Redistricting Panel Hears Charge : Representation: Latino voting rights group says county supervisorial districts are discriminatory.

County supervisorial districts discriminate against Latinos by dividing their communities and preventing them from commanding a powerful voting bloc in any one district, representatives of a Latino voting rights group said Thursday.

“The voting power of Hispanics has been diluted by fragmenting Hispanic communities in Orange County,” Ruben A. Smith, a member of the Orange County Hispanic Committee for Redistricting, said in a letter to Board of Supervisors Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez. “Hispanics have not been given a fair opportunity to elect representatives that are accountable to the needs of the Hispanic community.”

Smith was one of several representatives of the organization who attended the first meeting of a newly formed county redistricting committee Thursday. That committee, which consists of aides to each of the five county supervisors, laid out plans for the once-a-decade process of redistricting, which must be completed by Nov. 1.

Under the plan agreed to Thursday, all five county supervisors will prepare their own proposals for drawing new district boundaries and will unveil them July 11.

Those maps and any others that are submitted by members of the public will form the basis for the new round of redistricting, a complicated and politically dicey process that will shift thousands of residents from one supervisorial district to another.

As the board crafts its new district boundaries, it must be mindful of the federal Voting Rights Act, which prohibits the supervisors from approving boundaries that intentionally or inadvertently dilute the voting power of minorities.

“Each board office should submit a map,” said Jeanne Reinhart, an aide to Vasquez and the chair of the redistricting committee. “If members of the public would like to submit a map, they’d be welcome.”

After the meeting, Arturo Mendez, a member of the Hispanic Committee for Redistricting, said his organization intended to prepare a map for the board to consider.

“Our maps will be guided by principle,” Mendez said. “They will not be based on vested interests or politics or money.”

Smith, in his letter, said, “Our goal is to ensure that the revised district lines are done in such a way so as not to violate Hispanic voting rights.”

As the supervisors and others prepare their redistricting suggestions, they will have to take into account the uneven growth that has occurred in Orange County during the past decade.

District 3 Supervisor Vasquez and District 5 Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, who represent the fast-growing areas of South County, will have to give up huge blocs of constituents to bring their districts in line. District 2 Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder and District 4 Supervisor Don R. Roth will see their areas grow by about 70,000 and 40,000 constituents respectively, while District 1 Supervisor Roger R. Stanton’s will undergo the least change.

The redistricting committee meets again in two weeks, and will hold a public hearing July 18 to receive comments on the various suggestions. If all goes according to plan, the Board of Supervisors will approve a final map at its Sept. 24 meeting.

READY FOR REMAPPING

Latino officials to meet, ponder why there aren’t more. A1