Latino Group Sues Council in School Redistricting Fight : Education: MALDEF charges discrimination in remapping impasse. Rival plans to be considered today.

An influential Latino group, battling San Fernando Valley opponents over school board representation, on Monday sued the Los Angeles City Council for its failure to meet a July 1 deadline for passage of a school redistricting plan.

The U.S. District Court lawsuit was filed by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which favors a plan by Councilman Richard Alatorre to assure Latinos a second seat on the seven-member school board. The suit accuses the council of missing the City Charter-mandated deadline because of “intentional discrimination against Latinos.”

The council on June 23 gave tentative approval to the Alatorre proposal. But the plan was sharply challenged by San Fernando Valley school activists, who charged that the new map would dilute their area’s clout. Currently, two school board districts are located entirely within the Valley. Under the Alatorre plan, representation would be spread among four districts, only one of them completely in the Valley.

Before a final vote could be taken on the Alatorre plan, the Valley group, backed by Councilwoman Joy Picus, came up with an alternative map, which would retain both Valley seats.

Since neither side could muster enough votes for passage last week, the City Council is expected to take up the matter again today.

It was unclear whether the lawsuit by MALDEF--a veteran of local reapportionment battles--would prod the council to adopt the Alatorre plan. In fact, some City Hall sources said the legal action could provide a welcome opportunity for the council to defer to the courts and avoid any decision in the messy, politically charged dispute.

Indeed, only hours after the lawsuit was filed, the council’s Ad Hoc Committee on Redistricting voted 5-0 to make no recommendation on either of the remap plans.

Meanwhile, the school board voted 6 to 1 Monday to urge the council to support the Alatorre plan.

Eight council votes are required for passage. Fourteen of the council’s 15 members are expected to attend today’s debate.

Council President John Ferraro, an Alatorre plan backer hospitalized since last week after open-heart surgery, is the only member not scheduled to be present. Erin Egge, Ferraro’s press secretary, said her boss will be hospitalized for “probably the rest of the week” and then go home for weeks of recuperation.

Despite rumors of some extraordinary Ferraro appearance to help break the impasse, Egge said: “There’s not going to be any voting on gurneys--no wheelchairs.”

Both the Picus and Alatorre plans would create two Latino-dominated districts where only one currently exists. That seat is held by new school board President Leticia Quezada, an Alatorre political ally.

But MALDEF claims the Picus plan offers districts with smaller Latino majorities than those proposed by Alatorre. In addition, the Alatorre plan includes a new district with no incumbent, which, according to MALDEF, provides an opportunity for a Latino to be elected as early as next year.

The Alatorre measure would force a political showdown between Valley school board member Julie Korenstein and fellow board member Mark Slavkin over which would represent a newly created district stretching from Porter Ranch to Westchester. When the school board voted Monday to urge council support for the Alatorre plan, Korenstein cast the lone vote against it.

Nancy Ramirez, MALDEF’s attorney, said the Latino civil rights group would drop its lawsuit if the council adopts the Alatorre plan or any another proposal that complies with the Voting Rights Act. MALDEF contends that the Picus plan does not.

But others were threatening to launch new legal challenges if the Alatorre plan passes. Several supporters of the Picus plan--including Linda Jones, president of the San Fernando Valley chapter of the Black American Political Assn. of California, and Cecelia Mansfield, vice president of the 31st District Parent-Teacher-Student Assn., said their organizations would sue if the Alatorre plan is approved.

Because the plan would divide the Valley’s growing Latino population, Mansfield said it would hurt the area’s Latino voters. Jones contended that Valley blacks would be disenfranchised by placement in a district dominated by Eastside political interests.

Still, the MALDEF suit was welcomed by many in the Picus camp.

“We may get a fairer shake in the courts,” said Diana Dixon-Davis, a vice president of the 31st District PTSA. “I think we have the law on our side.”

Picus said she thought there was a “reasonable possibility” the courts would adopt her plan over Alatorre’s.