Former City Council members speak against dividing city into voting districts

By Kendra Ablaza

July 2, 2009

WEST COVINA - Former council members and supporters met on Tuesday at Cameron Park to discuss their reasons for opposing a proposal to divide the city into voting districts.

West Covina resident Herb Redholtz told about 30 people at the meeting that they should not vote for the measure, which has qualified for a Nov. 3 ballot.

"A councilman needs to represent our entire city," Redholtz said. "With districting , you will see machine politics. We need to have all five council members accountable for the entire city."

Forrest Tennant, former West Covina mayor, also spoke at the event saying he thinks West Covina is too small to have districts.

"If anyone has a problem, they have five people to call," Tennant said. "With districts, you only have one person."

Redholtz went on to say that separating the city into districts would make it harder to get rid of councilmen.

"The point of having five councilmen is to debate issues with five different opinions. It would be boring if there were only one opinion to decide everything," he said.

Community activist Fred Sykes was present passing out flyers in support creating voting districts.

On Wednesday, he said the council is controlled by the four members who live in or near the affluent South Hills area. Only Mayor Roger Hernandez does not live near there.

"They can't stop the residents from voting on it, so they want to give it misdirection," he said.

Creating districts in the city would make elected leaders more accountable, he said.

"At least they can have someone on the council who is actually their neighbor," he said.