1
1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S
2 --ooOoo--
3 CHAIRMAN PERATA: We are going to call this
4 hearing to order. I apologize for being late. I'm a
5 northerner. We can't figure out the freeways here.
6 I'd like to thank all of you for being here. My
7 name is Don Perata. I'm the Chair of the Senate Committee on
8 Elections and Reapportionment. Today's portion is the second in
9 a series of hearing the Committee is holding throughout the
10 state dedicated to the Senate 2001 redistricting effort.
11 The purpose of these hearings is to give local
12 elected officials and members of the public an opportunity to
13 offer their comments and suggestions regarding new legislative,
14 Congressional and Board of Equalization Districts that we will
15 be developing this year.
16 If you wish if testify today and are not yet on
17 the agenda, please enter your name and contact information on
18 the sign-in sheet at the table outside the auditorium. We have
19 several people who wish to testify. Therefore, I'm going to
20 insist that everyone limit their testimony to no more than three
21 minutes each.
22 Joining us today is Senator Richard Polanco. We
23 are in the middle of your district. Thank you for extending
24 your hospitality. It's a nice building we have here.
25 We will be joined at some point by Senator Ross
26 Johnson who is from Orange County.
27 Mr. Polanco.
28 SENATOR POLANCO: Just welcome. We're looking
2
1 forward to your input and to your participation today.
2 This is a very important process, as mentioned by
3 the Chair, and we do appreciate very much your input as we move
4 forward in creating the lines for political representation for
5 the next ten years.
6 Thank you.
7 CHAIRMAN PERATA: There will be one formal
8 presentation, not that anybody's individual presentation will
9 not be formal, but MALDEF will make a consolidated presentation
10 of the work that they've been doing. They've requested a half
11 hour to do that, and since they've done an extensive amount of
12 work, we'd be happy to hear and receive that.
13 All I would ask, you don't have to worry about
14 what you say, but I would encourage you to be very pointed in
15 your comments, specifically what your interest is, what your
16 concerns are, and those will be registered on the record.
17 This is for the purposes of taking testimony.
18 We're not here to debate or anything. This is a welcome
19 opportunity, and we value your comments. You will not be held
20 accountable by this panel for anything that you say.
21 With that, I'd like to move forward. If you're
22 interested, and if you really have a great time today and you'd
23 like to continue this, you can come to San Diego next Monday, or
24 you can come to San Jose next Tuesday. So, you have a couple
25 more opportunities, and then we go to Sacramento. So, you could
26 just make this like a world tour, if you can't get enough of
27 this. Be sure to let us know and let your doctor know.
28 Our first person on the schedule is Richard
3
1 Close, who's the President of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners
2 Association and Chairman of Valley Vote.
3 Mr. Close, welcome.
4 MR. CLOSE: Thank you. I appreciate the
5 opportunity to be here.
6 I'm also a returning and alternate commissioner
7 with LAFCO for Los Angeles County.
8 I believe that your role is extremely important
9 in truly obtaining representation. What I'd like to do is focus
10 on a couple issues that pertain to the San Fernando Valley that
11 I hope you take into consideration.
12 Number one, on November 5th of next year, that is
13 when the San Fernando Valley will vote on becoming a separate
14 city. We believe it will pass, and 30 days thereafter, the San
15 Fernando Valley will be a separate city, the sixth largest city
16 in the country.
17 What I would like to ask is that when you
18 determine the districts, please take that into consideration. I
19 tried to keep as much of the San Fernando Valley in various
20 districts contained therein as possible.
21 Number two, we've had a number of problems where
22 communities within the San Fernando Valley are broken up. The
23 most blatant example is at the city council level, which I
24 understand that you don't deal with, but this is the concept.
25 Van Nuys right now has five city council members that represent
26 it. What we hope you do as you deal with the jurisdictions that
27 you're involved in, is that you try to keep our communities
28 within the San Fernando Valley as intact as possible.
4
1 Your charge is the same charge that we have on
2 LAFCO, which is to deal with the continuity of interests of the
3 people. It is my opinion that if we need to leave the San
4 Fernando Valley for different jurisdictions, that the continuity
5 of interest tends to be to the south of the Valley, as opposed
6 to the east of the Valley, especially the people in the southern
7 portion of the Valley. But, your number one goal should be to
8 keep the San Fernando Valley jurisdiction wholly within that
9 area.
10 I do have one personal comment that I'd like to
11 make in closing. It relates to Howard Berman. We want Howard
12 Berman back in Sherman Oaks. He was our Congressman for many
13 years; he was our Assemblyman, and now he represents the
14 northeast Valley. I hope that when you redistrict the
15 Congressional seats, that Sherman Oaks obtains Howard Berman
16 back.
17 Thank you very much.
18 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you, Mr. Close.
19 SENATOR POLANCO: I have a question.
20 Mr. Close, before you leave, with regards to your
21 request in anticipation of the new city, can you submit to the
22 Committee your proposed boundary lines?
23 MR. CLOSE: Yes.
24 SENATOR POLANCO: So that the Committee could
25 have that available and give it due consideration?
26 MR. CLOSE: Sure, we'd be happy to do that. And
27 just for your information, under state law that was passed last
28 year, a Hertzberg bill, LAFCO is in the process of dividing the
5
1 San Fernando Valley into 14 city council districts, because when
2 the election occurs next year, 14 council members will be
3 running on a district-by-district basis, as well as valley-wide
4 mayor. That's all on the ballot November 5th of next year.
5 So, redistricting is occurring everywhere, and
6 I'd be happy to give you that information.
7 Any other questions?
8 CHAIRMAN PERATA: What will you call yourself?
9 MR. CLOSE: The number one question we get is,
10 what is the name of the new city? What will happen is, LAFCO
11 will put on the ballot from three to five names, and whatever
12 receives the highest vote will become at least the initial name
13 of the city.
14 But that is the number one question that people
15 ask.
16 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you, Mr. Close.
17 MR. CLOSE: Thank you.
18 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Next, Pat Herrera-Duran. Is
19 Pat Herrera-Duran here?
20 Barbara Perkins.
21 MS. PERKINS: Good morning. I'm Barbara Perkins.
22 The opportunity and responsibility to meet and
23 speak with you regarding this most important issue I accepted
24 with enthusiasm. For 17 years, Silmar, which is in the San
25 Fernando Valley, has been my home and the home of my husband, a
26 captain with the Los Angeles County Fire Department for 30
27 years. Our family of five, which includes my mother, has chosen
28 this community for the distinct cultural characteristics, social
6
1 and economic complexity it offers.
2 The surrounding cities, Lake Buteras, Sunland,
3 Tacoma, share much of what we enjoy in Silmar so much. My
4 family has been active in the community. In particular, I hold
5 several key leadership positions in civic organizations, such as
6 President of the Valley Leadership Institute, President of the
7 Los Angeles County Commission for Women, board member for
8 Economic Alliance, and founding President of the National
9 Council of Negro Women.
10 These involvements and many others afford me on a
11 regular basis to work with our political leadership on all
12 levels of government. However, legislators such as my
13 Congressman, Howard Berman, Maxine Waters, Henry Waxman, and the
14 newly elected Diane Watson, are all individuals that assist me
15 in the work I do on behalf of the community.
16 It is with this in mind that I'm here to ask you
17 to consider the importance and the need to protect these
18 experienced Legislators who provide us with unmatchable
19 leadership on a daily basis. As you begin your work in crafting
20 the plan that defines district boundaries for the next ten
21 years, I respectfully ask that you consider my remarks. Know
22 that the word community describes an individual's ability to
23 connect with those who are rooted in their support system.
24 Resist the simple definition of lines down the middle of the
25 street, or the number of marbles in each basket.
26 I am confident that you know the sensitivity and
27 the complexity of this issue. I trust that you will continue
28 what you started in allowing people like myself to weigh in on
7
1 the matter.
2 Thank you. I appreciate your time.
3 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you very much.
4 Next, Ms. Clementine Little Hawk Hernandez.
5 MS. HERNANDEZ: Hello.
6 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Good morning.
7 MS. HERNANDEZ: Thank you for letting me speak
8 here. It's my first time and I'm nervous.
9 CHAIRMAN PERATA: That's okay.
10 MS. HERNANDEZ: My name is Clementine Little Hawk
11 Hernandez. I'm a Lakota Sioux. I've lived in San Pedro for 42
12 years.
13 I'm the foundress of Indians for Life. I've been
14 involved in Los Angeles Kitury Circle and the National Tekweeka
15 Conference for 10 years. I'm not representing any organization.
16 To be honest, I'm not completely familiar with
17 the redistricting process.
18 CHAIRMAN PERATA: That's okay. We're not either.
19 [Laughter.]
20 MS. HERNANDEZ: I'm here on behalf of the Native
21 Americans in the urban areas and the reservations. We would not
22 like our boundaries to be split up. Families and community is
23 very important to us.
24 Please look at and study the ways of the Native
25 American, and please don't split the community in areas where
26 they live. It would be like breaking up families. Not
27 splitting boundaries is important so they don't have so many
28 representatives.
8
1 We are united as one people, and we would like
2 one representative, as little as possible. Please consider our
3 families.
4 Thank you.
5 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you.
6 SENATOR POLANCO: Before you leave, I have a
7 question.
8 Total number of Native Americans in the L.A.
9 County area, do you have an idea what it is? And then
10 specifically, where are they residing, in which communities?
11 MS. HERNANDEZ: I'm not exactly familiar with the
12 number of them, but I know there's maybe like 40,000, maybe more
13 than that. I don't know.
14 But we're scattered all over. The urban Indians
15 are all over. And then there are, you know, the reservation
16 Indians are the ones that are really in communities.
17 And we try to gather once a month to meet from
18 the Kitura Circle members, Native Americans. And then we have a
19 Tekweeka Conference once a year in a different state. This
20 year it's in San Diego. And representatives from all over the
21 United States and Canada come down and attend our Tekweeka
22 Conference.
23 But it's really important not to split the
24 boundaries because, you know, we were put on reservations, and
25 they gave us so much land, and now they're starting to take some
26 of that land away. And it's important that we know who to go to
27 when we need help, and not have so many different
28 representatives so we're constantly -- who do we go to? How do
9
1 we get help for certain things?
2 And family and community, the closeness is very,
3 very important to the Native Americans.
4 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you.
5 MS. HERNANDEZ: Thank you.
6 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Pat Herrera-Duran, I understand
7 you're here.
8 MS. HERRERA-DURAN: Good morning, Mr. Chairman
9 and Members of the Committee. Thank you very much for listening
10 to me today.
11 My name is Pat Herrera-Duran, and I have been a
12 member of and a resident of the Harbor area, San Pedro Harbor
13 area, a little over 60 years.
14 I come here today as a representative from the
15 area, although I've been involved in many, many committees,
16 redevelopment committees, planning committees, different things
17 in the Harbor area, so I know it pretty well. At the present, I
18 am a commissioner on the Neighborhood Empowerment Department,
19 but I'm not here representing the Commission.
20 For the last 30 years, I was the Executive
21 Director of a nonprofit organization with the headquarters in
22 San Pedro, but we served all of the Harbor area. That is
23 Wilmington, Carson, Harbor City, Torrance, Lomita, and parts of
24 Gardena, and also parts of Long Beach.
25 With that experience, I've had the opportunities
26 to know what is happening in the greater parts of the Harbor
27 area. One of the things which I have seen in the last I would
28 say like eight or nine months, perhaps a year, that there has
10
1 been a growing affinity with other communities, with San Pedro,
2 with Wilmington, with Harbor City, Lomita, and Carson. We have
3 as a group have started to come together related to issues that
4 affect us.
5 One of those issues is transportation. As an
6 example, Long Beach is part of the Long Beach Harbor. We have
7 the Los Angeles Harbor in our area. Yet in our area, the towns
8 that I just mentioned, we have a serious problem of public
9 transportation. Long Beach, because it has its own city and its
10 own representatives, have a very good issue, they have very good
11 transportation.
12 But we, because we're so split up, and we have so
13 many districts there, it's hard for us to find one person to go
14 to, to talk about the transportation problems and to get
15 something done with that.
16 As you're looking at redistricting, I would ask
17 you to consider that that area south and west of Long Beach has
18 started to come together as a single community, not in terms of
19 political boundaries. We still have our respective towns. But
20 if you're active in the community as I have been, and just for
21 the last -- I think in the last two weeks we've had community
22 meetings where representatives from all of those areas have come
23 together to talk about our issues. You'll see that we have some
24 common ground, and that there are things that we need to have
25 resolved as an area, rather than being split up, part going to
26 another district and part going to someone else.
27 So, I would ask you to look very closely at those
28 boundaries. Don't be fooled by what seems to be a good
11
1 political boundary. Listen to what is being said in the
2 community about where we are as people working together.
3 And I would like to stress those again: San
4 Pedro, Wilmington, Harbor City, Lomita, Carson, parts of
5 Torrance and Gardena. We have common needs in that area, and as
6 a group we have started to come together. So, we ask you to
7 take a look at that and consider those when you do your
8 redistricting.
9 I thank you very much.
10 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you very much.
11 We have the Honorable Bobbi Fiedler with us.
12 REPRESENTATIVE FIEDLER: Good morning. Thank you
13 so much for coming here and giving us the opportunity to speak.
14 I was saying, thank you so much for coming to our community to
15 give us a chance to speak about the very important issue of
16 reapportionment.
17 The first thing I want to say is, I am not now,
18 nor do I intend to run for political office again. So, my
19 comments are neutral in nature in terms of my own personal
20 interests, and I want you to know that.
21 We have a lot of very talented Members of
22 Congress. I had the privilege of serving with many of them.
23 I'd just like to remind you that people, for
24 instance, like Jerry Lewis on Appropriations, David Dryer on
25 Rules, Howard Berman on Intellectual Property, Henry Waxman
26 related to medical related issues, and our recently lost Julian
27 Gibson, all make a very important contribution to the state as
28 whole. I'd like, as you look at the various ways in which you
12
1 might reconfigure these districts, keep that in mind.
2 I happened to be involved in reapportionment in
3 1980. I had beaten Jim Korman in the north east San Fernando
4 Valley, which Howard Berman currently serves in, and I was
5 reapportioned into a 92 percent new district. Fortunately, I
6 had the ability to win in that district.
7 But it is a very big challenge when you move to
8 that degree. The disassociation between your constituency, who
9 develop a relationship with you and a confidence in you and a
10 trust in you, really is severely affected by it. And when we
11 end up with that kind of a new district, it really takes a great
12 deal of work to be able to rebuild the confidence that you had
13 previously.
14 So, I'd just like you to keep those issues in
15 mind as you take a look at the various choices of, which I'm
16 sure you have many, especially the ones you see. Keep in mind
17 the constituency and the contributions each one of those members
18 that are currently in elective office make to the state as a
19 whole.
20 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you, Ms. Fiedler.
21 We have Yvette Martinez.
22 MS. MARTINEZ: Good morning. I'm here on behalf
23 Congresswoman Hilda Solis. I'd like to read a statement from
24 the Congresswoman who is in Washington at this time.
25 "I have always been a strong
26 supporter and advocate for more
27 inclusive and greater
28 representation for all
13
1 communities, especially for
2 traditionally underrepresented
3 communities. I appreciate the
4 effort from the coalition of
5 nonprofit and nonpartisan
6 organizations, organizations such
7 as MALDEF, APOLSAY, and the NAACP
8 Legal Defense and Education Fund,
9 who are striving for greater
10 representation with traditionally
11 underrepresented communities.
12 "Considering that the
13 Latino community has experienced
14 tremendous growth over the past
15 years, yet it is still
16 underrepresented, I commend
17 MALDEF for their work to create
18 and build support for a new
19 Congressional seat in
20 California. In the spirit of
21 maximizing and ensuring greater
22 democracy, I would hope that
23 California's redistricting
24 efforts reflect the growth and
25 trends of California's diverse
26 electorate."
27 Thank you.
28 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you very much.
14
1 Anna Figueroa-Davis, from Lucille Roybal-Allard's
2 office.
3 MS. FIGUEROA-DAVIS: Good morning. My name's
4 Anna Figueroa-Davis, and I'm here to speak on behalf of
5 Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard, who represents California's
6 33rd Congressional District. Her statement to you is as
7 follows:
8 "Mr. Chairman, Members of the
9 Committee, thank you for the
10 opportunity to describe my views
11 on the state's redistricting
12 process.
13 "Having gone through
14 this process as a Member of the
15 California State Assembly ten
16 years ago, I am very sympathetic
17 to the many challenges you face
18 during this process, a process
19 that, in spite of the challenges,
20 must not only be fair and
21 equitable, but must result in an
22 improved plan that fairly
23 reflects our state's new
24 demographics, especially in
25 traditionally underrepresented
26 communities.
27 "For example, as we
28 all know, the Latino community in
15
1 California has grown tremendously
2 in the last decade. According to
3 the 2000 Census, Latinos in
4 California comprise 32.4 percent
5 of the total state population.
6 Although significant strides
7 have been made in the last ten
8 years, Latino political
9 representation continues to lag
10 far behind our voting strength.
11 This community, nor any other
12 community of interest, must not
13 be unfairly fractured and divided.
