La Jollans Seek Stronger Clout at City Hall : Government: Incorporation push is dropped, but La Jollans for Local Control still are fighting for a say in policies that affect their community.

Their name and strategy have changed, but a handful of La Jollans say they’re still in hot pursuit of a political goal that has eluded the wealthy seaside community for decades: grabbing more power from San Diego City Hall.

Six months ago, with the formation of Incorporate La Jolla, a tiny group of disenchanted taxpayers proclaimed that secession was quite possibly La Jolla’s sole solution to getting its fair share of city services.

While La Jolla represents only about 3% of the city’s population, they said, it provides more than 6%--nearly $3 billion--of San Diego’s tax base. Meanwhile, residents were watching as their palm-shaded streets crumbled into disrepair and police presence diminished, they said.

But during the summer, as they tried to raise money for incorporation studies while meeting with reluctant San Diego officials to discuss the idea of La Jolla-as-a-city, the group’s focus quietly shifted.

Now, members are looking for ways to work within the city’s political structure to develop a greater voice in funding and land-use decisions. Their name change--to La Jollans for Local Control--reflects that policy change, they say.

For the time being, they’ve extinguished the fire to become the first neighborhood to secede from San Diego in more than a century, group members say. But the desire to take a more active role in City Council decisions affecting La Jolla, they stress, is still very hot indeed.

“Our goal has always been for La Jolla to be a good neighbor to San Diego,” said group chairman Rob Whittemore, a real estate developer. “But somewhere during the lighting of this incorporation fire, the impression was given that we no longer wanted to be good neighbors. So we decided to put a stop to that.”

Whittemore, a past president of the La Jolla Town Council, said the new course of action is “more politically astute, more politically palatable.”

“We’ve always known that the road to incorporation is both rocky and tough. So if we can find ways to decentralize the power structure in San Diego to benefit all its neighborhoods--not just La Jolla--we’re willing to work for that and admit that maybe incorporation isn’t necessary.”

City officials say, however, that they’re not yet convinced that the small group of taxpayers speaks for all La Jollans.

“I just don’t think it’s a major issue in La Jolla--we don’t have people banging on the doors of City Hall saying, ‘Let us incorporate’ or ‘Let us have more say,’ ” said Paul Downey, a spokesman for Mayor Maureen O’Connor.

“We’ve gotten very few letters and even fewer phone calls. At this point, we see this as a small group of incensed taxpayers intent on incorporating La Jolla. If we get more people expressing an interest in this thing, then we’ll take a more serious look at it.”

Lisa Gonzalez, an aide to Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer, whose district includes La Jolla, said: “Frankly, we don’t even know what this group wants yet. First they want to incorporate. Now they don’t. We don’t even know how many members they have.”

Whittemore said La Jollans for Local Control numbers three dozen members, 25 of whom regularly attend its meetings. The group’s attempts to secure a larger political voice for La Jollans, he added, is well-received in the community.

“People from the mayor’s office were never receptive to our ideas,” he said. “They said they didn’t want to be a party to their own dismemberment.

“But a recent community newspaper poll showed that more than 40% of residents believed La Jolla should incorporate, versus 20% who were opposed to it; the rest were undecided. Also, a full 75% are in favor of at least doing a study investigating the feasibility of incorporation.”

Recently, La Jollans for Local Control hired a local government fiscal consulting firm to conduct a $4,000 study on how to increase La Jolla’s political role at City Hall and elsewhere.

Its first task, members say, is exploring the creation of community advisory groups that could help direct the City Council and city manager--and possibly wield veto power over budgetary and land-use decisions concerning them.

The firm, John McTighe & Associates of San Diego, is researching a ballot measure being considered by Sacramento voters to create community groups that would offer input into decisions made by the county’s board of supervisors.

“We’re looking for possible role models to show how a large community like San Diego can delegate responsibility to the community level,” McTighe said. “At this time, I’m not aware of any community in the nation that employs the form of neighborhood government we’re thinking of.

“But we’re looking. This thing is still in its research stages.”

La Jollans for Local Control is also raising funds to pay for an additional $7,500 study to review the taxes La Jollans pay to the city and the services they receive in return, Whittemore said.

Through private donations, the group has already collected half the money needed for the study and is planning a Nov. 17 rummage sale to raise the remainder, he said.

And--possibly early next year--the group is prepared to fund a third study to explore avenues for incorporation, if the current attempts for a larger community neighborhood role downtown are exhausted and if the second study shows that La Jollan are paying out more in taxes than they’re getting in return in city services.

To incorporate, the group must provide the Local Agency Formation Commission with a $6,000 application fee and a financial feasibility study showing the incorporation effects on both San Diego and La Jolla--along with a petition signed by 25% of La Jolla residents.

If the deannexation is not vetoed by the City Council and is approved by LAFCO, the issue is placed on the ballot for the next general election--where it must be supported by 50% of La Jolla voters to pass.

Whittemore said La Jolla’s goal of greater political clout is buttressed by the plight of several Los Angeles-area neighborhoods--including San Pedro, Venice, Westchester and Playa del Rey--that are eyeing the possibility of deannexing, then incorporating.

“In Venice, there’s talk of introducing a statewide bill that would strip cities like San Diego of their veto power over the incorporation efforts of its neighborhoods,” Whittemore said.

Downey said Mayor O’Connor is willing to accept any and all community input into the difficult business of running California’s second-largest city.

“The more community groups that want to get involved in the process the better,” he said. “But the idea of any group having a veto power over City Council decisions is just unacceptable.”

Nonetheless, Whittemore said, that idea and others will remain on the table.

“Because, when you get a city as large as San Diego, the City Council can’t make decisions that are the best for each community,” he said. “They tend to be broad-based. And that takes away from the special character of places like La Jolla.”