U.S. v. City of Euclid, No. 1:06cv01652.

• Decision Date: 16 April 2008
• Docket Number: No. 1:06cv01652.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. CITY OF EUCLID, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Ohio

580 F.Supp.2d 584

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. CITY OF EUCLID, et al., Defendants.

No. 1:06cv01652.

United States District Court, N.D. Ohio, Eastern Division.

April 16, 2008.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Wan J. Kim, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Christopher Coates, Abel Gomez, Sean W. O'Donnell, Sonya L. Sacks, U.S. Department Of Justice-Voting Section/Civil Rights Div., Washington, DC, for Plaintiff.

Brian P. Riley, Hilary S. Taylor, John S. Kluznik, Sr., Warren M. Rosman, Weston Hurd, Cleveland, OH, L. Christopher Frey, City Of Euclid, Department of Law, Euclid, OH, Julius E. Trombetto, Mazanec, Raskin & Ryder, Solon, OH, David G. Lambert, Frederick W. Whatley, Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Cleveland, OH, for Defendants.

ORDER

KATHLEEN McDONALD O'MALLEY, District Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

On July 10, 2006, the United States (the "government") filed a complaint, alleging that the City of Euclid's ("Euclid" or the "City") method of electing its City Council, using a combination of single-member districts and slotted, at-large positions, results in the dilution of African-American voting strength, in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 1937 ("Section 2"). After a bench trial beginning on August 6, 2007, this Court agreed.

In a lengthy oral ruling delivered on August 21, 2007, the Court found that the government had demonstrated that Euclid's method of electing its City Council violated Section 2. Based on this finding, the Court stayed all of the City's thenscheduled councilmanic elections, as well as all preelection filing obligations attendant thereto. The parties and the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections agreed that March 4, 2008, the date for the thenupcoming presidential primary election, was the most appropriate date on which to conduct a special election for the City's councilmanic seats. The Court, thus, set March 4, 2008 as the date on which councilmanic elections would be held and ordered the parties to propose a remedy which could be implemented fully prior to that election. On September 18, 2007, the City, with the assistance of the government, submitted a final remedial plan (the "Plan") that both parties agreed remedied the existing Section 2 violation. In sum the Plan proposed dividing Euclid into eight single-member districts, while retaining the at-large council president position. On October 29, 2007, the Court found that the Plan remedied the Section 2 violation while still remaining true to important local districting principles.

With the help of the Board of Elections, the City implemented the approved remedial plan. On March 4, 2008, a special councilmanic election was held. On that date, for the first time in the City's history, an African-American was elected to the Euclid City Council, having been elected from one of the majority-minority districts established by the remedial plan.¹

The purpose of this order is to affirm the many rulings made by the Court in the course of this litigation and to set forth the findings of fact and conclusions of law upon which those determinations were premised.²

II. BACKGROUND

A. Demographics and Geography

During the first half of the twentieth century, the City of Euclid was a predominantly white suburb of Cleveland. As late as the 1970s, African-Americans represented only one-half of one percent of Euclid's total population. (Sugrue Test., Trial Tr. 979:9-25.) In the 1980s, Euclid began to grow more diverse, with the African-American population increasing to 7.8% of Euclid's total population. (Id.) From the 1980s through the present, the African-American population has increased in Euclid, and the City's white population (and its total population) generally has decreased. (See Population of Euclid Races, Trial Ex. 66.) By the 1990 Census, 16.2% (8,871) of Euclid's total population of 54,875 was African-American. (Id.) According to the most recent Census) (for 2000), Euclid has a total population of 52,717, of which 30.5% (16,297) is African-American, and 65.7% (34,678) is white. (Sugrue Test., Trial Tr. 979:9-25; Ex. 66.)

Euclid is located in the northeast corner of Cuyahoga County, approximately twelve miles east of downtown Cleveland. The City is linked to Cleveland by Interstate 90 ("190"), which roughly bisects Euclid. (Sugrue Test., Trial Tr. 980:11-981:2.) The area to the north of 190 is predominantly residential, with large numbers of small single-family, mid-twentieth century homes and several high-rise apartments, situated on the south shore of Lake Erie. (Id. 980:11-983:17, 987:14-988:8.) Currently, the population of the northern section of Euclid is predominately white, and includes significant Slovenian and Irish ethnic communities. (See Cervenik Test., Trial Tr. 359:2-12.) Immediately to the south of the interstate is an unpopulated industrial zone. (See id. 358:21-359:1; Sugrue Test., Trial Tr. 980:11-982:8.) Farther south of the industrial area is an additional residential area. (Id.) The large industrial zone, when combined with the interstate, serves as a geographical divide between the northern and southern residential areas of Euclid. (Id.) The southern residential area of the City is comprised primarily of single-family homes and numerous multi-unit apartment buildings. (Id.) The southeast and southwest corners of Euclid are predominantly African-American, and are separated by an area of south-central Euclid that is predominantly white.³ (Sugrue Test., Trial Tr. 979:24:-980:10; GIS Map, Percent Black Non-Hispanic Population by 2000 Census Block, Euclid, Ohio, Ex. 82.)

