Santa Paula denied the charge that the at-large system violated a section of the Voting Rights Act or diluted Hispanic voting strength, now or in the past. No more Hispanics would be elected under a district system, the city claimed, and that this lawsuit is barred by a disclaimer in the referred section of the Voting Rights Act that ?proportional representation is not required,? stated the settlement. ?Santa Paula also contends that there can be no vote dilution as a matter of law, because Hispanics, who have become a majority of the electorate, have an equal opportunity to elect.?Jumping into the fray was Santa Paula Voters Opposed to Electoral Redistricting, with the acronym of SPVOTER, represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a conservative public interest law firm named as an defendent-intervenor who could have brought a suit against the city and/or DOJ in case Santa Paula had voluntarily switched to five districts.The city accepted no liability and the DOJ reserved the right to refile the lawsuit in the future, the latter a door the Pacific Legal Foundation - which called the lawsuit ?racial gerrymandering? - had insisted must be closed.The city and DOJ struck a conciliatory note in the settlement and the stipulation of facts agreed to. Not so Pacific Legal Foundation, whose press release stated that the DOJ attempted to misuse the Voting Rights Act to ?dictate the racial makeup of the this city?s local governing body and proceeded on the demeaning assumption that race determines thinking. . .[the DOJ?s] crusade presumed that minorities are not competent enough to vote for candidates based on color-blind qualifications such as integrity and experience.?The tone was opposite of the meeting on middle-ground exchange of stipulation of facts in the settlement in which the city agreed to let voters decide the district voting issue in November 2002.Within minutes of the unanimous council vote to settle the suit, they gave full support to Councilwoman Laura Flores Espinosa?s future agenda item to allocate $50,000 for voter information and education on district voting.