U.S. Vows Suit if Supervisors Don’t Remap to Aid Latinos

The Justice Department has stepped up pressure on Los Angeles County officials to redraw supervisorial boundaries to correct alleged discrimination against Latinos, warning that the county faces federal legal action unless it acts soon.

A top Justice Department official has demanded that the county make a commitment to redrawing the district lines.

“If such a commitment is not forthcoming within a few weeks, and a schedule is not established for fashioning a new redistricting plan, we are prepared to proceed directly with contested litigation,” said Assistant Atty. Gen. William Bradford Reynolds, in the letter dated last Friday. It was addressed to County Counsel De Witt Clinton.

10-Day Deadline

The letter, which followed a series of meetings between county officials and representatives from the Justice Department, gives the county 10 days to make an initial response. And it was the strongest statement yet that the federal government is prepared to go into court with what would be the largest federal Voting Rights Act lawsuit ever brought against a local governmental body.

The department had first informed Los Angeles County of its intentions to pursue a voting rights lawsuit last May. And Reynolds, in his recent letter, reiterated his department’s concern that the present county boundaries--approved in 1981--”fragment the large, geographically cohesive Hispanic population” and dilute their political rights.

County supervisors have staunchly defended their 1981 plan, but they voted Tuesday to hire the Claremont-based Rose Institute to provide data that could be used in a redistricting effort. The board, however, stopped short of actually agreeing to redraw the boundaries.

Two Ways to Change Districts

“I think that’s premature (to commit to such a plan),” said board Chairman Deane Dana, who added that any realignment of the existing five supervisorial districts would likely cut deeply into the districts now represented by Supervisors Ed Edelman and Pete Schabarum. The intent of the reapportionment is to create a district with enough Latino voters to elect a Latino supervisor or other board member of their choice. This could be accomplished either by redrawing present district lines or creating new districts.

But Dana, who said he favors redistricting, said it was clear that the Justice Department is increasing the pressure on the county to change its present boundaries, and supervisors may take up the matter next week.

Clinton, the county’s top lawyer, also said that federal lawyers are pushing harder for the county to comply but added that he hopes to head off a lawsuit by convincing the Justice Department that the board--by taking the first step of hiring the Rose Institute--is moving in “an orderly” way toward making a decision on reapportionment.

In his letter, Reynolds said that he was aware of county intentions to conduct demographic studies but that the county still needs to pledge that it will abandon the current boundaries after the November election.

“What we’re looking for from the county is some indication of which way it’s going to go,” said Joe Krovisky, a spokesman for the Justice Department, in a telephone interview from Washington. “After we receive the (response), we will look at what is proposed and will go on to the next step.”

Among those who will be looking closely at what both the county and the Justice Department do in the next few weeks is Richard Fajardo, staff attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

“I think that the department is probably putting the pressure on for the county to do something,” he said, “but the question is what kind of action will the county take to respond and whether that action is adequate.”

Alan Clayton, representing the county Chicano Employees Assn. and California chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said, “We are pleased that the Justice Department has put the county on notice that they can’t keep stalling.”