14 "In closing, I commend
15 the Mexican American Legal
16 Defense and Educational Fund, the
17 Asian Pacific American Legal
18 Center, and the NAACP Legal
19 Defense and Educational Fund, and
20 other community organizations for
21 their efforts to identify and
22 protect communities of interest,
23 and I respectfully request that
24 their work and testimony be fully
25 considered when the final
26 district lines are redrawn.
27 "Thank you once again
28 for the opportunity to comment on
16
1 this important process."
2 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you very much.
3 Mr. Gene LaPietra. Ferris Wehbe. Don Schultz.
4 MR. SCHULTZ: Good morning, Senators. My name is
5 Don Schultz, and I'm President of the Van Nuys Homeowners
6 Association, and a 36-year resident of the San Fernando Valley.
7 As you heard earlier from Mr. Close, our
8 community, Van Nuys, we've got a population somewhere in the
9 neighborhood of 120,000, is split up into five different council
10 districts.
11 Prior to this recent redistricting, we had six
12 council members representing Van Nuys. So, I guess you could
13 say we've improved to some degree.
14 I would hope when you're doing the redistricting,
15 and I recognize the fact that you're not redistricting the City
16 of Los Angeles, when you're doing this at the state level, that
17 you would go with communities of commonality, that you would not
18 break up a community as Van Nuys has been broken up.
19 And to show you how difficult it is for us, to
20 give you a very short story, several years ago, my wife, who was
21 a member of our board for the Homeowners Association, tried to
22 get representation by community signs in Van Nuys. She noticed
23 that there were community signs in every other community in the
24 San Fernando Valley, more than one or two. Van Nuys had one,
25 which was on Van Nuys Boulevard just north of the Ventura
26 Freeway. It was a Chamber of Commerce sign, welcoming you into
27 the central business district of Van Nuys.
28 She had to go to the Department of
17
1 Transportation, the City Department of the Transportation, who
2 in turn had to negotiate with five different council people as
3 to where they wanted these signs placed. That process took two
4 years just for a community sign, something that simple.
5 In closing, I would ask, we're very proud of our
6 Councilman, Richard Alarcon, so we would ask that you would not
7 redistrict him out of Van Nuys. We want to keep him.
8 Thank you very much.
9 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you.
10 Ray Cordova.
11 MR. CORDOVA: Good morning, Senator Polanco,
12 Senator Perata, staff.
13 My name is Ray Cordova. I am the District
14 Director for the office of Congresswoman Grace Napolitano, 34th
15 Congressional District.
16 First, I want to thank you for the opportunity to
17 make a presentation this morning to you. The Congresswoman, she
18 has had an opportunity to review the map and the plan as
19 submitted by MALDEF. We have worked very close with them and
20 looking at keeping the like communities together.
21 Our office is in agreement with the MALDEF plan
22 as it is reflective of the Latino population in the 34th
23 Congressional District. We are cognizant of competing
24 interests, ideas, to reshape our Congressional districts other
25 than the proposed MALDEF plan. However, the MALDEF plan within
26 the 34th Congressional District more closely aligns communities
27 of interest which are very cohesive, and realigns them with very
28 little disparity.
18
1 The 2000 Census has revealed an increased
2 California Latino population, and this also reflects the same
3 demographic change in Southern California.
4 We have had dealings with those who are about to
5 reshape our state, and there is even some rumble that they're
6 about to take the 34th Congressional District, and where our
7 base is in the Norwalk, Santa Fe Springs, Montebello, East L.A.
8 area, there's some talk about even moving us off to Pomona.
9 That is not keeping like communities together.
10 If we accept the MALDEF plan, and there is always
11 the political scene to it, our base would even shrink, our lower
12 basin would shrink, but it still keeps like communities
13 together.
14 Further on the MALDEF plan, we have seen the 38th
15 Congressional District, which we believe under the MALDEF plan
16 would actually be protected under Title 2.
17 So, we would ask you to give every consideration
18 respectfully, and to adopt the MALDEF plan as proposed.
19 With that, thank you very much for your time and
20 consideration.
21 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you, sir.
22 Mr. Hector De La Torre.
23 MR. DE LA TORRE: Good morning. Thank you very
24 much for this opportunity to speak.
25 I'm speaking on behalf of MALDEF and their plan
26 to consolidate the southeast cities in Los Angeles County into
27 one Congressional district.
28 I believe that a very strong argument can be made
19
1 that these communities should be, not severed, but set apart
2 from the City of Los Angeles, which currently the 33rd
3 Congressional District includes part of Los Angeles and the
4 southeast cities, and the other cities are tied further south
5 and east toward Long Beach.
6 These communities are all very similar in the
7 fact that they're all small cities, 50,000 to 100,000 in
8 population. Their own city councils, their own city
9 governments, and they have many linkages between them. For
10 example, they are all members of the Gateway Cities Council of
11 Governments.
12 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Could you enumerate those
13 cities just for the record?
14 MR. DE LA TORRE: The cities are Huntington Park,
15 Cudahy, the Florence Graham district in unincorporated L.A.
16 County, Southgate, of which I'm Council Member, Lynwood,
17 Paramount, East Compton, which is unincorporated L.A. County,
18 Bellflower, Lakewood, a portion of north Long Beach, a portion
19 of Downey.
20 Unifying these cities under this configuration, I
21 think, is beneficial for the communities, in that they work
22 together on a day-to-day basis already. I chair a commission, a
23 committee on the 710 Freeway, which is to make improvements
24 along the 710 and the major arterials that go along side the 710
25 Freeway. All of these cities are members of that committee.
26 As I mentioned, as I was saying before, they are
27 all members of the Gateway Cities Council of Governments, which
28 is the 27 cities in Southeast L.A. County. It's obviously a
20
1 council of governments, work together, sometimes almost as a
2 joint powers authority to get things done for these communities.
3 In terms of demographics, very similar. Some
4 cities have a slightly larger Latino population than others, but
5 as I understand this configuration, it's in the low 40
6 percentile for Latino population in this -- with this
7 configuration, which I think demonstrates the similarities in
8 the demographics.
9 There's many other linkages that are more
10 informal. For example, in the City of Southgate we have one
11 Catholic Church; in Lynwood they have two. So, many of the
12 people who live in the southern part of South Gate go to church
13 in Lynwood.
14 Schools interact. The City of Southgate has four
15 school districts within its boundaries. Los Angeles Unified is
16 the largest portion, but we have a portion in Lynwood Unified,
17 we have a portion in Paramount Unified, and we have a portion in
18 Downey Unified.
19 Lakewood, which I know has been fighting to
20 consolidate their schools under one Lakewood Unified School
21 District, has their kids in Paramount Unified, in Long Beach
22 Unified, and I think in ABC as well. So, they're divided in a
23 similar way as well. Kids are already crossing city boundaries
24 and interacting among the other cities.
25 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Can I ask you, you mentioned a
26 portion of Downey. What portion?
27 MR. DE LA TORRE: The southern portion. I think
28 Firestone is the dividing line there. It doesn't necessarily
21
1 have to be divided. That's just the way it's been divided in
2 this configuration.
3 I think that the important point is that these
4 cities should be together. They should not have a linkage to
5 the City of Los Angeles. There's nothing really in common
6 between the City of Los Angeles and these communities.
7 In fact, my work at the Gateway Cities Council of
8 Governments, we're often at odds with the City of Los Angeles,
9 so, even though we're right on the border in some cases.
10 I think it's a very important statement to these
11 communities that they are deserving of their own representation
12 in Washington, D.C. and Sacramento, for that matter.
13 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you. We appreciate that.
14 Diann Corral.
15 MS. CORRAL: Hi. Thank you Chairman, thank you
16 Senators, for coming to Los Angeles. I appreciate your
17 willingness to listen to the testimony at this time.
18 My name is Diann Corral, and I'm the President of
19 Laurel Plaza Neighborhood Association, which represents 2,000
20 residents of North Hollywood, which is located in the San
21 Fernando Valley, northern Los Angeles County.
22 I'm a wife and mother of two, and have lived in
23 the North Hollywood community for 23 years. As a result of my
24 current concern about my community, I've been active in a
25 variety of issues impacting my neighborhood and much larger
26 communities of the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles. My
27 involvement includes dealing with issues such as transportation,
28 development of new schools, street lighting, graffiti, tree
22
1 planting, and creation of sound walls adjacent to the 170 and
2 101 Freeways.
3 I am here to talk about some of the issues my
4 community has in common with surrounding neighbors in the
5 southern portion of the San Fernando Valley, which includes
6 North Hollywood, Toluca Lake, Studio City, Valley Glen, and
7 Sherman Oaks.
8 Our community is defined by a common need for
9 improved transportation. The MTA is currently working on
10 installing an east-west transit corridor that would run from
11 Warner Center in Woodland Hills to the North Hollywood metro
12 station, which runs into downtown Los Angeles. This new transit
13 corridor would alleviate the heavy congestion along the adjacent
14 101 Freeway. My community in North Hollywood is in support of
15 this transit corridor, as it would help to get commuters out of
16 their cars and onto an effective transit system.
17 The northern portion of the San Fernando Valley
18 has the metro link, which has been extremely effective, from
19 Chatsworth to Burbank and in downtown Los Angeles.
20 The southern portion of the San Fernando Valley
21 shares a common need for improved transportation, and the MTA's
22 new transit corridor just may be what is needed. The southern
23 portion of the San Fernando Valley is also impacted by the need
24 of sound wall construction and school development.
25 The North Hollywood area has more in common with
26 the southern portion of the San Fernando Valley in terms of
27 markets, regional shopping areas, freeways, and transportation.
28 There is a clear distinction between the northeastern San
23
1 Fernando Valley and the southern portion of the San Fernando
2 Valley.
3 My purpose for testifying before you today is to
4 ensure that North Hollywood and the southern San Fernando Valley
5 are represented by producing a plan that gives us representation
6 that is not fragmented so that we can have an advocate, whether
7 in Sacramento or D.C., that can wholeheartedly speak to our
8 interests.
9 Thank you for your time and consideration.
10 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you.
11 Is Gene LaPietra here yet? Ferris Wehbe?
12 Are the representatives from MALDEF here and
13 ready? Great.
14 Just for the record, when you come up to speak,
15 or when you do speak, just indicate your name.
16 MR. VELEZ: Chairman Perata and Members of the
17 Committee, my name is Amadis Velez, A-m-a-d-i-s V-e-l-e-z.
18 I work for the Mexican American Legal Defense and
19 Educational Fund.
20 I'd like to start off by introducing the speakers
21 on the agenda today. Antonio Gonzalez from the William C.
22 Velazquez Institute will be our first speaker, followed by
23 Zachary Gonzalez, also with the William C. Velazquez Institute,
24 Redistricting Coordinator. Then Steve Reyes with the Mexican
25 American Legal Defense Fund, followed by a presentation of the
26 redistricting plan. Then we will have members from the
27 community speak, so I'll introduce them at that point.
28 Thank you.
24
1 MR. GONZALEZ: Mr. Chairman, Members of the
2 Committee, my name is Antonio Gonzalez, and I'm the President of
3 the William C. Velazquez Institute. The Velazquez Institute, in
4 coalition with the Mexican American Legal Defense, has conducted
5 a vigorous outreach campaign and designed a series of maps, the
6 Congressional set of which we are releasing today.
7 This partnership between the Velazquez Institute
8 and the Mexican American Legal Defense is an historic one that
9 goes back several decades. We have collaborated effectively on
10 redistricting and reapportionment for the last 30 years, and
11 bring to this Committee a wealth of experience and historical
12 knowledge, as well as technical expertise and relationships with
13 Latino communities throughout the State of California.
14 This is a national partnership that is designing
15 redistricting plans for numerous states in addition to
16 California. We have already designed and submitted plans at all
17 levels for the State of Texas. We're in the process of
18 submitting them for the States of Arizona and Florida, New
19 Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.
20 Redistricting is an important moment for
21 historically excluded communities, minority communities. It is
22 the time when, under traditional redistricting law and
23 criterion, as well as the Voting Rights Act, we can redesign the
24 portrait of a district, and in that way allow for historically
25 excluded communities, like Latinos, to be united, very often
26 divided. And in that way, effectively participate and influence
27 the outcome of elections in those districts.
28 Historically, redistricting -- our times have
25
1 increased representation for minorities, particularly Latinos,
2 as a result of effective adjustments of district lines. As you
3 know, Latinos account for a big majority of the growth in
4 California.
5 And as you will see in the course of this
6 presentation, we have designed a Congressional map which we
7 think brings into alignment and adjusts the reality of these
8 Congressional districts so that more fair representation can be
9 achieved by Latino communities, which I add, comprise the lion's
10 share of demographic growth in the State of California.
11 Thank you.
12 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you, sir.
13 MR. GONZALEZ: I am Zachary Gonzalez with the
14 William C. Velazquez Institute. That's Z-a-c-h-a-r-y
15 G-o-n-z-a-l-e-z.
16 Good morning, Chairman Perata and Members of the
17 Committee.
18 I'd like to describe the planning and preparation
19 that went into the maps that will be presented today. When we
20 first held our redistricting workshops in Calexico, we were not
21 quite sure what to expect. We had our maps; we had our numbers,
22 and we had our old district lines.
23 However, the folks in that meeting had all the
24 answers that we didn't. They had questions also. They had
25 complaints, and they had stories to tell. They knew their
26 communities better than anyone else. They knew the conditions
27 of their schools, their experience with shortage on jobs, and
28 they knew how district lines had once been used to deny them
26
1 representation.
2 They also knew how hard it could be to get
3 someone elected to a local city council and school board.
4 And as we were telling them and asking them how
5 we should draw these district lines -- and as we were asking
6 them how to draw these district lines so that they could elect
7 representatives to the Senate, Assembly, and United States
8 Congress, our job was simple. We had to explain the
9 redistricting process on a grassroots, community-base level, and
10 just listen to their feedback.
11 The Congressional redistricting maps that we're
12 presenting today are a reflection and a direct product of those
13 community outreach programs. At the very first meeting in
14 Calexico, it was something that we weren't prepared for, in a
15 way, because the communities of interest that poured out were
16 beyond all of our knowledge, beyond any kind of data that you
17 could gather from the Census, from the statewide data base, from
18 various other statement-of-the-vote sources through the
19 Secretary of State.
20 Since then, we've held 35-plus workshops. To
21 name some of the towns that we visited, we've been to San Diego
22 County, Imperial, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Kern,
23 Tulare, Fresno, Stanislaus, San Joaquin, Contra Costa, Alameda,
24 Santa Clara, Monterey, Orange, and L.A. County.
25 All meetings were open to the general public, and
26 local media often covered the workshops. At each meeting, we
27 distributed our publications, "The Importance of Redistricting
28 in Your Community," developed by MALDEF, APALC, and the NAACP.
27
1 We also distributed "Fair Redistricting in 2000," a minority
2 manual for redistricting, developed by William C. Velazquez
3 Institute.
4 We provided a general legal overview and
5 technical assistance on redistricting. And we asked the
6 community to apply their local knowledge and experiences to the
7 Census tracts and the data. We also incorporated socio-economic
8 maps into the redistricting plans as those community workshops
9 developed. If they needed to access map -- if they needed
10 access to the mapping software, we did it through local net
11 leading, which you can -- anybody can access through a simple PC
12 and an internet connection.
13 Redistricting is a constantly changing process.
14 If the lines change in one community, it may eventually affect
15 another community line.
16 We drew these lines around communities of
17 interest, and we took into consideration the effect that it has
18 on a statewide basis.
19 Throughout the entire process we have been in
20 constant contact with the community.
21 We also helped them with local redistricting
22 efforts, both county, city, and school boards.
23 Our redistricting efforts were a statewide
24 project aiming at giving the Latino community a greater voice in
25 their governance of California and the nation.
26 In April, we gathered all of our community
27 workshops and community organizations for a conference in
28 Sacramento, called the Latino Summit on Fair Redistricting.
28
1 Over 150-plus community members attended this conference, and
2 they shared their experience in redistricting. They listened
3 to speakers like the Honorable Cruz Reynoso, who's been involved
4 the redistricting process for the last few decades. He started
5 his comments by noting, "Democracy is where people choose their
6 representatives. And redistricting is where representatives
7 choose their people."
8 We ask that you listen to the people who elected
9 you and consider their communities of interest when you draw
10 these district lines.
11 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you.
12 MR. REYES: Good morning. Thank you, Chairman
13 Perata, Members of the Committee, for the opportunity to address
14 you on this important issue.
15 My name is Steve Reyes. I'm with the Mexican
16 American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and now I'm the
17 Voting Rights Attorney in this redistricting project.
18 My testimony today will provide a brief overview
19 of the legal framework we adopted in creating these
20 Congressional districts. I will outline the legal challenges
21 that will face you as you, the Members of our Legislature,
22 engage this -- vote on a redistricting bill.
23 During the 2000 redistricting season, the
24 challenge for those engaging in the process is to develop plans
25 that successfully navigate the legal constraints imposed by
26 Constitutional and statutory voting rights laws. This task is
27 made more difficult in light of many of the misperceptions that
28 have persisted, in light of testimony before the Committee,
29
1 testimony and development of outreach programs, and so on.
2 First, I want to assure you that our plan, the
3 plan that we have submitted today, fully complies with all the
4 traditional redistricting criteria which has been outlined on
5 your web site, the Senate Elections and Assembly Elections web
6 sites.
