New Council Borders in Los Angeles Spur a Wave of Confusion

“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.

Their comments to a Times reporter reflected widespread confusion among residents over the impact of the Los Angeles city reapportionment plan that went into effect Aug. 1 after the City Council yielded to complaints in a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Justice Department that the old districts deprived Latinos of representation.

The confusion centers in the Northeast Los Angeles and Silverlake areas, although it is also felt elsewhere in areas affected by the plan. 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.

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

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.

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.

Suit Filed

Shelley Rosenfield, deputy city attorney representing Los Angeles in the federal lawsuit, said the plan went into effect Aug. 1, although the issue still is at least partially in the hands of a federal court. That court got jurisdiction when the Justice Department and minority groups filed a federal suit charging the city with violating federal fair representation laws in its 1982 redistricting.

After the suit 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 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 notices 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 plan.

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

Richard Fajardo, lead counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, another intervenor, said he liked the new plan but would 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’ 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 (Wachs) will provide for our needs. Woo’s staff worked quite closely with us.”

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

“We’re not happy about it,” said Jim Bonar, secretary of the Silverlake 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, prompting 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.