Residents Confused on New Council Boundaries

Los Angeles City Council offices report scores of complaining telephone calls from residents confused about the new city reapportionment that went into effect Aug. 1 and unhappy that it has separated them from council members who have long represented their neighborhoods.

“I’m still trying to figure it out,” said community activist Dorothy Meyer, past president of the Los Feliz Improvement Assn.

“I don’t know what’s happening or what was improved,” said Vi Redondo, president of the Echo Park Chamber of Commerce.

The confusion centers in the Northeast Los Angeles and Silver Lake areas, although it is also felt elsewhere in areas affected by the plan. In response to a federal court lawsuit, the boundaries of several districts were redrawn to create a district, the 13th, that is designed to have enough Latino residents to result in the election of another Latino council member. The council already has one Latino member, Richard Alatorre, who represents the 14th District, which includes heavily Latino East Los Angeles.

40 Calls a Day

Representatives of some council offices said they are besieged by up to 40 calls a day from residents wondering who represents them on the 15-member municipal governing board.

Critics still have a final chance to challenge the remapped districts in U.S. District Court. That court got jurisdiction when the Justice Department and minority groups filed a lawsuit charging the city with violating federal fair representation laws in its 1982 redistricting. Latinos, the lawsuit said, were under-represented on the 15-member council.

In general, the plan combined the 4th District areas of Hancock Park and Park LaBrea, represented by Councilman John Ferraro, with the 13th District area of Hollywood, which had been represented by Councilman Michael Woo. The combined areas now make up a new 4th District in which Ferraro and Woo are expected to compete in next year’s election.

Other New Areas

The lines of Woo’s old district, the 13th, were moved northeast, covering an area that is 69% Latino. Among the new areas is the western part of Mount Washington, part of Highland Park and all of Lincoln Heights.

In other shifts needed to create a 13th tailored for a Latino council member, Councilman Joel Wachs lost Highland Park and Glassell Park, where many Latinos reside. Wachs got part of Los Feliz. The eastern part Mount Washington, in the same general area, went to Alatorre and the western portion to Woo.

After the federal lawsuit was filed, the city agreed to come up with a new reapportionment plan to avoid a trial. It asked U.S. District Judge James Ideman to halt action on the suit, since the city had agreed to draw new lines.

The judge, however, was unwilling to give up jurisdiction over the case. He gave the city until July 31 to come up with its plan, a deadline the city beat by a day. In addition, the city also agreed to file the new plan with the court, and to give the Justice Department and minority groups 15 days to file legal objections to the new plan. The expiration date of the 15-day period is uncertain. It depends on when each of the parties received notice of the city plan.

Groups Plan Action

Raymond Johnson Jr., lead counsel for the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, one of the minority groups that intervened in the case, said the NAACP will meet today to decide whether to challenge the city plan.

Albert Lum, attorney for the Southern California Chinese Lawyers Assn., another group that intervened, declined to say in an interview whether he thinks the new plan is legal, but he said he will submit an alternative plan to the court.

Richard Fajardo, lead counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, another intervenor, said he likes the new plan, but will ask the court to order a special election in the new 13th District next April, rather than waiting until 1989, when the election for that district would normally be held.

Constituents, however, appeared more worried about who would care for mundane matters of garbage disposal and zoning, rather than the legal intricacies of the case.

Residents Complain

Los Feliz’s Dorothy Meyer said: “We’re now in Joel Wachs’ district. We have to make new contacts and develop new public relations with all the deputies. We hope he will provide for our needs. Woo’s staff worked quite closely with us.”

Some residents complained that the new lines split long-established communities.

“We’re not happy about it,” said Jim Bonar, secretary of the Silver Lake Residents Assn. “It’s been very divisive carving up the area. It does terrible things to the area of Silver Lake and Echo Park. It’s just crazy. . . . The transition from Woo to Ferraro will be kind of uncomfortable.”

Sharon Keyser, a Ferraro aide, said: “Our goal is that the constituents have a smooth transition. We’ve had a lot of calls and referrals by other offices. That’s very typical, a certain amount of confusion.”

Part of the confusion, residents said, was because Woo sent out a newsletter to residents of his old district just after the new lines had been drawn, drawing questions from voters who had seen media accounts of their area being shifted to another district.

Larry Kaplan, Woo’s aide, said that the mailer was “in the works” when the plan was being prepared and it was too late to stop it.

Contributing to this story was Times staff writer Richard Simon.