Supervisors Huddle on Order to Redraw Lines

With their court-imposed deadline just 15 days away, four of the five Los Angeles County supervisors began private deliberations Tuesday over how to comply with a federal court order to redraw district boundaries to remedy discrimination against Latinos.

Retiring Supervisor Pete Schabarum, whose district was at the center of litigation alleging the supervisors effectively have prevented election of a Latino candidate, was absent from the meeting. Other supervisors said Schabarum was fishing in Montana, and an aide to the supervisor said he was keeping in touch by telephone.

Schabarum’s whereabouts was one of the few revelations of the day, as supervisors and their most trusted staff huddled in their eighth-floor suites in the Hall of Administration. Sources among those present said that the supervisors dusted off old maps and talked about new ways to create a Latino district without destroying their own political bases, but few significant details leaked from the secret meetings.

“The only thing you can quote me on is that Supervisor Edelman has no comment,” said Joel Bellman, a spokesman for Supervisor Ed Edelman.

U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon last week ruled that the five Anglo supervisors drew their district boundaries in 1981 in a way that dilutes the voting power of the county’s 3 million Latinos. He gave supervisors until June 27 to draft a new plan that would enhance the chances of the first Latino being elected to the board.

The supervisors have voted to appeal the case, which now has cost the county $4 million and could cost another $2 million if the judge awards the plaintiffs attorneys’ fees.

The four supervisors who met Tuesday were told that county counsel DeWitt Clinton later this week will hand-deliver to their offices a new redistricting plan that would comply with the court order.

The map would consolidate heavily Latino neighborhoods in East Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley, now fragmented among three districts, into a single district, from which the first Latino would have an improved chance of winning a seat on the five-member board.

But the county counsel is expected to leave to the supervisors which of their colleagues is placed in the district, if anyone. Supervisors could still expand the board to provide a seat for a Latino without affecting an incumbent.

Complicating matters is Schabarum’s decision not to seek reelection. Earlier this month, a crowded field competed for the seat, but none emerged with the majority needed for election. A runoff is scheduled to be held in November between the two top finishers, a former Schabarum aide and a Superior Court judge.

The board on Tuesday delayed for three weeks--until after Kenyon’s deadline--a vote on a proposal by Supervisor Kenneth Hahn to put a measure on the November ballot to expand the board to seven or nine members. County attorneys have said that the board could agree to expansion without a vote of the people.

According to board sources, the board’s conservative majority of Mike Antonovich, Deane Dana and Schabarum privately are drafting a plan that would place the liberal Edelman in a new Latino district. It involves drawing a finger that extends from the core of the district just east of downtown all the way to Edelman’s home in Westwood so that the supervisor could run in the district.

Such a proposal, however, could cause problems for the conservative Dana, who would be forced to pick up liberal Westside neighborhoods from Edelman.

A county source said that Edelman is considering personally negotiating with the plaintiffs in the redistricting case. But an Edelman aide declined comment.

The other liberal on the board is Hahn, but his position seemed more secure.

“What do we have to worry about?” a Hahn deputy asked. Hahn is safe because the supervisors cannot under the Voting Rights Act greatly juggle the boundaries of Hahn’s heavily black district.