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With David Ryu, a Korean American, just elected to the Los Angeles City Council, attention should now turn to putting an Asian American on the county board of supervisors. Doing that, and increasing the number of Latino supervisors, would result in a board that truly represents the county’s diverse population.
The best chance of increasing such representation lies with the state legislature and the voters. A proposal by Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia) would increase the size of the supervisorial boards in Los Angeles and four other counties with two million or more residents—San Diego, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino--from five to seven. To counter arguments that adding two or more supervisors to the boards would cost too much money, the measure would limit spending on the boards to what it would have been before expansion. The measure, a proposed constitutional amendment, would have to be approved by a two thirds majority of the Senate and the Assembly before it goes on the 2016 ballot, where it needs a majority of voters to pass.
Mendoza is the latest Latino lawmaker trying to increase Latino representation on the Los Angeles board. All have failed since a court-ordered redistricting in 1990 resulted in the creation of a district with enough Latino residents to permit election of a Latino lawmaker. Gloria Molina was the first, succeeded by the Latina incumbent, Hilda Solis. But the supervisors have declined to redraw district lines to help elect another Latino. Three members of the board—Mike Antonovich, Sheila Kuehl and Don Knabe—are white and Mark Ridley-Thomas is African American.
Mendoza’s proposal is more significant than past proposals because it affects Asian Americans as well as Latinos.
Enlarging the board would create space for another Latino to be elected. Most of the discussion of the issue has revolved around this issue. But the Mendoza plan could also help an Asian American candidate. Alan Clayton, who is a redistricting consultant, told me that such a result is possible in a potential district centered in the heavily Asian American San Gabriel Valley, reaching from South Pasadena and San Marino through Arcadia, Monterey Park and east to Claremont, Walnut and Diamond Bar.
The election could be an ethnic free for all. Clayton estimated the district would have almost 600,000 Asian Americans, more than 600,000 Latinos, less than 100,000 whites and the rest African American and other ethnicities. The Census Bureau lists Los Angeles County’s ethnic population as 48.3 percent Latino, 27.2 percent white, 14.4 percent Asian American and 9.2 percent African American.
A 2013 report of the Asian Americans Advancing Justice said Asian Americans grew faster than any other ethnic group in Los Angeles County between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, the report said, there were seven communities in the county that were majority Asian American. Now there are 13, all but one of them in the San Gabriel Valley.
The organization also noted that the Asian American community, which has a large number of poor, needs the kind of help government can provide. For example, the report said, Asian Americans and Native Hawaiian-Pacific Islanders “are less likely than Blacks or African Americans and Whites to have health insurance; over one in three Korean Americans in Los Angeles County are uninsured, a rate highest among racial or ethnic groups. Government, foundation, and private funding are needed to support culturally and linguistically appropriate outreach and education to Asian American and NHPI communities around available health coverage options.”
Those are among the reasons why Asian Americans need representation on the board of supervisors. And It would be good if the board of supervisors finally reflected the ethnicity of Los Angeles County.
