Some of L.A. County’s best-known Asian American leaders came out in strong support of a plan to expand the Board of Supervisors — and to get it before voters this fall.
Increasing the number of seats from five to nine will create potential for better representation and more diversity on the board, according to the group that includes Congress members Judy Chu and Ted Lieu, municipal leaders and heads of community organizations.
15% of the county population
With a population of about 1.5 million, Asian Americans have grown to represent 15% of the county. None have served on the board since it was created in 1912.
“And that is injustice,” said Chu, a Monterey Park Democrat. “For far too long, the [Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander] community has been marginalized.”
Chu and others evoked some of the most discriminatory acts targeting Asians in the U.S, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the government-authorized incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.
Lieu added that county government would work better if supervisors could represent half of the current 2 million constituents they each have now.
“That’s why we need to have this reform — to simply deal with the additional population in LA County since 1912, ” Lieu said.
Other lending their support to the expansion plan include leaders for the Center for Asian Americans United for Self Empowerment and the AAPI Equity Alliance, as well as council members from Monterey Park and Artesia.
