LOS ANGELES >> A judge today scheduled a non-jury trial for next year to determine whether the city of Whittier should establish voting districts instead of using an at-large balloting system.
The three Latino residents who filed the lawsuit last Aug. 5 — Jafet Diego, Miguel Garcia and Lisa Lopez — say the current system is unfair to members of their ethnicity. Citing the state’s Voting Rights Act, the plaintiffs want to change the system in which voters across the city choose among candidates for the City Council to one in which members are picked by district.
The plaintiffs disagree with the findings of an expert for the city who concluded that Whittier does not have a history of racially polarized voting.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Johnson scheduled the trial for March 9.
“We were aware that (the case) would not be heard until sometime next year,” said the plaintiffs’ attorney, Rod Pacheco. “It gives us enough time to get ready.”
In the near future, he said, his clients will seek the removal of all of the sitting council members.
“We will amend our complaint when it’s appropriate,” said Pacheco, declining to name a specific date.
Last month, the judge denied a request by the plaintiffs to suspend this month’s elections in which two non-Latino incumbents were re-elected.
In a three-page decision, Johnson said that while the plaintiffs show “at the very least some possibility” that they will prevail during trial of their challenge to the existing system, they cannot show a likelihood of “imminent irreparable injury” if a preliminary injunction stopping this month’s election is not granted.
“Voting is a fundamental part of our governmental process and interfering with an impending election requires an extraordinary demonstration by the plaintiff,” Johnson wrote. “Plaintiffs have not met that standard in our case.”
Johnson said that on June 3 Whittier voters will “consider a charter amendment that could replace the current at-large districts with an entirely new City Council electoral process. Under these circumstances, a preliminary injunction is not warranted.”
Pacheco said that regardless of the outcome of the upcoming charter amendment election, his clients will proceed to trial with their case. He said the June ballot measure does not propose to create the five districts the plaintiffs believe is needed to protect the voting rights of Latinos.
Pacheco said nine Latino candidates have run for the Whittier City Council since 2000 and none have been successful. He said this has occurred despite the fact many Latino candidates in Whittier have had law degrees from such prestigious schools as Georgetown, USC and Berkeley.
Pacheco, the former Riverside County district attorney, has called the current election system in Whittier “wrong, flawed and unlawful.” He said only the courts have”shown the courage to drag” small communities such as Whittier “into the 21st Century.”
But lawyer Marguerite Leoni, on behalf of the city, said part of the reason for the lack of success by Latino candidates is that as recently as 1994 they represented less than 25 percent of the population. She said that with today’s majority, there is no reason under the current at-large system that they cannot win more offices.
She said Latinos do not automatically vote for other Latinos and that their inability to get more members of the community elected is more likely due to a lack of cohesion and vote-splitting.
The plaintiffs also are asking for city elections to take place during regular county and statewide elections in order to boost voter turnout. He said the highest turnouts typically are in November during even-numbered years.
