Woo Draws Own Plan for Council Boundaries

A heated municipal war escalated Thursday when Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo unveiled his own map for redrawing council boundaries, an effort he hopes will head off formal approval for a competing plan that Woo fears could cost him his council seat.

Woo’s plan would spare him at the expense of veteran Councilman John Ferraro, who would lose his Wilshire Corridor power base, and instead represent a district more than 80% black, Latino and Asian.

Calling his plan “the most logical alternative,” Woo blasted the competing plan drafted by Councilman Richard Alatorre.

“My plan does not gerrymander a safe Anglo seat in the middle of Los Angeles--the Los Angeles of 1986, which has a majority population which is nonwhite,” he said.

The Woo plan was made public just before council committee hearings opened into the Alatorre plan. Under the Alatorre plan, Woo’s 13th District would become at least 65% Latino, more than twice the percentage now, thereby threatening Woo’s chances of reelection to the seat he won in 1985.

The Charter and Elections Committee hearings--expected to conclude today with a vote on the competing plans--drew an overflow crowd to City Hall, and most of the attendees took the opportunity to shower insults on Alatorre, who testily defended himself and his plan.

While Alatorre’s plan was given good early odds for full council approval because it artfully protected most incumbent council members, the release of the Woo plan set council members scrambling to determine which of the two is in their individual best interest.

The Alatorre plan was hit on a second front Thursday when several Latino groups said they could not support it. While Woo claimed that Alatorre went too far in his efforts to create a second Latino-dominated council district, the Latino groups complained that the Alatorre plan fails to go far enough.

The groups included the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, which is a co-plaintiff in the federal voting rights lawsuit that spawned the competing efforts to redraw the city’s council district boundary lines.

The lawsuit alleged that the city, when it last redrew district lines in 1982, violated federal law by establishing boundaries that weakened Latino voting strength. To forestall the lawsuit, the council must approve a new redistricting plan and present it to the federal court by the end of the month.

The Alatorre plan, released earlier this week, essentially carved up Woo’s Hollywood district, giving half of it to Councilman Joel Wachs. The eastern half of the district would have been expanded to take in the heavily Latino areas northeast of downtown, including Atwater, Glassell Park and Highland Park.

Woo’s plan would consolidate his district around the Hollywood redevelopment and Silver Lake areas, where Woo has shown his strongest support. A small segment of the Hollywood Hills branch of the district would be sliced off and attached to Wachs’ neighboring district.

Woo claimed that the Alatorre plan was biased against Asians, because although it would increase the percentage of Asians in his district, the increase would be undercut by the doubling in Latino voters.

Under Woo’s alternative, instead of Woo’s district becoming the city’s second Latino-dominated area, that distinction would go to Ferraro, whose district would move to the east. Ferraro would keep only a slice of his Wilshire Corridor base--that to ensure that Ferraro’s Hancock Park home remains within the 4th District.

Ferraro said Thursday that he told Woo he could not support his plan, which would “take away the heart of my district. It divides the Wilshire community badly,” he said.

Ferraro said he supports Alatorre’s plan, and he believes a majority of the council will support it too.

The bulk of the remaining council areas would remain virtually untouched by the Woo plan. Neither the San Fernando Valley districts nor those now held by Council President Pat Russell and members Joan Milke Flores and Marvin Braude would be changed.

In an effort to rally support for his plan, Woo ensured stable seats for the council’s three black members. Councilman Gilbert Lindsay would maintain his downtown base, and Robert Farrell would continue to represent the south and South-Central areas.

Councilman Dave Cunningham, under the Woo plan, would see the percentage of blacks in his district rise from 38% to 50%, theoretically providing him with a broader base of support. He would inherit some of the Wilshire-area neighborhoods lost by Ferraro.

Cunningham said Thursday that he stood by his earlier support for the Alatorre plan. Lindsay, who Wednesday announced his support for the Alatorre plan, could not be reached for comment on the competing Woo plan.

The specifics of both plans were largely overlooked as the Charter and Elections Committee opened its hearings into the redistricting matter. The council chamber, which seats 380 people, was packed, and an overflow crowd was sent to the Board of Public Works hearing room, where they listened on speakers.

The audience, mostly from Woo’s district, stood and applauded when he entered the room, and they proudly wore their “I like Mike” buttons. Woo, beaming, walked through the crowd shaking hands and greeting friends.

Bruce Cain, a consultant to the committee who helped draft the Alatorre plan, drew the ire of Woo and the crowd when he testified about Woo’s rallying of Asian groups to his side in the redistricting fight, and to Woo’s insistence that the Hollywood area remain in his district.

“I was a little surprised by the claim that a minority politician would rally minority constituent groups for the right to represent whites in Hollywood and Hollywood Hills. That is not what the Voting Rights Act is about,” Cain said. “Nor did the Voting Rights Act ever suggest that people had special claims to redevelopment areas.”

An angry Woo charged that Cain was working not for the council, which hired him, but for Alatorre. “I am personally outraged by Mr. Cain’s comments. . . . He has revealed his true prejudices,” Woo said.

ETHNIC DISTRIBUTION UNDER NEW COUNCIL DISTRICT PLANS

How new council district plans proposed by Councilmen Michael Woo and Richard Alatorre would compare with existing districts.

% Non-Latino White % Latino % Black New Cur. Ala. Woo Cur. Ala. Woo Cur. Ala. Dist. Tot. Pop. Dist. Dist. Dist. Dist. Dist. Dist. Dist. Dist. 1 198,121 51.15 47.25 51.2 36.23 40.46 36.2 8.27 8.32 2 197,499 67.84 76.28 70.9 24.06 14.54 21.5 1.75 3.35 3 198,017 82.60 82.60 83.1 11.27 11.27 11.3 1.49 1.49 4 198,583 33.91 49.97 18.2 40.25 27.97 64.7 5.93 4.90 5 198,726 77.76 82.77 82.7 8.08 7.12 8.0 7.82 3.90 6 196,394 44.65 44.65 45.0 15.75 15.75 15.8 33.46 33.46 7 197,059 63.40 67.40 64.3 27.13 22.83 27.1 3.22 3.14 8 196,867 5.82 6.36 6.0 17.86 21.05 19.4 74.24 67.47 9 196,441 6.24 4.03 5.1 39.87 36.20 39.4 49.85 56.55 10 198,843 11.05 16.27 18.1 37.68 26.19 17.1 38.26 42.90 11 199,536 85.26 85.26 86.1 7.42 7.42 7.4 1.26 1.26 12 199,139 83.29 83.29 84.1 8.82 8.82 8.8 1.69 1.69 13 197,285 50.87 16.63 54.7 31.12 65.36 27.8 4.07 2.23 14 196,783 17.48 16.40 16.9 73.41 74.39 73.8 0.97 1.71 15 197,561 35.47 35.47 35.6 33.89 33.89 33.8 23.75 23.75

% Black % Asian Woo Cur. Ala. Woo Dist. Dist. Dist. Dist. Dist. 1 8.3 3.21 2.92 3.2 2 1.7 5.18 3.94 5.3 3 1.5 3.47 3.47 3.5 4 4.0 18.07 15.03 12.5 5 3.9 4.93 4.79 5.1 6 33.5 5.20 5.20 5.2 7 3.2 4.75 5.05 4.7 8 69.4 2.35 5.23 4.9 9 49.5 4.19 1.86 5.6 10 50.5 12.61 14.00 13.2 11 1.3 4.92 4.92 4.9 12 1.7 4.88 4.88 4.8 13 4.6 11.75 14.82 12.3 14 1.1 7.59 6.93 7.6 15 23.6 6.24 6.24 6.3