7 First, our districts comply with the one
8 person-one vote rule. We have an overall deviation of only 0.47
9 percent. As you will see in few moments, our districts are
10 compact. They are contiguous, and where necessary, we avoid
11 splitting county and city lines to the extent possible.
12 Our districts also comply with Section Five of
13 the Voting Rights Act, and they will not be likely to retrogress
14 minority voting strength in Yuba, Kings, Merced, or Monterey
15 Counties for the districts that they are composed of.
16 Finally, as Zachary Gonzalez has mentioned, our
17 districts reflect and incorporate a significant body, an
18 extensive working with communities of interest.
19 Over the past several years, as you know, the
20 rumor, the myth, has persisted that minority districts, majority
21 minority districts are illegal. I've heard numerous city --
22 city officials, council advisors, and yes, even state elected
23 officials mention that you cannot even use, you cannot mention,
24 you cannot incorporate, you cannot use race at all in the
25 development of your redistricting plan.
26 I'm here today to tell you in no uncertain terms
27 that that is not true, that the creation of majority minority
28 districts is legal and is mandated by the law. The Voting
30
1 Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment
2 protects minority voters during redistricting. The Equal
3 Protection Clause prohibits the enactment of redistricting plans
4 that deliberately minimize minority voting strength.
5 Right here in L.A. County ten years ago, the 9th
6 Circuit Court of Appeals found that the County Supervisors
7 intentionally discriminated against Hispanic or Latino voters
8 and diluted their voting strength in Garza versus the County of
9 Los Angeles.
10 In the intervening ten years, as a result of the
11 Shaw versus Reno line of cases, as I have mentioned, there's a
12 common misperception that race cannot be used. That's not an
13 accurate statement of the law.
14 What the law does say is this. It says that race
15 cannot be used as a predominant factor in redistricting, such
16 that traditional redistricting criteria are subordinated. This
17 means, if a redistricting plan does not substantially comply,
18 disregard traditional redistricting criteria, then the plan is
19 presumptively Constitutional, as is ours. Our plan complies
20 with all the aforementioned redistricting criteria.
21 And this makes sense. If the plan violates
22 traditional redistricting criteria, as evidenced by substantial
23 city splits, high deviations, substantial county splits, by
24 noncompact, noncontiguous districts, a court might be suspicious
25 of motivation behind the drawing of that district.
26 As you may be aware in court, the Supreme Court
27 recently acknowledged that legislative decisions will be given
28 deference if it can be shown that the plan complied with
31
1 traditional redistricting criteria. That was in Hunt versus
2 Cromartie.
3 Because of the Voting Rights Act, you, the
4 Members of the Legislature, have an obligation to protect
5 minorities' voting rights. This means you must take race into
6 account to protect geographically compatible minority
7 communities in danger of vote dilution. Vote dilution commonly
8 occurs, as mentioned earlier, by the fracturing or packing of
9 Latinos into a certain district.
10 You may have also been told that the Voting
11 Rights Act is no longer a significant factor in redistricting.
12 You may have been told, and you may continue to be told, that
13 you cannot consider race, and that if you do, your districts
14 would be struck down as unconstitutional. That is far from the
15 truth, and the Voting Rights Act is alive and well and kicking.
16 Many redistricters characterize the relationship
17 between the Voting Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause as
18 being caught between a rock and a hard place. How do you not
19 deviate that line?
20 On the one side, and I want to make extremely
21 clear that MALDEF is the rock with regard to ensuring that
22 minorities voting strength is the protected and respected. We
23 stand ready to enforce the Voting Rights Act and to ensure that
24 our legally protected communities are fairly represented, and
25 that they are provided with equal opportunities to elect
26 candidates of their choice as required by law.
27 In summary, we are confident that our districts
28 fully comply with Section Two of the Voting Rights Act. Our
32
1 experts are currently examining all the evidence necessary to
2 sustain a Section Two claim.
3 And in the event that the Legislature's plan does
4 not -- does violate the Voting Rights Act, we are prepared to
5 move forward.
6 The map that we presented to you today should
7 provide a great outline for you as you engage in this process.
8 One, it combines all the redistricting criteria; and two, it
9 does not violate either Section Five or Section Two of the
10 Voting Rights Act, nor does it raise 14th Amendment concerns.
11 I thank you for your time. If you have
12 questions, I would be happy to answer them.
13 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you very much.
14 MR. VELEZ: Chairman Perata and Members of the
15 Committee, Senator Polanco, thank you for giving me the
16 opportunity to make a brief testimony today about our
17 redistricting plan. We'll go to the maps just a moment, but I
18 want to just make a couple comments before that.
19 The Unadjusted Census shows that California grew
20 by over 4 million people in the last 10 years. That entitles
21 California to one new Congressional seat in Washington, D.C.
22 The Unadjusted Census also shows that 80 percent of those 4
23 million people were Latino. That entitles the Latino community
24 to a greater voice in Washington, D.C.
25 The redistricting plan that you will adopt must
26 reflect the changing face of California. Our proposal is quite
27 simple: Keep like communities together; keep them whole; give
28 them the opportunity to elect the representatives of their
33
1 choice.
2 As Zachary Gonzalez mentioned to you, this plan,
3 the one I will present in a moment, is a combination of an
4 extensive outreach effort. The community reflects similar
5 socio-economic, cultural, and historical bonds that have similar
6 concerns about education, health care, law enforcement, housing,
7 and our map really incorporates all of those ideas and all of
8 those issues.
9 Wherever possible we do not cross city lines or
10 county lines, and when we do cross city lines, it's either as a
11 direct result of population constraints from a neighboring
12 district, or the community has told us that that city has two
13 communities of interest on separate sides of the line, that they
14 have different representational needs.
15 In planning our redistricting project, and in
16 drawing Congressional lines, we follow all redistricting
17 criteria enumerated by Steve Reyes. As a consequence, we
18 believe that race was not a primary factor in any of the
19 districts that we are presenting today. Our plan keeps minority
20 communities together in a way that promotes equal representation
21 for all.
22 I will now highlight some of the areas, show the
23 map.
24 One of the concerns of our district -- of our
25 actual plan was to make sure that some communities which were
26 previously divided into two or three or four Congressional
27 districts are placed back into one district, or that some
28 communities that are currently in one district remain in one
34
1 district.
2 My testimony will be followed by some testimony
3 from community members. You've already heard testimony of
4 members, of our community folks from the Central Valley. You
5 will hear additional testimony in San Jose, in San Diego, and
6 Sacramento.
7 I will start by describing the Los Angeles County
8 areas. Please show that area.
9 Los Angeles County, every Congressional seat has
10 to have 640,000 people in it. Los Angeles County, it does have
11 currently 17 Congressional seats which are wholly or partially
12 within the county. And they're underpopulated combined total is
13 350,000 people short for the county. That necessitates that
14 districts will be moved, and they will probably be moved
15 outwards towards the county line. That means that districts
16 that were previously on the county line may be moved over the
17 county line into neighboring counties.
18 For example, District 28 will be moved into the
19 City of Upland in San Bernardino County.
20 District 39 will take a larger portion of Orange
21 County.
22 District 41 will be moved almost entirely into
23 Riverside County; in fact, Riverside City.
24 In all of these districts, the incumbents still
25 live in their districts. I wanted to mention that.
26 One of the most important areas of concern during
27 our Congressional project were the southeast cities of Los
28 Angeles. Please show District 38.
35
1 We believe that the southeast cities of Los
2 Angeles, as Councilman Hector de la Torre previously pointed
3 out, are now deserving of an effective Congressional district.
4 Currently they have one, Congressional District 33, Lucille
5 Roybal-Allard.
6 We believe that the northern portion of the
7 district that we have drawn really has sufficient population and
8 communities of interest for a second Congressional district.
9 The cities within those districts, and let me clarify the
10 Congress Member that previously testified, are: Cudahy,
11 Huntington Park, Lynwood, Southgate, Paramount, Bellflower, and
12 Lakewood. And also the unincorporated areas such as Walnut,
13 Florence Graham, East Compton, and North Long Beach.
14 The majority of the people living in these cities
15 have very similar concerns regarding education, regarding
16 transportation, regarding destruction of their cities,
17 completion of the Alameda Corridor. These are very densely
18 packed cities with high population numbers that have trended
19 Latino over the last ten years. They are home to some of the
20 largest schools in the entire state. In fact, some of them have
21 very large schools in the entire country.
22 The growth and the cities of the southeast of Los
23 Angeles really necessitates the ability to create a new district
24 there. All we do is move the current district northward. It
25 does not disrupt the makeup of all the Congressional districts
26 in Los Angeles County.
27 I'd like to also show the new district, actually
28 District 26 in the San Fernando Valley. MALDEF and the William
36
1 C. Velazquez Institute are committed to ensuring that the
2 community in the San Fernando Valley, which is currently located
3 in Congressional District 26 remains in District 26, and is not
4 divided to bolster the parties in balance of neighboring
5 districts. This is a very compact, politically cohesive
6 district, and the community there feels very strongly that they
7 remain in that district.
8 This district has grown by over 45 percent in
9 Latino population over the last ten years, as compared to only
10 10 percent growth in East Los Angeles. It is rapidly growing
11 with new immigrants and new citizens who are registering to
12 vote.
13 The communities of San Fernando have similar
14 socio-economic similarities. They have concerns about
15 infrastructure, transportation, affordable housing. In the last
16 ten years, they've elected their first Latino Assembly Member,
17 first Latino Senator, and most recently their first Los Angeles
18 City Council President. They rightfully belong in one
19 Congressional district.
20 A lot of people are wondering, well, where is the
21 new 53rd seat going to go. We placed it in an area that has
22 tremendous growth, and that is in the Central Valley. The
23 combined overpopulation of the districts that are currently in
24 the Central Valley -- could you please go to the Central Valley
25 -- are over a quarter of a million people. There is sufficient
26 population in this area to accommodate a new Congressional
27 district. We placed it in the County of Tulare.
28 People in Tulare have mentioned numerous times
37
1 that they are divided by three Assembly districts, they are
2 divided by three Congressional districts, and none of the
3 Assembly Members nor the Congressional Members are from Tulare
4 County.
5 In District 53, as we have drawn it, 13 percent
6 of the district will be located -- 13 percent of the population
7 will be located in Tulare County. The remaining portion will be
8 located in the City of Fresno. Only the City of Earlymart, down
9 in the southern portion of Tulare, will remain in the previous
10 Congressional District 20. They identified their community as
11 being more leaning to Delano, right over the county line. Zoom
12 into that area, Earlymart.
13 I'd also like to mention that Tulare County is
14 one of only two counties in the State of California that has
15 over 50 percent Latino population. The other county, of course,
16 is Imperial County.
17 The district brings together a lot of the
18 community along Highway 99 and citrus belt.
19 Speaking of Imperial County, I'd like to also
20 show --
21 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Could I ask you, either the
22 map's vague or my eyes don't work too well, can you describe the
23 new district, the boundaries?
24 MR. VELEZ: Certainly.
25 The district is primarily made up of Tulare
26 County. And then it also has a large portion of the City of
27 Fresno, going through the corridor along Orange Cove, which is
28 right on the border of Tulare County and Fresno County.
38
1 Within the City of Fresno, it's everything north
2 of Congressional District 20's current boundaries. It takes in
3 a large portion of West Fresno.
4 Maybe if we could give the Members our new maps,
5 you could refer to the maps.
6 CHAIRMAN PERATA: That would be great; thank you.
7 MR. VELEZ: I'd also like to show Congressional
8 District 44, which is currently in Coachella Valley in Imperial
9 County -- I mean Riverside County.
10 The community in Imperial County feels very
11 strongly that they have a very strong community of interest
12 along the Coachella Valley-Imperial County corridor, the cities
13 of Calexico, El Centro, Coachella, Cathedral City, Banning,
14 going all the way over to Moreno Valley. They have similar
15 concerns about agriculture, unemployment. These are farming
16 communities.
17 The historical highway dates back 500 years, and
18 many people testified about this in the Assembly hearing in San
19 Bernardino. There is a historical highway from Mexico to
20 California, continues to be a transportation highway for
21 business, crossing the county -- I mean the U.S. border and
22 Mexico border.
23 By including Imperial County with their brothers
24 and neighbors in the Coachella Valley, this district will have a
25 very large Latino population, close to 50 percent.
26 Close to Congressional District 44 is
27 Congressional District 42, currently held by Congress Member Joe
28 Baca. The community in this district, much like the
39
1 Congressional District 26, feels that they need to be left in
2 one Congressional district and not divided -- not united with
3 Riverside. It has a core community with San Bernardino, Rialto,
4 Fontana, Ontario. And then part of Rancho Cucamonga, it's just
5 one of those streets where the communities had, in Rancho
6 Cucamonga the street is Foothill Boulevard, the community has
7 clearly stated that south of Foothill Boulevard you have one
8 community; north of Foothill Boulevard, you have a community
9 that live in five-car garages and mansions.
10 So, they believe that half of the city, or the
11 southern half of Rancho Cucamonga should remain in and with
12 Congressional District 42.
13 I'd also like to review the four current
14 districts with large Latino populations in the County of Los
15 Angeles, starting with Congressional District 30. Congressional
16 District 30 will take in the neighboring city or neighborhood of
17 Silver Lake, and also keep a large portion of Korea Town. It
18 also moves because of population constraints eastwards along
19 communities of interest in El Sereno and Alhambra.
20 The neighboring district, Congressional District
21 31, will also move eastward into the City of West Covina, but it
22 also remains with some ties to East Los Angeles. That's one
23 corridor. Congressional District 31 will pick up the City of La
24 Puente, which has many ties to El Monte and West Covina.
25 Congressional District 34, just south here, also
26 has to move toward the county and move southward to the cities
27 of Cerritos, Artesia, and Hawaiian Gardens.
28 All of these districts have moved to accommodate
40
1 the new 38th District, to give greater voice and representation
2 to the members of the communities from the southeast cities.
3 I'd also like to mention that the three African
4 American districts that are currently in Los Angeles, and the
5 fourth district that is in Oakland, Congresswoman Barbara Lee's
6 district, are all maintained under the MALDEF redistricting
7 plan.
8 The districts move northward, and Congresswoman
9 Diane Watson's seat moved northward into the area of Korea Town.
10 It moves also northward into the area between Santa Monica and
11 Beverly Hills or Westwood.
12 The district of Maxine Waters, Congressional
13 District 35, moves westwards into Lawndale, in the Westchester
14 area.
15 And Congressional District 37, Representative
16 Juanita Millender-McDonald, will move southwards into the
17 community of San Pedro, which is one that's currently divided
18 across Assembly plans, Congressional plans, and Senate plans, to
19 move southward into the cities of San Pedro, near El Seguro,
20 eastward toward Long Beach, South Long Beach and Central Long
21 Beach.
22 I also wanted to mention that often times a small
23 community's most reflective of the larger picture, and that
24 community is Pico Union, which is currently divided by three
25 Congressional districts and three Assembly districts. And this
26 is a very small area. If you could, show the people the Pico
27 Union area of Los Angeles. Currently it's divided along the
28 major corridor, which is Hoover Street.
41
1 The community has told us and will testify today
2 that that line should move to northern -- the line should move
3 southward to the 110, the Harbor Freeway, and Highway 10. That
4 that community should not be divided, and they should have the
5 ability to have one representative answer their concerns.
6 I'd like to conclude my remarks, unless you have
7 any questions, by saying that our Congressional plan really
8 gives the diverse communities in California fair representation.
9 I'll end with a quote by former Congressman
10 Hector de la Torres, who said, "Stir the political pot as you
11 wish. The final redistricting plan which is offered for
12 consumption cannot be digested unless minorities in California
13 are treated fairly."
14 Fairness should be both your starting point to
15 reasoning and your final bottom line.
16 I would like to introduce our next speaker from
17 the Pico Union area, Bert Saavedra.
18 MR. SAAVEDRA: Honorable Members, thank you for
19 the opportunity to speak to your Committee. My name is Bert
20 Saavedra. That's S-a-a-v-e-d-r-a.
21 I'm director of a community-based organization
22 working in the Pico Union area for nine years. My testimony
23 will recommend the boundaries that are best recognized as Pico
24 Union. The boundaries are located in the central city area of
25 Los Angeles. Olympic to the north; the Santa Monica Freeway to
26 the south; the Harbor Freeway to the east; and Normandy to the
27 west.
28 It sits within two postal zip codes, 06 and 15,
42
1 with approximately 63,000 inhabitants.
2 The majority of the population consists of
3 working poor immigrants from Mexico and Central America.
4 Pico Boulevard is a main corridor in Pico Union
5 and a home to many small and medium businesses that serve the
6 residents with goods and services. Sprinkled throughout the
7 community are long-time resident homeowners and renters that are
8 actively involved in addressing quality of life issues.
9 Pico Union's residents face many challenges:
10 lack of green space; overcrowded schools; poor public
11 transportation flow north and south; lack of affordable housing;
12 the oldest unreinforced masonry dwellings in the City of Los
13 Angeles; high crime rates; drug problems and a growing
14 prostitution problem. And as you can see by the map which you
15 have, an over concentration alcohol licenses. Everyone of those
16 colors designates an alcohol license in that one zip code. And
17 most recently the Rampart scandal.
