REDISTRICTING POLITICS - I read the recent (CityWatch) piece by Joseph Mailander, "Who Lost K-Town?" with great interest. In his article, Mr. Mailander suggests that it was the Wilshire Center Koreatown Neighborhood Council (WCKNC) that was responsible for the LA City Council Redistricting Commission's decision to split WCKNC into two Council Districts, because WCKNC's efforts thwarted the Commission's alleged desire to place WCKNC whole in CD10.
I served on the Redistricting Commission, and this is the first I've ever heard that Council President Herb Wesson or the Redistricting Commission was ever willing to take WCKNC whole in CD10. I can tell you that's categorically false.
In the first secret line-drawing meeting for the region including CD10, I in fact asked Commissioner Chris Ellison (appointed by Wesson) if he would be willing to take WCKNC whole in CD10 and he refused. I understood his refusal to be based on the fact that taking WCKNC whole in CD10 would've prevented CD10 from having over 50% black registered voters, which was Ellison's stated goal.
Moreover, many K-Town leaders had heard in the months prior to the Redistricting Commission's formation that Wesson was planning to take Koreatown only up to 3rd Street. And that is exactly what Ellison proposed in that initial line-drawing meeting and what was proposed in the Commission's initial draft map, released on Jan 25, 2012.
I also don't understand why Mr. Mailander or any member of the Redistricting Commission would view the Koreatown community's public testimony asking to be placed whole in CD13, rather than being split between CD13 and CD10, as "hostile" to the Redistricting Commission's efforts.
In their public testimony, the Koreatown community expressed several reasons for wanting to be placed whole in CD13, including their desire to be placed with other similar immigrant communities, namely Historic Filipinotown and Thai Town, which would have created a "coalition" district where Asians, Latinos and Caucasians would have had roughly equal representation and an equal voice in electing a council member from that council district.
I note that many other communities organized and submitted public testimony asking to be put in or taken out of particular Council Districts. For example, Toluca Lake, whose community members wore green T-shirts, wanted out of CD2, where they were placed in the Commission's initial draft map, and into CD4 and succeeded in that effort. Also, the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council organized public testimony and a letter-writing campaign stating their desire to get out of CD5, where they were placed in the Commission's initial draft map, and into CD4, where they ultimately were placed.
One of the main purposes of holding public hearings was for the Redistricting Commission to learn what various communities wanted. Mr. Mailander's suggestion -- or perhaps it came from his unnamed "redistricting insider" source -- that the public, including WCKNC, somehow had the burden to avoid making "hostile gestures" to the Redistricting Commission turns the Commission's mandate on its head.
In sum, I don't know where Mr. Mailander obtained his information, but it appears to be someone's effort at "revisionist history." Indeed, if his "redistricting source" is correct and if it's true that "only then [after the K-Town community's public testimony] did the committee resolve to split Koreatown in two," then his story confirms that there were, in fact, secret meetings, in violation of the Brown Act, among Commission members to which I and other Redistricting Commissioners were not privy regarding the Commission's decision on Koreatown.
I look forward to seeing the litigation discovery on those secret meetings.
(Helen B. Kim is an attorney and served as an LA City Redistricting Commissioner appointed by City Controller Wendy Greuel.) -cw
Tags: Helen Kim, K-Town, Koreatown, Herb Wesson, LA City Redistricting Commission, secret meetings, Brown Act, WCKNC, Wilshire Center Koreatown Neighborhood Council, CD4, CD 5, CD 10, Wilshire Center
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 27
Pub: Apr 3, 2012