ANAHEIM : Group Shelves Drive for Council Districts

At the request of Councilman Fred Hunter, a proposal to elect council members by districts has been shelved for at least two years.

Attorney Matthew K. Bogoshian, chairman of Anaheim Coalition for District Elections, said his group has halted a petition drive that was seeking a referendum on the issue next year. The group had collected more than a third of the signatures it needed.

The group wanted to divide the city into four council districts, and have each elect its own council member. The mayor, who is a member of the council, would still have been elected at-large. Currently, the mayor and all four council members are elected at-large.

Bogoshian said Hunter, who supports district elections, told him last month the city could not afford the $100,000 cost of a special election and promised to lead an effort to put the measure on 1994’s general election ballot.

“Our group agreed that we did not want to cost the city any additional money, considering its tight financial condition,” Bogoshian said. “But (Hunter) assured us he would push very hard to get our measure on the next city ballot.”

Hunter could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Former Mayor Ben Bay, who has been an outspoken critic of districting, said a private poll taken last summer showed two-thirds of city voters oppose districting.

The leaders of the petition drive “knew they were going to lose,” he said.

Bogoshian’s group had until Dec. 6 to submit to the city clerk petitions with the signatures of 15,000 Anaheim voters if it wanted to force a special election next year. Bogoshian said the group had collected about 6,000 signatures.

Proponents say districting would ensure that the city’s diverse geographic areas would receive equal representation on the council. They also said council candidates would no longer have to raise and spend $100,000 for their campaigns. In addition, it would make it easier for Latinos, who make up a third of the city’s residents, to elect one of their own to the council.

Opponents say districts would pit neighborhoods against each other.

As an example of failed districting, they cite the County Board of Supervisors, which had long and acrimonious fights over where to locate both a new jail and an airport. None of the supervisors wanted either project in his or her district. Opponents also say that Latinos do not form a unified voting bloc in the city and that many support the non-Latinos who now make up the council.