One Port Arthur City councilman said he fears the Hispanic community in the city will be negatively affected if plans to eliminate Districts 5 and 6 go through in May.

Willie “Bae” Lewis Jr., District 5 councilman, will give a presentation regarding the 2010 Census for Districts 2, 3 and 6 at the regular meeting of the Port Arthur City Council at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 444 Fourth St., Port Arthur.

District 6 cross-represents, or serves as an overlapping district, for Districts 2 and 3.

The respective Hispanic populations for those three districts are as follows:

• District 2 with 10,645
• District 3 with 15,775
• District 6 with 26,420

Lewis said former District 2 Councilwoman Tiffany Hamilton, former District 3 Councilman Morris Albright III and District 6 Councilman Osman Swati failed to schedule a public hearing or do a mail out to the Hispanic constituents about how doing away with District 5 and 6 would have a negative impact.

“All three sold them out,” Lewis said. “They have a problem with the Hispanic and Latino growth. There’s only one reason to do that.

“This has never been about Willie ‘Bae’ Lewis; that’s a distraction. Doing away with 6 breaks up the Latino and Spanish concentration. It limits their power. If 6 is left alone, the Hispanics and Latinos could take 6.”

Albright and Hamilton are no longer on the City Council. Hamilton could not be reached; Swati did not return a call from the Port Arthur News.

Lewis said the remedy for the Hispanic community is to contact the U.S. Department of Justice that is accepting data from citizens from District 6.

“It has to happen,” he said. “If people in District 6 can flood the DOJ with their objections it will have a negative impact on Hispanics and Latinos. Quite a few of them have contacted the Justice Department early on; quite a few Hispanics and Anglos.”

Lewis believes within a decade Hispanic candidates will take Districts 2, 3 and 6. Furthermore, District 6 could stick around if the DOJ gets an injunction. An injunction can be filed in federal court.

“It doesn’t take long to get an injunction. It needs to be approved by a three-judge panel at the U.S. 5^th Circuit Court in New Orleans,” Lewis said. “A permanent injunction, even a temporary injunction, will free an election for 5 and 6 until the court hears the merit of the case.”

Hamilton said there was information provided to the community prior to the proposal being on the ballot and it was “very apparent” citizens wanted removal of the two seats, 5 and 6, with their voice being heard through the vote.

She said more than 11,000 residents voted in the November 2016 election with 7,4532 voting for the removal and 3,843 against.

“More people voted for this specific provision than they have for any other citywide election,” Hamilton said. “I appreciated the opportunity to respond definitely to false representation (Lewis’ assertion the three Councilmembers “sold them out”).

“I did not propose this, Councilman Swati did. I’ve been very active and available on the City Council and afterward to the Hispanic community. It’s unfortunate this conversation has isolated one part of the population in the community. Not only seats 5 and 6 voted for this. The entire city, Districts 1,2,3 and 4, the entire city voted for this.”

Bruce Reyes, chairman of the Hispanic Business Council, said he hasn’t heard any concerns in the Hispanic community about a negative impact if Districts 5 and 6 are gone. He added that he doesn’t know of anyone contacting the Department of Justice to file an injunction.

“Our generation of Hispanics in this area are predominately first-generation Americans. We haven’t grown in our involvement in the community,” Reyes said. “We’re pretty fresh. We’ve never been involved with anything besides work, family and gatherings. At least around here.”

In other city business, the Council will consider the regulation of gaming sites and gaming machines, or “eight liners.”

If the ordinance is passed, the operation of gaming sites and gaming machines will be regulated within the city limits, providing a penalty and effective date for publication.

An interoffice memorandum read the purpose of the ordinance concerns operating hours and a range of fines for violations requested that were requested by the city prosecutor, Jesse Branick.

“The language within the current ordinance implies that although the gaming sites must close at 10 p.m., the fine may not be imposed unless it is operating more than an hour after 10 p.m.,” it read. “The proposed amendments to the current ordinance clarify that each gaming machine must be made inaccessible and unusable anytime outside the hours of 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. A fine will be imposed for any portion of an hour outside the permitted operation ties. A range of fines has been added as requested by the city prosecutor.”

Also up for approval is amending the zoning ordinance for game rooms.

The schedule of uses, parking and loading regulations, special conditions and definitions will be changed. Violation of this ordinance is punishable by a fine not exceeding $2,000.