Despite Redrawn Districts, Supervisors Cling to Turf : L.A. County: They conduct business as usual in hope Supreme Court will prevent implementation of plan.

East Los Angeles is part of Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum’s new district, but all matters involving the community--including calls from residents--are being referred to Supervisor Ed Edelman.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich is still attending events in the San Fernando Valley, even though he lost most of the region in the court-ordered redrawing of supervisorial districts.

And the sign outside the county office in Malibu reads Supervisor Deane Dana, even though the building is now in Edelman’s district.

At the county Board of Supervisors, it’s business as usual, despite a court ruling establishing new supervisorial district boundaries. Nearly a month after an appeals court lifted a stay on the new political map, the supervisors cling stubbornly to their old district boundaries--the ones found by the courts to discriminate against Latinos.

The supervisors hope that the U.S. Supreme Court will postpone the election in the redrawn 1st District and stay implementation of the new redistricting plan.

“We’re staying where we are,” Dana said. Referring to his field deputy, he said, “It doesn’t make any sense to take my guy out of Malibu, send him somewhere else and then move him back to Malibu.”

The court-ordered redistricting changed political representation for many of the county’s 8.5 million residents by shifting all five supervisors to new neighborhoods. It created a new, predominantly Latino 1st District stretching from El Sereno and Lincoln Heights east to Irwindale and La Puente and southeast to Santa Fe Springs.

East Los Angeles, which was in Edelman’s 3rd District, is officially now part of the 1st, represented by Schabarum. Malibu and Santa Monica, which were part of Dana’s 4th District, are now part of Edelman’s district. Edelman also picked up more of the San Fernando Valley from 5th District Supervisor Antonovich.

Antonovich picked up part of the San Gabriel Valley now represented by Schabarum. Dana’s coastal district was extended northeast into the San Gabriel Valley. Compton, which was in Dana’s district, is now part of Hahn’s.

None of the supervisors has toured their new territory, begun swapping files, arranged meetings with new constituents or done anything else to adjust to their new districts--which the county’s own attorneys say are legally the ones now in effect. Orders have not even gone out to print up new maps.

The situation has left residents wondering just who is their supervisor.

“It’s very confusing,” said Armando Camarena, a former Asuza city councilman.

Walt Keller, mayor-elect of Malibu, added: “When we have a problem, do we call Edelman or Dana?”

Contributing to the confusion is that one arm of the county bureaucracy--the county elections office--is gearing up for a Jan. 22 election in the redrawn 1st District. A campaign is in full swing to elect a new supervisor, possibly the first Latino supervisor this century, from the new 1st District, currently represented on paper by Schabarum, who is retiring .

The rest of the county is operating under the old lines. The Planning Department, for example, is routing development proposals through the offices of the old supervisors.

The supervisors said they are waiting until all legal appeals are exhausted or until the new 1st District supervisor is elected before beginning the transition from the old to the new districts. That may not occur until March.

But an attorney for one of the civil rights groups that brought the voting rights suit against the county said the supervisors should have begun the transition.

“They continue to thumb their noses at the courts,” said Mark Rosenbaum of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Richard Fajardo, an attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, another plaintiff in the lawsuit, said that if he hears of residents not receiving service, he might ask Judge David V. Kenyon to hold the supervisors in contempt, subjecting them to stiff fines and possibly even jail.

“At this point, I haven’t gotten any complaints,” he said.

The new district boundaries were approved in August by Kenyon, but an appeals court initially halted implementation of the new political map. The appeal court earlier this month lifted that stay.

So far, there have been no turf wars among the supervisors.

Technically, the district lines are used only for voting purposes. But customarily, supervisors govern their districts like fiefdoms. The custom, which has no legal basis, has evolved as a courtesy among the supervisors, based on the premise that each supervisor knows what’s best for his district.

Doug Ring, a real estate lobbyist, said he is playing it safe.

“You go see the new guy and the old guy,” he said.

Ring said that a good argument could be made for maintaining the status quo. “If I live in Chatsworth, I voted for Mike Antonovich. I never had a chance to vote on Ed Edelman. I should be able to turn to the person who appeared on my ballot.”

Dana said it makes more sense for him to continue overseeing projects in Malibu because he is more familiar than Edelman is with the community, which he has represented for 10 years.

Joel Bellman, a spokesman for Edelman, said, “We are acting essentially as though we represent two districts, the old and the new one.”