Davis Seeks Fairer Way of Deciding on Cityhood Bids

State Sen. Ed Davis will introduce legislation next year to establish what he called a fairer method of deciding community requests to form cities, a Davis spokesman said Friday.

The impetus for the bill is Davis’ experience as a supporter of Santa Clarita’s successful campaign for cityhood and Calabasas’ struggling effort.

The Valencia Republican has been an outspoken critic of the Local Agency Formation Commission, which oversees community incorporations in Los Angeles County. Davis has sparred with County Supervisor Pete Schabarum, a LAFCO member representing the county, over the Santa Clarita and Calabasas incorporation campaigns.

Davis’ bill, which has not yet been drafted, would shift the source of funding for LAFCO from counties to the state and prohibit LAFCO offices from being in county facilities, said Hunt C. Braly, Davis’ administrative assistant.

The bill also would attempt to provide more detailed and binding guidelines for LAFCO decisions, he said. “It is not objective,” Braly said of the current system under which LAFCO determines whether a cityhood initiative is viable.

The measure would also require that a legislator or county supervisor who represents the area seeking cityhood join LAFCO during the deliberations on that community’s application.

LAFCO Composition

Each commission is now made up of two county supervisors, two local city councilmen and a member of the public appointed by the supervisors. In Los Angeles, there are also a resident of the San Fernando Valley and a Los Angeles city councilman.

“It does not give the proponents a level playing field,” Braly said of the current system. “It gives too much emphasis to the county’s concerns.”

Braly said the county often has a vested interest in the decisions. He said, for instance, that when LAFCO removed Magic Mountain from the proposed City of Santa Clarita, the county was able to retain $500,000 in sales-tax revenue that otherwise would have gone to the new city.

Opposition to the bill is expected from county boards of supervisors and the Building Industry Assn., Braly said. The state Senate Local Government Committee will hold a hearing Tuesday in Van Nuys on city incorporations.