Pasadena to pay $1 million to settle voting rights lawsuit Mayor: Best to 'get this suit behind us'

New mayor Jeff Wagner greets Cesar Espinosa after being sworn into office at Pasadena City Hall, Saturday, July 1, 2017. (Annie Mulligan / Freelance) New mayor Jeff Wagner greets Cesar Espinosa after being sworn into office at Pasadena City Hall, Saturday, July 1, 2017. (Annie Mulligan / Freelance) Photo: Annie Mulligan, Freelance Photo: Annie Mulligan, Freelance Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Pasadena to pay $1 million to settle voting rights lawsuit 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Pasadena Mayor Jeff Wagner on Friday asked the City Council to settle a voting rights lawsuit that led to national portrayals of the Houston suburb as an example of efforts to suppress Latino voting rights.

The proposed settlement with Latino residents who sued the city in 2014 over a new City Council district system calls for the city to pay $900,000 for the plaintiffs' legal fees and $197,341 for court costs. The item will be on Tuesday's City Council agenda.

"While I strongly believe that the city did not violate the Voting Rights Act or adopt a discriminatory election system," Wagner said in a statement, "I think it's in the best interest of the city to get this suit behind us."

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C. Robert Health, who represented the city a protracted battle in federal court, agreed that if the council votes for the settlement, it's in the city's best interest. However, he argued in court and he still believes that the city did not intentionally discriminate against Latino voters, even though Chief U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal determined it did.

"We felt we had a good case and we had not discriminated," he said. "The system operated in such a way that I don't think it produced or diminished Hispanic representation."

Patricia Gonzales, one of a handful of voters who filed the lawsuit through the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund prompted by drastic infrastructure inequities across the city, said she was thrilled to hear the news. But she was not surprised.

"We knew this was a winning fight. We prayed on it and we fought on it and we knew it was the right thing to do," said Gonzalez, a part time phone operator recently formed a community advocacy group on the structurally faltering north side of town.

"We can't be bullied anymore," she said.

Councilman Cody Ray Wheeler, who testified in the lawsuit and was a vocal advocate for removing what he saw as power grab by longtime Mayor Johnny Isbell, said he's relieved the city is putting an end to fighting the ruling.

"There was kind of an underbelly in Pasadena of this power network and good old boy system that wanted to keep Pasadena run by this group," he said. "The lawsuit changed that. It really put the power back in the hands of the voters and the citizens of Pasadena."

He said based on conversations among city council members he's confident the majority will approve the settlement.

Approval of the settlement would end the city's appeal of Rosenthal's January ruling that the new council system intentionally diluted Latino voting strength. Voters approved the new system, which added two at-large council positions and removed two district seats, in a 2013 charter change election initiated by the former mayor.

Rosenthal ordered the city to use the previous system of eight district positions in the city elections last May. The city has paid more than $2 million to attorneys for the trial and appeal.

Wagner, a former Houston police officer who had served one term on the City Council, won election to replace the term-limited Isbell, who had led the city off and on for decades. Statements by candidates during the city election campaign, and by council members since then, have shown little appetite for continuing the appeal of the case.

The lawsuit "has been extremely divisive and focused our attention on issues of the past," Wagner said in his statement. "It is time to devote our full attention to the future and to ensuring that Pasadena's future is one in which all parts of the city are united."