New Reapportionment Plan for Council Hinted

Amid other strong indications that another reapportionment plan is being prepared, the Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to put its redistricting expert back to work. One council member who stood to lose territory charged that there was a “back room political deal” under way.

The charge was made by Councilman Joel Wachs, who said Councilman John Ferraro was seizing upon the death of Councilman Howard Finn to carve up Finn’s old district in an attempt to save his political life and that of Councilman Michael Woo. While Wachs singled out Ferraro for being a party to the plan, Woo has said that he too has discussed it.

“Within a few minutes after the council concluded its memorial service in (Finn’s) memory, some of the City Hall cutthroats began seizing upon his death as an opportunity to finish some of their dirty business in council redistricting,” Wachs said at a news conference.

Finn died of a ruptured aorta Aug. 12.

The decision by the council to put redistricting expert Bruce E. Cain, a Caltech political science professor, back on the payroll and Wachs’ news conference were evidence that the council’s long reapportionment fight, which appeared settled just three weeks ago, is on again.

This time it is centered on the proposal being discussed by Ferraro and Woo, who are trying to avoid the political disaster that confronted them after the first plan was adopted Aug. 1.

That plan, prepared by Cain and the council in response to a U.S. Justice Department lawsuit seeking more Latino representation on the council, would have Ferraro and Woo running against each other in the same Hollywood-Wilshire area district. The plan created a predominantly Latino district near downtown.

No new plan has been proposed. But discussions between Ferraro and Woo, both said, in general have called for eliminating the Northeast San Fernando Valley’s 1st District, which until his death was represented by Finn, and parceling out the territory to Councilmen Ernani Bernardi and Wachs.

Bernardi’s mid-Valley district would be pushed north. It would still include his Van Nuys base of support, plus taking in new areas of heavily black and Latino Pacoima. Wachs would lose the affluent Sherman Oaks and Studio City area where he has enjoyed strong support. A liberal, he would gain the conservative Sunland-Tujunga area, now part of the 1st District.

Woo would get back his Hollywood political base, taken from him during the council’s recent redistricting, plus gain parts of Sherman Oaks and Studio City now in Wachs’ district.

Ferraro would remain in the Wilshire area that he has long represented, but without Woo as a potential opponent in next April’s election.

Stumbling Block

Proponents of the plan say it also would remove the remaining stumbling block to settling the Justice Department’s lawsuit against the city over reapportionment. The department has demanded an election next year in the new predominantly Latino district.

Currently, that district--the 13th--is not scheduled to have an election until 1989. The proposal being discussed by Ferraro and Woo calls for renumbering the 13th to the 1st. Because of the vacancy in the 1st District, an election could be held in April.

The council, after a closed-door session, opened the door to the possibility of redrawing district lines again when it voted to bring back its redistricting consultant.

Wachs fought in the closed session against having Cain work on drawing new district lines, presumably because of the political disadvantages he would face. But every one of his colleagues turned him down in open session later when the council voted 12-1 to rehire Cain.

Under the terms of the council action, Cain was officially hired to defend the council in court, but Council President Pat Russell said he also will be available to draw new lines.

Ferraro said in an interview after the vote that he intends to call on Cain for assistance in drafting a new plan.

Wachs charged that the residents of Finn’s 1st District are being treated “like a piece of meat.”

“John Ferraro has his own political interests at stake,” he said. “He could care less about hundreds of thousands of people.

“Just a few weeks ago, Mike Woo stood before you and loudly proclaimed his outrage at what he termed the sleazy, back room dealing of redistricting. What a tragedy it would be if he turned around now and became an integral part of the same cynical maneuverings that he so loudly decried.”

Woo said Tuesday that he has had discussions with Ferraro, but he said, “There hasn’t been an agreement yet.”

He also said there is no specific plan, adding that changing even a few council district lines without affecting most of the other districts, including the new predominantly Latino district, has proven to be “logistically difficult.”

Assistant City Atty. Shelley Rosenfield has advised the council that it can redraw council district lines as much as members want but that they must leave the new, predominantly Latino district intact.

“Obviously, I’d like to have some kind of district which would be similar to my original district,” Woo said in an interview. “I don’t know if that can be done, given the fact that its like a jigsaw puzzle that affects all these other districts at the same time.”

Responding to Wachs, Woo said, “Everything starts with private conversations. If all this proceeds without any public discussions, then I guess it could be called a sleazy, back room political deal. If it becomes public, I don’t think those charges apply.”

Ferraro said, “If you are the one who thinks you’re getting a bad deal, you call it sinister.”