Latino Revolution Leaves Some City Councils Untouched

Bell and Bell Gardens are adjacent blue collar towns in southeast Los Angeles County, just across the Long Beach Freeway from each other.

Yet they are on opposite sides of the Latino political revolution that has changed the power structure in large swaths of Southern California during the immigration surges of the last 20 years.

In Bell Gardens, a city that is 96% Latino, every council member is Latino. In neighboring Bell, which is 95% Latino, there is only one Latino on the five-member council.

Why have Latinos gained control of City Hall in Bell Gardens and dozens of other heavily Latino cities in Southern California, but not in Bell?

It is a question Latino activists and others have pondered for years--and not just about Bell. Four other cities in Los Angeles County--Compton, Inglewood, Santa Fe Springs and Whittier--have populations that are more than 50% Latino but have only one or no Latinos on their city councils.

With large groups of noncitizen immigrants in some cities, low rates of Latino voter registration and a lack of Latino participation in the civic life are the most obvious causes. But some voting-rights experts suggest that at-large elections and the power of incumbency have kept Latinos out of power.

In some cities, many Latino voters say they are content with a white council majority and see no reason to replace officials for the sake of ethnic representation.

Ethnicity, of course, does not always determine how minorities will vote. For example, former Los Angeles City Councilman Art Snyder, who is white, represented the heavily Latino Eastside for 18 years. For 45 years, former Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, also white, represented a mostly black South-Central district.

“Ethnicity is a factor, but it’s not the only factor,” said Harry Pachon, president of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute, a Claremont think tank. “People see beyond those things.”

These five cities demonstrate that the Latino political revolution that won impressive gains on the state and federal levels has yet to take complete hold locally.

But change may be on the horizon as activists launch voter registration drives and other efforts to get Latinos to play more prominent roles in their local governments.

“I think a new generation of voters are coming in who are going to make a change,” said Ed Perez, who is considering running for a council seat in Santa Fe Springs.

The transition won’t be easy. In communities such as Compton and Inglewood, the Latinos’ struggle for power has caused tension between them and some African American leaders, who are reluctant to give up their elected posts after years of trying to wrest power from a previously entrenched white leadership.

In the last few years, the Justice Department and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund have tried to increase Latino representation by suing several cities, including Santa Paula in Ventura County and Santa Maria in Santa Barbara County, to replace at-large elections with district elections. The lawsuits, based on the 1965 Voting Rights Act, have alleged that at-large elections dilute the power of the Latino vote. The suits against Santa Paula and Santa Maria are pending.

Thomas A. Saenz, an attorney with the fund, declined to say whether the organization is considering suing Bell, Santa Fe Springs or any of the cities that hold at-large elections.

But state Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles), who heads the state’s Latino Legislative Caucus, said the primary reasons Latinos are underrepresented in some cities are low citizenship and voting rates.

In communities where voting rates are high but Latinos are not in office, Polanco said: “Shame on us for not advancing more candidates.”

Here is a look at the other factors that may be at play in those five cities:

Whittier

The Latino population jumped from 39% in 1990 to 53% last year, according to demographic estimates by Claritas Inc., a Virginia-based market research firm. However, Latinos account for only 30% of the registered voters in Whittier, according to Texas-based Southwest Voter Registration Education Project.

There are no Latinos on the five-member council and only a few Latinos on the city’s elementary and high school district boards.

“Although we have seen a large insurgence of Latinos moving into Whittier, the voting bloc has not caught up to that number,” said Ralph Pacheco, a member of the Whittier Union High School District board of education.

Recently, a group of residents formed the Whittier Latino Coalition to encourage more Latinos to register as voters and participate in local government.

“We don’t want to be City Council members because we are the majority. We want to be City Council members because we deserve it,” said Victor Ledesma, one of the coalition founders.

Compton

The Latino population of this working class city jumped from 44% in 1990 to 59% last year, according to Claritas Inc. There are no Latinos on the all-black City Council and there is only one Latino on the school district’s seven-member board of trustees. Blacks, once the overwhelming majority in the city, are now 41% of the population, according to Claritas.

Latinos represent 15% of the voters in Compton, according to the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, which has been trying to register more Latinos in the city.

But many Latinos there are recent immigrants who have yet to gain citizenship.

