Remap Plan for 2nd Latino Seat on L.A. School Board Fails : Redistricting: City Council tentatively approved the proposal last week. But an alternative by Councilwoman Picus stalemated the measure.

Latino civil rights groups and their City Hall allies failed to win final approval Tuesday for a school redistricting plan meant to assure the election of a second Latino to the Los Angeles Unified School District board.

The plan, proposed by City Councilman Richard Alatorre, was approved on a preliminary 9-6 vote last week.

But since then, City Councilwoman Joy Picus, San Fernando Valley school activists and others have conducted an intense campaign to block the plan, charging that it would weaken Valley representation by leaving only one board seat from a district that is entirely in the Valley.

The result was stalemate Tuesday during a required second vote. Neither faction could muster enough support to prevail--the Alatorre plan failed 6 to 7, and an alternative proposed by Picus failed 7 to 6. Eight votes are required for approval.

The impasse came about, in part, because of Tuesday’s absence of two of the Alatorre plan’s supporters--Council President John Ferraro, recovering from open-heart surgery, and Joan Milke Flores, who left before Tuesday’s vote.

The third change from last week was Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who switched sides to vote against the Alatorre plan.

“I’m pleased,” Picus said. “It’s a victory--actually sort of a step toward a victory because we still need to adopt some redistricting plan.”

“We don’t know what’s going to happen now,” said Alan Clayton, an aide to state Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) and a key architect of the Alatorre plan.

The council will take up the issue again today. But only 10 of the council’s 15 members are expected to attend the meeting and no one expects either side to have enough votes. The issue is likely to be decided next Tuesday, when 14 members will be present and the council may have new legal opinions on the plans.

Yaroslavsky said he voted against final approval of the Alatorre plan because he wanted to get a clear opinion about the legality of Picus’ alternative, which is being backed by a Valley-based parent group and Pacoima-based African-American groups.

Yaroslavsky indicated that the Picus plan--if it is legal--may be more attractive to him than the Alatorre plan because Picus’ proposal would create two Latino seats “with a lot less disruption,” he said.

“I’m basically crying out for legal help,” Yaroslavsky said.

During a 30-minute closed-door meeting with its redistricting experts, the council was unable to get a definitive opinion on how the Picus plan would square with the U. S. Voting Rights Act, which seeks to protect the political rights of minorities.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund has said it would sue the city if the council did not redraw district boundaries in a way that could lead to the election of a second Latino to the school board.

Only one of the school system’s seats is in an area dominated by Latinos.

But Picus says her plan creates two Latino seats while retaining two of the seven school board seats wholly in the Valley.