Voting rights trial focuses on neighborhood’s racial makeup

LOS ANGELES -- The racial makeup of neighborhoods became the central issue Thursday as testimony began in the bench trial of a California Voting Rights Act lawsuit filed against the city of Santa Monica.

The trial, which is expected to last four to six weeks, is based on the plaintiffs' claim that Santa Monica's at-large voting method of electing city council members violates the voting rights act and that the provision of the City Charter requiring at-large elections is unconstitutional.

The complaint claims the system dilutes the Latino vote and prevents Latinos from being represented, though the first witness acknowledged under questioning that the neighborhood she complained is not represented by a Latino candidate is a majority-white area.

The defense, led by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, stated in the opening on Wednesday that the at-large voting system in no way discriminates against representatives from different races being elected and noted several Latinos have been members of the city council, including two current members -- one a former mayor and one the current pro tem mayor.

For the past several years, Malibu attorney Kevin Shenkman has brought similar suits against cities all over Southern California, demanding they change the at-large voting system to a district voting system that would improve representation of people who are not white. Few, if any, cities have defended their election systems, instead paying attorney fees and changing the way they vote for their representatives.

"The Voting Rights Act is an important statute, but in recent years its purposes often have been subverted, and it has been used as a means to threaten small cities with enormous legal bills and fee-shifting unless they change their electoral systems to district-based voting, and most have simply settled in light of those threats, even if they were in compliance with the law," Gibson Dunn partner Theodore J. Boutrous Jr. said Thursday in an email.

"The resulting changes to districts have not improved the electoral results for Latino candidates, and sometimes districts can make it harder for minority-group candidates to win," Boutrous said. "The City of Santa Monica is fighting back in this case because its system gives everyone a fair and equal voice in elections as the election results themselves demonstrate."

The genesis of the case is two failed candidacies in 2004 and 2014 by Maria Loya, a Latina woman from the city's Pico neighborhood, who ran for the City Council and then the Santa Monica College Board of Trustees.

In April 2016, she and a group called the Pico Neighborhood Association, filed a complaint against the city, alleging the at-large voting system for the city council was purposely designed to prevent non-white voters residing in the Pico area from receiving representation in their local governments by people of their race. Pico Neighborhood Association et al. v. City of Santa Monica, BC616804 (LA County Sup. Ct., filed April 12, 2016).

When Loya was called to testify as the plaintiffs' first witness, she got questions from the plaintiffs' and defense attorneys relating to the racial background of council members, college board members and Pico Neighborhood residents.

"The Pico neighborhood is majority white, isn't it?" asked defense attorney Michele Maryott, a partner at Gibson Dunn.

After a pause, Loya responded, "It's white, it's Latino, it's black, it's Asian."

Maryott then repeated the question, to which Loya gave a long-winded answer, describing a neighborhood she said was affected by gentrification, development and rent control, and alleged Latinos and other racial minorities had been displaced.

"After the gentrification and the I-10 freeway, a lot of families were pushed out, a lot of black families pushed out," Loya said.

Maryott then requested Loya's answer be stricken from the record, arguing it was non-responsive.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Yvette M. Palazuelos granted the motion. Maryott asked Loya a third time if the Pico Neighborhood was majority white.

Loya responded, "I suppose so, but it doesn't feel that way to me. I don't know the exact population. I don't know the exact percentage. ... You asked me the question as if it was an affirmation, but I don't know."

Again, Maryott asked Loya to simplify her answer. This time, co-counsel for the plaintiffs, Milton C. Grimes of the Law Offices of Milton C. Grimes, objected. "This is getting to be harassment, asked and answered," he said.

Palazuelos said the question was not harassment but did sustain the objection.

Maryott asked Loya if she knew that the majority of Latinos living in Santa Monica live outside the Pico neighborhood.

"That's not my perspective. That's not my experience," Loya replied.