Redistricting Concession Can’t Satisfy Antonovich : Boundaries: The supervisor wanted all of the northeast Valley back but gets only Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar.

The redistricting plan approved by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday surgically removed Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar from Supervisor Ed Edelman’s district and returned it to Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who helped get the facility built.

But the small concession did not satisfy Antonovich, who made a last-minute pitch to regain all of the northeast San Fernando Valley, which he represented until a court-ordered remap of supervisorial districts went into effect last year. When his efforts failed on Tuesday, he lashed out at the supervisorial boundary committee and fellow board members, accusing them of “needlessly tearing apart existing communities.”

“The voice of our communities fell on deaf ears,” he said. “The will of the people was disregarded.”

The plan must return to the board next week for a final vote and then faces review by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Community activists from the northeast Valley pleaded with the board to allow Antonovich to again represent them, saying he served them well for the past 10 years.

“He knows the area. . . . He understands the needs of the people out there,” said Vincent Maffei, executive director of the Pacoima Community Youth Culture Center, which he said has received about $15,000 a year from Antonovich’s discretionary funds.

Maffei and others at the board meeting acknowledged that support for Antonovich, a conservative who often bemoans the financial burden of providing health and welfare services to illegal immigrants, may seem to be an unusual stance for leaders of the Valley’s poorest area.

And they were quick to add that their plea was not meant as criticism of Edelman, but that Antonovich is a known quantity and Edelman is still new to them.

However, other supervisors said it would not be prudent to alter the map recommended by the Supervisorial District Boundary Committee after months of public testimony and discussion. The vote to adopt the new district was 4 to 1, with Antonovich the only opponent.

“I know it’s difficult to lose areas where you’ve shed a lot of blood, sweat and tears,” said Edelman, who lost East Los Angeles during last year’s redistricting. “But if we start making decisions based on testimony today . . . I think we will start to unravel the whole plan.”