Thread: Latinos sue Escondido over elections

Latinos sue Escondido over elections

signonsandiego.com
Written by
J. Harry Jones
9:39 a.m., Dec. 20, 2011
Updated 12:43 p.m.

ESCONDIDO — A lawsuit intended to force Escondido leaders to scrap how City Council members have always been elected so, the suit says, the council can better represent Latinos, was filed today in Vista Superior Court.

The lawsuit challenges the city’s at-large election system saying it violates the California Voting Rights Act of 2001 and the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 by discriminating against its majority Latino population.

If the city fights the case, which its mayor says it will, it could set up a costly legal battle that many other government agencies have not been willing to wage.

Five years ago, the Escondido council tried to enact an ordinance that would punish landlords from renting to illegal immigrants. A federal court battle ensued, and the city ended up abandoning the plan and paying opposing lawyers $90,000.

“It’s not going to happen,” Mayor Sam Abed said late last week about the demand to switch to geographic district elections. “I am happy to spend whatever it takes — $3 million, $5 million — to keep this city united.”

Supporters of district elections contend that for years Escondido politicians have run the city with no concept of the Latino experience, or an understanding of the issues that community faces. There are no representatives from the large Latino neighborhoods in the city, they say, which would violate the voting rights laws.

Latinos constituted a plurality of Escondido’s population last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Earlier this month James Finberg, a lawyer in San Francisco, delivered a letter to the council that essentially said the city has been violating the California Voting Rights Act for a decade. The letter also said a lawsuit would be filed if officials didn’t take immediate action to establish district elections.

“We had hoped they would do the right thing, and it is disappointing they are choosing not to,” Finberg said Thursday.

Tuesday, on the steps of Escondido City Hall, Finberg and others held a news conference to announce the filing of the suit.

“Rather than addressing the problems facing Escondido’s Latino residents, including high rates of poverty and low levels of educational attainment, the City Council has aggressively pursued anti-Latino policies that have divided the city along racial lines,” Finberg said.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of several Escondido Latino residents and the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California.

Opponents of area elections say the current at-large system is fair, and dividing Escondido effectively into racial districts would polarize the city.

Other Voting Rights Act lawsuits have been filed and won. Modesto spent nearly $3 million fighting a similar battle in vain. District elections are now held in that Central Valley city.

Abed has made it clear the city will contest any lawsuit and any effort to change to district elections.

“This is the issue that’s going to make or break this community,” he said. “Either we choose to unite or to divide. It would be the end of this community.”

Abed said City Attorney Jeff Epp told him the city will be on solid legal footing. Abed said the city has never discriminated against Hispanics. The illegal immigration stance it took in 2007 is unrelated to Latino rights, he said.

The push for district elections is being presented as a civil rights issue when in fact, Abed maintains, it is about political philosophy. He said voters in the city have shown repeatedly they favor conservative leadership. He also says district elections would hurt Latinos and minorities.

“Right now they can compete for five council seats,” he said.

The lawsuit suggests that the city could create a single district in which eligible Latino voters would be the majority of eligible voters, or possibly create two or more districts in which Latinos constitute a much greater proportion of voters, but not the majority. In these “crossover” districts, the preferences of eligible Latino voters would have far greater weight than they do under the at-large system.

According to the latest census, Latinos make up 49 percent of Escondido’s population. Yet in all the years of its history — it incorporated in 1888 — only one openly Latino council member has been elected. That was Olga Diaz, in 2008, the only Democrat on the current council.

Diaz said the council talked about district elections, although “talk” is apparently not he right word, during closed session before last Wednesday’s City Council meeting.

“We yelled at each other for a half-hour,” she said of herself and Abed.

“I don’t think it’s his money to spend. They’ve decided we’re going to have to be forced to do this.”

She said it will be a “wonderful learning opportunity for everybody else in the state” when the city tries to fight the lawsuit, “but I don’t think Escondido should be the poster child for challenging this.”

The Modesto case was fought on the legal theory that the California Voting Rights Act was unconstitutional. The courts ruled against the city and ordered a trial to be held, but by then voters had put into place by initiative a district-based system. The city had to pay attorney and expert witness fees to opposing lawyers — nearly $3 million.

Should Escondido fight the lawsuit it could be the first full airing of the arguments in a California court.

Diaz said she would prefer for the city to move toward district elections on its own terms, such as the two Escondido school districts are doing now. The County Office of Education has advised districts in racially diverse communities to move toward district elections to avoid the expense of fighting lawsuits. Many school districts in the county and around the state have gone to district elections or are moving in that direction.

“I think it would be a much healthier process if we did it on our own terms like the school districts are doing,” she said. She said it could be a unifying experience if the city decided how to move forward. “Eventually a judge is going to tell us how to do it, and we won’t have a say.”

San Diego, with a population of about 1.3 million, is the only city in the county that votes for its council members by district. Escondido has a population of about 144,000.

Next November, city voters may be asked to become a charter city which, among other things, could allow the council to award construction contracts differently and not abide by state requirements requiring prevailing wage. That upsets union leaders.

When the letter warning of a pending lawsuit was presented to the council Dec. 7, dozens of union workers, led by leaders of the San Diego County Building and Construction Trades Council and the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, were in attendance. They were there again Tuesday on the steps of City Hall.

“They want to take away the prevailing wage,” said Demetrio Gomez, who is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit and who led the presentation Dec. 7. “They want to take away the things that makes the average worker’s life worthwhile. We believe that’s wrong. And we believe if we had the ability to elect Latinos we would have better representation.”

Abed said the 49 percent Latino census figure is misleading. He said roughly half of that represents people who cannot vote either because they are in the country illegally or are here legally but are not citizens with voting rights.

Abed said the math is simple. About 20 percent of the voters in the city are Hispanic, and the council has one Hispanic member. The proportions are equal, he said.

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Related:

ESCONDIDO: Latinos, labor union sue city over elections

ESCONDIDO: Latinos, labor union sue city over electionsBy DAVID GARRICK dgarrick@nctimes.comNorth County Times | Posted: Tuesday, December 20, 2011 8:00 pm

Seeking to increase the political power of Latinos in Escondido, five city residents and a labor union filed a lawsuit Wednesday demanding that the city immediately switch from at-large elections to having City Council members elected by smaller geographic districts.

Read more here: http://www.alipac.us/threads/246304-...over-elections

I'm surprised they haven't sought this:

Port Chester Election: New York Villagers Get SIX VOTES Each

PORT CHESTER, N.Y. — Arthur Furano voted early – five days before Election Day. And he voted often, flipping the lever six times for his favorite candidate. Furano cast multiple votes on the instructions of a federal judge and the U.S. Department of Justice as part of a new election system crafted to help boost Hispanic representation.

Voters in Port Chester, 25 miles northeast of New York City, are electing village trustees for the first time since the federal government alleged in 2006 that the existing election system was unfair. The election ends Tuesday and results are expected late Tuesday.

Although the village of about 30,000 residents is nearly half Hispanic, no Latino had ever been elected to any of the six trustee seats, which until now were chosen in a conventional at-large election. Most voters were white, and white candidates always won.

Read more here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_612365.html

N.Y. election gives 6 votes per voter-boosts minority power.

http://www.alipac.us/threads/192845-...n+votes+person