18 The state and federal representation further
19 complicates solutions, with district boundaries that cut through
20 the community of approximately 1.9 miles, which gives us
21 fragmented representation. We currently have two Assembly
22 Members that we work, with Assemblyman Cedillos and Assemblyman
23 Wright, two senatorial districts, Senator Polanco and Senator
24 Murray, and two Congressional Members that we work with,
25 Congresswoman Roybal-Allard and Becerra, representing our
26 community.
27 We are considered a Gemini community, forgotten
28 or underserved. We are either the northeastern most point of
43
1 one district, or the southern western most point of another
2 district. In one case, the closest district office is
3 approximately 15 miles away.
4 Added to this puzzle of representation is our
5 local government. It consists of two Council Members, Council
6 Member Holden and new Councilman Reyes, and two LAPD Divisions,
7 the Rampart and the Wilshire Division.
8 We would hope with all this representation, we
9 would not have the challenges we face daily, living and working
10 in the Pico Union area. As far as accountability is concerned,
11 if we had one Assembly Member, one Senate Member, and one
12 Congressional Member, it would be a more direct course of action
13 to solve some of our challenges and to prevent the community
14 members from being bounced from door to door seeking some help.
15 As you know, the foremost reason for drawing
16 lines is to give community representation. That equates to
17 improving their quality of life. It is not to cut up a
18 community in such a way that fragments services.
19 We are asking that you keep Pico Union as one
20 unit of interest for the next ten years, and since the method of
21 the Gemini system of representation has not served the
22 community's best interest.
23 I will close with a quote that I heard recently,
24 and I will paraphrase: A statesman or a statesperson is a
25 politician that serves the people; and a politician is a
26 statesman or statesperson that serves themselves.
27 We in Pico Union deserve the former.
28 Thank you.
44
1 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you very much.
2 MS. SCOTT: Good morning. I'm Jane Scott. I'm
3 a resident and homeowner in Pico Union since 1980. My husband
4 was born and raised in Pico Union. We've raised our two sons in
5 this community. I'm a retired college professor from a local
6 community college.
7 I am a member of the Neighborhood Watch, the
8 Alvarado Terrace Homeowners Association, the Windmill Links
9 Community Grassroots Organization, and the Coalition to Improve
10 Quality of Life in Rampart, the basis of the concept for Mayor
11 Riordan's Operation Healthy Neighborhoods.
12 Our community, Pico Union, has traditionally and
13 historically been within the boundaries of Santa Monica Freeway,
14 Harbor Freeway, Olympic Boulevard, and Normandy Avenue. This is
15 the geographic area brought to mind when we all talk about Pico
16 Union.
17 We have a population of about 62,000 people of
18 diverse origins, cultures, and beliefs. Our community is
19 represented by two different council districts, three different
20 State Assembly representatives, two different State Senators,
21 and three different Representatives in Congress. Does this make
22 any sense at all to any of you?
23 We respectfully ask you to respect our community,
24 and do not divide our community in fragments so that none of us
25 get any decent representation in the multiple districts because
26 we will be small and we won't matter.
27 We ask that you really respect our concerns when
28 you draw up new district boundaries. We no longer want or wish
45
1 to be known as Pico Union, the dumping ground for Los Angeles.
2 We have a voice and want to be heard by you. If
3 you don't or wont hear, we can and will find our louder voice.
4 Pico Union is very unique. We are the first
5 suburb of Los Angeles. We are the largest intact area of
6 turn-of-the-last-century homes west of the Mississippi River.
7 We have homes on the National Historic Register as well as on
8 the City's Historic Register.
9 We are working very hard to get an Historic
10 Protection Overlay Zone, an HPOZ, for our community, as well as
11 trying to stop the indiscriminate demolition of our moderately
12 significant historic homes, because even the moderately
13 significant historic homes add to the flavor of our community.
14 We are investigating the process for a specific plan for our
15 community so these things don't happen.
16 The various sections of Pico Union are similar,
17 in that there are many houses which are single family residences
18 and historic, as well as many fine old apartment buildings.
19 Many of our resident owners are beginning to paint and refurbish
20 these old houses, making them beautiful once again, thus making
21 them the gems of Los Angeles. This is creating a pride of
22 ownership in our community once again.
23 Our residents are from all races -- black, white,
24 Latino, Asian and Islanders -- as well as diverse cultures:
25 Euro-American, Mexican, Salvadoran, Korean, Filipino, Equadorian
26 and Greek. We run the gamut for the various levels of income.
27 Some residents are affluent, and some are very poor.
28 The greatest factor is that most of our residents
46
1 like living in Pico Union. We don't see the blighted areas that
2 the media sees. We do have our problems, but we are becoming
3 more and more organized and are starting to make a big
4 difference in Pico Union.
5 Please help us to keep Pico Union intact. Give
6 us the representation that we deserve and the services that are
7 important to the more affluent areas of Los Angeles and
8 California.
9 Please do not keep Pico Union pictured as the
10 downtrodden, blighted, God forsaken area of Los Angeles that
11 many people in other parts of the city are terrified to enter.
12 Help us make Pico Union the showcase of Los Angeles.
13 There are many, many good people who live here.
14 We believe that if we are in one district instead of three, we
15 will finally get representatives on all levels of government who
16 will keep our interests in mind and work for us, not against
17 us.
18 Thank you.
19 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you.
20 MS. SORIANO: Good morning. My name Mayra
21 Soriano, M-a-y-r-a S-o-r-i-a-n-o. I'm here to read a letter on
22 behalf Carlos Vaquerano. That's spelled V-a-q-u-e-r-a-n-o.
23 "Dear Members of the Elections and
24 Reapportionment Committee,
25 "Hello and good morning.
26 My name is Carlos Vaquerano, and I
27 have worked for over twenty years
28 in Los Angeles advocating for human
47
1 and immigrant rights, especially
2 in the Pico Union district.
3 "I am the Executive
4 Director of the Salvadoran-American
5 Leadership and Educational Fund,
6 SALEF, a nonprofit, nonpartisan,
7 civic and organization committed
8 to expanding opportunities for
9 Salvadoran-Americans and other
10 Central American communities in
11 the United States. Our main
12 goals are community empowerment,
13 leadership development, and
14 providing educational support.
15 SALEF serves the Central American
16 and other Latino populations,
17 especially those residing in the
18 Pico Union area. Thus, we
19 recognize their needs and
20 concerns.
21 "Los Angeles has the
22 second largest concentration of
23 Salvadorans in the world,
24 surpassed only by San Salvador,
25 the capital of El Salvador. This
26 population is rapidly growing.
27 The Pico Union region, where
28 SALEF is located, is home to the
48
1 Salvadoran community that
2 migrated in large numbers in the
3 '80s.
4 "Despite the condensed
5 living environment, lack of parks,
6 health care, education and
7 employment, this has become a
8 community in transition: adapting,
9 growing, and contributing
10 economically, politically,
11 socially and culturally.
12 "The Pico Union area is
13 currently divided under three
14 different Congressional districts.
15 Having this division makes it
16 harder to target and directly
17 apply greatly needed resources.
18 The community as a whole will
19 benefit from one Congressional
20 District.
21 "SALEF joins MALDEF and
22 the William C. Velazquez Institute
23 in urging you to support the
24 enforcement of the Voting Rights
25 Act, which ensures our community's
26 votes are not diluted, and
27 respecting the Central American and
28 other communities that reside in
49
1 the area by not maintaining them
2 divided and splitting them into
3 multiple districts.
4 "It is pertinent that
5 the needs of the Salvadoran and
6 Central American communities be
7 addressed when considering the
8 redrawing of the district lines.
9 "Once again, on behalf
10 of SALEF and the Central American
11 community, I thank you for your
12 consideration of this testimony."
13 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you.
14 MS. GALLARDO-ROOKER: Good morning. My name is
15 Alexandra Gallardo-Rooker, G-a-l-l-a-r-d-o hyphen R-o-o-k-e-r.
16 I'm a Vice President for Communications Workers
17 of America, Local Number 400, and also Vice Chair of the
18 California Democratic Party, and also a candidate for the 52nd
19 Assembly District.
20 I live and have worked in the city of Paramount
21 for the last 15 years, and I've seen the changes in the
22 demographics in that city. And under the present
23 configurations, that city no longer has a kinship with Cerritos
24 or Lakewood as it's configured today.
25 The demographics have changed tremendously, not
26 only in that city, but in that whole area. It really, like
27 Council Member Hector de la Torre stated before, really shares a
28 lot of commonalities with the cities of Lynwood and South Gate,
50
1 and getting to be that way with the city of Compton in the way
2 that it's changed in demographics.
3 As far as I know, we're here at this Senate
4 hearing as a diverse community, and I like it that way. I'd
5 like the cities to be kept whole also, because we have some
6 cities that are split between one Assembly district and another,
7 and the same thing in Congressional. I think that's important.
8 The community would like to keep it whole so that they have more
9 representation.
10 I think they do deserve representation in that
11 area in the way that it has changed.
12 I thank you very much. I just wanted to make my
13 statements brief and make my comments. Thank you very much.
14 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you. We appreciate it.
15 Is Arturo Reyes here? Mr. Reyes.
16 MR. REYES: Good morning. My name is Arturo
17 Reyes. I'm a Councilman in the City of the Lynwood.
18 By the MALDEF plan, we would have fair
19 representation. Our city, the demographics have changed
20 tremendously. Right now, we're 85 percent Hispanic in the City
21 of Lynwood, and we share that same values, and the same
22 qualities, and the same responsibilities, the same problems,
23 that all of the cities that were mentioned by Councilman de la
24 Torre.
25 I would recommend very, very much this plan. I
26 believe we need this kind of representation. We are -- we
27 really do.
28 For example, I'll give you an example. Our
51
1 Assembly district, the last time I saw my Assemblyman was when
2 he first went to ask for my support to be elected. I haven't
3 seen him in the City of Lynwood in the past four or five years.
4 And it's nothing that I have against him, but he
5 should represent us instead of going to other communities, to
6 very, very adjacent communities, and leave us alone.
7 So, we need representation, and I would recommend
8 this change because it would give representation. It will give
9 us a fair and equal value as other communities.
10 I will thank you for your support.
11 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you.
12 Anyone else here to speak with MALDEF?
13 MR. GUERRERO: Good morning. My name is Jaime
14 Guerrero. That's G-u-e-r-r-e-r-o.
15 I'm a 29-year resident of the City of Paramount.
16 I'm also an employee of the City of Paramount Public Safety
17 Department.
18 I'm here to support the MALDEF plan which gives
19 our city, the City of Paramount, which has over the years grown
20 tremendously, not only demographics but in population,
21 especially Latino population, to have a greater voice in
22 Congress.
23 And if that voice gets out in our city, dealing
24 with some of the issues, perhaps our Congressman or woman could
25 possibly give us programs that deal with some of these issues
26 because of the growing population, perhaps more bilingual law
27 enforcement, and bilingual programs in schools, and so forth, to
28 deal with some of these growing Latino population issues.
52
1 Once again, I'm here to support, strongly
2 support, the MALDEF plan. I hope you can seriously take it into
3 consideration in any decision you make.
4 Thank you.
5 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you.
6 MS. SCOTT: I have a statement from Mr. Eric
7 Gutierrez.
8 I am Jane Scott, and I'm reading a statement for
9 Mr. Eric Gutierrez, G-u-t-i-e-r-r-e-z.
10 "My name is Eric Gutierrez, and
11 I would like to thank you for
12 the opportunity to voice my
13 concern regarding the important
14 process of redistricting which
15 is inevitably going to impact
16 my community.
17 "I have been a resident
18 of Norwalk, California since 1971.
19 I attended public schools in the
20 cities of Norwalk, Artesia, and
21 Cerritos. I furthered my
22 education by receiving a Bachelor
23 of Arts Degree in political
24 science and a Master's Degree in
25 urban planning from UCLA.
26 "At present, I am an
27 educator in the very same K-12
28 schools which I attended in my
53
1 youth. Furthermore, I am an
2 instructor at Cerritos Community
3 College and consider myself an
4 active participant in the
5 continued development of my
6 community.
7 "From the perspective
8 of an educator, I can attest to
9 the past and present needs of my
10 community, and have noted
11 overwhelming similarities in our
12 efforts and shared goals of
13 continued economic, social, and
14 political development and mutual
15 prosperity.
16 "Furthermore, I am of
17 the opinion that these cities --
18 Norwalk, Cerritos, Artesia, and
19 Hawaiian Gardens -- although
20 independently defined by
21 geographic lines, share much in
22 common with one another. These
23 areas reflect the changing
24 demographics of both California
25 and the United States. Ethnic
26 diversity is strong; however,
27 similarities in our basic needs
28 and interests, such as receiving
54
1 a quality education for children,
2 or having access to adult
3 programs such as life-long
4 learning or continuing education,
5 are shared desires.
6 "Beyond the shared
7 desires, there is a strong
8 shared ethic which stresses hard
9 work and a sense of community.
10 Many of us have family who
11 reside within several of these
12 cities. Historically, this has
13 allowed us to foster our sense
14 of community which crosses the
15 established boundaries of cities.
16 Hence, while city boundaries are
17 distinct, our perception of
18 these cities has and shall
19 continue to be one which
20 recognizes the innate sense of
21 community, shared values, and
22 vision for ourselves, our
23 families and our communities.
24 "I strongly urge you
25 to take my experience, both as
26 an educator and a life-long
27 resident, into consideration
28 when determining the final
55
1 district boundaries.
2 "Although the previous
3 statement reflects my personal
4 thoughts, it also reflects the
5 sentiments of thousands of
6 residents and members of our
7 community. Our community has
8 been established, defined, and
9 withstood the test of time as
10 the area changed over the years.
11 This sense of community has been
12 further solidified through
13 history.
14 "I sincerely hope that
15 the efforts of redistricting will
16 compliment the shared goals of our
17 community and not serve as an
18 instrument to divide our mutual
19 efforts and interests."
20 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you.
21 Anyone else here from MALDEF.
22 Mr. Velez, do you want to conclude?
23 MR. VELEZ: That's it. Those are all the members
24 of the community.
25 Thank you very much.
26 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you very much for your
27 cogent presentation.
28 We're going to break one hour for lunch and to
56
1 give the stenographer an opportunity to get feeling back in her
2 hands.
3 We'll endeavor to start again at quarter to one.
4 Thank you.
5 [Thereupon the Afternoon
6 Recess was taken.]
7 --oo0oo--
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9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
57
1 AFTERNOON PROCEEDINGS
2 --oo0oo--
3 CHAIRMAN PERATA: We're going to reconvene and
4 ask that the Inland Area African American Redistricting
5 Coalition come forward to present.
6 I understand that you have a Council Member that
7 wants to go back to work. I can't imagine that. Good for you.
8 MS. POWELL: We'd like to thank the Committee.
9 My name is Beverly Powell, and I am a Member of
10 the San Bernardino Community College Board of Trustee.
11 And I'm also here to represent the Inland Area
12 African American Redistricting Coalition. The Coalition
13 consists of nine African American organizations in San
14 Bernardino and Riverside Counties.
15 There are three key points that the Coalition
16 would like to stress to this Committee, the key points that each
17 presenter after me will reinforce are, one, that we strongly
18 support the concept of one person-one vote.
19 Two, we want to keep the natural communities of
20 interest in one district.
21 And three, we want communities of the Ebony
22 Triangle kept together. And when I refer to the Ebony Triangle,
23 I will give this map to the recorder, but basically it's the
24 region bounded by the I-210 East, I-10 South, I-15 to the west.
25 The Inland Empire, San Bernardino and Riverside
26 Counties are referred to as the Inland Empire, has over 250
27 [sic] persons of African decent, or about 10 percent of the
28 state's black population. The region ranks second to Los
58
1 Angeles County with respect to the number of black residents.
2 There have been key areas of growth for African
3 Americans in the Inland Empire. They include the areas of the
4 Victorville desert area, the Moreno Valley-Riverside-Perris
5 area, the west end of San Bernardino County, Rancho Cucamonga
6 and Rialto, and the Ebony Triangle.
7 The Triangle is unique because of this growth,
8 population concentration, and its ability to elect blacks to
9 public office. The Ebony Triangle is a region bounded again --
10 as I said, I will give the map to the recorder -- again, it's
11 the area bounded by I-210 to the east, I-10 to the south, and
12 I-15 on the west.
13 Thirty-two percent of the San Bernardino County
14 black population resides in the Ebony Triangle, with the highest
15 concentration of African Americans in the City of Rialto. The
16 black communities have been very active throughout the Inland
17 Empire. Blacks have served in a number of local offices, from
18 school boards to city council, from city clerks to mayors, and
19 also on the community college boards. And again, it's in
20 reference to Rialto's having the highest concentration of blacks
21 in San Bernardino County.
22 It's not that Rialto has a majority of the
23 population of blacks in Rialto, but it does -- I mean, the
24 majority is actually Hispanic in the city, but the city has
25 elected four city officials at large, so that really is a unique
26 community.
