ERNC Stays Out of Key Redistricting Battle, Supports Adult Education

The declined Tuesday at its monthly board meeting to vote on a request by a representative of two Los Angeles City Council members to consider a resolution supporting their demand to delay L.A.’s Redistricting proceedings and make the process more responsive to public wishes.

The ERNC agreed instead—by a 9-1 vote and three abstentions—to table the request until it has more information to act on. Mike Hernandez, assistant chief of staff to City Council members Jan Perry and Bernard Parks, made the request before the ERNC board.

Keeping Eagle Rock and Highland Park Together

In another 12-1 vote on a related issue, however, the ERNC board agreed to support a Redistricting proposal known as “Amendment G,” which seeks to keep intact the northern portion of Highland Park that shares Council District 14 with Eagle Rock. Simultaneously, the ERNC board also supported an Amendment G plan to keep Glassell Park intact in CD 1 instead of splitting it up between two Council districts.

The backing of Amendment G was in response to a presentation by Ana E. Cubas, chief of staff to , who told the ERNC board that Huizar supports retaining Highland Park’s thriving business district north of York Boulevard, while keeping Glassell Park whole. Last week, Cubas informed Patch that Huizar is committed to including northern Highland Park in final Redistricting maps—click here to read that story.

Perry’s Offensive

The ERNC’s decisions on Tuesday night came a day after CD 9 Council member and mayoral candidate Perry accused City Council President Herb Wesson and Huizar of trying to manipulate the Redistricting process by depriving her of large parts of Downtown that currently lie in her district. (The latest Redistricting maps, which are scheduled to be finalized by the City Council Rules Committee on March 16 before going before the full Council, allocate a sizeable chunk of Downtown to Huizar’s CD 14 in lieu of northern Highland Park and almost all of Mount Washington.)

Asked for Huizar’s reaction to Perry’s accusations, the Council member’s communications director, Rick Coca retorted: "Such cheap-shot and desperate tactics do not deserve a response."

Perry’s Assistant Chief of Staff Hernandez told the ERNC board that the Council member’s concerns were summed up in a motion that was seconded by Parks and introduced in the City Council on February 24.

Not only are the Redistricting maps illegal, they run roughshod over long-established community partnerships and links as well as people’s wishes, argued the motion, which Council President Wesson has set aside until the map are finalized, Hernandez said.

Asked by ERNC board member Osbaldo Luna why Hernandez was approaching neighborhood councils at this late stage in the Redistricting process, the assistant chief of staff replied that Perry’s office did not expect the Redistricting Commission to act as unilaterally as it has in the face of considerable public opposition to the new maps of Los Angeles.

Hernandez told Patch separately that Perry and Parks notified City Attorney Carmen Trutanich on Monday that they would be taking legal action against the Redistricting process in the L.A. Superior Court as well as the federal court.

Adult Education Support

In another significant development at the ERNC meeting, which was held at the , the board voted unanimously to write a letter to the LAUSD board, requesting it not to eliminate adult education schools in L.A. but to conduct a cost-benefit analysis that allows key programs to continue.

The LAUSD board is scheduled to take a decision on Tuesday, March 13, whether or not to scrap all adult education programs because of severe budget constraints.

The issue was brought to the ERNC’s attention by Pierre Zubrinsky, an Eagle Rock resident who teaches English as a second language at Evans Community Adult School on Figueroa Street, near Chinatown.