ELECTIONS / PROPOSITION 187 : VICA Overwhelmingly Votes Against Measure

The Valley Industry and Commerce Assn., considered the area’s preeminent business group, overwhelmingly voted Thursday to oppose Proposition 187, the state ballot measure aimed at denying key benefits and services to illegal immigrants.

The vote “goes against the popular conception of the Valley as still lily-white, conservative and not open to thinking through problems of this sort,” said attorney Fred Gaines, a VICA board member and leader of the group pushing for the opposition vote.

The vote was 31-2 with five abstentions.

David Sandel, president of Devon Industries, a VICA board member and an Israeli immigrant to the United States 30 years ago, said he voted to oppose Proposition 187 because he feared that it would encourage the victimization of Latino citizens.

“I think it would result in picking on people just because of the color of their skin or their accent,” he said.

Similar concerns were related to him by his company’s Latino employees, who make up about 70% of the 400-person work force, said Sandel, who added that his employees are all in the United States legally.

“There’s been a lot of talk in the company about stopping this measure,” said Sandel, who added that he also opposed the 1986 federal law that requires employers to hire only legal residents.

“The problem should be stopped at the border,” he said. “I don’t want to be put in the position of being a policeman. It’s not productive of good relations with employees.”

David Fleming, former VICA chairman and chairman of the group’s government affairs panel, said, however, that he thought that the views of VICA’s general membership would belie the lopsided results of Thursday’s vote.

“I’ve been a member here for 30 years and I’ve never seen us so badly split,” said Fleming, who favored VICA taking no position on the controversial measure and thus following the lead of such groups as the California Business Roundtable and the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.

“The folks who want it are not saying much and the opponents are more vocal,” said Fleming, an attorney.

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Fleming said he wanted the organization to remain on the sidelines to protect its institutional health.

“It’s a no-win situation--we’ll tick off some members by opposing it and really tick off others by supporting it,” he said.

Although Fleming was for neutrality and said he believed that Proposition 187 would likely be declared unconstitutional, he also said the measure may be needed to get the federal government’s attention.

“It may be that it will take a primal scream like this to get some help from Washington, D.C.,” Fleming said.

“If it gets beat, they’ll say the bigots in California were defeated and let’s forget about the problem,” he said.