27 We are very strongly committed to seeing that our
28 Assembly, Senate and Congressional districts be anchored around
59
1 the Ebony Triangle and the City of Rialto, and its sphere of
2 influence are kept intact. Political intrigue would definitely
3 reach political influence of the black community. Our Coalition
4 suggests that we look at the development of a Senate district
5 that incorporates the Pomona Valley, Claremont, Montclair and
6 Ontario.
7 We would also like to see your committee look at
8 the possibility of developing a Senate district in the Inland
9 Empire that extends from the Ebony Triangle south to Riverside,
10 to Moreno Valley. It would also include most of the City of San
11 Bernardino to the I-10 and follow I-215 to State Highway 60, and
12 end in Moreno Valley and the Perris area. This new Senate seat
13 would be approximately comprised of 80,000 African American
14 residents, which would be about 10 to 12 percent African
15 American.
16 The other members of the African American
17 Redistricting Coalition will follow, and they'll touch or expand
18 on some of the points I've made as well as address other
19 concerns.
20 And like I said, I will submit --
21 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Would you give us that map?
22 MS. POWELL: Sure, I will give you the map, and
23 I'm going to give you my full statement. Like I said, what I
24 just stated is the Reader's Digest version.
25 CHAIRMAN PERATA: It'll be easier to follow
26 along. Thank you.
27 Just turn around and give it to that handsome
28 gentleman behind you.
60
1 MS. POWELL: Okay, thank you very much.
2 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you.
3 MR. WILSON: Good afternoon. I'm Kurt Wilson
4 from the City of Rialto. The City of Rialto has not taken a
5 formal adopted position on the redistricting issue. So, because
6 of that, I'm not here in an official capacity, but I do have to
7 get back to a meeting, so thank you for making the
8 accommodations.
9 Just very briefly, I'd like to touch to on some
10 of the things that the previous speaker mentioned. I'll spare
11 you the demographics and the data. You have heard and will
12 continue to hear from future speakers a simple point of
13 reference. The City of Rialto is somewhat at the center point
14 of the Ebony Triangle, which was mentioned, that map you're
15 looking at the moment.
16 The City of Rialto, I'm most familiar with that.
17 We are a city with approximately just under 100,000 residents,
18 and we're about 26 square miles. The geographic challenge for
19 us is that although we do encompass an area of nearly 26 square
20 miles, we're very narrow. In our east-west boundaries, we
21 average anywhere from approximately two-three miles wide. So,
22 we're very narrow. So consequently, our north-south borders
23 make up the bulk of the City of Rialto.
24 Geographically, that gives us some difficult
25 issues to deal with when it comes to governance and when it
26 comes to political issues, because we're not able to have
27 residential areas, for example, spread out throughout the entire
28 city. Because we're so narrow, we don't have a certain spot
61
1 that's just industrial or just commercial, it's very difficult.
2 As a consequence with our city, even though we have nearly
3 100,000 residents, we're still at-large. We do not have
4 districts as a consequence of that.
5 Unfortunately, at the current time, the lines
6 that are currently in use for us were drawn -- at the time that
7 they were drawn, our north end was very scantily populated.
8 Since that time we've had tremendous growth. Because of that
9 growth, it's no longer effective for us to have the lines as
10 they're currently drawn. The north ends -- I'm not sure if it
11 speaks on the map on that -- but Highland Avenue is currently
12 the ending point for -- between two districts. So, that's where
13 our legislative seats in both houses, both of our Congressional
14 seats boundaries end.
15 The problem for us is that it leaves out a
16 significant portion of our community, a community that is of the
17 same makeup as rest of the City of Rialto.
18 That area is also a very noncommercial area.
19 It's a very residential area. So, by having the northern part
20 of Rialto -- and again, I'm only using Rialto as the example
21 because I'm most familiar with it -- but by having that northern
22 portion of the city cut off and put into different districts, it
23 makes it very difficult for us even to solve our basic needs,
24 such as transportation. And we have significant transportation
25 needs.
26 And our current representation is wonderful, and
27 we have a wonderful working relationship with each of those
28 people. Unfortunately, each of those people don't necessarily
62
1 have that same wonderful relationship with each other, and it
2 makes it very difficult for us to get even --
3 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Nicely put.
4 MR. WILSON: -- state issues and federal issues
5 with that.
6 So again, quite simply, you'll get your data from
7 the other speakers, but I did want to just mention that it would
8 be very important for us to have the entire City of Rialto, as
9 well as our surrounding community, into one district.
10 Thank you.
11 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you, Councilman. It's
12 okay if you speak and run. We certainly understand, Councilman.
13 REV. SNOWDEN: Good afternoon, Committee
14 Chairperson, to the Members, public service servants and
15 constituents of our good State of California today.
16 I thank you for this opportunity to address you,
17 and for the fact that I'm getting to speak here today.
18 For the record, my name is Reverend Robin Jones
19 Snowden. I'm a member of the New Hope Missionary Baptist
20 Church, which is located in the west side of San Bernardino, the
21 City of and the County of San Bernardino, where which serve on
22 the ministerial staff as a community liaison for Pastor
23 Dr. Farrod.
24 I also stand here as a representative of the San
25 Bernardino based Inland Empire of Concerned African American
26 Churches. I see on the agenda we're listed as the Inland Empire
27 Concerned African American Ministers Association. That's more
28 of an adjective than it is a noun, but the proper name is Inland
63
1 Empire of Concerned African American Churches.
2 Even before the Civil Rights Movement, the
3 African American church has been a locus of social, political,
4 cultural, and economic change. Its location in the historical
5 African American community is a key fundamental in the lives of
6 its members. Our worshippers came from in and outside the
7 community for remedies to problems that social and governmental
8 human service delivery systems and processes refused to or could
9 not provide.
10 We have as a people made economic, social and
11 political strides. Nevertheless, the African American church is
12 still at the center of social change, economic development, and
13 economic empowerment for us. Those of us who've moved from the
14 neighborhoods, as it were, into the suburbs still commute to our
15 home bases to worship with fellowship, and to support and do
16 business in the community.
17 The historical African American neighborhood has
18 and always will remain our community of interest. And any
19 action to break it apart is viewed by the citizenry as an
20 affront to the persons who live, work, support, find sanctuary,
21 do business, and worship in it.
22 I am not a native Californian. I was born in the
23 Commonwealth of Virginia. My paternal grandfather was born in
24 that same state on January 1st in the year 1888. He lived in
25 one of the original three-state counties. He experienced
26 first-hand the vestiges of slavery and encountered
27 disenfranchisement at every turn.
28 But that didn't stop him, because he fought to
64
1 build African American communities, and for the right not only
2 to vote, but to have a vote that counts.
3 He viewed any person in his community as part of
4 his cohort. That is to say, he wanted the person there to have
5 the same rights and privileges that he did. And he supported
6 one person-one vote with that cohort of shared interests, of
7 culture, and community, and to ensure that the African American
8 community itself did not fall victim to any practice such as
9 gerrymandering, or anything like that which would disenfranchise
10 us further.
11 I stand here today with the Inland Area African
12 American Redistricting Coalition to support the following.
13 Number one: one person, one vote. Number two: that the
14 communities in what have been identified as the Ebony Triangle
15 be kept together, and that natural communities of interest be
16 kept in one district, and to entreat you to not turn back the
17 clock on our progress as African American communities.
18 Two weeks ago today, a public hearing took place
19 in the County Government Center in the City of San Bernardino.
20 In the opening remarks, an elected public official commented
21 that it was good to see so many persons present who were
22 concerned about their, and I quote, "little communities."
23 I was struck deeply by that comment and taken
24 aback, because our community of interest is not little. Quite
25 the contrary. Thirty-two percent of the County's African
26 American population resides there.
27 This concentration of 32 percent of the County's
28 African American population is significant in the definition of
65
1 who we are, and in our ability to elect persons to political
2 office who will speak specifically for us. It's home to 20
3 percent of San Bernardino County's total population, and San
4 Bernardino is the fourth most populous county in the State of
5 California; that's behind Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego.
6 And according to a national ranking table for the 30 largest
7 counties in the United States of America, San Bernardino is the
8 8th largest.
9 African American Churches in the Inland Empire
10 form coalitions for the purpose of harnessing our collective
11 voice and taking steps favorable towards, number one, the goal
12 of securing and maintaining fair representation in government
13 for the people in our community of interest; and number two, the
14 goal of equal opportunity for economic empowerment and economic
15 development in our community of interest.
16 The Inland Empire of Concerned African American
17 Churches is one such incorporated group. This faith-based
18 collaborative is working diligently toward the completion of
19 economic solutions that will have a tremendous positive impact
20 on the Ebony Triangle, greatly benefitting the low income
21 community within its boundaries. This economic solution will
22 bring about economic self-sufficiency for the communities that
23 exist within the Ebony Triangle, which again, is our community
24 of interest.
25 We realize that your task is a difficult one, and
26 ask that you take into consideration the necessity of the
27 preservation of our community of interest, and by doing so, you
28 will not eliminate nor will you limit our potential to grow into
66
1 economic self-sufficiency and empowerment.
2 I do thank you.
3 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you.
4 MR. JACKSON: Mr. Chair, Members of the
5 Committee, my name is Corey Jackson, President of Rialto/Fontana
6 NAACP Youth Council, and also a Commissioner in the City of
7 Rialto.
8 As youth of this key concentrated area known as
9 the Ebony Triangle, we strongly support and defend the concept
10 of one person-one vote.
11 There is a perception in our society that says
12 youth do not care about getting involved in their communities.
13 They have no desire to participate in the political process.
14 I stand here before you today to let you and this
15 audience know that it may be so in other parts of this state or
16 country, but when it comes to the youth of the Ebony Triangle,
17 this is not the case. We want to make sure that when we go to
18 the polls, that our vote will count. As youth in our
19 communities, we will like to have a strong voice as to who
20 represents us and our interests.
21 Over the time, this key area has seen natural
22 formation of a community of interest that has been the
23 cornerstone for the quality of life within our community. Let
24 it be known to this audience and this Committee that the youth
25 of this community of interest want the communities of the Ebony
26 Triangle to be kept together and possibly linked to do the
27 Moreno Valley as a Senatorial District. This is vital to our
28 economical and political strength to hold our representatives
67
1 accountable for their actions and their response to our needs.
2 Because of the size of this issue, we cannot and
3 we will not accept anything less. By keeping these communities
4 together and by forming this new Senate district, our strength
5 will be enhanced and will ensure our voice is heard.
6 This community of interest has already proven its
7 existence by electing many African American elected officials
8 that have already been elected over time in our government
9 bodies. There are also many appointed commissioners and even
10 student commissioners still in high school who have a chance to
11 represent the youth in their communities.
12 The Rialto/Fontana NAACP Youth Council are asking
13 this Committee not to turn back the clock by separating these
14 communities. We ask that you let our voice be heard, and that
15 you hear the voice that stands before you today.
16 Thank you.
17 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you very much.
18 Appreciate you being here.
19 Could we have the African American Community
20 Advisory Committee? Any representatives from that group?
21 Is Alan Clayton here?
22 MR. CLAYTON: Good afternoon, Chairman Perata.
23 My name is Alan Clayton. I'm here representing the California
24 Latino Redistricting Coalition.
25 I've been involved in redistricting, dealing with
26 cities, counties, school districts, and the State of California
27 over last 16 years. I've testified before this Committee before
28 dealing with the criteria that you're going to be putting forth
68
1 as far as what standards you're looking at in drawing your maps,
2 and also your timeframes, and how much comment time you're going
3 to be giving to the public.
4 As before, I have some issues that I'd like to
5 bring up. One of the issues again is, once the maps come out,
6 we need adequate time to be able to review those maps so we can
7 form a basically intelligent, well thought out analysis of those
8 maps, and get them back to the Committee. If we find that
9 there's any deficiencies concerning violations of Section Five
10 or Section Two of the Voting Rights Act, or any districts that
11 don't make sense because they're so irregularly shaped or
12 they're basically dividing areas that we would see as a
13 community of interest.
14 So again, we express that we would like a
15 significant amount of time, not an unreasonable amount of time.
16 We're talking a week, two weeks, where we can actually review
17 the process.
18 I was glad that the Senate side is not looking at
19 the voter deferral as a component of the redistricting process
20 except for collecting the data, because frankly, I was very
21 concerned about what the Assembly side was doing, and I was glad
22 that you're not going that route.
23 The other thing that I have not heard anything
24 about on the Senate side, which I think is very commendable, I
25 haven't heard any talk or discussion about trying to go into
26 court and remove Section Five protection from the four counties
27 currently in California that have Section Five.
28 That issue came up on the Assembly side, and I'm
69
1 glad that you have not brought that up because, frankly, to my
2 mind, it was an embarrassment to the individuals. And since it
3 was, unfortunately in this case, some of the individuals of the
4 Democratic Party or elected officials, I thought it was
5 something that was wrong, because people died for the Voting
6 Rights Act. And we talk about California, and talk about taking
7 away those protections is outrageous. It's just as outrageous
8 as immigrant bashing; just as outrageous as going against civil
9 rights to individuals dealing with housing.
10 Voting Rights is very critical, and the
11 Constitution allows us to have those rights, and we do not want
12 them to be abridged.
13 In terms of the overall redistricting dealing
14 with the Senate seats, since it appears that you're not going to
15 be doing the nesting, again, we're going to look very carefully
16 in the design of those seats because we have had substantial
17 demographic changes over the last ten years.
18 I just re-read again the Special Masters Report,
19 and I also read the three judge panel analysis of the Special
20 Masters Report, and many of the things that the Special Masters
21 did I thought were very, very positive. They looked at keeping
22 regions together. They looked at ensuring that the voting
23 rights of minorities were strongly looked after, and they did in
24 '90. I didn't agree with everything they did, but I thought
25 overall, they did a good job.
26 The other thing they did I thought was important,
27 and I brought this up before your Committee before, is the issue
28 dealing with the creation of influence districts where you can.
70
1 In '91, the Special Masters said, as part of their decision
2 making process, that if there were communities that were out
3 there that were fairly significant but did not rise to the
4 Section Two, again, the Gingles criteria, those areas should be
5 looked as where ever possible to ensure that those communities
6 are not split.
7 That's why when I testified before your
8 Committee, I brought up the issue of the Special Masters Report
9 because I thought, a lot of the stuff in there is a very good --
10 basically a road map to do a fair process.
11 The other issue, and I'm glad that that was
12 dropped, was the issue of protecting the incumbency, seniority
13 of Congressionals. I don't know why that even got in there, but
14 I'm glad it's gone. And it's a credit to the Committee that
15 it's gone.
16 So, I think over the process time, there have
17 been some positive discussions. And I'm looking forward to
18 looking at the maps as they come out, being able to do an
19 analysis of those maps, and then come back and be able to
20 testify before your Committee as to any deficiencies in those
21 maps.
22 Because I sat through the process last time,
23 participated in the process last time, and one of the mistakes I
24 believe that was made -- and it was made by both parties. It
25 wasn't something that the Republican Party was doing the right
26 thing; the Democratic Party wasn't doing the right thing -- and
27 that was done by Pete Wilson's group, his independent group.
28 Frankly, the worse maps I saw were the ones that they drew. And
71
1 the interesting thing was, I think there wasn't enough
2 discussion, there wasn't enough paying attention to what we
3 said, some of us that had been around and been involved in
4 redistricting. We said it on the record, and I spoke before the
5 final Elections and Reapportionment Committee, the combined
6 Senate and Assembly. And I think what we said in the end the
7 courts looked at very carefully, and I think they agreed with us
8 in almost every area.
9 What we said was, you fragmented areas around the
10 state where there is and have been Latino communities. And you
11 also, we have areas where we know there's growth going on, and
12 basically you stunted that growth by how you designed these
13 districts. And it wasn't just in one area; it was around the
14 state.
15 Actually last time, if you go back and look at
16 the record, the one House that I did commend, even though I said
17 I disagreed with one area, was the Senate. I specifically
18 singled out Pro Tem Roberti because I thought that he had paid
19 attention to all of our testimony. I thought that Tim Hodson
20 and his staff had listened. I thought they had listened during
21 the hearings, and we said we have a problem in Fresno, because
22 frankly, there's a community out there that we think you
23 fragmented.
24 But around the state, in comparison with your
25 plan with the Assembly A, B, and C Plan, and the Governor's
26 independent commission plan, your plan was clearly a well
27 thought out plan, and clearly in many areas took into account
28 the testimony that was laid out by civil rights groups, both
72
1 African American and Latino and Asian.
2 So again, I would hope we can say that about the
3 Senate side this time, and I hope we can say that about the
4 Assembly side.
5 We will be reviewing all of the plans. We will
6 be looking at all the Supreme Court decisions, Bossier I and
7 Bossier II dealing with retrogression, Cromartie dealing with
8 how you can draw a district, and specifically the North Carolina
9 case that deals with partisanship, but also deals with where the
10 partisan voters happen to be heavily African American in North
11 Carolina; here they can be heavily Latino and heavily African
12 American. We're looking to see that if you are following what
13 Cromartie says, it is something that you can do legally; you can
14 look at that.
15 There's a belief out there by some individuals
16 that because of Shaw, because of Bush versus Vera because of
17 Milher, because of Gosher Parish, civil rights has been set back
18 so drastically that we really have no recourse, but we do.
19 I can guarantee you, we know exactly what the
20 legal recourse is, and again, we hope that we don't have to use
21 that. We hope that we can say on the final day of the hearing
22 you've done a good faith effort; you've look at the issues of
23 Section Two and Section Five. You've looked at communities of
24 interest, and you've drawn a plan that meets Section Two and
25 Section Five.
26 And we know there's going to be partisanship in
27 the plan, and you know, and all of us know that have been
28 involved in redistricting, what the courts have said on
73
1 partisanship.
