More Than 500 Flock to Council Remap Session : Politics: Results of marathon meeting scheduled to be discussed today.

More than 500 San Diegans with an interest in the city’s redistricting attempt gathered in Golden Hall on Monday night to learn if the City Council would vote to support one of two competing maps under consideration.

At 9:30 p.m., the council was still gathering testimony from the hundreds of people in attendance. It was unclear whether a vote on the controversial maps would follow.

However, two motions made at the meeting’s outset failed to draw a majority. One of them called for a vote after the completion of testimony. The other called for a vote at an upcoming council meeting.

The results of Monday night’s meeting were to be discussed during an 11:30 a.m. meeting today in U. S. Magistrate Harry McCue’s chambers, and in the early afternoon in the chambers of U. S. District Judge John Rhoades. McCue and Rhoades are reviewing the city’s redistricting effort as part of a settlement between the city and the Chicano Federation.

The federation has alleged that the City Council, in its July 9 vote, violated the terms of the settlement. At that meeting, a council majority supported a map that was introduced by Councilman John Hartley.

A second map, which is supported by the Chicano Federation, was forwarded to the council by an appointed redistricting advisory board.

Not surprisingly, Monday night’s meeting drew strong comments from supporters and detractors of the two maps now being considered by the council.

“We clearly support the Hartley map,” said Bonnie Poppy, a Golden Hill resident who linked her neighborhood’s continued economic revitalization to a redistricting that does not split the community.

“Big money can fool most of the people . . . but it can’t fool all of us,” said Eric Seigel, another Golden Hill resident who supports the Hartley map.

The advisory board’s map drew strong support from Laura Langman, a San Diegan who said the turnout Monday night offered proof that “there are a lot of people here who do care.”

Pacific Beach Town Council President Barbara Hughes complained that the Hart ley map “suddenly appeared” with little or no public discussion. Hughes asked the council to vote for the advisory board map because Hartley’s would split her neighborhood in half.

Vicky Durham, who now lives in Councilman Bruce Henderson’s district, asked the council to support the advisory board’s map and then concentrate “on real problems that we need to solve.”

Irma Castro, executive director of the Chicano Federation, defended the board’s map-drawing process as open and aboveboard.