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Politics

Escondido Faces Ultimatum Over Latino Representation

By Alison St John / Reporter
Published December 8, 2011 at 3:08 PM PST
This story was published more than 13 years ago.
Escondido Faces Ultimatum Over Latino Representation
Half of Escondido’s population - and a quarter of the city’s voters - are Latino, but there's very little Latino representation on the City Council.

The Escondido City Council was faced with an ultimatum this week: Change from citywide to district elections, or be sued.

The council has adopted policies, such as traffic checkpoints, that some say target Latinos.

Long-time Escondido resident Demetrio Gomez told the council it’s time to change the way city councilmembers are elected in order to give Latinos a better chance at fair representation.

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“Such a small percentage of the voters in Escondido are controlling basically the fate of everyone in the city,” Gomez said. “All the checkpoints that are set up, all the negativity against Latinos in the city.”

Gomez is a member of the state’s Building and Construction Trades Council, which is threatening to sue if the city doesn’t consider the change at its meeting next week.

Escondido Mayor Sam Abed said it’s not going to happen: “We are not going to be intimidated by threats,” he said.

Abed said he is totally opposed to splitting cities under a million people into districts - he calls it divisive. He said minorities are well represented on the council: Olga Diaz, a Latino, was elected in 2008.

“They elected me as mayor,” Abed said. “I am a minority, so what’s the problem? The problem is very simple: It’s political. They disagree with our policy on the checkpoints. We are not going to change that. We are supporting the traffic safety checkpoints because of public safety. “

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Several dozen Latino workers attended the council meeting to demand the city consider district elections at their meeting next week - or face a lawsuit.

Attorney James Finberg, representing the state’s Building and Construction Trades Union, said a change is needed to bring the city in compliance with federal and state voting rights acts. He said the change should be made before the 2012 election.

“The next election is a presidential election,” Finberg said. “It is a critically important election; there will be a big turnout and we would like the Latino voters to be well represented in it.“

Escondido’s school district has already decided to change to district elections next year to improve minority representation on the school board.

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Alison St John
Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.
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