Santa Ana Wards OKd Despite Latino Protests

The City Council approved a plan Tuesday to set new voting ward boundaries, rejecting assertions that the district lines are unfairly drawn so as to dilute Latino voting power.

Capping six weeks of debate, the council voted to approve the new boundaries, 5 to 2.

But the Orange County Hispanic Committee for Fair Elections plans to ask the U.S. Justice Department to decide whether the redistricting violates the federal Voting Rights Act.

And Councilman Richards L. Norton, who voted against the plan, said he plans to contact state and local authorities as well to see whether the ward lines amount to “criminal” conduct by the council.

He maintained that Mayor Daniel H. Young and his political allies influenced the redistricting to create a new district favoring the candidacy of Glenn Mondo, a city planning commissioner who narrowly lost to Norton in 1980.

Calling the new plan “a cooked deal,” Norton said: “I don’t like what I’ve seen about the redistricting . . . especially by the mayor.”

But supporters of the plan defended it as both legal and fair.

Voting for the new plan were Young, Daniel E. Griset, Patricia A. McGuigan, Miguel A. Pulido Jr. and Robert L. Richardson. Joining Norton in dissent was Councilman John Acosta.

“I’m satisfied with the map” proposed by the city staff, Young said.

Praising activists in the Latino group for participating in the debate, he said: “I think it goes the distance in reaching out to the Hispanic community.”

McGuigan sought to defuse the controversy over what groups are represented in which districts by saying: “I can represent a man as well as a woman, and I think it would be the same way with a minority.”

But members of the Latino elections group were not appeased. They sought to have a largely Latino voting tract moved into a neighboring Latino ward, in exchange for moving a largely white tract into a white ward.

“We’re disappointed that they didn’t do the things we asked for--why was that such a big deal?” asked Ruben A. Smith, attorney for the group.

Boundary changes are required by law each decade to reflect new census counts. The redrawing is particularly significant this year because of the dramatic increase in the Latino population, which reached 65% citywide in the 1990 U.S. census--a 111% increase from 1980. The Anglo population now totals 21.1%.

In the map approved Tuesday, Latinos make up a majority of the population in four of the six wards, with populations totaling 73.7%, 85.7% , 85.2% and 75.0%.

In Ward 3, the generally more affluent part of the city north of 17th Street, Latinos make up 35.4% of the population, and 36.2% in Ward 6, which covers a swath along the city’s south and west boundaries.

At a Feb. 3 public hearing, the city incorporated suggestions from the Latino elections group into a revised plan aimed at increasing the average proportion of Latinos by about 4% in the four wards where Latinos predominate. But the group said the changes do not go far enough to recognize Latino statistical representation.

Before the meeting, Arturo Montez of the elections group blasted the boundary change proposal, saying: “It’s flawed. It’s fraudulent.”

He added that his group will fight the boundaries in court and at the polls to counter the “political agendas” that he said have unduly influenced redistricting.

His group’s goal is not necessarily to elect Latinos in each ward, he said.

“All we’re looking for is people we can hold accountable,” Montez said.

Three of the six ward representatives--Acosta, Griset and McGuigan--will leave their seats this year because of the city’s term limits. A fourth seat will be open in 1994.