A Good Case for Voting Rights Act

Although it was unintentional, Supervisor Pete Schabarum made a convincing case for the Voting Rights Act when he testified Tuesday in the federal government’s redistricting lawsuit against Los Angeles County.

Schabarum doesn’t like the Voting Rights Act, enacted by President Lyndon B. Johnson and Congress in 1965 to assure that minorities are represented in government. He made that clear on Tuesday. A cold had turned his voice into a hoarse growl and eliminated any trace of humor from a man who snarls even on his good days. The fact that he was being questioned by a type he can’t stand--a liberal ACLU lawyer--made his mood even worse.

But as he answered questions for four hours, his words were most enlightening. They added up to a solid argument for applying the act here.

The Justice Department, along with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, says county supervisors violated the Voting Rights Act when, in 1981, they drew the boundaries that define today’s five supervisorial districts.

The suit alleges that the supervisors deliberately scattered the county’s growing Latino population among the districts to prevent election of a Latino to the board. They did this, the lawsuit charges, to preserve the jobs of the incumbents--all of them Anglos--and to assure continued control of the board by its conservative majority.

As Schabarum answered questions by ACLU attorney Mark Rosenbaum, his views on Latinos became very clear: They should make it on their own, just like everyone else.

Sadly, something else became just as clear: Schabarum knew nothing--and had no interest in learning--of the problems in large areas of his district where some of the county’s poorest Latinos live. Conditions there are so bad that few can make it on their own. These people need representation at the highest levels of government so they can get a fairer share of an admittedly small public pie.

His ignorance, or lack of interest in these conditions, pointed up the reason why the Voting Rights Act, passed by Democrats, has been enforced by subsequent Democratic and Republican administrations. All have agreed that unwilling state and local governments must be forced to give minorities a place at the decision-making table. In fact, the suit against the county was filed by the Reagan Administration.

Schabarum’s making-it-on-their-own philosophy came out indirectly when he was talking about his only Latino deputy, Sarah Flores.

He could not have picked a more admirable person to be a symbol for his views. Sarah Flores has definitely made it on her own. Starting as a low-ranked secretary in the office of Schabarum’s predecessor, she worked her way up to chief secretary. Recognizing her ability, Schabarum made her a deputy, and now she’s his assistant chief deputy. In the Hall of Administration, a strong-minded deputy like Flores can be more powerful than a department head.

But not everyone has her intelligence, toughness, strong family background and good fortune. In the poorest parts of Schabarum’s district, the immigrant barrios of Southeast Los Angeles County, economic, social, educational, even health barriers prevent people from making it on their own.

Schabarum’s disinterest in these areas became clear under Rosenbaum’s questioning. The supervisor knew only one community organization operating in Hispanic areas, the United Neighborhood Organizations, born in Eastside Catholic parish houses and now a powerful community voice. He spoke of UNO with contempt. “I have difficulty in communicating with a group of Catholic clergy who have taken upon themselves a political role,” he said.

Tom Hageman, his field deputy for those areas, speaks no Spanish, Schabarum said.

Hageman is a conscientious public servant. But I, as a non-Spanish speaking reporter, have been in the health clinics in Southeast county barrios, where women and children wait in extended lines for treatment or examinations. I can’t find out what’s going on. The county health workers won’t talk. That leaves the patients as the only source of real information. And Hageman, not speaking Spanish, is cut off from them.

That’s a very basic example of the harm done by denial of political representation.

Nobody argues that financially strapped local governments will be able to solve all the problems of the minority poor. But in the city of Los Angeles, after a similar Justice Department suit increased Latino representation, services have improved in poor areas.

In his long morning on the witness stand, Schabarum showed why the Justice Department, through conservative and liberal administrations, has found it necessary to insist on continued obedience to the Voting Rights Act.