Schabarum Wins Funds to Carry on Remap Battle : Politics: Supervisor refused to vote on redistricting plan until $500,000 was allocated to press the issue in the event that the board drops its appeal of case.

Before casting the swing vote for a county redistricting plan, Supervisor Pete Schabarum insisted that fellow supervisors allocate $500,000 to appeal a court ruling that found the current districts discriminate against Latinos, an aide to Schabarum said Thursday.

The secret agreement designates Schabarum, who is retiring, to carry on the legal battle as a private citizen in case a new Board of Supervisors decides to drop its appeal.

“The county believes that it will enhance the potential success of the county’s appeal and, in any event, serve the public interest, if a third-party citizen adversely affected by the district court’s ruling . . . intervenes in the litigation,” the agreement said.

The agreement was signed by Schabarum in his role as board chairman before the end of Wednesday’s closed board meeting. Less than an hour after the redistricting plan was approved, a $500,000 check was issued by the county to the law firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft.

The money will returned to the county if the supervisors continue to appeal, said Los Angeles County Counsel DeWitt Clinton.

Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, who opposed the agreement, called it “outrageous” and a “misuse of taxpayers’ dollars.”

Jim Wheaton, the California director of Common Cause, on Thursday said he is concerned that the agreement may constitute a “gift of public funds.”

“If Pete Schabarum, private citizen, wishes to pursue some legal course of action in his private capacity, he ought not to be getting public money to do that,” he said.

Mark Rosenbaum, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, a plaintiff in the voting rights suit, said, “It’s a sick day . . . when the rights of minority groups come to matters of extortion by legislators.”

Said Supervisor Deane Dana, who voted for the contract: “We have got to have our say in the court system, because we think we’re right. . . . I don’t see any extortion to it.”

Schabarum provided the swing vote to submit to a federal judge a redistricting plan that would force liberal Supervisor Ed Edelman to run in a new, heavily Latino district.

U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon, who earlier this month ruled that current district lines discriminate against Latinos, has scheduled a July 5 hearing to decide whether to accept the new plan. The plaintiffs--the U.S. Justice Department, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and the ACLU--still were assessing the map Thursday and declined immediate comment.

The county, which already has spent $4 million fighting the lawsuit, is appealing Kenyon’s ruling.

Judy Hammond, an aide to Schabarum, said the supervisor sought the agreement because he was concerned that his successor and any other supervisors elected in the new districts would vote to drop the county’s appeal after they were safely in office.

The 3-2 vote to approve the agreement was the same as the roll call on the redistricting plan, with conservatives Mike Antonovich, Dana and Schabarum outvoting liberals Hahn and Edelman.

Edelman spokesman Joel Bellman said his boss “doesn’t believe it is appropriate to bind a future board by the decision of this board.”

County Counsel Clinton acknowledged that the agreement is unusual, but said it is legal because it provides a public benefit.

He pointed out that the county may have to pay “several million dollars” in attorneys’ fees to the plaintiffs, unless Kenyon’s decision is overturned.

“They (supervisors) feel there are important legal issues that should be decided,” he said. He cited the county’s contention that supervisors are not required to count non-citizens or use post-1980 Census figures in redistricting.

Clinton said there was no requirement under the state’s open-meetings law for supervisors to make public the agreement, since it relates to litigation. Hahn made the agreement public by issuing a press release attacking it.

Schabarum could not be reached for comment. Hammond read a statement from the supervisor which said, “The judge’s decision and its ramifications to the elective process go way beyond Kenneth Hahn’s self-serving interests and political survival. Therefore, it is essential that somebody continue to have the initiative and the resources to carry an appeal through the entire process, including the Supreme Court if necessary.”

Schabarum and Edelman met privately with the plaintiffs’ attorneys Tuesday night in an attempt to reach an agreement before Wednesday’s court-imposed deadline, sources said. They discussed a plan to expand the board from five to seven seats, but the plaintiffs objected that the plan still fragmented the Latino vote.