Woo Raps Alatorre Remap Plan as ‘Sleazy Deal’

Calling it a “sleazy back-room political deal,” Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo on Wednesday blasted a redistricting plan that would change his district into a two-thirds Latino area, a shift that Woo, the council’s only Asian member, says would make it doubtful he would win reelection.

The proposed redistricting plan was designed by Councilman Richard Alatorre, the only Latino on the 15-member council, in response to a lawsuit filed last year against the city by the Justice Department. The lawsuit charged that the city violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act by drawing city political boundaries that dilute the voting strength of Latinos, who officially make up 27.5% of the city population.

At a City Hall press conference, Woo said Alatorre was trying to “pit the city’s two fastest-growing minorities against each other in one district.” As chairman of the council’s Charter and Elections Committee who is charged with drawing up a new redistricting plan, Alatorre said Wednesday that his major goal was “merely to come up with a viable option that deals with the concerns of the Justice Department and can get eight votes”--the number of votes needed for council approval. The council must present a redistricting plan to federal court by July 31.

While he said Wednesday that the proposal to revamp Woo’s district was “just an option,” he said it was the one he preferred and the one he believes most council members prefer as of now.

Behind the Alatorre proposal, council sources say, is a complicated agenda of various interests--mainly his desires to protect incumbent officeholders, particularly blacks, and mid-Wilshire area Councilman John Ferraro, who has been friendlier with Alatorre than Woo.

Under the plan, as revealed earlier this week by City Hall sources, most of Hollywood, Woo’s biggest base of support, would be shifted into Ferraro’s district. The Hollywood Hills area would become part of Councilman Joel Wach’s district. Woo would pick up heavily Latino areas, including Atwater, Glassell Park, Highland Park and the area around Dodger Stadium--and bring on a change in the voting population that would radically lower his chances for reelection, Woo said.

All the Alatorre plan does, Woo said, “is make safer districts for the entrenched powers on the City Council who have stood in the way of representation for Hispanics for years. . . . This sleazy deal does more to solve the immediate political problems of Richard Alatorre and John Ferraro than it does to solve the problem of Hispanic under-representation.”

An earlier proposal, submitted by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, a co-plaintiff in the federal lawsuit, suggested several major boundary changes that would have spread shifts in constituencies among several council members. The most sweeping of these would have placed Ferraro’s present Hancock Park home out of his proposed new district and made the area heavily Latino.

Under Alatorre’s plan, Ferraro’s Central City district would be 70% Anglo, Woo said, which he called “an outrage.” He vowed to “do whatever it takes to stop this travesty,” including presenting his own redistricting plan and filing suit. Alatorre “is telling Hispanics, ‘If you want a second seat on the City Council, you have to knock out the only representative of Asians on the council,’ ” Woo said.

Noting that Ferraro’s district is already 43% Latino compared to Woo’s 33% Latino population, Woo suggested that Alatorre chose his district to realign because he did not support Alatorre’s candidacy for City Council last year. Woo said he remained neutral while Ferraro strongly supported Alatorre, which he said was an example of the council’s “old-boy network” in operation.

Alatorre called Woo’s allegations “ridiculous. I’m trying for a plan that makes sense.” Weighing heavily on his decision to realign Woo’s district, Alatorre said, was that blacks and Latinos, but not Asians, are specifically “protected” by federal law in this case.

Stewart Khow, executive director of the Asian Pacific Legal Center of Southern California, disagreed with Alatorre. “Asians are protected under the voting rights act,” he said. “Whether Mike Woo’s district, and Mike Woo, would be protected, that is not clear.”

Under Alatorre’s plan, several heavily Asian areas have been consolidated in the proposed Woo district, so that the Asian segment of the population would increase from 12% to 15% in his redrawn district, Woo said.

If Ferraro’s district were to be changed drastically, Alatorre said, it “would have a rippling effect” on neighboring districts that are now heavily black, including those represented by Council members Dave Cunningham, Gilbert Lindsay and Pat Russell.

The final effect of a major change in Ferraro’s district “could have an adverse impact on black elected officials . . . which would create even more problems,” Alatorre said.

Alatorre, who has not formally presented the plan, said hearings should begin next week. If approved by the council, Mayor Tom Bradley could either approve or veto the measure. Ten council votes would be necessary to override a Bradley veto.