Redistricting Has Council Squabbling

As the Los Angeles City Council undertakes the once-a-decade task of redrawing district boundaries, members are jockeying for key pieces of the city, like players in a civic Monopoly game.

Councilman Nick Pacheco has his eye on City Hall, while Jan Perry wants skid row and Ed Reyes is angling for the Convention Center.

Nate Holden wants to take the First AME Church away from Mark Ridley-Thomas, who says he won’t give it up without a fight.

“The question I have is, who’s getting Boardwalk and Mediterranean Avenue?” said UC San Diego professor Steven Erie, who studies Los Angeles politics. “It’s a political Monopoly game and the motivations that drive it are very personal.

“It’s an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and a church for a church.”

After weeks of angling, council members are set to vote Wednesday on the final district boundaries.

Most of the major changes have already been decided. For example, council members are set to redraw the 15 council districts to give Latinos a plurality in five districts, compared with four currently. They also plan to eliminate Ruth Galanter’s Westside district to add another council district to the San Fernando Valley.

But the city lawmakers are still haggling over some of the smaller details, particularly in downtown, where three council districts meet.

Early in the process, Pacheco proposed taking all of downtown east of Hill Street away from Perry’s 9th Council District in an effort to secure a number of important structures, including the new Walt Disney Concert Hall. Pacheco also pushed a plan that would give Reyes the Convention Center and the new cathedral.

His plan to divide this cluster of major landmarks into three different districts prompted criticism from Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and others.

“The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels is an integral part of the downtown redevelopment,” Mahony told city officials. “We are pleased to be neighbors to the Disney Concert Hall, the Music Center, the Museum of Contemporary Art and other key institutions that have chosen to remain in the city’s downtown core.”

Tim Leiweke, the president of Anschutz Entertainment Group and Staples Center, also urged the council to keep the central downtown core together in Perry’s district.

“Despite all the tremendous success to date, fragmenting downtown into multiple council districts would jeopardize this prosperity,” Leiweke said.

Perry, meanwhile, has accused Pacheco in public meetings of attempting to take some of her district’s most notable assets. “I’m just one woman fighting to keep my district together,” Perry said.

Under pressure, Pacheco has backed away from his original plan. But he says he still wants the Civic Center because it will link the city’s birthplace at Olvera Street, which is in his district, to nearby City Hall. In turn, Pacheco said he would give Perry his half of skid row, allowing her to fight for federal funds for the area.

Meanwhile, Reyes is no longer staking claim to the cathedral. But he still wants the Convention Center because he says the events held there affect his nearby district. He is also asking for Belmont High School and the half-completed Belmont Learning Center, largely for the same reason.

“This is all about horse trading,” said Erie, the UC San Diego professor.

It’s largely about symbolism and campaign contributions, he said. “It’s what I call resource constituency,” Erie said.

While Pacheco and Perry fight over the Civic Center, Ridley-Thomas and Holden--both of whom are in their last council terms because of term limits--are battling over key pockets of southwest Los Angeles. Holden is asking the council to give him the First AME Church, the Trinity Baptist Church, Baldwin Hills Shopping Center and King Plaza Shopping Center.

The move, Holden said, will “maximize the voting propensity” of African Americans in the area. But Ridley-Thomas accused Holden of raiding his district.

“Get a grip,” he told Holden during a recent public hearing on the matter. “We are not going to sit idly by.”

Also seeking the council’s assistance is former mayoral candidate Antonio Villaraigosa, who is considering running against Pacheco for the 14th Council District seat.

Under a plan championed by Pacheco, some of Villaraigosa’s Mount Washington neighbors would be placed in Pacheco’s district, but the former assemblyman’s house would remain in Reyes’ 1st Council District. As result, if Villaraigosa wants to run against Pacheco, he’ll have to move.

“He’s taking over the hill but he’s cut me out,” Villaraigosa said. “This is the worst sort of politics.”

Meanwhile, another battle is brewing over when all the changes will go into effect.

A panel overseeing the redrawing of City Council districts recommended last week that implementation of the new districts be delayed from July until December.

If the delay is approved by the full council, the plan would allow Galanter to continue representing her coastal district until December, at which point she would move to her new San Fernando Valley seat.

“I understand clearly that Council District 6 is going to be moved to the Valley ... but if you send me there immediately, you are disenfranchising them,” Galanter told the committee.

She added: “Valley residents no more want someone they never voted for than my residents want to lose the person who has served them for 15 years.”

Galanter also noted that if secession is approved by voters in November, the council will have to redraw the new lines anyway.

Assistant City Atty. Anthony Alperin, however, has advised council members that they need a “sufficiently compelling” reason to break from tradition in making the implementation date different from the date the new lines are approved.

Pacheco told his colleagues gathered for the redistricting committee meeting last week that he thought the potential for the Valley to secede in November was important enough to warrant a delay, at least until December.

“I don’t know, is a vote on secession a big deal around here?” he asked sarcastically. “Does that make this year a little different than other years?”

Amid all the turmoil, Councilman Jack Weiss, who headed the council’s redistricting committee, said he hopes his colleagues will put their differences aside to reach a resolution this week.

“I don’t think the approach should be that the winner takes all,” Weiss said. “I hope that the parties will realize that there is good reason to come together.”