Post-Census Data Sought to Redistrict

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley suggested Tuesday that the city would incorporate in its redistricting plan the data from a post-Census household survey expected to show a higher number of minorities and poor people, even if the Commerce Department decides against using the data to adjust the 1990 Census.

In written testimony presented to a Senate-House oversight hearing to review the accuracy of the recently completed decennial census, Bradley urged the department to release promptly the results of the so-called “post-enumeration survey,” or PES, so that city officials could factor them into decisions about redrawing councilmanic district boundaries.

However, department officials said it was unlikely they will make the final figures available before July 15, the deadline for Commerce Secretary Robert A. Mosbacher to decide whether to adjust the census count using the PES data.

“I honestly don’t think there will be usable (redistricting) data before July 15,” said Commerce Undersecretary Michael R. Darby.

The PES has drawn major attention from many officials at the city and state levels as they begin the once-in-a-decade process of remapping councilmanic and congressional districts based on census data. Fearing that an undercount of poor and minority persons within their jurisdictions would result in a loss of federal funds and congressional representation--which are both based on population--some governors and big-city mayors sued the Commerce Department to compel the bureau to count people typically overlooked by regular census methods.

Under a settlement of that suit, the bureau randomly surveyed about 170,000 households across the nation last spring. Those results are being compiled to see if they deviate substantially from the traditional census data.

Bradley said Mosbacher should release the final data “as soon as possible” because it could be used by city officials “whether or not the Secretary has determined to correct the 1990 Census.”

He noted in his written testimony that Los Angeles officials are permitted by law to use credible population estimates for redistricting, and would tabulate the PES data into its efforts to measure the “evidence of an undercount of the Census for all minority groups” in the city.

City officials said they are required by law to adopt a redistricting plan by July 1, 1992.

Bureau officials said they will release in late April a set of preliminary PES figures, estimates of the range of undercounts or overcounts in each state.

But those figures would require further analysis before Mosbacher could decide by July 15 whether to adjust the census, Darby said. He said local governments would be unwise to use the preliminary figures, citing the likelihood of legal challenges to the redistricting plans based on incomplete PES data.

“They can do anything they want to do,” the undersecretary said. “But I would think they might have problems subject to the Voting Rights Act if they used it. It’s nothing I would use for redistricting. I would want the detailed (data) rather than approximations.”

Other recent challenges to the census have come from groups in Texas and New Jersey, which have sued to force state and local governments to delay redistricting until the PES data is released.

Texas Atty. Gen. Dan Morales told the panel that his state, by law, must conclude its redistricting by May 28. Morales said he has asked the federal government for the Texas PES figures when they become available, “which we understand will occur in late April or early May.”

“The Department of Commerce will ultimately be compelled to release those figures anyway, whether or not an adjustment occurs,” he argued.

Bradley--who was not present at the hearing because he is in Hawaii pressing a bid to bring the Super Bowl to Los Angeles--said Los Angeles officials were monitoring the Texas and New Jersey suits, fearing that “we may also be susceptible to such challenges.”