Plaintiffs Offer Their Versions of Remapping : Voting rights: Two Latino district plans are submitted as alternatives to county supervisors’ proposal. Hearing in the case is set for Friday.

Civil rights attorneys Monday submitted to a federal judge two redistricting plans designed to help the first Latino win a seat on the five-member Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, but with different consequences for incumbent supervisors.

The boundaries of the new Latino district are identical in both maps and there would not be an incumbent in it. The area includes downtown Los Angeles, extends east to Baldwin Park and La Puente, and southeast to Pico Rivera and Santa Fe Springs.

One proposal would number the new seat District 3. The current 3rd District supervisor, Ed Edelman, would find his Westwood home in Supervisor Deane Dana’s district, setting up a political fight between the board colleagues.

The other map would designate the Latino district as District 1. The 1st District is now represented by retiring Supervisor Pete Schabarum. Under this plan, the two candidates seeking to succeed Schabarum would not be in the new Latino district, but find their homes in Supervisor Mike Antonovich’s District 5.

Both plans leave Supervisor Kenneth Hahn’s South-Central Los Angeles 2nd District unchanged.

The maps were drawn up by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund as alternatives to the Board of Supervisors’ own redistricting plan, approved two weeks ago.

“Both plans provide a Hispanic district in which Hispanics have a lawfully required opportunity to elect candidates of their choice without impairing the opportunities of the African-American community to elect their candidate of choice,” the ACLU and MALDEF said in papers filed Monday.

County Counsel DeWitt Clinton and Edelman had not seen the maps and had no comment.

In other developments, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals asked for arguments on the county’s request for an immediate hearing of its appeal in the case. A federal judge last month ruled that current boundaries discriminate against Latinos.

U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon on Monday also approved a U.S. Justice Department request to allow government attorneys to quiz the five supervisors about their private discussions leading to adoption of their new plan. The action could provide a rare glimpse into the behind-the-scenes political dealings of the board.

The plaintiffs plan to argue that the supervisors acted with the same racially discriminatory intent that led Kenyon last month to declare current district boundaries illegal, said ACLU attorney Mark Rosenbaum.

The plaintiffs contend that the county plan still fragments the Latino vote by leaving heavily Latino neighborhoods such as Baldwin Park and La Puente out of the proposed new 3rd District. Under the county plan, Edelman would be forced to run in a 74% Latino district, where he could face a strong challenge from a Latino.

The plans submitted by the ACLU and MALDEF would add Latino neighborhoods in the San Gabriel Valley, while eliminating a number of features of the county plan, such as a finger that extends from the county’s Latino district all the way to Edelman’s Westwood home.

Civil rights attorneys also contend that the county plan creates new voting rights violations by diluting black voting strength in Hahn’s district.

The plaintiffs did not state a preference for either of their two plans.

Kenyon has scheduled a hearing on the case for Friday. The judge can approve any of the three plans unchanged or with minor adjustments, or he can hire a redistricting expert to redraw boundaries, according to attorneys involved in the case.