Justice Department Probes Moorpark Voting Patterns

The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating voting patterns in Moorpark over the last decade, a probe that civil rights activists said Friday was prompted by their concerns that the city’s at-large electoral system discriminates against Latino candidates.

Justice Department officials refused to discuss the investigation of the east Ventura County city, where about 28% of the 35,000 residents are Latino.

But city officials confirmed that the department had contacted the Moorpark city clerk’s office March 21 to request all mayoral and City Council election results dating from 1985. Although the current City Council has no Latino members, minorities have served on the panel.

Councilman Keith Millhouse said he welcomes the inquiry.

“I think they’ll find Moorpark is really a model for diverse, harmonious relations,” he said. “Moorpark is a community of inclusion. You see it in the schools, the after-school programs, in youth sports and in the community services that are rendered.”

But David Rodriguez, a national vice president of the League of United Latin American Citizens for the Western region based in Ventura, said the federal probe of Moorpark followed discussions the league had with Alberto R. Gonzales shortly after he was confirmed in February as U.S. attorney general.

Moorpark, Santa Paula, Fillmore and Port Hueneme have been on a list of more than a dozen cities in the state that the league has pushed the Justice Department to investigate for at least six years, Rodriguez said.

“We’re very pleased that they’re finally getting around to looking at Moorpark,” he said. “We don’t feel right now that the governing body of the city of Moorpark is reflective of the entire community. If we don’t have people who represent Hispanics or their interests on the City Council, we view it as a problem.”

Rodriguez believes Moorpark could benefit from district elections. By dividing the city into districts, he said Latino residents -- concentrated in the older sections of the city in and near downtown -- would be more likely to nominate and elect Latino candidates. “We want to have people at the table in a decision-making role to make sure the sidewalks in that neighborhood are fixed, to make sure all parts of the city have recreation centers,” Rodriguez said.

Federal investigators conducted a similar probe in Santa Paula. In 1999 they determined that its at-large elections denied Latinos fair representation in local elections and subsequently sued the city. Santa Paula was 68% Latino at the time, but there was only one Latino on the five-member City Council.

As part of a settlement with the Justice Department, Santa Paula agreed to let voters decide whether to carve up the city into five council districts. In November 2002, a change in the city’s electoral system was voted down. But voters have since elected a second Latino.

As it did in Santa Paula, the league would conduct its own investigation of Moorpark, Rodriguez said. That would include surveying Latino residents about their concerns, reviewing the ethnic makeup of other boards and commissions, and scrutinizing personnel data to learn how minorities have fared in hirings and promotions.

The organization also intends to study the distribution of federal community development block grants in Moorpark, the availability of affordable housing, and law enforcement patterns in the city to ensure they are not discriminatory.

Millhouse said Catholic Charities, with offices in downtown Moorpark, has been the largest recipient of such federal funds in recent years, and that the Boys & Girls Club, next to City Hall, has many Latino members and regularly receives such grants.

Also, he said he has never heard a complaint about the council or its representation of Latino residents on citywide issues. “I think the council represents all areas of the community very well,” he said. “We have a very cohesive community.”