“We have people who don’t even know how to dial 911,” said Stan Bosch, a Catholic priest who has been mobilizing Latinos to get involved in Compton’s political life.

Pedro Pallan, a Latino businessman who ran unsuccessfully for a council seat in 1991, said Latinos in Compton may simply need a leader to follow.

“If we had a Latino candidate, we would have a hell of a race,” he said.

Pallan and Bosch say Latinos have become politically awakened by the council’s controversial decision to dissolve the city’s Police Department, replacing it with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

“We are just at the beginning of seeing people emerge and trying to get their voices heard,” Bosch said.

Inglewood

Latinos represent 51% of the population, up from 38% in 1990, according to Claritas. African Americans dropped from 50% of the population to 46% last year. But Latinos represent only 14% of the registered voters, according to the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project.

Only one of the city’s five council members is Latino. There are no Latinos on the five-member Inglewood Unified School District board of education.

With many recent immigrants in Inglewood, activists say it will take time for Latinos to improve voter registration rates.

“These kinds of things lag,” said Jose Fernandez, the Latino council member. “First you have to plant the seed and then grow roots in the community and then you become more empowered and then you start participating.”

Fernandez represents a heavily Latino district on the west side of the city. But he said he doubts he would have been elected under an at-large system. “With districts, at least you have a chance,” he said.

Eloy Morales, a longtime Inglewood resident and member of the city’s Library Commission, said Latinos in Inglewood need a viable candidate or a hot-button issue to inspire them.

“The only thing we don’t have is a motivation to get Latinos involved,” he said.

Bell

Low voter registration rates are not a problem. Latinos represent 67% of the voters in Bell, according to the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project.

Bell’s sole Latino council member, Victor Bello, did not return repeated calls for a comment.

Residents, city leaders and Latino activists say Latinos are content with the mostly white council because it has worked hard to serve Latino residents. The city publishes a monthly newsletter and the city budget in Spanish and English.

“I think we are doing a very good job,” said Mayor George Cole, a former union organizer who speaks fluent Spanish. “We understand who our customers are.”

Many Latinos in Bell agree.

“I feel like I’ve been treated nicely here,” said Leticia Araujo, a Latina business owner who is also a chamber of commerce director.

But not everything was so nice in neighboring Bell Gardens in 1992, when Latino voters recalled the white council majority and replaced it with a Latino majority.

The Bell Gardens recall was born of Latino frustration with a white council that proposed a zoning plan to limit the construction of apartments. Latinos in the city--many of whom lived in apartments--labeled the measure racist and an attempt to restrict the Latino population.

In contrast, Bell politics have been pleasantly boring for many years. The city’s business district is thriving, and the park and recreation centers are well maintained.

“There hasn’t been a united organizing effort to oust anyone in Bell,” said Pedro Carillo, a former Bell resident and senior aide to Rep. Lucille Royball-Allard (D-Los Angeles).

Santa Fe Springs

This middle-class community in southeast Los Angeles County, is 77% Latino but has only one Latino on its five-member council.

Latinos represent 57% of the city’s voters, according to the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project.

Like Bell, politics in Santa Fe Springs have for the most part been serene. For several years, the city’s budget has enjoyed a healthy surplus.

“If you are taking those dollars and putting them back in the community, putting them in the parks, why not keep the folks that are there?” said Santa Fe Councilman Ronald Kernes, explaining why he believes voters--including Latinos--support the mostly white incumbents. Kernes has been in office since 1978.

“The consensus is that people are pretty happy,” said Perez, a Santa Fe Springs planning commissioner and possible council candidate.

Latinos have been elected to the council in the past but have never held a majority of the five-seat council.

Luis Gonzalez, the city’s sole Latino council member, claims his city switched from district elections to at-large elections 20 years ago to limit the number of Latinos on the council.

But Gonzalez said he doesn’t believe the same issues are at play today. He said voters in his city--including Latinos--now elect members of the council on the basis of experience and qualifications.

“The focus is not ethnicity,” he said. “The focus is on services.”

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Vital Latino Statistics

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% of Council % of Population members* voters Bell 94 1 67 Compton 59 0 15 Inglewood 51 1 14 Santa Fe Springs 77 1 57 Whittier 53 0 30

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* All are five-member councils