On the surface, at least, Pasadena’s City Hall was a happy place Tuesday evening as elected officials, city employees and residents filed in for a City Council meeting. Handshakes, hugs and small talk created a glow of bonhomie as everyone waited for the show to start. Yet a shadow hung over this sunny facade. These are troubled days for Harris County’s second-largest city as it absorbs the effects of ongoing voting rights litigation and prepares for a municipal election in May amid continued uncertainty about what the electoral map will look like. A blistering opinion by a federal judge, after a trial that drew national attention, depicted Pasadena as a place where public officials used taxpayer-funded time and resources in a relentless campaign to weaken Latino political influence; where Anglos enjoy superior public services; where residents referred to a Latino candidate seeking their votes as a “wetback;” and where another candidate felt obliged to conceal his Hispanic ethnicity to get elected.
Mayor Johnny Isbell’s determination to change the council structure by creating two citywide positions led to a spectacle that damaged Pasadena’s reputation, said Robbie Lowe, a real estate agent who has lived in the industrial Houston suburb since 1982.
“I’m embarrassed that you managed to bring an ugly part of our history back to the forefront,” Lowe told Isbell during the public speakers’ portion of the council meeting. “You pushed through your redistricting plan with the help of your trusty yes-men.”
Full Article: Voting rights case unsettles Pasadena as elections loom – Houston Chronicle.