2 But when you involve partisanship, when you
3 involve protections of incumbencies at the expense of the Voting
4 Rights Act is where you get in trouble.
5 And what we're asking you is to pay very close
6 attention, to work with the advocate groups, to listen to us,
7 and to give us basically your advice also when you see, for
8 example, if we put something forward and you find fault with it,
9 please let us know. We're serious. This is not something that
10 we take lightly.
11 I just did the L.A. County, put 175 hours just
12 working at a computer. We did a whole series of plans because
13 we wanted to do it right.
14 Here we want to do it right also, and I thank you
15 very much for your time.
16 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you, Alan.
17 We have two representatives from the Armenian
18 National Committee of America. Are they present?
19 The Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans for Fair
20 Redistricting.
21 MS. FENG: Good morning.
22 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Good afternoon.
23 MS. FENG: I want to thank Senator Perata and
24 Senator Polanco for being here today.
25 CHAIRMAN PERATA: She's going to ask your name.
26 MS. FENG: My name is Kathay Feng, K-a-t-h-a-y,
27 last name is F-e-n-g.
28 We've got a little bit of a change in the
74
1 line-up, but we do have two of our speakers. Eugene Moy and
2 Albert Huang will be speaking, and I will be following up with
3 the demographic information. And all of us do have our written
4 testimony that will be submitted as well, so your life will be
5 made a little bit easier.
6 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you.
7 MS. FENG: We did also have some projections, but
8 those projections, because we don't have an overhead projector,
9 we'll have to rely on our hard copy versions. Unfortunately,
10 the audience cannot be able to see some of the areas that we're
11 talking about.
12 I'd like to introduce our first speaker,
13 Mr. Eugene Moy.
14 MR. MOY: Thank you, Kathay.
15 Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, my
16 name Eugene Moy. It's spelled M-o-y.
17 I'm pleased to be here this afternoon on behalf
18 of the Asian Pacific Americans for Fair Redistricting, or APAFR,
19 of the San Gabriel Valley, which is part of the statewide
20 coalition called the Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans for
21 Fair Redistricting.
22 Before I go into my recommendations, I'd like to
23 give a little background. I know that you've heard some history
24 earlier today, but I'd like to share a little bit of my family.
25 I am a Chinese American and a baby boomer. I'm
26 one of four siblings born and raised in Los Angeles. Our family
27 goes back four generations in California, three in Los Angeles
28 county.
75
1 My mother's father and his two brothers, her
2 uncles, were in L.A. Before 1930, working in restaurants and
3 other fields of work.
4 My father arrived in the Los Angeles area in 1931
5 and worked as a farmworker, actually in picking oranges and
6 tending crops on the Rowland Ranch, which is near the east end
7 of the San Gabriel Valley, at a time when most of the valley was
8 agricultural.
9 My father was part of a long tradition of Chinese
10 and other farmworkers of Asian Pacific descent who formed the
11 majority of California's farm labor force in the late 19th and
12 early 20th centuries, and contributed greatly to the developing
13 wealth of this state.
14 However, my father did have other interests. He
15 had studied architecture in China, so he eventually entered high
16 school to learn English. He graduated from Fairfax High School
17 in 1935. He entered USC the following year to study
18 architecture. But unfortunately because of discriminatory
19 hiring practices in the industry, he was not able to find
20 architectural work to support his continued education.
21 He then found work in the wholesale produce
22 market, and this is the late '30s now, and eventually he saved
23 up enough to buy his own grocery store in south Los Angeles in a
24 very mixed neighborhood.
25 For the next 30 years until his retirement, he
26 worked six and seven day weeks, 13 to 18 hour days. And when he
27 retired in 1971, he and my mother moved to a brand-new home in
28 Montebello, in a brand-new tract. And that was in '71, and
76
1 that's at the west end of the San Grabiel Valley. So, he
2 returned to the valley where he first entered in Los Angeles.
3 After my father passed on, my mother moved to a
4 new townhome in Monterey Park, where she lives to this day. At
5 81 years of age, she walks on her own to see friends. She goes
6 to the grocery store, to doctors, to parks, and to her church in
7 a setting which reflects her historical and cultural background.
8 And to be closer to her, my family and I moved to Alhambra so
9 that my kids could see her on a regular basis.
10 Professionally, my own background is in urban
11 planning, having graduated from Cal State Long Beach, and I have
12 worked for cities in Los Angeles County since 1969. Presently
13 I'm the Redevelopment Manager for the City of El Monte, which is
14 in the center of the San Gabriel Valley. My job is to assist
15 with economic development, and in improving housing and
16 neighborhood conditions within the city.
17 I have personally been involved in the community.
18 I have served on the board of directors of my son's nonprofit
19 private school. I'm on the Board of Directors and past
20 President of the Chinese Historical Society of Southern
21 California. I was a board member of the Greater Los Angeles
22 Chapter of the Organization of Chinese Americans, which is a
23 civil rights organization, with over 40 chapters nationwide. I
24 also served for 14 years on the Board of the Los Angeles Lodge
25 of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance, one of the nation's
26 oldest civil rights organizations, which was founded in 1896,
27 and which had so many members in the San Gabriel Valley that
28 actually last year, a new San Gabriel Valley Lodge was formed.
77
1 That's enough about history, but I wanted to give
2 you a little setting.
3 The Asian Pacific Americans for Fair
4 Redistricting has followed a process which has involved
5 individuals from diverse backgrounds who live and work in the
6 San Gabriel Valley. After a lot of discussion, we have
7 identified the following very specific goals: That the cities
8 of Alhambra, Monterey Park, San Gabriel, and Rosemead should be
9 represented within a single Assembly and within a single Senate
10 district. And the boundaries of those districts should include
11 adjacent communities with common interests and concerns.
12 I think you'll hear some data on some of those
13 adjacent communities later on.
14 This configuration would satisfy the
15 redistricting criteria for compactness --
16 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Give me those again, please,
17 the four cities.
18 MR. MOY: Alhambra, Monterey Park, Rosemead, and
19 San Gabriel.
20 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you.
21 MR. MOY: Anyway, this configuration would serve
22 our usual criteria, traditional criteria for the size and
23 shape.
24 The San Gabriel Valley does have a long history,
25 a long, rich history. I'd like to just discuss some of these
26 communities of interest, only few of them. I know that you've
27 had a long day.
28 Family environment is one. Earlier I spoke of my
78
1 parents retiring in the San Gabriel Valley. The demographics
2 and simple observation on the street reveal that there are many
3 senior citizens residing in the area. To respond to the
4 demands, these four core cities have been actively supporting
5 the development of senior housing. The cities have also been
6 supportive of the development of single family housing, where
7 frequently large, semi-rural formerly agricultural lots have
8 been subdivided for housing that reflects the current urban
9 environment.
10 Our neighborhoods frequently have related
11 families living close by, as in my own family situation,
12 reflecting the strong Asian Pacific interest in maintaining
13 intergenerational ties. The corresponding development of
14 educational, cultural, and religious facilities all reflect an
15 infrastructure that supports these family ties.
16 The next area of common interest is in education.
17 The quality of schools in the San Gabriel Valley has drawn many
18 families here. Alhambra, Monterey Park, and San Gabriel have
19 been served by a common high school district, and they share two
20 elementary school districts. Schools in adjacent communities,
21 such as South Pasadean, San Marino, Temple City, and Arcadia
22 have also drawn many Asian Pacific families to settle in the
23 Valley. Many private after-school facilities have been
24 developed in the area of the four cities, supporting academics
25 and culture. Childcare facilities are in demand, as they help
26 assist with many families who have working parents.
27 Another area of common interest is in health and
28 senior care. With the growing population, health care
79
1 facilities have been expanding, medical offices, hospitals,
2 convalescent homes, retirement homes, and now senior day care
3 centers form part of the growing support network that's
4 attractive to Asian Pacific families.
5 So, families, and also families have a choice of
6 technology. We have both eastern and western health care
7 traditions that are supported in the area of the four cities.
8 And lastly, we have an emerging political
9 leadership. As the Asian Pacific American population has
10 matured, leaders have been elected more frequently and regularly
11 in recent years. They've been appointed to many commissions,
12 elected to school boards, to city councils, and more recently to
13 Assembly seats.
14 It should be noted that Asian Pacific Americans
15 have won elections through coalition building; that indeed,
16 their community's base tends to be very diverse, and in areas
17 that are not dominated by any one group.
18 My final comments are that, due to discrimination
19 in the 19th and 20th centuries, early 20th Century, it was
20 difficult for Asian Pacific immigrants to own land or to live
21 where they chose. It was difficult to become citizens, and
22 consequently, to vote.
23 Now, in the 21st Century, we hope that barriers
24 to full involvement in community and political life be removed,
25 and we ask that any redistricting should carefully consider
26 serving the people who have settled here and who have been
27 working here in the past, too.
28 We urge that any modifications to the Assembly
80
1 and Senate boundaries should be built on the progress made that
2 has enabled Asian Pacific Americans to participate in democracy.
3 We ask that the four cities of Alhambra, Monterey Park, San
4 Gabriel, and Rosemead be maintained within one district.
5 Thank you.
6 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you, sir.
7 MR. HUANG: Good afternoon, Senators. My name
8 is Albert Y.M. Huang, A-l-b-e-r-t, Huang, H-u-a-n-g.
9 I have copies of my written testimony. I would
10 like to hand this in, thank you.
11 I'm speaking today on behalf of the Asian Pacific
12 Americans who support fair redistricting, or otherwise known as
13 APAFR, San Gabriel Valley, which is part of a statewide
14 coalition called CAPAFR, Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans
15 for Fair Redistricting.
16 I'm a product of the San Gabriel Valley. Besides
17 currently residing in Alhambra, I was also raised in Arcadia,
18 and for a while lived in El Sereno. In the past 17 years, I
19 have personally witnessed the impressive growth in the
20 community. While carrying out a career in architecture and
21 planning, I served as the Youth Director of Los Angeles 80-20,
22 otherwise known as the Los Angeles Chapter of 80-20 Initiative
23 in the community. The 80-20 Initiative is a national,
24 nonpartisan political action committee that was founded
25 primarily by Asian and Pacific Islander Americans, dedicated to
26 work for equality and justice for all Americans.
27 As a representative from LA 80-20, I'm proud to
28 be a member of the Steering Committee of APAFR-San Gabriel
81
1 Valley. Our diverse coalition of Asian and Pacific Islander
2 Americans, otherwise known as APIAs, consists of both
3 Republicans and Democrats, city planners, small business owners,
4 and various professionals, and has been meeting since last year
5 to learn not only about redistricting, but also about how our
6 communities can participate in this very important process.
7 With the assistance of the Asian Pacific Legal
8 Center, otherwise known as APALC, throughout 2000 and 2001,
9 APAFR-San Gabriel Valley has learned about redistricting legal
10 principles, demographic changes, and the new technology. We
11 looked at data provided by APALC on many different factors such
12 as population changes, party and political interests,
13 socio-demographic data such as age, education, immigration
14 history, income and race, and important geographic markers such
15 as freeways, school district boundaries, and parks.
16 After months of studies and discussions, APAFR-
17 San Gabriel Valley has identified two priorities important to
18 protecting our communities of interest and ability to have a
19 meaningful vote. There should be a single district that both,
20 number one, hold the four cities of Alhambra, Monterey Park,
21 Rosemead and San Gabriel together. And number two, it's placed
22 squarely in San Gabriel Valley and fully represents our unique
23 interests.
24 First and foremost, we urge you to consider
25 drawing a district that holds the four cities of Alhambra,
26 Monterey Park, Rosemead and San Gabriel together. This is an
27 area with a large population of Asian and Pacific Islander
28 Americans that share a common history, draw on the same
82
1 resources, and have built a strong infrastructure to support
2 their community needs. Historically, Monterey Park was one of
3 the first cities to affirmatively outlaw restrictive covenants
4 barring sale of property to nonwhites. Presently, it serves as
5 the gateway for APIA Communities. Moreover, the region has
6 witnessed a tremendous growth of the Chinese American community.
7 To give you an example of how firmly rooted the
8 APAI and the Chinese American community have become with these
9 four cities and the San Gabriel Valley, one can look at the
10 location of almost all of the major Chinese American media
11 sources in this area. These media sources developed in response
12 to the community's need for media services tailored to the
13 Chinese American community, and more specifically, the three
14 main communities of mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, in
15 terms of both content and language.
16 Not unlike the development of Chinese media in
17 San Gabriel Valley, the proliferation of Asian banks coincides
18 with the development of the San Gabriel Valley as a center for
19 the Asian American population of Los Angeles. As a result, many
20 Chinese-owned banks moved from Chinatown to San Gabriel Valley,
21 and specifically Monterey Park, in the past few decades. The
22 proliferation of Asian banks, as well as a very large number and
23 visual presence of Asian American-owned small businesses in San
24 Gabriel Valley suggests, of course, that there was a growing and
25 rooted community there for these banks to serve.
26 The four cities of Alhambra, Monterey Park,
27 Rosemead and San Gabriel all share mixed zoning that combines
28 single-family residential housing with multi-family housing,
83
1 commercial and light industrial zoning. Specifically, the
2 cities tend to consist primarily of small and single-family
3 residential uses, with significant but isolated pockets of
4 multiple-family residential uses. The cities also have varying
5 amounts of land zoned for commercial uses and some manufacturing
6 or light industrial uses.
7 In summary, we are urging you to respect the
8 integrity of the communities of Alhambra, Monterey Park,
9 Rosemead, and San Gabriel, keeping them whole and united in one
10 single Congressional, Senate and Assembly district.
11 APAFR-San Gabriel Valley's primary concern is to
12 preserve the shared interest of our communities, and protect
13 them from being divided into multiple districts. We hope that
14 you will seriously consider this input in terms of what our
15 communities and San Gabriel Valley's communities of interest are
16 and whether to keep them whole.
17 We are grateful to the Committee and to the
18 Legislature for conducting these hearings and for providing the
19 residents of the San Gabriel Valley with this invaluable
20 opportunity to a share our knowledge with you.
21 Thank you.
22 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you.
23 MS. FENG: Again, my name is Kathay Feng,
24 K-a-t-h-a-y, last name Feng. I'm with the Asian Pacific
25 American Legal Center.
26 We have been representing APAFR in all those nine
27 other regions throughout California to bring to them the data,
28 the legal analysis, and also the community organizing tools to
84
1 be able to come together and look at the way that maps or
2 districts are currently configured, and understand how those may
3 affect their communities, and be able to articulate what their
4 priorities are.
5 As you've heard today, we have two
6 representatives from the San Gabriel Valley who articulated, I
7 think, fairly cogently and clearly what their priorities are for
8 the San Gabriel Valley.
9 What I'll be talking about today is just the
10 demographic analysis that supports some of those community
11 priorities that have been identified by the two speakers before
12 me, and I'll also be very briefly talking about some additional
13 communities that unfortunately we don't have representatives
14 here to speak about, but I'd like to highlight for the
15 Committee, the Senate Committee, so that as you are drawing maps
16 you can take them into account.
17 The testimony that I've just submitted to you is
18 from Daniel Kikuo Ichinose, who is a Research Coordinator at the
19 Asian Pacific American Legal Center. He and another researcher,
20 Nancy Yu, have been working around the clock to pull together
21 community of interest data, as well as political, and racial and
22 ethnic data in order to better understand from the demographic
23 perspective how these communities of interest coincide with hard
24 facts.
25 I won't be reading the entire testimony into the
26 record; however, you have the written testimony here, and I'd
27 like to highlight some of that testimony.
28 Los Angeles County has population of over 9.5
85
1 million people according to the 2000 Census, and it remains by
2 far the largest county in the United States. Indeed, 28 percent
3 of California's total population resides here.
4 Given its immense size, it should not be very
5 surprising at all that Los Angeles County is home to more Asian
6 and Pacific Islander Americans than any other county in the
7 United States. Data from the 2000 Census provides us with the
8 most accurate measure we have on the Count's racial diversity.
9 According to these data, there are over 1.2 million Asian and
10 Pacific Islander Americans in Los Angeles County, and we
11 constitute nearly 13 percent of the county's total population,
12 as well as 13 percent of the state's population.
13 I'd like to address your attention to the first
14 attachment that you have, which is a map that has red on it.
15 That map is of Los Angeles County. It shows where there are
16 concentrations of Asian and Pacific Islander population
17 according to the 2000 Census. And as you will see in the upper
18 right-hand corner, there is a cluster of cities that are all
19 deep red because of the high concentration of Asian and Pacific
20 Islander population, including Monterey Park, Rosemead,
21 Alhambra, San Gabriel, San Marino, and Arcadia. That cluster is
22 what the two speakers before me just testified to.
23 In fact, if you'll refer to the chart in the
24 testimony that was provided by Daniel Ichinose, it shows that
25 several of the cities that rank the highest in terms of
26 percentage of Asian and Pacific Islander population actually are
27 close to or above 50 percent API, and they are also clustered
28 into this area that our two witnesses just spoke about.
86
1 Coinciding with that cluster is a population of
2 seniors that's higher density than the surrounding areas. I
3 would refer the Committee to refer to the second map that is
4 attached in that testimony. And that map is the one that looks
5 like it has large portions of blue.
