Group Aims to Educate Latinos on Voters’ Rights

Two days before the City Council is scheduled to consider whether to fight a federal request to change its elections to a district system, a group that supports the change held a coaching session Tuesday night hoping to raise community awareness.

A civil rights attorney was brought in to explain the federal Voting Rights Act to an audience of about 40 in an effort to help them speak on the issue with some authority.

Organizers expected that many of the residents who attended the meeting also would speak Thursday during the council’s public hearing.

“We want the debate to move away from, ‘You’re a racist,’ or ‘I’m not a racist,’ to ‘This is what the law is, and this is how I feel about it,’ ” said Cyndy Zakrajshek-Smith, chairwoman of the Santa Paula chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens. The local chapter was formed recently in response to the dispute over Latino voters’ rights in this agricultural city. “So instead of being inflammatory and emotional, the debate is based on facts and legalities.”

Tom Saenz, the lead attorney for the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund based in Los Angeles, discussed the federal Voting Rights Act, which mandates that voting in the U.S. be equally open to all citizens.

The U.S. Department of Justice contends that is not the case in Santa Paula. Federal investigators have threatened to sue the city if it doesn’t switch from at-large elections to a district system that could improve Latino participation.

Department officials found “racially polarized voting patterns” that favor white candidates in the city of 27,000. Although Latinos make up a majority of the city’s population, they “continue to suffer the effects of a history of official discrimination in voting and other areas,” according to the department’s Civil Rights Division.

The department is calling for single-member districts, rather than the current at-large system, because it would give voters in separate geographic areas an opportunity to elect politicians to represent them.

Separate districts would probably give minority groups concentrated in certain geographic areas a greater chance of electing a minority to office, proponents say.

Saenz fielded questions from audience members, including Santa Paula City Councilwoman Laura Flores Espinosa, the only council member who attended. Flores Espinosa is also the only Latino on the five-member council.

She wanted to know how--short of being challenged in court--a city with at-large elections could switch to a single-district system. Saenz said the question could be put to a citywide vote.

Resident Flo Zakrajshek said the federal investigation has caused bitter feuds among residents wanting to blame a whistle-blower.

“There’s been a lot of finger pointing in town,” Zakrajshek said.

Saenz said the probe was not necessarily a result of complaints. “Sometimes the department may launch an independent investigation,” he explained.

On Thursday, council members are set to hold a special meeting to discuss the findings of a report on the voting-rights issue. The city hired Los Angeles voting-rights lawyer John McDermott in August to study Santa Paula’s demographics and voting patterns.

The council may decide whether to implement the department’s recommendation and switch to a district system. A decision to challenge the Justice Department would guarantee a federal lawsuit.

Thursday’s public hearing will be at 6:30 p.m. in council chambers at the Santa Paula City Hall.