Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times published an article claiming the City of Anaheim is looking to settle the California Civil Rights Act lawsuit brought by the ACLU on behalf of Anaheim City School District Trustee Jose F. Moreno. I don’t know whether a settlement is indeed in the works, but if it is I truly hope it does not involve the city capitulating to this litigious shakedown by a small left-wing faction trying to impose on Anaheim residents an single-member council district system they have not sought for themselves. Progressives love to presents themselves as tribunes of democracy, but are inclined to seek victory in the courtroom rather than at the ballot box.
That said, this quote from Moreno in the LAT article highlights what happens when reporters cover a political situation about which they have only superficial knowledge:
“For me, certainly, any settlement talks are about the city agreeing toward the direction of establishing districts, authentic districts, where the representatives are voted for by the residents of those districts,” said Jose Moreno, a plaintiff in the suit.
Now, I assume that LAT reporters Paloma Esquivel and Adolfo Flores are ignorant of the fact that Moreno has refused to take any action to establish “authentic districts, where the representatives are voted for by the residents of those districts” in the Anaheim City School District – where all the criteria he claims demand district in Anaheim council elections are even more in evidence. Otherwise, one would think that real reporters would have challenge Moreno on his blatant hypocrisy on the matter.
At least, one would think. In reality, there has been what could be characterized as a conspiracy of silence on the matter. I don’t think a single media outlet – certainly not the Voice of OC — has ever asked Moreno this blazingly obvious question: “Given the reasons you cite for suing the City of Anaheim, why don’t you take action to establish single-member districts in your own school district?”
As this blog has pointed out more than once, this could be easily and quickly accomplished by a mere vote of the ACSD Board of Education and a waiver from the state (which are easily obtained).
Which brings us back to the question of why Moreno will not practice in his school district governance what he preaches for Anaheim city governance? Ask around those involved in Anaheim politics and the answer is invariably that Moreno lives in an the upscale, decidedly non-Latino Westmont neighborhood of Anaheim and is afraid he wouldn’t be re-elected from an “authentic district, where the representatives are voted for by the residents of those district.”
Moreno is up for re-election in 2014. If he maintains his stance that single-member districts for ACSD as something for some future Board of Education to consider after the 2020 Census, then the Latino Studies professor will be running seeking re-election under the same at-large system which he claims disenfranchises Latino votes.
Who knows? At some point, some reporter, somewhere, might become cognizant of this screamingly obvious double-standard and ask the obvious question.
But I wouldn’t bet on it.
In my opinion Jose Moreno does not subscribe to an equal standard. He wants to have it both ways and screw everybody else.
Moreno, the community doesn’t like you. You don’t represent “la raza” you represent yourself. You have done a lot of harm to ACSD and now the city. You’re the joke of the town señor.
Raza este señor es un falso y mentiroso que lo único que hace es para su beneficio y no el de la comunidad. Le da la espalda a su propia gente y se esconde detrás de las faldas de una vieja.