O.C. Supervisors Redraw Districts : Politics: Santa Ana, with the county’s highest ethnic population, is split, as are three other key cities. Several minority groups vow to challenge the plan.

After hearing from a chorus of community leaders who urged that the voting strength of minority areas not be diluted, the Orange County Board of Supervisors adopted a redistricting plan Tuesday that representatives of several ethnic groups vowed to challenge in court.

The plan, which was proposed by a supervisor-appointed committee, will define the electoral boundaries of the five supervisorial districts for the next decade and set the course of county politics.

“This is the best possible map that can be drawn to represent everyone in the community,” Supervisor Roger R. Stanton, whose 1st District was at the center of the redistricting controversy, said after the meeting.

The plan will split Santa Ana, the county’s largest and most ethnically diverse city, among three supervisorial districts, effective Nov. 1.

Members of the Hispanic Redistricting Committee, as well as representatives of the Korean and the Samoan communities, said the plan violates the federal Voting Rights Act by splitting up “communities of interest.” The stage has been set, they said, for a time-consuming legal fight that could cost millions of dollars.

“We’ll be back,” said Arturo Montez, co-chairman of the Hispanic Redistricting Committee. “It might be in four months or it might be in four years, but we’ll be back.”

Members of the committee said they would meet today with the Mexican American Bar Assn. and other attorneys to plan their next step. But they said one of the options they will consider is filing a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice to challenge the way the county adopted its new plan.

Stanton, whose district has the highest ethnic population in the county, said any plan had to be a compromise between competing interest groups.

“The minority position is not a homogeneous position,” he said. “There is a multiplicity of views in the minority population, and therefore, by definition, you’re not going to satisfy everybody. We optimized our choices as best as possible to come up with the best possible map.”

Every 10 years, elected officials throughout the country have to redraw electoral boundaries to balance the population shifts reflected in U.S. Census figures.

During Tuesday’s board meeting, supervisors sat silently as 27 people--from mayors to lawyers to educators and merchants--approached the podium, some of them to support the county’s plan. Then, with little explanation, the board voted unanimously to adopt the map that will carve out a 1st District with a 64% minority population, including 47% Latinos and 14% Asians.

Members of the Hispanic Redistricting Committee said the supervisors could just as easily have created a district with a higher minority population, including a majority of Latinos. They presented several maps, including one in which the minority population would be 75% of the 1st District, with the Latino population constituting 60%.

“Any proposal approved by the board, which does not contain at least one 50% majority Hispanic district, in our opinion intentionally dilutes the voting power of Hispanics,” said Richard Fajardo, an attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the lead counsel in the landmark litigation that overturned Los Angeles County’s supervisorial district boundaries earlier this year.

Armida Brashears of Santa Ana, representing the Mexican American National Women’s Assn., said the difference between being in the majority or minority in an electoral district could determine how social and political issues are decided.

“We cannot effect changes in our community without sharing in a cohesive vision of the future,” she said. “Rather than relying on others to deliver on their promises . . . it is clearly time for our community to seize the moment and to stand up and speak for itself.”

The county’s redistricting plan, however, drew the support of the mayors of La Palma, Fountain Valley and Westminster.

Westminster Mayor Chuck Smith said he was pleased that the county’s plan would put his city entirely in Supervisor Stanton’s 1st District. Currently, it is split between the 1st District and Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder’s 2nd District.

Members of Vietnamese groups also backed the plan, while representatives of the Korean and Samoan communities said they do not like the way their areas are being split.

Nan Wheeler of Westminster, who was representing the Vietnamese community, said she favored the county’s plan because it will increase the size of the minority community.

“The city of Westminster has to be kept intact,” she said. “The Vietnamese are doing great business in Westminster.”

But other Asian representatives said the Hispanic Redistricting Committee plan, which would split no cities, was preferable to the county’s plan, which splits Garden Grove, Orange and Tustin in addition to Santa Ana.

“It is a mistake to be insensitive to the fact that’s been clearly defined by the 1990 Census,” said Euiwon Chough, an Anaheim Hills businessman who represented the Korean community. “Garden Grove contains the largest concentration of Asians. Nevertheless, your plan splits Garden Grove.”

Others also complained that while the county’s ethnic population has grown exponentially in 10 years--the Latino population increased by 97% while the Asian population grew by 177%--the county’s redistricting map barely reflects those changes.

Currently, the 1st District has 62% minorities, while the newly adopted map will increase it to almost 64%.

“We love this county,” said Ross Romero, a realtor from Buena Park. “But Orange County gets a bad rap, and it really disheartens me. We have been seen as a county where minorities are not welcome, where minorities are not well received. I can see nothing else here but more evidence of that.

“The county is changing,” he said. “I’m in the real estate profession, and I see this every day. The question is whether you are willing to meet the challenge and to relinquish some power to the Latino community. Some of you already represent us. I ask you: Are you working in our best interest?”

In most of the speeches delivered by those who came to praise or damn the plans, Supervisor Stanton was a key issue. Most speakers praised the work he has done in representing the 1st District, with its diverse ethnic population. They said that the debate is not about personalities, but rather, about the ability of a newly shaped district with a larger minority community to elect its own representatives.

“I feel comfortable with Roger Stanton,” said Larry Luera, a past state director of the League of United Latin American Citizens. “He’s been responsive to the needs of our community. I’ve known him since before he was a member of the Board of Supervisors.

“So, Roger, I hope you’re still around when this is all over,” Luera said.

Stanton said he does not see why the Hispanic Redistricting Committee is opposed to the county’s plan, wherein minority population for the 1st District does not differ much from what the committee has proposed.

“It seems like from a good-citizen point of view, these people ought to ask themselves, are they doing this because there’s a real issue here or just to gain experience in political agitation?” he said.

NEXT STEP

The Board of Supervisors adopted a new plan Tuesday that redraws the boundaries of the five supervisorial districts. Next, supervisors will order a survey of each district to ensure that the populations of the five districts are as equal as possible. The plan will be filed with the state by Nov. 1. Lawsuits challenging the U.S. Census results could force a new count that would give some Orange County cities, including Santa Ana, higher population figures. Such results could mean that the county would have to go back to the drawing board on the plan approved Tuesday. The Hispanic Redistricting Committee, which has complained that the plan dilutes the voting strength of minorities, particularly Latinos, says it will explore legal action.

New Borders

The Orange County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved new supervisorial districts recommended by its redistricting committee. Ethnic groups may launch a legal challenge to the plan, saying it dilutes minority voting strength.

Source: Orange County