Small Communities Vote for Bigger Voice : Government: Mountain hamlets in northern Los Angeles County are electing town councils, and many of the new politicians want to ward off development on the horizon.

Democracy arrived in Green Valley last week in a motor home.

It was 6:30 a.m. and only 38 degrees when three volunteers from the Go Fer Fun Club drove down Spunky Canyon Road to the community center where, at a motor home brought in for the occasion, they set up a polling place for the mountain town’s first experiment in local democracy.

After casting ballots in Tuesday’s general election inside the community center 100 feet away, voters in the town of 1,200 residents walked through a chilly wind to the motor home to select the first Green Valley Town Council. Unlike a city council, the five-member body would have no power to make laws. But voters didn’t seem to mind.

Said Evelyn Moore, one of the volunteers: “If we want something done, we have to have somebody who can speak for us.”

Indeed, rural communities all over northern Los Angeles County are seeking a greater voice in their destinies and are electing town councils in home-grown elections far removed from the world of exit polls and spin doctors. County voting officials--unlike the volunteers of Green Valley--surely never had to weigh down ballots with rocks to keep them from blowing off a card table set up in front of a motor home.

Town councils are strictly advisory bodies to the County Board of Supervisors, without the authority to pass so much as an ordinance against jaywalking. Once unheard-of and unnecessary, town councils are the latest phase in the political maturation of the unincorporated towns in the mountains dividing the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys.

They range from the mountain towns of Lake Hughes and Elizabeth Lake, with a combined population of 1,500, to Acton, a growing community of 10,000 southwest of Palmdale. All but two of the county’s town councils are in this rapidly urbanizing region.

Acton elected its council 15 months ago, followed by Leona Valley in July. Agua Dulce residents plan to create one by February. Lake Hughes and Elizabeth Lake hope to form a joint town council sometime next year.

Communities in Los Angeles County have traditionally opted for either county rule or cityhood. A go-between form of government, such as a town council, was never really necessary, perhaps because it was so easy to incorporate, said David Mars, a professor of public administration at USC.

Between 1954 and 1968, about two dozen cities incorporated in the county. Eventually, new state laws made it harder for communities to attain cityhood. The solution, Mars said, appears to be the town council.

Some enthusiastic residents in northern Los Angeles County already talk of starting a confederation of town councils to represent the region. In most instances, the town council members say they want to curb the charging pace of development.

“These are communities that are trying to protect a lifestyle that is dwindling so fast,” said Terry Kaldhusdal, top vote-getter in the Green Valley election.

“Developers are a big fear,” said Warren BeMiller, of Elizabeth Lake. “Developers can wipe out some beautiful mountains quickly.”

But it is not always a smooth transition to do-it-yourself democracy.

The Acton Town Council came under criticism after two of its officers, Charles Brink and Joel Levy, were charged last month with stealing and destroying real estate signs. Prosecutors said they learned of the thefts after Brink bragged during a Town Council meeting that he had torn down more than 300 signs.

The town councils have been created largely at the urging of Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who has agreed to consider them representatives of the community.

Antonovich told town residents that they should present their views to the Board of Supervisors with a unified voice. “If you look at it closely, it makes his job easier,” Kaldhusdal said of Antonovich.

Residents of rural towns testifying before the supervisors often claim they speak for their entire communities. “Not knowing any better, sometimes we assume they do,” said David Vannatta, an Antonovich aide.

But the town council “removes any ambiguity,” Vannatta said. The supervisor may not always agree with a town council, but he can at least say he is listening to the community by working with the council, he said.

“Although we don’t officially control anything, we have the right to speak our piece,” Brink said. “And they’ve made it easier for us to speak our piece.”

Some residents are not so delighted.

“It’s very trendy, but how many people does it actually represent?” asked Rita Kennedy, a member of the Leona Valley Property Owners League.

The league, which its critics regard as pro-development, was started in the summer by property owners who charged that the Leona Valley Town Council represented a small minority of residents.

Mars of USC said the growth of town councils is a logical response to the changing political character and development of Los Angeles County.

“I can see it being repeated in lots of other areas in the county,” Mars said.

The councils have a country flavor all their own. In Leona Valley, the election results were posted on community boards and at the general store. Then there are problems the county registrar never encounters.

After they closed the polling place last Tuesday, the volunteers in Green Valley piled into the motor home to count more than 250 ballots. As the temperature sank, the volunteers flicked on the heater.

“Of course, when the heat came on, the lights would go down,” Moore said. The volunteers drove to a nearby house and, in the snug warmth of a living room, they tallied the ballots and announced the winners.