NEWS ANALYSIS : City Is Feeling Pressure From Latinos Seeking Share of Power : Politics: Officials believe the group has a legitimate gripe on the lack of a council seat. But their gain would come at the expense of which councilman?

Waving new census figures that show that their numbers have grown dramatically in the past decade to nearly a fourth of Long Beach’s population, Latinos are starting to bang on the city’s political doors, demanding a seat at the council table.

By far the largest minority in Long Beach, the local Latino population has doubled since 1980 to 101,400, or 24% of the total population. And as the City Council draws new district lines this year in that periodic exercise in political self-preservation known as reapportionment, the local Latino community is flexing uncharacteristic muscle.

Several Latino groups have banded together into “El Concilio” to push for a district with a strong Latino majority. Latino leaders are meeting with council members and making it known that if such a district does not emerge from this year’s redistricting process, they will sue the city, hoping for a replay of the court case that recently led to the election of the first Latino to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

The Latino community’s desire for a council seat reflects a movement throughout the heavily Latino portions of Southeast Los Angeles County for a greater voice in the chambers of power. Huntington Park voters elected the first Latinos to their City Council last year. Bell Gardens council members recently appointed the first Latino to their council, replacing a councilman who resigned. And for the first time, a Latino is in a runoff election for the Compton City Council.

The Latino power play in Long Beach places the nearly all-white council in an uncomfortable position. The nine council members can hardly afford to ignore the demands for a greater ethnic say in a city that is now slightly more than half minority. But if they create a district with a Latino majority strong enough to elect the city’s first Latino council member, it will be at the expense of one of their own.

“This is going to be exceedingly difficult,” predicted Councilman Wallace Edgerton, who believes that the Latino call for a council seat is on strong legal ground.

“I think the Latinos have a case in court, and if we do not respond, we could wind up with our elections potentially nullified,” Edgerton said.

In a broad sense, redistricting is simply a matter of changing boundaries to account for local population growth, something that is required by the City Charter every five years.

Sitting as a committee of the whole, the council and the mayor have until the end of the year to shift the borders so that each district has about 48,000 residents. The districts that haven’t grown much since the last redistricting will have to be expanded geographically to pick up more people. The districts that have grown significantly--such as the downtown 1st District, which now has 56,000 residents--must shrink in size to shed some of those people.

The sticky question then becomes “Who gets what?” The answer will involve considerable jockeying as councilmen try to preserve their power base and get rid of areas that aren’t of much political value to them.

“Reapportionment gets really bloody and messy. People don’t want to lose certain areas and trade for certain areas,” observed Mayor Ernie Kell.

Kell has suggested that the way to create a Latino district is to add a 10th seat to the council and give the mayor a vote to break ties. But there seems little chance of that happening in the near future. The creation of a new district would be a complicated process requiring a public referendum, and would add to city expenses at a time when the city is desperately trying to cut costs.

“You can forget that idea,” said one councilman. “I don’t see the votes for that.”

Ironically, the two council districts that would form the most likely core of a heavily Latino district are represented by two politicians who are among the most sympathetic to Latino causes. Evan Anderson Braude represents the downtown 1st District, which is 36% Latino, according to the most recent census figures. Clarence Smith, the council’s only black, represents the central 6th District, which is 48% Latino.

“No matter how Smith and Braude deal with redistricting, they have to deal with the Latino community,” commented Jerome Torres, vice president of the local chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, one of several Latino groups in the concilio.

“So they are posed with the question,” Torres continued. “Which of their two districts will (become) the (Latino) majority district to avoid having the city thrust into legal action?”

While Smith’s district is already nearly half Latino, the concilio is taking a close look at Braude’s territory because they don’t want to antagonize the black community.

Braude, a politically ambitious liberal who was elected to his second term last year, does not seem interested in becoming the sacrificial lamb, however.

“If you’re trying to fashion a community, you’ve got a majority in the 6th District now,” Braude said, raising the question of whether the council would be willing to carve out a district with a greater concentration of Latinos.

“Have you gotten an indication from five or more council members that they’re going to fashion a particular district (for the Latinos)? I don’t think they are prepared to do anything but keep the districts as close as they (can to what they) are right now,” Braude said, adding that even if his district gains a large number of Latino residents, he thinks he could hold onto his seat in the next election.

Latino leaders concede that they will have to do more than forge a Latino district to put a Latino on the council. Despite their numbers, Latinos have not been much of a player on the local political scene, nor are they awash with potential candidates. Latino voter registration is not high, and many of the recent immigrants are not citizens.

For example, the percentage of residents registered to vote in the 6th District, where nearly half of the population is Latino, is much lower than any other council district, according to census and voter records. Only 19% of the district’s residents are registered to vote, compared to a 40% registration rate for the rest of the city.

“We have a lot of homework before us,” admitted Torres, who said that the campaign for a Latino district will include efforts to add to the ranks of Latino voters.

Braude, an attorney, also questioned whether the Latino community would have a strong court case against Long Beach. Historically, he said, “There haven’t been any great changes (in the city’s district boundaries) to split up populations.”

For its part, the concilio is talking to the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which filed the successful redistricting lawsuit against the Los Angeles County supervisors.

Richard P. Fajardo, a MALDEF attorney, said he could not say at this point whether the county situation was similar to Long Beach’s. Still, he warned, city councilmen have to “be very careful, because to the extent they start to fragment the minority community simply to keep themselves in power, they’re going to run into a lot of problems down the road.”

Long Beach’s Latino Population

Long Beach’s Latino population doubled in the last decade to nearly a fourth of the city’s population, yet no Latino has ever been elected to the City Council. Armed with the results of the 1990 Census, Latino leaders are pressuring the City Council to create a district with a Latino majority during this year’s reapportionment.

The map above shows the current City Council districts, and the chart below shows how actual census figures compare to the population goal of 47,415 for each district.

Total Population Percent Over District 1986 1990 or Under Goal 1 42,935 56,354 +18.1 2 42,973 44,332 -7.1 3 42,758 44,690 -6.3 4 42,308 48,391 +1.4 5 43,102 40,563 -15.0 6 43,428 53,805 +12.8 7 43,857 48,484 +1.6 8 42,622 44,266 -7.2 9 43,513 48,548 +1.7 TOTALS 387,496 429,433

The map above shows the areas of the city with large Latino populations, and the chart below shows the ethnic distribution, in percentages, of each district in 1990.

American District Indian Asian Black Hispanic White Other 1 0.7 9.8 14.0 36.4 38.8 0.3 2 0.6 12.7 11.1 18.7 56.6 0.3 3 0.4 4.9 2.7 7.0 85.0 0.1 4 0.6 14.1 6.6 19.6 58.8 0.2 5 0.5 4.9 1.5 8.1 84.9 0.1 6 0.3 20.6 23.4 48.2 7.1 0.3 7 0.4 21.9 19.9 20.9 36.6 0.2 8 0.5 12.4 12.7 19.0 55.1 0.3 9 0.7 12.2 22.9 25.1 38.8 0.2

Source: City of Long Beach