Council Backtracks, Scraps Referendum on Valley Light Rail

In a surprising turnaround, the Los Angeles City Council on Friday killed plans for a June referendum asking San Fernando Valley voters if they favor construction of a light-rail line.

Council members acted after learning that it would cost almost $650,000 to put the referendum and two other measures on the June ballot--an 822% increase over what the city paid Los Angeles County to put issues on the November, 1986, ballot.

Earlier this month, the council voted 10 to 4 to put the referendum before voters. On Friday, the deadline for placing measures on the June ballot, supporters of the referendum could muster only four of the eight votes needed for final action.

Councilman Nate Holden previously voted for the referendum but said Friday, “not today, not for $1 million.” In addition to the $642,000 cost of placing the measures on the ballot, it would have cost the city $264,000 to print and send ballot arguments to voters.

Mayor Tom Bradley and Councilman Mike Woo proposed the referendum after the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission asked elected officials for help in determining what light-rail route, if any, has Valley support. The commission acted after all five proposed east-west routes for the Valley line ran into strong opposition.

Bradley Disappointed

A Bradley spokesman said the mayor was disappointed by the council action but did not offer an opinion on what effect the decision will have on prospects for construction of a Valley trolley line.

Valley council members differed on whether Friday’s action represented a setback for Valley light rail.

“It’s not a death knell for Valley light rail,” said Woo, who is also a member of the county Transportation Commission. “But I believe it’s a setback.”

Woo pointed out that the council Friday voted unanimously and without discussion to establish a 32-member citizens’ panel to resolve the light-rail controversy. The panel’s members are expected to be appointed by the mayor and Valley council members early next week and hold their first meeting Thursday.

“The problem is that the panel will be operating in more of a vacuum in terms of lacking a mandate or a consensus as expressed in a vote of the people,” Woo said. “And I think we’re losing an opportunity to educate the public about the pros and cons of a rail system in the Valley.”

“It isn’t the end of light rail,” Councilwoman Joy Picus said. “The committee will go forward,” but the job of reaching agreement on a route “is very difficult without a clear statement of support for it from the people who live in the Valley.”

Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who opposed the referendum from the start, said he does not believe the council’s decision will have any effect on the future of Valley light rail.

“I never thought the referendum was going to tell us anything that we didn’t already know,” he said, contending there is already overwhelming support for a light-rail line in the Valley.

November Possibility

Several council members raised the possibility that there could still be a public vote on light rail in November, if the council is forced to hold an election because of an initiative being circulated to forbid oil drilling in Pacific Palisades. Voters then would have an opportunity to cast ballots on routes proposed by the citizens’ panel.

The citizens’ panel will study the five routes proposed by the county Transportation Commission, as well as recommend new ones. It will make a recommendation to the council, which then will forward its recommendation to the commission. The commission has the final say.

Council members Marvin Braude, Ruth Galanter, Picus and Woo voted Friday to put the measure on the ballot.

“We have to look at this as part of the cost of democracy,” Woo argued.

Council members who previously voted for the measure and reversed themselves Friday were Richard Alatorre and Gilbert Lindsay. Three other earlier supporters, Councilmen Hal Bernson, Robert Farrell and Joel Wachs, were absent.

Woo said he believes he could have picked up enough votes to place the referendum on the ballot if three of his earlier backers had not been absent.

Bernson was reportedly out of the country, but his staff could not say where he was. Wachs was in Charleston, S. C., attending a National League of Cities conference, his staff said. Farrell attended the meeting but missed the vote.

Since the city is not scheduled to hold an election until April, 1989, it must pay the county to put city issues before voters in June. City Clerk Elias Martinez had earlier projected that the cost to the city would be $86,000. But, because of a new billing procedure used by the county, Martinez reported that the cost would be $642,981.