Thread: Latino residents threaten to sue over "unfair" ele

ESCONDIDO: Latino residents threaten to sue over "unfair" elections

By DAVID GARRICK dgarrick@nctimes.com
December 7, 2011 9:00 pm

Contending that Escondido's elected leaders cater to wealthy white residents at the expense of Latinos, a group of Latino residents threatened to sue the city Wednesday for alleged violations of state and federal voting rights laws.

The group demanded that Escondido's City Council vote by next week to switch from at-large elections to having council members elected by smaller geographic districts, a change expected to help Latinos win more elections.

"Half of Escondido is Latino, but in 123 years Escondido has elected only one obviously Latino candidate to the City Council," said Demetrio Gomez, a 40-year city resident and leader of the group threatening to sue. "There are no representatives from our large Latino neighborhoods, and this council is elected by ---- and caters to ---- wealthier non-Latinos."

City leaders have repeatedly balked at such accusations and have refused to consider becoming the first city in North County to adopt geographic voting districts.

Mayor Sam Abed said Wednesday that accusations and threats wouldn't sway the council.

He also argued that minority candidates have had some success in Escondido, most notably when Latina Olga Diaz won a council seat in 2008, and that frequent turnover of council seats in recent years shows that districts aren't necessary.

"We will not be intimidated and we will defend ourselves because this system works," the mayor said.

Legal battle looming?

But the city could be facing a long and costly legal battle, because Gomez's group is represented by members of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, a coalition of attorneys that have successfully forced several cities and school districts to adopt geographic districts in recent years.

Modesto, a large city in central California, reportedly spent $3 million fighting the coalition in court but was eventually forced to create geographic council districts anyway.

In a letter to the city on behalf of the Latino residents, San Francisco attorney James Finberg said Wednesday that Escondido's at-large districts violate the California Voting Rights Act of 2001.

"Unfortunately, the city of Escondido has been and continues to be unresponsive to the needs of its Latino residents," Finberg wrote. "Rather than addressing the needs of Escondido's Latino community, the City Council has repeatedly pursued policies perceived in Escondido and throughout the rest of San Diego County as illegal."

Those policies include a failed attempt in 2006 to prohibit landlords from renting to illegal immigrants, a day-labor ordinance proposed in 2008 but never adopted and an abandoned effort to restrict parking in inner city neighborhoods where many Latino families share houses and apartments.

Leaders of the Escondido Union High School District, which recently decided to create geographic voting districts, have repeatedly warned city officials that they should consider doing the same based on the threat of lawsuits.

On Wednesday, Councilwoman Diaz, who has been lobbying for geographic districts since last spring, said her colleagues should have listened to school officials.

"Quite frankly, it was just a matter of time before somebody decided to take this action against the city," Diaz said.

City Attorney Jeff Epp said Wednesday that he would review the documents submitted by Finberg and the coalition of attorneys. He also said the city's compliance with voting laws was important regardless of whether anyone threatens to file suit.

"I think it's a serious issue whether they send a letter or not," he said.

Backed by labor

Gomez, the leader of the resident group, made his lawsuit threat during the public comment of Wednesday's council meeting. Because the item was not officially on the agenda, council members couldn't comment during the meeting.

But Mayor Abed said after the meeting that the move was an attempted power grab by groups that don't represent the majority of Escondido voters.

"This is a politically motivated effort to overturn the people's will and govern from the minority," he said.

After Gomez spoke, he received loud applause and a long standing ovation from about 50 members of the audience, including 30 construction workers wearing bright orange T-shirts that said "Local 89 Political Action Team."

Outside the council chambers, the legislative director of the state's Building and Construction Trades Council, a powerful labor union, said his group was in full support of Gomez, who is a member of the council.

The director, Cesar Diaz, said Escondido brought this battle on by ignoring Latinos.

"Unfortunately, this council has not been responsive to the needs of the Latino community," he said.

Friction between the city and construction labor groups has escalated this fall because the city is pursuing a "charter city" amendment that would exempt the city from paying union wages for construction work.

But Gomez said his campaign for election districts was not based on the charter city battle, but his own experience in the city, where he has lived since the late 1960s.

"For more than a century, city politicians have run Escondido with no concept of the Latino experience, or an understanding of the issues our community struggles against," he said.

Finberg, the attorney helping Gomez, conceded it would be impossible for Escondido to create election districts by next week. But he said the council would face a lawsuit unless it votes at its Dec. 14 meeting to begin the process.

San Diego is the only city of the 18 in the county with established geographic districts, and only about 30 of California's 482 cities elect council members by district, according to the League of California Cities.

Most of those cities are much larger than Escondido, which has 144,000 residents. But some, such as Berkeley at 110,000, are roughly the same size. And a few, such as Seal Beach at 25,000, are much smaller.

Call staff writer David Garrick at 760-740-5468

http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/escon ... z1fxtdCOgN

I noticed that the article only refers to "residents" not "legal residents" or "voters".