Suit Filed Before Ink Dries on Redistricting Proposal

A divided Board of Supervisors tentatively reapportioned San Diego County in a 3-2 vote Monday that immediately prompted a Latino rights group to file a federal lawsuit alleging discrimination against minority voters.

Even as the board cast its first vote on a plan that redraws supervisorial districts for the next decade, an attorney for the Chicano Federation of San Diego County was filing legal papers that could spark another battle over minority voting rights and derail next June’s primary elections.

“What the county is basically saying is . . . that they can split minority groups up and keep them from coming together,” said Michael Aguirre, the Chicano Federation attorney who three years ago sued the city of San Diego over similar issues. That lawsuit was settled this spring, after the creation of a council district that is 61.5% Latino and more than 80% minority.

The board also sliced the north coastal city of Carlsbad in half, leaving the northern portion in Supervisor John MacDonald’s 5th District but adding the southern half to Supervisor Susan Golding’s 3rd District along with the northern sections of Encinitas. The redistribution was approved despite vehement objections from MacDonald, who accused the supervisors of violating their own promise not to split cities unnecessarily.

It was MacDonald, however, who earlier in the day proposed dropping a smaller section of southern Carlsbad into the 3rd District.

“We got shafted,” said Carlsbad Mayor Bud Lewis, who predicted that both sections of his city would lose political clout. “The whole idea was to keep the cities in one district. To split Carlsbad like that is totally irresponsible.”

Also divided was the San Diego community of Clairemont, whose western section would be in Golding’s district and whose eastern half would be in Supervisor Leon Williams’ 4th District if the board ratifies its tentative plan in votes scheduled for today and later this month.

In a move opposed by Golding, the communities of Allied Gardens, Del Cerro and Grantville were relocated to Supervisor George Bailey’s largely East County 2nd District, while the neighboring community of San Carlos remained in Golding’s 3rd District.

Bailey, Williams and 1st district Supervisor Brian Bilbray formed the majority that approved the politically sensitive plan, required every 10 years to adjust the populations of the five districts after they are updated in the census count. MacDonald and Golding dissented.

For nearly a month, the Chicano Federation has demanded creation of a radically redrawn district in the county’s southern tier that would be about three-fourths minority--43% Latino, 16% black, and 16% Asian and other minorities. Countywide, Latinos represent 20.4% of the population, blacks make up 6% and Asians are 7.4%.

The proposed district would have encompassed heavily minority areas of the city of San Diego’s 8th and 4th council districts, along with parts of National City and Chula Vista, giving minorities 63.79% of eligible voters--enough to guarantee them a fair chance of electing the supervisor of their choice.

The supervisors, however, adopted a plan that leaves the minority groups with smaller majorities in two districts rather than a strong majority in one. In Bilbray’s South Bay 1st district, the white population would decline from 46.8% to 43.6%, while the Latino population would rise from 35.3% to 40.4%. Blacks, Asians and other minorities would compose the rest.

In Williams’ Southeastern San Diego 4th District, the white population would rise from 46.2% to 49.6%, but all minority groups together would hold a slight edge in population.

Aguirre’s lawsuit, filed on behalf of a Latino, a black and an Asian, claims that the supervisors’ map “intentionally dilutes the voting power of San Diego minority citizens” by splitting blacks and Latinos between two districts.

But Deputy County Counsel John Sansone assured the board that its plan is legal. He said that Aguirre must prove in court that minorities in the Chicano Federation’s proposed district vote cohesively--and that whites traditionally vote as a bloc to frustrate their aims.

“We don’t believe as a matter of law that the plan put forth by the Chicano Federation creates a legal duty by the board to adopt it,” Sansone said.