Ohio state Rep. Bill Patmon (pictured) (D-10), a former Ward 8 councilman who lost a bid for mayor against Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson in 2009. Patmon is livid over an amended redistricting map passed by city council on Wednesday that reduces city council from 19 to 17 seats beginning next year, and after this year's elections for city council and mayor. The state lawmaker says that the new map disenfranchises Glenville residents in Wards 8 and 9 on Cleveland's largely Black east side, and Hispanics in Ward 14 on the city's majority White west side. The amended map combines Wards 8 and 9 into a new Ward 9 and eliminates west side Ward 16 to reduce city council from 19 to 17 seats as required by a voter adopted charter amendment that sees reductions based upon declining population demographics. Patmon raised the same objections to the original map passed by city council two weeks ago.

By Johnette Jernigan and Kathy Wray Coleman,  Cleveland Urban News.Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com

(www.clevelandurbannews.com) and (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

BakerHostetler Attorney Jose Felianco, who is also chairperson of the Hispanic Roundtable in greater Cleveland, might sue Cleveland City Council on behalf of the city's Hispanic population for what he says is a city council redistricting map that possibly violates the federal Voting Rights Act

CLEVELAND,Ohio- The redistricting map that Cleveland City Council approved two weeks ago that drops council wards from 19 to 17 seats based on declining population and pits east side Ward 8 Councilman Jeff Johnson and Ward 9 Councilman Kevin Conwell against each other in city council races this year with their two Glenville neighborhood wards combined into a newly established Ward 9 was amended by city council at a meeting Wednesday morning. CLICK THIS LINK HERE TO SEE THE MAP FOR THE NEW CLEVELAND CITY COUNCIL WARDS

The amended map, which is effective January 2014 after elections this year for city council and mayor, still pits Johnson and Conwell against each other and does not differ much from the previous one, though it changes the ward boundaries in west side Ward 14, now led by Councilman Brian Cummins, who is in China and was absent from the meeting.

That change, the city council president admits, was to try to avert a possible federal Voting Rights Act lawsuit by greater Cleveland Hispanic Roundtable chairperson Jose Felicianco.

Conwell, Johnson, Ward 3 Councilman Joe Cimperman and Ward 11 Councilman Michael Polensek voted against the amended map, and Cimperman and Polensek voted against the original map two weeks ago, with Conwell absent from that meeting, and allegedly in the hospital at the time.

Neither Johnson nor Conwell, nor Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, who is seeking a third four year term this year with no serious opposition, returned phone calls seeking comment yesterday.

Both Johnson and Conwell have taken out petitions with the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections to run for city council this year in the new Ward 9.

Under the city charter, council members do not have to live in the ward that they represent, though the new map puts both Johnson and Conwell in the new Ward 9.

According to Feliciano, the Ward 14 Hispanic block went from 44 percent to 41 percent through redistricting four years ago. And two weeks ago before the map was amended on Wednesday, it went from 41 percent to 37 percent.  Shooting the percentage from 37 percent back up to 41 percent, as council did Wednesday through an amended map, did not go far enough, he said.

City Council, said Feliciano, should have drawn the boundaries for a 50 percent Hispanic population in Ward 14 both two weeks ago and with yesterday's amendment, and for city council races in 2009, each year as possibly required by the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Redistricting can infringe upon the Voting Rights Act in several ways, including changes that violate constituent voting rights, and that see maps drawn directly or inadvertently to make it more difficult for a particular minority population to elect one of its kind as it has done previously. It is debatable how often the act requires redrawing boundaries to heighten the percentage of a racial voting population in a given area  to make it more probable to win an election because none from the effected group is represented by design. And it would depend, in fact, on the scenario at hand, Feliciano suggests.

Asked if the amended map violates the Voting Rights Act and whether he will sue on behalf of the Hispanic community, Feliciano said that he does not yet know.

"We are waiting on requested public records on demographics, though they gave us some public records," said Feliciano during an interview Wednesday afternoon.

He said that the entire City Council, not just Council President Martin Sweeney, is at fault.

"I am not surprised, but I am disappointed," said Felianco.

Cleveland's  Hispanic population is at 10 percent,  a 2010 U.S. Census Reports reveals.

State Rep. Bill Patmon (pictured) (D-10), a former Ward 8 councilman who lost a bid for mayor against Jackson in 2009, said that the amended map disenfranchises east side Blacks and west side Hispanics.

"It does a disservice to the constituents of Glenville, it is disrespectful to the Black community, and I believe that this map may be unconstitutional as it relates to the Hispanic community of Cleveland."

In 2009 the first of the two population centered council reductions required by the charter in recent years saw former councilman Joe Santiago (pictured) lose to outspoken Ward 14 Councilman Brian Cummins (pictured below) in a showdown to get rid of one of two seats to drop council from 21 members to 19. The second of those two seats was taken care of after eliminating then east side Councilmen Robert White, who did a small prison stint for bribery in office. Councilman Zack Reed, formerly the councilman in Ward 3 who would probably have faced White had he not gone to prison, won reelection to the then new Ward 2 that year.

Former Cleveland Councilman

Council President Sweeney (pictured) , a west side councilman, independently prepared the redistricting map in cooperation with a highly paid consulting firm previously approved by city council, and his council colleagues for the most part have not publicly criticized him on it.

The all White west side council members got a break and will not be forced to run against each other after the pushed retirement earlier last month from longtime Ward 16 Councilman Jay Westbrook, whose Ward 16 was sliced and diced by Sweeney to rid the city of the second council seat required by the council reduction mandate

Councilman Johnson said in an  interview two weeks ago that he was treated fairly by Sweeney, that he believes the community should have had relevant input, and that he successfully worked with Sweeney to protect the Glenville neighborhood in his Ward 8 that he represents from getting chopped up and distributed among four wards, as initially considered. But he obviously has changed his mind since he voted against the amended map on yesterday.

Ward 3 Councilman Joe Cimperman (pictured), whose ward includes the influential downtown Cleveland  is angry that he now has to share part of it, and controversial Collinwood Ward 11 Councilman Michael Polensek (pictured below) said that his ward got chopped up too much, and that it extends some seven miles from the Collinwood neighborhood on the city's east side into downtown Cleveland.

Reach Cleveland Urban News.Com by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com and by phone at 216-659-0473

.