Lawsuit seeks to ban at-large council elections in FB 3:07 PM CDT

03:07 PM CDT on Monday, May 21, 2007
By STEPHANIE SANDOVAL / The Dallas Morning News
ssandoval@dallasnews.com

Three Hispanic residents of Farmers Branch have filed a lawsuit to stop at-large City Council elections and force the city to move to representation based on districts.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Dallas on Monday, says the current at-large method of electing council members unlawfully dilutes the voting strength of Latino voters and denies them the right to vote on account of their race, color or ethnicity.

The lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction prohibiting the city from holding any future elections under the at-large system.

Domingo Garcia, a Dallas activist who brought together the plaintiffs and San Antonio attorney Rolando Rios, said that if the single-member districts being proposed by the plaintiffs had been in place in the May 12 election, a Hispanic candidate would have been elected.

Jose Galvez, the first Hispanic to run for City Council, finished last in a three-man race for Place 1.

"'One' is a very significant development. There's a perception, 'Why run at-large if you can't get elected,'" Mr. Rios said.

Opponents say the city of 28,000 is too small for single-member districts.

In other expected court action Monday, there was no word yet from U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay, who was expected to decide whether a voter-endorsed ordinance banning apartment rentals to most illegal immigrants should be blocked with a temporary restraining order. The ordinance, which also was approved overwhelmingly by voters on May 12, is scheduled to take effect Tuesday.