The Tough Task of Redrawing County : * Supervisors Must Work to Ensure a Latino District

In what promises to be a messy business, Orange County’s Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will try to decide how to divide its current districts into new ones that will reflect the population shifts revealed by the 1990 census.

The battlefield so far has been over how to refashion the 1st District, which includes Santa Ana and the central part of the county. Already, there has been trouble, as Latino groups have wrangled with county aides given the unenviable task of coming up with a plan to satisfy all five members of the board.

Given what has happened so far, it’s not hard to envision a protracted struggle similar to the one that recently concluded in Los Angeles County. There, a lawsuit over redistricting, begun 10 years ago, ended up costing taxpayers more than $6 million. In the end, a federal court ruled that Los Angeles’ five supervisors--all white males--had deliberately diluted the Latino vote to protect their incumbencies. Last January, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to reconsider the decision, thus ending the lawsuit. That’s a battle Orange County shouldn’t repeat.

In Orange County, the recent census revealed that the county, once predominantly Anglo, has changed dramatically over the last decade. Now nearly one in four residents is Latino--and that is believed by many local officials to be an undercount that could become the subject of separate lawsuits.

The Hispanic Redistricting Committee, a group of Latinos interested in more minority representation, has its own thoughts on drawing district lines. It wants one of the supervisorial districts to include a majority of Latino residents, perhaps even as high as 60%. That would mean a district revolving around Santa Ana, which is 65% Latino, and including other heavily Latino communities such as Garden Grove and Stanton. The committee wants to exclude middle-class areas such as Fountain Valley.

But Supervisor Roger R. Stanton, who represents the 1st District, wants to retain his political base in Fountain Valley. Vietnamese, Korean and other Asian communities also are vying for power. All this must be sorted out.

Meanwhile, a lawsuit based on the Voting Rights Act’s call for electoral districts that represent “communities of interest” is being discussed by Latinos. While there are many similarities to Los Angeles County’s redistricting problems, there is one important twist in Orange County, however. Los Angeles County had never elected a Latino to the board until this year, when Gloria Molina won a seat after district lines were redrawn. Orange County has had a Latino, Gaddi H. Vasquez, on the board for four years.

Vasquez, now board chairman, was appointed to the board and later ran successfully for his seat. But Vasquez’s district is only 16% Latino, and the Hispanic Redistricting Committee wants to create a Latino district. One thing is clear. Any plan will be nothing more than a blueprint for litigation if it carves up the central part of the county, as the one being considered does, without creating a seat that truly reflects a Latino constituency.

The board has until Nov. 1 to complete redistricting. During that time, it must work more closely with Latinos and other ethnic groups to make sure minorities get fair representation on the board.

If board members wonder if that’s necessary, they need only remember that Los Angeles acknowledged the changing ethnic makeup of its county only after a decade of court battling. That’s a lesson that must not be missed as Orange County begins redistricting.