6 As you'll see from that map, where there are
7 lighter shades of blue is where there tends to be lower
8 densities of senior citizens, and where there are deeper shades
9 of blue, that's where there are higher concentrations of senior
10 citizens. It's no coincidence that the areas that have high
11 concentrations of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans also have
12 high concentrations of senior citizens, in part because of what
13 Gene Moy alluded to, which is the tendency for a lot of Asian
14 and Pacific Islander families to want to live close to their
15 senior citizens, their older generations, so that they can take
16 care of their parents.
17 And that multiple generation living is actually a
18 pattern that we see that's striking, especially when you look at
19 what's happening in the San Gabriel Valley, and it reflects the
20 land use patterns and choices that those cities have chosen to
21 engage in by building more senior citizen housing, and building
22 facilities that accommodate senior citizens, and building
23 transportation systems that accommodate pedestrian and other
24 infrastructure that takes into account the particular needs of
25 senior citizens.
26 Finally, I'd like to direct your attention to the
27 third attachment, which is the attachment that has pink and blue
28 dots. That final attachment refers to the -- it plots out the
87
1 academic performance index of the schools in this area, and it
2 gauges school compliance with the Public Schools Accountability
3 Act of 1999.
4 What it does is, it shows where there are higher
5 performing schools, and where there are lower performing
6 schools. And as you can see, there is again a cluster of fairly
7 high performing schools in the San Gabriel Valley area, again
8 concentrating in the four cities and then the additional
9 surrounding cities that we talked about earlier. And that
10 concentration again reflects an investment of resources by these
11 communities in the educational systems and the school systems in
12 that area. And we'd like the Committee to receive that
13 information as an additional community of interest.
14 To summarize, the cities that comprise the core
15 of the San Gabriel Valley, the west San Gabriel Valley,
16 including Alhambra, Monterey Park, Rosemead, and San Gabriel,
17 are bound together by several communities of interest whose
18 integrity should be respected in the Senatorial, Congressional,
19 and Assembly redistricting process. The evidence supports the
20 assertion that they have similar Asian and Pacific Islander
21 American populations, senior populations, and high academic
22 performance in their schools.
23 Based on these and other similarities, we would
24 urge the Senate to consider the interest of these core cities
25 and build Congressional districts and Senate districts that
26 respect those boundaries and respect those communities of
27 interest.
28 Next, I'd like to just briefly touch --
88
1 CHAIRMAN PERATA: I have to ask you to just sort
2 of summarize, please. We have other groups to speak yet.
3 MS. FENG: I'd like to just touch on four
4 additional areas in Los Angeles, and those are Chinatown,
5 Filipino Town, Korea Town, Little Tokyo. Again, you'll direct
6 your attention to the map that has the red shading.
7 In that map in the Los Angeles area, there are
8 several concentrations of ethnic enclaves that are made up
9 largely of immigrant communities that are gateway communities
10 for large populations of specific ethnic groups. Chinatown is
11 the Chinese American home, but it's also home for Southeast
12 Asian Americans; Filipino Town for Filipino Americans; Korea
13 Town for Korean Americans but also Central Americans; and little
14 Tokyo, obviously, with a large population of Japanese Americans.
15 What I will do is, I will submit written
16 testimony that was provided to the Assembly for the Senate
17 consideration that outlines in clearer detail what the streets
18 boundaries are, and why it's important that we want to make sure
19 those communities, while they're small, are not cut up by lines,
20 as we have seen in the 1990 and previous redistricting
21 processes.
22 And I want to thank the Committee again for
23 providing the audience to us and receiving this information. We
24 do hope you'll take this information as you begin the mapping
25 process seriously, and we'll be monitoring the Congressional,
26 Senate, and Assembly redistricting process very closely.
27 Thank you so much.
28 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you.
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1 We have the Honorable Caprice Young, who's the
2 President of the L.A. Board of Education. Welcome.
3 MS. YOUNG: Thank you very much for allowing me
4 to address. I respect the work that you're doing. It's a huge
5 job, helping us figure out how to define our communities.
6 So, I want to just give you a quick 30 seconds on
7 what we're trying to do as a school district right now with
8 regards to becoming more community focused.
9 The focus of our School Board now is to really
10 make schools our centers of community. And part of that is that
11 of the 85 schools that we're building, all of them are built in
12 a way, or are designed in a way, that will make sure that our
13 libraries can be used by the community, even when it's not
14 school hours, that our PE fields can all be used by the
15 community on the weekends. They already are. It's just that
16 right now, you have to use wire cutters to cut the fence and get
17 in.
18 [Laughter.]
19 MS. YOUNG: Now, what we're doing is, we're
20 having a gate so we can open it, and we can still lock off the
21 classrooms even at the same time as allowing public access to
22 our facilities during non-school hours.
23 And just to give you a sense of the order of
24 magnitude and what that means, if you take only the acreage of
25 green space and play space that we're building in the next five
26 years, that's going to add 435 acres of urban parks in our most
27 needy areas of Los Angeles and the surrounding cities.
28 And what that means for redistricting is that we
90
1 would very much like to see you think about schools as the
2 centers of community when you're redistricting.
3 And how our schools are organized is that, for
4 each high school, there are feeder middle schools where the kids
5 go from the same middle schools up to the same high school. For
6 each of those middle schools, the kids are coming from
7 elementary schools up into those same middle schools. And
8 except for the 10 percent of our population of kids that are
9 bused out of their neighborhoods to schools because either
10 there's not enough room in their current schools, or because of
11 magnet programs, but for the other 90 percent who do stay in
12 their communities, it really makes a big difference. And even
13 for the ones that are bused out of their communities, it then
14 becomes even more important that their schools be anchors of
15 their community.
16 And my staff will make sure that your Committee
17 staff have copies of the maps of what we call the catchment
18 districts for each of our high schools, so that you'll be able
19 to see how we define our communities based on where the kids and
20 families live. And we'll give you two sets of maps. One set of
21 maps will be good until 1996, and then another set of maps,
22 which will take effect once the new 85 schools are built. We're
23 in a building program right now that calls for 85 schools to be
24 built; 82 of the sites have been adopted; three more are being
25 adopted next week. And so, all of those schools will be opening
26 between 2005 and 2007.
27 I think if you can think about our school
28 families in the context of redistricting, it would make a
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1 difference.
2 I caution you, and not that you would anyway, but
3 I would caution you not to use our Board districts as an example
4 how we define our communities. Our Board districts are -- some
5 of those are ill conceived when it comes to actually keeping
6 communities whole.
7 So, when you're thinking about school communities
8 and neighborhoods, if you can think about the high school
9 families as opposed to our Board districts, that will wonderful.
10 To give you an example, each of us on the School Board
11 represents about three-quarters of a million people. I have
12 over 20 overlapping elected representatives because, for
13 example, I overlap four State Senatorial districts, twice that
14 many Assembly districts, three Congressional districts, five
15 council districts, two supervisorial districts.
16 And so, if you follow our Board's district,
17 you'll just compound the mayhem. And staying focused on our
18 school families will really make all the difference in the
19 world.
20 That's all, and thank you very much for your
21 time. If you have questions, I'm available.
22 SENATOR POLANCO: With regards to the high school
23 family, can you elaborate a little bit more in terms of how
24 you're defining that?
25 MS. YOUNG: Yeah. How it works is this. Each of
26 our high schools right now, obviously, is very large because of
27 the overcrowding in the L.A. Unified, we have twice as many kids
28 in every high school as they were built for. When you include
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1 kids that are bused out of the neighborhoods, some
2 neighborhoods, particularly the areas that I represent, East
3 Hollywood, Central Los Angeles, we have in some cases three
4 times as many high school students that live in the neighborhood
5 as who go to high school.
6 So what we've done is, we have created what we
7 call academies within our high schools. We may have, for
8 example, 3500-4,000 kids in a high school built for under 2,000.
9 What we provided is a community of learning, so that, for
10 example, North Hollywood High or Hollywood High has six
11 communities of learning where kids actually have a smaller
12 family than the whole high school. Then, before they're in high
13 school, they're coming from our middle schools which are, again,
14 similarly overcrowded but are also now moving into these
15 communities of interest in families. And all of those kids come
16 from the surrounding areas. They walk to school.
17 And I think what you'll discover is, if you ask
18 adults to tell you about their communities, as you've done,
19 you'd probably get a really different picture than you would if
20 you ask middle school kids who are ambulatory but not driving.
21 It's a completely different perspective on community. They're
22 the ones who actually spend every day in that community at their
23 school sites. After school, they're engaged in after-school
24 programs or with community organizations, or they're causing
25 trouble, which we try to have less of. And each of these middle
26 schools then has these feeder elementary schools where the
27 neighborhood that is served by the middle school is broken up
28 into four and sometimes five elementary schools that all kids go
93
1 to the middle school.
2 The parents get to know each other through their
3 kids. The community-based organizations often are providing
4 services at school sites for kids, all the way up through high
5 school, so that our high schools really are major centers for
6 things like making sure all kids are in the Healthy Start
7 Program, and signed up as they should be for different state
8 programs. And we really want to reinforce that.
9 And part of what would make it easier for
10 reinforcing that is if, for example, you have Belmont High
11 School, and if that whole district was represented by one
12 Assemblyperson, as opposed to broken up as it is right now, it
13 makes it easier, I think, for the school and the community to
14 have a relationship with their Assemblyperson.
15 Was that more of an answer than you wanted?
16 CHAIRMAN PERATA: That's fine, thank you.
17 MS. YOUNG: Thank you very much.
18 CHAIRMAN PERATA: We appreciate your time.
19 Okay, the African American Community Advisory
20 Committee on Redistricting.
21 REV. CAMPBELL: Chairperson Perata, Members of
22 the Committee I am the Reverend William Monroe Campbell,
23 Coordinator of the African American Advisory Committee on
24 Redistricting.
25 Dr. Geraldine Washington, who is both President
26 of the Los Angeles NAACP as well as the Chairperson of this
27 Committee was here during the morning period, and because of
28 conflicts in scheduling, hadn't had an opportunity to present
94
1 and had to leave. I will read her statement to you. She did
2 leave a copy, so I will read her statement to you first, and
3 then we'll proceed to share with you a statement I have
4 prepared.
5 I'm also accompanied by Adrian Dove, who is the
6 Director of Research for our Committee, as well as Mr. Larry
7 Aubry, who's a member of the Committee as well as a member of
8 the Executive Committee of the Los Angeles Branch of the NAACP.
9 And we are then delighted to have cooperative support from
10 persons throughout our community, as well as elected persons
11 throughout our community.
12 Let me begin again, if I may, by reading the
13 statement of Dr. Washington. And she begins greeting you,
14 Mr. Chair and the Committee and the audience gathered,
15 indicating that she is the President of the Los Angeles NAACP,
16 and the Chair of the African American Community Advisory
17 Committee on Redistricting.
18 She then goes to say:
19 "We come before you today to
20 voice the interests of the
21 African American community in the
22 current redistricting process.
23 For some may view this as a
24 political process, we see it as
25 much more. The NAACP, as you
26 know, is the oldest civil rights
27 organization in the United States.
28 We came into existence in 1909 in
95
1 recognition of the fact that this
2 nation had much work to do to
3 correct injustices to its citizens
4 who had borne the burden of
5 enslavement and had their hopes
6 dashed as the advances of
7 reconstruction were displaced and
8 replaced by Jim Crow.
9 "Impressing this nation
10 to honor its commitment to all of
11 its citizens, we became the vanguard
12 of the Civil Rights Movement, and
13 we were the foot soldiers in the
14 establishment of the Voting Rights Act.
15 "Today the voice of our
16 community experiences new
17 vulnerability predicated upon the
18 deliberations and decisions that
19 proceed under the umbrella of the
20 redistricting process. Note that
21 this is evident as our community
22 has presence in the north,
23 central, and southern sections of
24 this great state, and yet only
25 has state office holders who
26 share our history elected from a
27 portion of Los Angeles County.
28 "In terms of
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1 Congressional representation of the
2 State of California, we have but
3 three persons from Southern
4 California and one in Northern California.
5 "It is with this
6 sensitivity and recognition of the
7 contributions that we have made to
8 this nation that we come before
9 your Committee to challenge you to
10 be responsible decision makers in
11 the redistricting process that
12 will not result in the erosion of
13 our voice.
14 "The members of our Committee,"
15 as I've already indicated to you,
16 "who are present include myself,
17 and our Director of Research, and
18 Mr. Aubry, who will be sharing
19 specific recommendations
20 regarding the demographics and
21 the defining elements of
22 community interest that we believe
23 should inform your deliberations.
24 As they do so, it is our desire to
25 have recommendations that will
26 recognize that what you do will
27 not happen in historical isolation.
28 Even as the name of the NAACP
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1 affirms the value of advancement,
2 we urge you to make decisions
3 that will promote advancement and
4 not retrogression.
5 "Thank you for the
6 opportunity to speak today on
7 behalf of the African American
8 community."
9 Again, that is the statement of Dr. Washington,
10 and she asked me to read it with her regrets.
11 Let me also place in your hands, this is now my
12 statement.
13 Mr. Chair, please forgive the error in the
14 spelling of your name and the effort to correct it.
15 Again, I am the Reverend Monroe Campbell,
16 Coordinator, African American Community Advisory Committee on
17 Redistricting. I come before you today to express our
18 community's interests and concerns regarding the redistricting
19 process.
20 California has led the way in progressive
21 direction for this nation, including participation of the
22 African American community involvement in its decision making
23 process. The recommendations that your Committee formulate and
24 offer to the full State Senate will largely determine to what
25 extent we continue such progress or lapse into retrogression.
26 As a native of Los Angeles and California, I
27 would hope that your decisions would lead to progress.
28 As you make your decisions, I would invite you to
98
1 understand the character of the African American community and
2 those who share in the experience of the African American
3 cohort. It is well known that the backbone of our community is
4 the church. Churches serve as more than places for worship.
5 They are social, cultural, educational, and institutional
6 centers. Accordingly, they are a significant reference point in
7 providing visibility to the presence of our community and
8 discernment of community interests.
9 In the areas of Senate Districts 25 and 26, you
10 will note the extensive presence of churches, reflective of the
11 community of interest and of our presence.
12 You will also note the presence of a large number
13 of businesses. In fact, I believe that you will discover the
14 largest concentration of wealth of African Americans in this
15 nation is located within these two districts. Please note that
16 herein we have the nation's leaders, the nation's leaders in
17 businesses and wealth among African Americans. There are also
18 concentrations of businesses that have a unique identity with
19 our community in these areas, catering to culinary,
20 cosmetological, and cultural preferences.
21 At the same time, there are distinctions in the
22 districts that warrant their separate status. The 26th District
23 largely serves the City of Los Angeles, and therefore has
24 attendant to its focus issues in common with the City of Los
25 Angeles. The 25th District, on the other hand, serves a number
26 of smaller cities, such as Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, et
27 cetera. This uniqueness gives reason to have it distinctly
28 drawn. There's parallel phenomenon in the Congressional
99
1 districts that serve the community.
2 And clearly, and parenthetically, I might stress
3 the need to preserve but also preserve with distinction. They
4 are common yet separate areas.
5 As you give attention to this, I would also urge
6 you to be aware of comparable patterns in other parts of the
7 state, such as Northern California, particularly in the East Bay
8 Area, and in emerging areas such as the Inland Empire and what
9 has gained identity as the Ebony Triangle, enwrapped by Highways
10 10, 15 and 215. And I believe that persons from that area have
11 presented to you earlier in the afternoon.
12 Thank you again for your attention to these
13 matters, and we look to submit further specific information for
14 your consideration, and ultimately comprehensive plan in accord
15 with the parameters that you have defined.
16 Again, Mr. Dove will be coming to share with your
17 more demographic-specific insights. And we will be submitting,
18 according to your plan, the requirement via electronic
19 submission. Please do that.
20 Thank you for receiving me. Thank you for
21 receiving the statement from Dr. Washington, and I thank you now
22 for receiving both Mr. Dove and Mr. Aubry.
23 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you.
24 Yes, sir.
25 MR. DOVE: We're nearing the end of the session.
26 My name is Adrian Dove. I'm Director of Research for the
27 African American Advisory Committee on Redistricting.
28 This is my second time. Ten years ago, I
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1 attended -- they were altogether different faces at that time --
2 both the Assembly and the Senate. And I was following around
3 all the difference.
4 And then at the end of it, there was different
5 parties between the Legislature and the Governor's Office. So,
6 there was disagreement, and it went before the Supreme Court.
7 And I got a call saying, "Come up and make a
8 presentation." I said, "You want me to testify?" They said,
9 "No, we're going to carry for the bar, and you'll present oral
10 arguments." And by the way, Maxine Waters says, "I'm your first
11 witness."
12 And so I did follow it through. And
13 incidentally, the current lines are fairly close to what we drew
14 in a lot of respects. We didn't do that nesting business, but
15 the Assembly lines were as we drew them, and the Congressional
16 lines in particular. It was fairly easy, and it was a lot
17 easier that time than this time.
18 I want to say a little bit about my background,
19 is that I've got a background from Compton High School and
20 Harvard University, so I tried to reach all ends of the country.
21 I've worked in the penitentiary out in Chino, and I left there
22 and became a budget analysis at the White House, because again,
23 I'm trying to reach across and touch the whole country and try
24 to understand, because it is one country, and we come to the
25 conclusion we're really all one race. I'm going to come to
26 that.
