Committee Begins Mapping Out Supervisors’ Future : Redistricting: Board members, community groups submit plans for consideration in the once-a-decade process. Vasquez, Stanton propose biggest changes.

SANTA ANA —  When county supervisors submitted maps Thursday to a redistricting committee, the most substantial changes in supervisorial districts came in proposals by Supervisor Roger R. Stanton and Board Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez.

Stanton wants to move the city of Santa Ana out of his 1st District and into Vasquez’s 3rd District. He also wants to represent both Garden Grove and Westminster, home of Little Saigon, which would give the county’s Asian community a stronger electoral bloc.

Vasquez proposes to lop off some of South County--including Rancho Santa Margarita, Coto de Caza and Trabuco Highlands--from his sprawling, crescent-shaped district, which currently stretches from La Habra to Mission Viejo.

Meeting for the second time, the newly formed redistricting committee accepted nine maps from county supervisors and community groups for consideration in the once-a-decade process of redistricting. Supervisors must approve a final map by Nov. 1.

Redistricting, a complicated process that will shift thousands of residents from one supervisorial district to another, already promises to be fraught with controversy and political debate over whether the integrity of ethnic communities should be preserved to give them voting strength.

“It’s going to be a very interesting next 30 or 40 days politically,” said Arturo Montes of the statewide Hispanic Redistricting Coalition. “A lot of changes are coming.”

In her map, Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder proposed dropping the city of Costa Mesa and taking in more of the city of Garden Grove into her 2nd District.

Supervisors Don R. Roth and Thomas F. Riley proposed the fewest changes to their boundaries.

Roth submitted two different maps for his 4th District. In one map he proposed adding the city of Placentia, and in the other taking in Villa Park while leaving out Placentia.

Riley proposed adding some of Vasquez’s existing district to take in more of South County for his 5th District.

Representatives of the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce and other Asian community groups submitted two separate maps that delineated the concentration of their community in Orange County. Their maps, which place Garden Grove and Westminster in one district, looked almost identical to Stanton’s map. The two cities currently are split between two supervisorial districts.

Representatives of Latino organizations said they would not submit a map until next week, after the U.S. Census announcement of new figures on undercounted populations, which is expected to change the totals for some Orange County cities.

They also complained that the county has not provided specific criteria outlining the goals it wants to meet with the new map. When the maps were submitted from the supervisors’ offices, for example, their aides, who make up the redistricting committee, presented no explanation as to why they drew their new boundaries the way they did.

“Other counties are providing such criteria,” said Ruben A. Smith, representing the Orange County Hispanic Committee for Redistricting. “I don’t see why this county can’t do it. It’s a reasonable request.”

Smith’s group has already told supervisors that the current district boundaries discriminate against Latinos by dividing their communities and preventing them from commanding a powerful voting bloc in any one district.

The federal Voting Rights Act prohibits the supervisors from approving boundaries that intentionally or inadvertently dilute the voting strength of ethnic minority groups.

In their presentation, the Latino groups showed that the Latino population, which is 26% of the total countywide, is concentrated in Santa Ana and is moving west and north of there. A district that would give Latinos a strong voting bloc could conceivably cut into the existing district of each supervisor except Riley.

“We have still not been able to elect someone to office who would be accountable to our communities,” Montes said.

After the meeting, several Latino representatives said the fact that a Latino, Vasquez, is already on the Board of Supervisors is not the issue.

“The point is not to go after more Hispanic representation, although we would certainly welcome that,” Smith said. “But the issue is accountability. It makes more sense to draw lines to include communities with single issues and interest. Then you can have a supervisor who can speak with one voice.”

Committee members were advised by their county attorney that the state Legislature asks them to make the populations of each district “equitable,” and that the new district boundaries try to follow, when possible, city boundaries and “communities of interest.”

The redistricting committee will hold a public hearing next Thursday to receive comments on the various suggestions. The committee is scheduled to submit its recommendations to the Board of Supervisors in August. Supervisors are expected to approve a final map at their Sept. 24 meeting.