AGOURA HILLS : Fran Pavley Named to State League Post

Agoura Hills Councilwoman Fran Pavley has been named president-elect of the Los Angeles County Division of the League of California Cities, an organization dedicated to promoting the interests of the state’s cities.

She will serve as president-elect until next September, when she will replace the organization’s president, Paul Richards of Lynwood.

Pavley, 45, a teacher at Chaparral Middle School in Moorpark, was elected treasurer of the Los Angeles County division two years ago. A year later she was installed vice president of the organization, which has 470 member cities.

The division, which represents 86 cities, is considered to be the most influential branch of the organization, said Kim Chudoba, the division’s executive director. It’s also the most diverse because the cities vary significantly in terms of ethnic makeup and residents’ incomes.

The organization, with Pavley’s help, has been working to build consensus among those diverse groups, Chudoba said.

“Fran is highly respected,” she said. “I think she is perceived as being very thoughtful and deliberative. She’s someone that people have a lot of confidence in.”

“It’s quite a challenge,” Pavley said. “But I’m looking forward to it.”

One of the priorities of the League of California Cities is to limit the amount of funds that the state takes away from cities to pay its own bills, Pavley said. Over the last three years, Agoura Hills has lost $1.4 million, she said.

“The league is very effective in providing a strong united force to minimize those kinds of raids on city funds,” she said.

In an effort to ease the financial burden on fiscally strapped cities, the league is lobbying the state to provide more money to cities to operate state-mandated programs, Pavley said.

The league also is seeking ways to provide long-term funding for the county’s libraries, she said.

Pavley was first elected to the City Council in 1982. She recently announced that she will not seek that office again when her term expires in three years.