B. Euclid City Council's Method of Election

The Euclid City Council is the governing board of the City of Euclid. Euclid, Oh. City Charter, art. II, § 1. It is composed of nine members, each of whom is elected in odd-numbered years to two-year concurrent terms. Id. Four of the eight councilmanic seats are elected from single-member districts, four are elected at-large from numbered posts, and one is elected atlarge to serve as the president of the City Council. Id. Councilmanic elections are nonpartisan, and no primary elections are held. (City of Euclid's Answers to the United States' First Set of Requests for Admission, Ex. 122 Nos. 45-46.) In the event that more than two candidates run for a seat and no candidate obtains a majority, the candidate who obtains a plurality of the vote is elected. Euclid, Oh. City Charter, art. VII, § 1. The method of election is set by the Euclid City Charter. Euclid, Oh. City Charter, art. II, § 1. Amendments to the city charter must be approved by a majority of Euclid's voters after having been put to the ballot by twothirds of the City Council or by petition signed by ten percent of the registered voters. Euclid, Oh. City Charter, art. X, § § 1, 2. The City Council may submit a proposed amendment to the voters at any time or it may wait to consider proposed amendments suggested by the Charter Review Commission. Id.

Prior to 1991, the four at-large council seats were elected in a multi-seat contest, with the top four vote-getters winning the office regardless of the number of candidates. (City of Euclid's Answers to the United States' First Set of Requests for Admission, Ex. 122 No. 47; Jerse Test., Trial Tr. 1208:7-1209:23.) In 1992, the Charter Review Commission proposed, and Euclid voters ultimately approved, a change to numbered posts for the City Council's at-large members. (City of Euclid's Answers to the United States' First Set of Requests for Admission, Ex. 122 Nos. 48-49; Jerse Test., Trial Tr. 1209:24-1210:4, 1211:4-8.)

The City Council is responsible for redistricting, "within sixty days after the proclamation by the Secretary of State announcing the population of cities of Ohio, as determined by the Federal census decennially taken." Euclid, Oh. City Charter, art. II, § 1. In undertaking its redistricting duties, the City Council is to, "redivide the City into four wards which shall be as nearly equal in population as is possible, each composed of contiguous and compact territory bounded by natural boundaries or street lines." Id. After the 2001 redistricting, none of Euclid's four wards had an African-American, votingage majority. (Handley Test., Trial Tr. 85:16-23.) In 2006, the City Council engaged in a mid-decade redistricting that had the effect of lowering the African-American, voting-age population in Ward 4, a ward which, at the time, had the highest concentration of African-Americans. (See Handley Test., Trial Tr. 88:5-22.)

C. Summary of African-American Participation in Euclid Politics

Never in the history of the City of Euclid has an African-American been elected as its mayor, council president, a member of its council, or to serve on its school board. Since 1981, African-American candidates have run for Euclid City Council positions ten times, and each time the African-American candidate has lost. The first African-American candidate to run for City Council was Rose Allen, who, in 1981, ran for the Ward 2 council seat. (Allen Test., Trial Tr. 1172:21-1173:19.) In short, beginning with Robert Butler in 1989, (Corbran Test., Trial Tr. 534:13-538:18), and continuing through the most recent councilmanic election, every African-American candidate for a seat on council in Euclid has lost, often placing last behind multiple white candidates.⁴

Since 1987, moreover, three African-Americans have run in, and lost, elections for the Euclid City Schools Board of Education.⁵ The first of these unsuccessful candidates was Marsha Morrell-Curtis, who ran and lost in 1987. (See Drake Test., Trial Tr. 941:1-9.) The second, Howard Drake, ran as an appointed incumbent to the school board in 1999 and lost. (Id. 894:10-25.) Two years earlier, in 1997, the school board and the school district's superintendent appointed Mr. Drake to fill a vacant, unexpired school board seat. (Id. 895:14-896:4.) Though there were only three candidates for...