Why Five Just Isn’t Enough : Kenyon’s sharp ruling in supervisors’ case could lead to good government

U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon Wednesday rejected the latest attempt by Los Angeles County supervisors to redraw their district lines to comply with the federal Voting Rights Act. He called their plan a “nonsensical distortion” of the existing--and illegal--district lines.

He sure got that right.

County government must change as a result of the voting-rights suit the supervisors recently lost to local civil rights groups and the U.S. Justice Department. The question now is how? How to implement that change so the rights of Latino voters, who have never been able to elect a member of their community to the county board, are protected without violating the rights of other residents?

The Republican trio that makes up the majority bloc on the five-member board submitted a plan designed to preserve their power, not to protect minority rights. They ganged up on a Democrat, Edmund D. Edelman, by saddling him with their proposed heavily Latino district--and also diluted the voting strength of African-Americans by lumping South-Central Los Angeles in the same district as Beverly Hills. What a class act. In dry understatement, Kenyon called their scheme “insensitive to the needs and interests” of Latino and black county residents.

But now the plaintiffs in this historic lawsuit need to work up a design for county government that will really make a difference. They have already given Kenyon two redistricting plans based on the present five-supervisor system. Both are fairer to minority voters than the supervisors’ plan, but neither would give Los Angeles County the modern system of local government this area needs.

Even five saints--whatever their race, creed or competence--cannot possibly govern a region of more than 8 million people. Los Angeles needs seven to nine members on its county board and a chief executive with the clout to balance them off. The plaintiffs may not push for that, but Judge Kenyon has the power to consider this option anyway. He should.