Monterey Park’s 2019 Districting Map

By Nancy C. Arcuri, Editor and Publisher

On April 17th the Monterey Park City Council voted to choose this map as our Districting Map for our 2020 Council Election.

The Southwest Voter Registration Education Project based in Texas and their attorneys, Shenkman & Hughes based in Malibu have forced us to redistrict our city based on the California Voting Rights Act of 2001 to elect more Hispanics into office or be sued.

Talk about unexpected and disagreeable consequences.

Most of the residents are not pleased that this issue has divided up our Councilmembers and our residents.

Councilmember Hans Liang who is termed out in 2022 and Councilmember Mitch Ing who will have served four years in 2020 are located in District 1.

Councilmember Stephen Lam who will have served four year in 2020 is located in District 2.

District 3 and District 4 do not have sitting Councilmembers in their districts.

The consultants have said that most of the Hispanics live in our south side of town. The Voting Rights Act is being used to promote this ethnic group to have a better chance to be elected into political office in California.

Councilmember Peter Chan who is termed out in 2022 and Councilmember Teresa Real Sebastian who will have served four years in 2020 are located in District 5.

Peter Chan, Hans Liang and Stephen Lam voted to sequence the 2020 elections to Districts 2, 3 and 4 since our 2020 will have three opened Council seats.

The 2022 Council election will have two open seats.

Mitch Ing and Teresa Real Sebastian left the dais and did not vote on this sequence.

Since the city must honor this law voters in Districts 1 and 5 will not have a Councilmember to vote for in the 2020 election. Which will deny many voters the right to vote in that election.

On May 1st at the second reading of this map and sequence of election dates Peter Chan, Hans Liang and Stephen Lam voted yes. Mitch Ing and Teresa Real Sebastian voted no.

The City Council decided it was better to change our Voting at Large to Voting by District to prevent our city from being sued.

We all need to remind our elected official in Sacramento that the California Voting Rights Act is a discriminatory law that needs to be amended to protect the voting rights of all California citizens.

Now we are forced to Vote by District. We have lost our right to vote for the best candidates for our hometown.

Most of our voting population is very troubled that this racist organization has pitted one ethnic group against other ethnic groups in California.

Monterey Park paid $50,000 to the consultants to help us draw up the map based on the 2010 Census figures that include every man, woman and child living in town at that time.

To date, May 1st, the city has spent $69,459 on the Redistricting issue.

More money will we be spending to educate the voters for the 2020 election and the 2022 election.

Additional costs will incur after the 2020 census when we have to play this game all over again.

We all need to remind all of the elected officials in Sacramento that they work for us, the tax paying voters.

Any voter in California can complain to your elected officials in Sacramento that they dividing up our state by race and pitting one ethnic group against other ethnic groups.