Walters Residency an Issue as Race Opens for Lindsay’s Seat

The race for the seat of the late Los Angeles City Councilman Gilbert Lindsay opened Friday with a legal fight over the residency of Rita Walters, the Los Angeles Board of Education member.

Walters, who moved into Lindsay’s old 9th District nine days ago, was turned away by the city clerk’s office Friday morning when she attempted to file papers declaring her intention to run in the April 9 election.

On Friday afternoon, her lawyers filed suit in federal court to bar the city from enforcing the city Charter’s 30-day residency requirement for candidates.

Fourteen other candidates were allowed to file Friday, including Bob Gay, Lindsay’s former deputy, who is viewed by some at City Hall as a leading contender for the job.

Others who are expected to be leading candidates are Brad Pye Jr., an aide to county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn; Woodrow Fleming, a labor activist who is working for state Sen. Art Torres in his campaign for a county supervisor’s seat, and Leon A. Watkins, an anti-gang activist and director of the Family Help Line for relatives of gang members.

Also filing Friday were Jerry W. Lee Jr., who described himself as a law school graduate; Pedro Torres, a community activist; John Abraham Hubbard Jr., an activist involved in the communications industry; Charles David Henry, a community advocate; Armando Becerra, a dry cleaner; Regina Nelson, a business administration student; Michael Graves, a businessman; Donald L. Barnett, a U.S. Postal Service employee; Pauline Clay, a financial planner, and Michael Schaefer, an attorney.

Walters, 60, was elected to the school board in 1979 and remains its only black member. An articulate veteran of the district’s desegregation battles, she believes the district’s black students have been shortchanged and tangles often with other board members.

Walters said Friday she moved from her home in the 10th District on Jan. 9 and now lives with her aunt.

“I think I should be eligible for the 9th District because I already represent a major portion of the 9th here at the school board,” Walters said. She called the 30-day residency requirement “unfair” in this race because Lindsay’s seat was not expected to be open until 1993, when his term was up. Lindsay died Dec. 29.

Her attorney, Jonathan Steinberg, said he is seeking a preliminary injunction barring the city from keeping her off the ballot and will argue in court next week that the city’s action unfairly limits the rights of the voters in the 9th District.

Gay, 37, worked for Lindsay for more than 15 years and has been patiently laying the groundwork for a run at the office. He moved into the 9th District early last year.

Fleming, 44, is political director of the Service Employees Union, which represents state, county and municipal employees.

Pye, 59, worked as managing editor of the Sentinel, a black-oriented newspaper. He also was a Bradley appointee to the city Recreation and Parks Commission for more than a decade.

The April 9 election brings the first serious competition in the 9th District since Lindsay was appointed to the office 27 years ago.

The district encompasses the extremes of the city, from the gleaming downtown skyscrapers to the slums of South-Central Los Angeles. The district was 48.7% black and 40.4% Latino at the time of the 1980 Census, but 1990 figures, which are expected in the coming weeks, could shift the balance.