Valley Will Gain Clout at City Hall, Experts Say : Government: Area’s influence may be felt in commission appointments, new administration’s values.

Richard Riordan will end the urban-centric vision of Mayor Tom Bradley that has neglected San Fernando Valley concerns and largely ignored the huge region’s leaders for two decades, political experts predicted Wednesday.

“I think it’s going to be really good for the Valley,” enthused Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs, the Valley-based lawmaker who ran for mayor in the primary. Wachs finished third, endorsed Riordan in the runoff and became a leading surrogate for the candidate on the campaign trail.

“The Valley played a critical role in his campaign, and Dick Riordan understands that,” said Wachs, a Studio City resident.

“Dick Riordan has pledged to ensure that the San Fernando Valley is fully represented in his administration and on his boards and commissions,” added Encino resident Ted Stein, the city’s Planning Commission president and an early Riordan backer.

Certainly, Bradley’s record of commission appointments has been a sore point with Valley partisans for years.

Councilwoman Joy Picus, representing the southwest Valley, has long griped about what she saw as Bradley’s appointment blind spot. With nearly 40% of the population, the Valley has deserved a much bigger chunk of Bradley’s appointments, Picus has said.

Riordan, campaigning in the Valley, heard the resentment early and pushed that button, fast and hard.

The 63-year-old GOP businessman set up his campaign headquarters at a highly visible corner in Sherman Oaks; he walked precincts in Encino and Pacoima; and he actively courted the support of Valley civic leaders.

In a meeting with business leaders, the candidate bluntly pledged to make more Valley appointments, said Ben Reznik, chairman of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn.

“He said it to hundreds of us there,” Reznik said. “And I don’t think he was pandering to Valley votes. He had gotten the message and was responding.”

Appointments can make a difference.

If the Valley’s views were better represented at City Hall, it could have a telling impact on the allocation of police, library and parks resources, said political consultant Eric Rose, a West Hills resident.

“Take illegal immigration,” Rose said. “The Valley’s heightened concerns about this issue could result, for example, in stepped-up requests by a Riordan Administration for assistance from the federal government or in efforts to modify or repeal Special Order 40.”

Special Order 40 sharply limits the extent to which the Los Angeles Police Department may cooperate with federal immigration officials in identifying and apprehending undocumented workers.

Laura Chick, elected Tuesday to replace Picus in the 3rd District, added that the Valley could benefit if more of its residents sat on the city’s Airport Commission. “That commission absolutely needs one or two Valley-based residents on it who can appreciate the impacts of the city-owned Van Nuys Airport on local neighbors,” Chick said.

A greater Valley voice in city government could also have more subtle impacts.

The Valley is different than the rest of the city, Wachs said, and the rest of the city can benefit from its values.

“There’s a feeling in the Valley of concern about a breakdown of values in our city, there’s a pride in community and a sense of the importance of personal responsibility,” Wachs said. “I don’t like to call them old-fashioned values. Rather, they are the values that I learned from my parents.

“People come to the Valley for a better life,” Wachs said. “Of course, people everywhere want that. But there’s still a sense of optimism in the Valley and among its leaders that it’s achievable.”

Hopefully, Wachs added, the Valley’s views, sense of civic purpose and optimism could rub off on the rest of the city.

Meanwhile, Reznik and Chick see an opportunity, under a Riordan Administration sensitive to Valley concerns, to correct a distortion that cripples the region’s ability to cope with its real, emerging problems.

Too often, from the prism of a Bradley government dominated by Westside and inner-city concerns, the Valley has looked like a well-to-do white man’s enclave in little need of help from City Hall, Reznik said.

Unfortunately, few outside the Valley understand that the Valley is, in effect, becoming two communities: a poor, heavily minority East Valley and a more affluent, whiter West Valley, according to Reznik. “The 405 Freeway, unless we’re careful, could become a demarcation line between a war zone in the east and a community with a siege mentality to the west,” Reznik said.

“We’ve got to deal with the East Valley’s problems or what happened in April could happen here,” Reznik said, referring to the devastating riots that followed the first verdict in the Rodney G. King trial.

“Tom Bradley has failed to appreciate this situation, and I intend to make sure that Dick Riordan understands it,” said Reznik, a lifelong Democrat who, however, is a Riordan supporter.

Finally, the big question is not whether the Valley will gain from Riordan’s election but how it chooses to exercise its newfound clout.

“What’s the Valley going to do with its access?” Reznik asked. “I hope we don’t blow it and remain satisfied with simply trying to get a new park somewhere in the hills. It’s a big opportunity.”

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