City Council Planning to Shuffle District Boundaries : Inglewood: A move to concentrate the city’s high-crime areas in Hardeman’s district catches the vacationing councilman by surprise.

While state Democratic leaders battle Gov. Pete Wilson over the redrawing of legislative districts, officials in Inglewood are engaged in some controversial redistricting of their own.

A reapportionment plan to be considered Oct. 1 by the City Council would strip several significant properties in central Inglewood from 4th District Councilman Garland Hardeman, including the Forum and Hollywood Park racetrack, the upscale Carlton Square housing development, and Centinela Hospital Medical Center, whose staff members regularly contribute to local campaigns and endorse council candidates.

Those properties would become part of Councilman Daniel Tabor’s District 1.

The plan would also move the high-crime Darby-Dixon area in southeast Inglewood into Hardeman’s district from its current location on the border of the 1st and 4th districts.

Hardeman was on vacation this week and missed Tuesday’s council meeting at which the plan was discussed. But when reached by telephone Wednesday afternoon in Detroit, Hardeman said he was surprised by the proposal. He said he might have objected to the plan, but will be unable to do so because he will not return from a trip to Africa until after the Oct. 1 vote.

“It is stunning to take out things and reorganize my entire district while I’m out of town,” he said.

Hardeman, a Los Angeles police officer elected to his second term earlier this year, said the council’s desire to concentrate high-crime areas in his district will be challenging but is not necessarily bad news.

“They’ve given me the most crime-ridden areas of Inglewood,” he said. “Apparently my colleagues think I can handle the tough stuff.”

Mayor Edward Vincent, who used to represent Hardeman’s district as a councilman and who has clashed with Hardeman in the past, said there were no political motives behind the redistricting.

As required by state election law, Inglewood redraws its four council districts after every census so that each council member represents roughly one-fourth of the population--in this case 27,300 residents.

The city’s population has grown mostly because of an influx of Latino immigrants in Inglewood’s eastern area, represented by District 3 Councilman Jose Fernandez, and in the southern portion covered by Hardeman’s District 4.

The city’s northernmost area, represented by District 2 Councilman Anthony Scardenzan, also experienced growth due to large numbers of new apartment and condominium complexes.

Tabor’s District 1, a predominantly black single-family residential area in eastern Inglewood, experienced a slight population decrease during the past decade.

Tabor said the plan being considered by the council would strip him of his alma mater, Morningside High School, but give him Carlton Square, a gated community with a high voter turnout, where Hardeman has a political base. Tabor said he plans to talk to Hardeman, a political ally, when he returns from vacation and see how he reacts to the plan.

“I’d love to have Hollywood Park and the Forum and all the glamour associated with that--and Centinela Hospital,” Tabor said. “You could make the lines go any which way. The question is, can you appease everyone?”

The proposed redistricting plan was one of two options considered by the council this week. The other option, which council members rejected, would have kept all the above-mentioned properties in Hardeman’s district but reshaped it to form an odd, C-shaped pattern.

The proposals were prepared by City Clerk Hermanita Harris. Each councilman’s residence was included in his district, and new boundaries were drawn to incorporate much of each member’s existing district, according to Harris. By law, the city must adopt a plan by the end of October.