Letters to the Editor: Costa Mesa’s new voting districts may further disenfranchise minority voters

Might the fate of two gerrymandered congressional districts in far-away North Carolina have an impact on the fate of Costa Mesa’s new councilmanic districts?

In the North Carolina case, a strong majority (5-3) of U. S. Supreme Court justices recently agreed with a lower court that two of the state’s districts had been drawn primarily to limit the voting power of the state’s blacks, a protected class, rather than, as the state contended, to gain partisan benefit (which presently is a permissible kind of gerrymandering). This design was held to violate the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Costa Mesa’s recent voting redesign, in my reading, may run afoul of California’s Voting Rights Act of 2001, the state act that expands on voting rights granted to protected communities under the federal act. Has Costa Mesa positioned itself for a North Carolina lawsuit?

Costa Mesa’s district plan has two weaknesses that may dilute or abridge rights of a protected class of voters. The first is that the plan drawn by the then-majority on the City Council still allows one official – a powerful mayor – to be elected at large. The protected class, Latinos in Westside, will be faced with a familiar uphill struggle to claim their share of power by having to compete with the rest of the city’s voters.

The second is that representation of the protected group is diluted by 30% to 1 council member out of 7 from 1 out of 5. This occurs because the council, without explanation, added two council districts to the five that every citizen study group had recommended. Five also is the number of council members that the city has had since incorporation in 1953.

The California Elections Code, Section 14027, is clear that diluting or abridging rights of voters is not allowed: “An at-large method of election may not be imposed or applied in a manner that impairs the ability of a protected class to elect candidates of its choice or its ability to influence the outcome of an election, as a result of the dilution or the abridgment of the rights of voters who are members of a protected class … .”

The city should promptly investigate and correct deficiencies that may provoke lawsuits that cause a preventable drain on the city treasury and that may deprive a segment of our community of their rights as citizens.

Tom Egan

Costa Mesa

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Newport Theatre features a bronze of John Wayne

It seems the city of Newport Beach of old is getting a bad rap. More than once I have read that the city looked into commissioning a John Wayne statue back in 1979 and never did anything about it. Not the case, unless a statue can only be a free-standing piece out in the middle of space.

In the exterior display case of the Newport Theatre Arts Center a very large bronze piece of art has been on exhibition since about 1983, when it was completed by the artist and placed there by the city. The work, commissioned by the city of Newport Beach, was mainly paid for with allotted city funds, and the shortfall was raised by Junior Chamber of Commerce President Jim Dale and fellow chamber members.

It is a handsome bronze likeness of Wayne and a stagecoach holding fellow actors, in full motion. For those who are Wayne lovers and have not seen it, they should stop by for a look. Maybe it was prescient that the bronze should be placed in that location, waiting for 34 years to have the adjoining park bear his name.

Rae Cohen

Newport Beach

The writer is executive producer/manager of the Newport Theatre Arts Center.

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Tiger Woods doesn’t deserve another mulligan

It has been said that Tiger Woods was the best golfer ever. Nowadays, however, some say that Woods has fallen so low that he has to look up to make par.

Bill Spitalnick

Newport Beach

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