27 We're looking at the redistricting process, and
28 it appears as though there's really two ways that a community
101
1 can be having strength, voting strength, diluted. One of those
2 ways, we talked about lines, is the way lines are drawn, and the
3 cracking, the packing, and all these different phenomenon.
4 But the less talked about one is by definition,
5 by defining it. Even in the first census, a group of
6 individuals was defined as three-fifths of a person and denied a
7 vote, but they were counted in states where they were located,
8 so that four out of the first six Presidents came from Virginia.
9 The Indians were boldly stated as Indians and
10 other parties not a part of the economy shall not be counted at
11 all and shall not vote, unless civilized and living in the
12 community. So, most of the Indians were in Delaware,
13 Massachusetts, and those states got a diminution in what I call
14 the state's community of interest of their electoral votes and
15 of their share of Congressional seats.
16 Strangely, we think the same kind of phenomenon,
17 both in terms of definition and of lines, are still existing and
18 less attention is paid to them for the drawing of lines.
19 As we were going through, we had number of
20 community hearings, and we met with -- this is not the same
21 statement I have sent to you. This is going to be shorter than
22 what I sent. But the essence is boiled down in what I'm going
23 to be saying.
24 We held hearings throughout our community several
25 times at various churches and community locations. We met with
26 other groups, sat down, and had serious meetings with MALDEF and
27 the Asian and Pacific Islander American Legal Defense Fund. We
28 even met with a couple Native American community groups, and we
102
1 met with the Valley Vote People as we're trying to reach and
2 touch everybody and come up with something that this
3 redistricting has a chance to do.
4 In the course of discussing with MALDEF, we
5 raised a concept that -- I'm focusing today on Congressional --
6 that we have three Congressional seats in Southern California:
7 The 32nd, the 35th, and the 37th. They all are adjacent to each
8 other. They all fit within the Second Supervisorial District,
9 and all of the Assembly and Senate seats that we speak of are
10 falling within there.
11 So, the three Congressional seats are dropping in
12 percentage of African American, and one way to do it is
13 collapsing and run from one to the other. And another way is to
14 have strong incumbents, and a no-term-limit kind of a situation
15 is to make a protection.
16 So, we said, we proposed the concept that the
17 lines between the 32nd and 35th not be moved. Anywhere there's
18 a border, don't rob from one for the other. Between the 35th
19 and the 37th, again, no movement of the lines. So the 35th in
20 between is forced to do -- has to gain population and has to
21 pick up -- has to take it from either the coast or from inland.
22 And inland, we thought, was where the particularly Hispanic
23 candidates have a much easier job drawing lines than we do,
24 because there's a greater abundance of numbers to draw on.
25 So, we floated that with the folks from MALDEF,
26 and we were very pleased that they agreed with that, rigidifying
27 the lines between 32, 35 and 37. Outside of that is fair game.
28 We haven't completed drawing. We intend to draw
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1 a map for the entire state. We've gone up to the 9th District,
2 the current number 9th. I guess they start at the top and
3 renumber again with the new. That's Barbara Lee. And we're in
4 agreement again with -- almost in complete agreement with MALDEF
5 and the map they presented today. I didn't see it after it was
6 presented, but I saw some friends earlier, and I'm making the
7 assumption it's still the same, that all of Oakland, Berkeley,
8 all of Berkeley, all of Emeryville included in the 9th District,
9 which is the smallest of those districts up there.
10 We differ in that they're coming down towards San
11 Leandro and Hayward, and we propose picking up the difference by
12 going north and east along San Pablo towards Richmond.
13 But we won't drum a lot on that at that time.
14 We'll have future hearings where we'll just come and present our
15 map. This time, I wanted to talk about the definition.
16 We feel that the definition of what is African
17 American as a race has turned out to be a false construct.
18 Maybe even the concept of race never did really satisfy
19 scientific.
20 So, we've come up with a proposed definition.
21 We're trying it with L.A. County and presented it to the
22 Assembly. And this is our first time presenting it here at the
23 Senate. That is, what is an African American? It's a cohort
24 rather than a racial group. Who is an African American.
25 A cohort of the African American experience is
26 any person whose ancestors are, one-eighth or more of their
27 ancestors, what used to be called Octaroon in the census, any
28 person whose ancestors are one-eighth or more, came to this
104
1 continent against their will, came involuntarily, and was forced
2 to work on a job without pay, and was denied by government
3 enforcement the right to change jobs or to go into business, and
4 was required to live on the premise and have their children
5 brought into the same status, and that was further defined
6 constitutionally in Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution as
7 three-fifths of a person.
8 We are saying that any person who is descended
9 from this experience, regardless of their race, creed, national
10 ancestry, color, sex, sexual preference or anything, that this
11 is a cohort group. And these people, and as you look around,
12 you'll see all different complexions. Some people look nearly
13 white; some people look white, and some people look very dark,
14 but the full range of human appearance is present in this
15 group.
16 Why is this group there? There are some funny
17 things happened in the past in the Census. I worked in the
18 Census for about five years, and I don't take blame for the
19 undercounting in 1990. But I was a Regional Director for
20 Outreach and Government Relations and Media.
21 We had an opportunity to study every census form
22 from the beginning. They had Quadroon, Octaroon sometime, and
23 until 1970, it was the census taker who did the determination of
24 what race a person would be. You could say whatever that you
25 are, and they would say, yeah, right, and write that down.
26 After 1970, it was self definition. We've had
27 censuses where the one thing that's inconstant is the first
28 choice has always been White, with a capital W, and it's never
105
1 been Caucasian, or European, or anything but just White.
2 But the second choice usually is, started out as
3 African. Then it was African slave, and free colored. And then
4 it was Mulatto came in there kind of quick. And then after
5 Mulatto, Quadroon, and then there was an another choice called
6 Octaroon.
7 Then, of course, when the Indians began being
8 counted in 1860, Mr. Lincoln's census, there was Mestizo added
9 to the combination of that.
10 In 1920 they had a curious thing, thanks to
11 Pancho Villas. They created a Mexican race, and it's only
12 stated in that one census as a race, and then it disappeared and
13 it became White. In 1960 it came back in a different form, and
14 of course now it's been expanded.
15 Now, originally they had to have a race category
16 in order to enforce the laws that called for slavery. And there
17 were other clauses of the Constitution we can cite besides
18 Article I Section 2, that prohibit leaving the states, and
19 required people being returned. And cases like Dred Scott,
20 Flexy Fergurson and all these cases were based. But the
21 document is what we're saying what defines this group.
22 So much so that taking an example, Thomas
23 Jefferson had, I guess it's common knowledge now that we have
24 the age of exposing everything, had a mistress who was
25 half-white and half-black, if there is such a thing as
26 half-black and half-white. Therefore, the children he had by
27 her would have been classified, if you went by percentages, as
28 75 percent White, but his own children, by his own definition,
106
1 were classified as three-fifths of a person. So, they were
2 technically mathematically 75 percent, or maybe more, White, or
3 maybe less. We aren't really sure about anything.
4 But in any case, from that point on, we knew that
5 there was something kind of funny. But they needed it in order
6 to maintain that construct so that the slavery could be
7 perpetuated.
8 Then, during the era of the Jim Crow, it was
9 needed after the Plessy v. Ferguson case, to preserve the
10 concept of who would sit in the back of the bus, and who would
11 not get to go in Neiman Marcus, et cetera.
12 Then comes affirmative action in an enlightened
13 era in all states but California. I guess some of that's still
14 going, but the majority of the voters in California outlawed
15 affirmative action on the basis of race. In fact, the Supreme
16 Court has a couple of decisions as they go this way and that
17 way, that race is a factor. But they're all Democrats. Maybe
18 that could be considered, and maybe not.
19 So, we've got a lot of confusion. And so, we've
20 come to the conclusion, and I've got pretty solid backing
21 everywhere we've gone, that for purposes of the redistricting,
22 we'd like to see that our numbers counted not as a race, but as
23 a cohort of the African American experience. And we would like
24 to ask for a resolution or a piece of legislation, not a broad
25 thing that affects everything, just a narrow one that says, for
26 purposes of the redistricting.
27 What that would allow us to do, if I could maybe
28 indulge one little point here, is that there are -- the Census
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1 has come out now after Prop. 209, has rendered race useless, the
2 Census has rendered it unenforceable or unuseable, because they
3 have created 144 categories. That's worse than IRS, you know.
4 What am I? Am I this or that? Tiger Woods' Syndrome, or the
5 Weakest Link.
6 But we have 144 categories, and it becomes
7 somewhat problematic. So, if we can find a way to just go past
8 that, and we think we've got that way, which is, there's one
9 category called INC-B, includes the black, and that category
10 would take people -- right now if you say, "I'm black and part
11 Asian," you would be counted as some other race. If you say,
12 "I'm black and part Indian," you would be counted -- taken out.
13 And even if on Question Seven you say, "I'm black," and then
14 with pride, you're from Cuba or Puerto Rico, and then you say on
15 Question Six, "I'm Hispanic," you're extracted from the black
16 count in order to make a comprehensive Hispanic count.
17 And we're not arguing against that. We think
18 there's a need for the Hispanic counts to be made, inclusive of
19 everybody who is any part Hispanic, which is not a race.
20 And that for the black, the only way to do that
21 is to have -- because we lose four-and-a-half percent of our
22 population. Now, we don't have any international immigration.
23 The one group that hasn't had any since the last big ship. So,
24 as a result, our numbers are going to be relatively going down.
25 And if we have a little help from the Census Bureau, and the
26 agreement the Department of Justice, Ms. Reno signed off on
27 that, says we shall count as black, the DOJ dash B, is wiping
28 out four-and-a-half percent. We can't afford that four-and-a-
108
1 half percent.
2 So, we think one way for our purposes to count is
3 to bring back that four-and-a-half percent by counting us as
4 inclusive in these deliberations, and we will propose to turn
5 our maps in with that, with your approval. And we would ask for
6 a resolution that would enable us to call ourselves cohorts.
7 It'll be the first time we get to name our
8 designation, race, or whatever it is, and we could weigh it with
9 a contribution to everybody of wiping out the concept of race
10 altogether.
11 I thank you very much.
12 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you, sir.
13 MR. AUBRY: My name is Larry Aubry, A-u-b-r-y.
14 I'm a member of the African American Community Advisory
15 Committee on Redistricting.
16 And Chairman Perata, Members, I have a statement
17 for you, very brief. It will not deal with specific
18 redistricting plans, but rather the need to recognize and give
19 full weight to the important historical antecedents, including
20 the Voting Rights Act, that serve as a backdrop for current
21 redistricting efforts.
22 Redistricting plan, any redistricting plan, needs
23 the cooperation of people of color to be successful. It needs
24 all people, obviously, but I am emphasizing people of color in
25 this equation. Our Committee, the purpose of our Committee is
26 to help develop and support a plan that serves the needs of the
27 African Americans throughout the state. We are currently
28 working collaboratively because we feel that this is the way to
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1 do it, not because it's strategically the way to work, but
2 because it's the it should be done, through working
3 collaboratively with MALDEF, as was mentioned earlier by my
4 colleagues with MALDEF, with the Asian Pacific Legal Center, in
5 crafting mutually acceptable redistricting plans.
6 As you know, cooperatively, sort of working
7 cooperatively across racial and ethnic lines is no easy task.
8 Rhetoric is cool, but I've been at this a very long time. I was
9 with the Human Relations Commission for 30 years, and I've been
10 in this town a long time. This is a very difficult task. We
11 give it a lot of lip service, and it's easy to talk tough, but
12 tough to pull off. But we're doing that.
13 We're very practical in these cases. We're doing
14 that, sort of day in and day out, with the technical aspects of
15 things being handled by people such as Adrian Dove as part of
16 our effort as well.
17 Anyway, we considered the partnering aspect of
18 this thing, and we consider it critical to each group's
19 realizing its own goals and objectives, as well as collectively
20 agreeing upon goals that benefit everyone else. Despite obvious
21 barriers -- political, cultural, attitudinal barriers, really --
22 we believe that the needs of respective communities of color
23 demand that we accept the challenge. And our community looks
24 forward to continuing collaborative ventures with Latinos,
25 Asians, and all others who are actively supportive of equity and
26 social justice.
27 We urge that this Committee give these factors
28 proper consideration throughout its deliberations and decision
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1 making process.
2 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you, sir.
3 MR. AUBRY: Again, thank you for having me speak
4 on such an occasion, and I'd also like to acknowledge that we
5 have had present with us Mr. Don Wilson of the Office of
6 Congressional Representative Diane Watson, and earlier
7 Mr. Brian Mills of the Congressional offices of Representative
8 Juanita Millender-McDonald.
9 Thank you.
10 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you, sir.
11 We have to take a brief break so her hands can
12 get rested. We only have a few more.
13 [Thereupon a brief recess
14 was taken.]
15 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Elliot Graham, proceed, sir.
16 MR. GRAHAM: Senator Perata, Members of the
17 Elections and Reapportionment Committee I'm, Elliot Graham. I'm
18 a member of the Los Angeles County Republican Central
19 Committee.
20 And also I can be nonpartisan. It was only nine
21 years ago that I was the Democratic nomination for the Assembly
22 in the 43rd Assembly District.
23 I was pleased to hear most all of the previous
24 speakers who agree that we shouldn't chop up communities. We
25 should try to leave communities and cities intact.
26 One thing you'll find very interesting, since I'm
27 from Glendale, in 1998, the two Republican nominees for both the
28 43rd Assembly District and the 44th Assembly District were both
111
1 from the same community, even the same portion of the same
2 community. Both from Glendale, the Montrose area. And they
3 were so close to each other that they both won. One of them
4 could easily have walked to the other's house; it was only a few
5 blocks away.
6 Of course, you're well aware of the fact, since
7 you're members of the vast majority party here in California,
8 that since we have a Democratic Governor, two Democrat Senators,
9 and just about everybody in state office except for the
10 Secretary of State is in the same party, it is no longer
11 necessary to do the exaggerated lines we call gerrymandering,
12 because if you were to divide them up evenly by communities in
13 straight lines in compact districts, you'd still win. You're
14 still the majority. So, the old gerrymandering districts are no
15 longer necessary.
16 I'll give you another example of our community
17 that I come from. We're actually represented by a resident of
18 Los Angeles as our Assemblyman. We don't have an Assemblyman
19 from cities of Glendale or Burbank, although our Congressman is
20 from Burbank. And our State Senator, of course, is from
21 Pasadena. But that's a large district.
22 But for the Assembly district, I think it would
23 be good to have the entire City of Glendale and the entire City
24 of Burbank within the same Assembly district. And you wouldn't
25 have to exclude any precincts in either of those two cities.
26 The combination of those two cities combined would still be
27 within the numbers.
28 Also, having worked for the Census Bureau in the
112
1 year 2000, I'm aware of the diversity we have. I've gone to
2 many households, done enumerations -- I was an enumerator. Our
3 city's very diverse. Also at Glendale Community College, we
4 have every Asian group: Koreans, Japanese, Chinese. All the
5 Pacific Islander groups, Filipinos, et cetera.
6 Our Mayor is a Mexican American, and we have two
7 Mexican Americans on our City Council. We have two Armenians on
8 our City Council, and there's only five members on the City
9 Council. So, you can see the diversity we have right in the
10 City of Glendale. And Burbank has the same type of diversity.
11 So, we're represented by many different groups.
12 If you're going up to the community college, you'll hear many
13 different languages spoke. So, you have all the diversity
14 within the communities, just naming those two, Burbank and
15 Glendale.
16 And it makes it much easier for voters to know
17 who their representative is if everyone in the community has the
18 same Assembly Member, for example.
19 I believe that says it all. I'll just say that
20 if the boundary lines are drawn straight and by these
21 communities, it will look good for the majority party to be
22 fair, because we'll really respect that. We would be happy to
23 have a representative that lives in our community. I think that
24 would make everybody happy.
25 Thank you very much.
26 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you. If that were all it
27 took.
28 That concludes our public testimony.
113
1 I want to thank all of you who stayed throughout
2 the day, those of you in back praying.
3 Our next hearing, as I mentioned, those of you
4 who stayed this long probably would like to go to another one,
5 San Diego next Monday. You can call my office for particulars.
6 Thanks to the Sergeants and everyone else for
7 their wonderful help, and this meeting is adjourned.
8 [Thereupon this hearing of the
9 Senate Committee on Elections
10 and Reapportionment was
11 terminated at approximately
12 2:40 P.M.]
13 --ooOoo--
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1 CERTIFICATE OF SHORTHAND REPORTER
2
3 I, EVELYN J. MIZAK, a Shorthand Reporter of the State
4 of California, do hereby certify:
5 That I am a disinterested person herein; that the
6 foregoing transcript of the hearing of the Senate Committee on
7 Elections and Reapportionment was reported verbatim in shorthand
8 by me, Evelyn J. Mizak, and thereafter transcribed into
9 typewriting.
10 I further certify that I am not of counsel or
11 attorney for any of the parties to said hearing, nor in any way
12 interested in the outcome of said hearing.
13 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
14 ______ day of __________________, 2001.
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19
EVELYN J. MIZAK
20 Shorthand Reporter
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