Bernardi, Wachs Lose Legal Fight on Remap

Los Angeles City Councilmen Ernani Bernardi and Joel Wachs on Friday lost a court bid to overturn the recent redistricting that radically changed their East San Fernando Valley districts.

U. S. District Court Judge James M. Ideman called the councilmen’s challenge “moot” because he had already dismissed the lawsuit that led to the redistricting, according to the judge’s law clerk.

Bernardi said afterward that he will meet with Wachs to decide whether to appeal the judge’s ruling but added that he is inclined to devote his efforts to an initiative drive to repeal the redistricting.

Bernardi and Wachs filed a motion in federal court Thursday seeking to be represented in the redistricting case by their own lawyer rather than by the city attorney, allowing them to oppose the redistricting, which the council as a whole favored.

Dismissed Last Month

Ideman on Sept. 22 announced that he was dismissing the U. S. Justice Department lawsuit that prompted the bitter redistricting fight among council members. But it took a while for attorneys to draft the official order, and Ideman did not sign it until Friday. Bernardi and Wachs filed their motion Thursday.

In court papers, Bernardi and Wachs repeated their assertion that the council did not need to “splinter existing neighborhoods or tie together via gerrymandered districts groups which have no community of interest” to settle the Justice Department lawsuit.

The suit accused the city of splitting up Latino neighborhoods--and diluting Latino political strength--in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act.

The redistricting, adopted by the council Sept. 12 on an 11-3 vote over Mayor Tom Bradley’s objections, eliminated the Valley’s old 1st District, represented by the late Councilman Howard Finn, and divided that territory between Bernardi and Wachs. A predominantly Latino district was created near downtown as the new 1st District.

Opposed in Valley

The plan was opposed by many Valley residents, who contended that it assigned them council members whom they did not elect and who are unfamiliar with their neighborhoods.

Deputy City Atty. William L. Waterhouse was preparing court papers to oppose the councilmen’s request before the judge signed the order. Waterhouse pointed out Friday that Ideman had rejected arguments similar to those made by Bernardi and Wachs.

The Justice Department also criticized the districts as “oddly shaped,” but Ideman accepted the plan anyway. He also rejected a challenge to the districting by a group of Wilshire-area homeowners, who attacked it as gerrymandering.

The judge repeatedly said his responsibility was to rule only on whether the plan was lawful.

“We didn’t get very far but we had to try,” Bernardi said.