Foundation to Back City in Vote Dispute

SANTA PAULA —  A Sacramento-based group said Thursday that it will use its resources to uphold Santa Paula’s election system in the city’s court battle with the federal government over Latino voting rights.

Mark Gallagher, a lawyer with Pacific Legal Foundation, which has supported Ward Connerly and former Gov. Pete Wilson in their stands against affirmative action, said his group would “spend whatever it takes” to retain the city’s at-large system of elections.

The U. S. Department of Justice sued the city in April, alleging that the current system dilutes Hispanic voting strength and denies Latino voters the ability to elect representatives of their choice. While a majority of the city’s residents are Latino, whites still make up a majority of registered voters and a majority of elected council members.

A district system, in which voters elect candidates from their own neighborhoods, would guarantee Latino voters their choice of at least two council members of five, federal lawyers have said.

Opponents say Latinos will soon make up a majority of voters and don’t need federal intervention.

Pacific Legal Foundation’s help is being welcomed by several officials in the cash-strapped city of 27,000. They had worried that they might be forced to settle the case simply because the legal tab would climb too high.

John McDermott, a lawyer hired by the city, said the foundation’s involvement means that if the city were to choose not to proceed at any point, the foundation would be able to carry the suit forward.

Several residents, angered by the city’s mounting expenses over the suit, have expressed their intention in the November election to go after council seats held by Jim Garfield, who is seeking reelection, and Robin Sullivan, who is stepping down to run for state office.

“There’s always concern expressed against cost [to the taxpayers],” McDermott said. “Who knows what might happen in the November election? But this case will continue.”

Garfield said the city has no plans to drop its fight. The council is preparing next month to pass an annual budget that includes $250,000 to defend itself in the case.

Laura Flores Espinosa, the only council member who supports the federal government’s position, called Pacific Legal Foundation an ultra-right conservative group that doesn’t represent the viewpoint of most of the city’s voters. She predicted that the group’s involvement would prolong the city’s court fight, ultimately costing taxpayers more money.

Pacific Legal Foundation said in April that it would consider getting involved in the case. To enter the lawsuit, it agreed to represent an 11-member group of Santa Paula voters, some of whom are Latino, who are opposed to federal intervention. A federal judge gave approval earlier this week for the nonprofit foundation, known also for its advocacy of property owners’ rights, to formally enter the suit.

The group, which calls itself Santa Paula Voters Opposed to Electoral Redistricting, is committed to keeping the present at-large system of elections.

Member Sunny Schmidt said she believes that the Justice Department picked a fight with Santa Paula not because of any racial injustice but because the city was too poor to fight back.

“I think they thought we were going to roll over and say, ‘Fine, do what you want,’ and it would be precedent-setting and then they could go anywhere in the country and do what they wanted,” Schmidt said.

The Justice Department sought to block Pacific Legal Foundation’s intervention in the case but a judge this week authorized the foundation’s participation.

Gallagher said Pacific Legal Foundation has no objection to the Voting Rights Act, used historically to protect black voters’ rights in the South. But he believes that an overly zealous federal government is stepping in where intervention is not warranted.

“It’s an important piece of legislation that’s done a lot of good,” Gallagher said. “It just doesn’t need to be applied here. You have a history of Latinos being elected to both the City Council and the school board.”

With the exception of Espinosa, council members have taken offense to the federal government’s effort and deny that there is institutional racism in Santa Paula. They argue that carving the small city into geographic enclaves will inflame, not mend, polarization in a city that is racially blended in some areas but retains other distinctly white and Latino neighborhoods.

The case is not expected to go to trial until next summer.