New Map Includes Both Candidates

A group of San Fernando Valley residents Monday urged a commission to redraw the 2nd City Council District in a way that will keep candidates Wendy Greuel and Tony Cardenas in the same district.

Residents complained that they might find, when the new districts take effect, that whichever candidate they choose in the March 5 election no longer represents them.

The Los Angeles Redistricting Commission had proposed boundaries that would have split the 2nd District, putting Greuel’s Van Nuys home in one district and Cardenas’ Panorama City residence in the other.

Armed with more than 100 signatures, Lloyd Hitt and other residents of Sunland-Tujunga called that proposal unacceptable.

“We asked you to stop interfering in elections. We find that you’re asking us to choose between the elected representative of our choice and the district of our choice,” Hitt said.

But Commission Chairman John Emerson unveiled a plan Monday that would include Greuel and Cardenas in the same redrawn district, which would stretch from Sunland-Tujunga to Van Nuys. That should prevent the redistricting plan from becoming an issue in the March 5 council election, Emerson said.

“For those of you worried about having two candidates in separate districts, stop worrying. It’s not an issue,” Emerson said at a public hearing at Parkman Middle School in Woodland Hills on Monday attended by more than 300 people. However, Alan Clayton of the Latino Redistricting Coalition said it appears that Emerson’s alternative would dilute Latino voting strength in a new district. If that happens, Clayton said, he will file a voting rights complaint with the U.S. Justice Department.

Emerson said an alternative proposal by Clayton that would keep the two candidates in one district and maintain Latino voting strength also will be considered by the commission.

Whoever wins the March 5 runoff election will, for about five months, represent the current 2nd District. The new lines will take effect Aug. 1.

Territory removed from the 2nd District would become part of a district represented either by Councilwoman Ruth Galanter or Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski. Their districts are being merged along the coast to allow for the creation of a district in the Valley. If the council approves the plan, the Valley will have five districts.

In her campaign, Greuel has told Sunland-Tujunga residents not to waste their votes on Cardenas, because he would not live in the 2nd District after the remapping.

That concerned Emerson and other commissioners. Emerson said keeping both candidates in the same district would “remove the draft map from being an issue in the political campaigns.” The council today will ask its staff to consider extending by two weeks the commission’s March 1 deadline for redrawing the districts. That would allow the commission to set the 2nd District aside until after the election, Councilman Tom LaBonge said.

Meanwhile, Sunland-Tujunga residents complained that their district was gerrymandered in the commission’s original plan to combine it with Encino in the West Valley.

Emerson’s alternative would swap much of Van Nuys for Sunland-Tujunga in the district that includes Encino.