% Hispanic to 65% Hispanic, said Woo’s aide.

Woo’s aide said proponents of the plan “are going to say they gave the Asian community what they wanted” because it moves a number of heavily Asian neighborhoods into one district.

“But what it really does is take the only Asian on the council and bury him in a Hispanic district,” the aide said.

Asked about the removal of Hollywood from Woo’s district, Tom Sullivan, an Alatorre aide, said, “That’s being looked at. That’s as far as I can go right now.”

Alatorre added, “Nothing is in concrete to comment on.”

Alatorre has set up private meetings with council members this week and next week to show them the proposed changes in their districts before making them public.

Sources said the redistricting came down to changing the districts of either Ferraro or Woo because they represent areas near heavily Latino neighborhoods. Woo was targeted, suggested one council member, because he is “newer and probably has fewer friends than Ferraro on the council.”

A Woo aide suggested that his boss was targeted for political reasons. He said Woo is a strong supporter of Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, a potential rival of Alatorre’s for mayor.

The aide said the plan also could put Mayor Tom Bradley, who is running for governor, in the politically sensitive position of choosing between Asians and Latinos.