Valley Secession Bill Faces First Legislative Challenge Today

Assemblywoman Paula Boland’s bill that would make it easier for the San Fernando Valley to secede from Los Angeles will meet its first legislative challenge today in the Assembly’s Local Government Committee.

Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson is among those expected to testify on behalf of the proposed legislation, which would facilitate secession by removing the power of the Los Angeles City Council to veto such a proposal.

The measure also received a boost this week from the executive board of the influential Valley Industry and Commerce Assn. (VICA), which voted to support the bill, but did not take a position on secession itself.

“We are in favor of a community making its own decision,” VICA board Chairman Marvin R. Selter said.

Although the city of Los Angeles is opposing the bill, Mayor Richard Riordan conceded Tuesday that secessionists are correct in saying the Valley has not received its fair share of services and attention over the years.

“Certainly, the Valley has been ignored for many years,” Riordan said. Riordan, however, claimed his administration is changing that imbalance.

At today’s hearing, lobbyist Leslie McFadden said the city will speak against the Boland bill unless it is amended to place any secession efforts before voters citywide, not just in the territory that wants to break away.

McFadden said the city would also ask that more than half of Los Angeles residents sign a petition before an area could detach. By contrast, 20% of voters or landowners in the area seeking to secede from a city are now required to sign a petition to initiate secession.

“Our position is not to pass the bill unless it’s amended to provide safeguards we feel are necessary to protect the city’s ability to govern,” McFadden said.

But Boland said she expected the Republican-dominated committee to pass the legislation, which would then go to the full Assembly for consideration.

“It’s a democracy bill,” Boland said. “There are over 1.5 million people [in the Valley] who don’t have control of their own destiny. . . . I’m doing this to give them the power.”

Although the perception is that the Valley provides the lion’s share of city revenues but gets short shrift on services and clout, the city does not have statistics to confirm or dispute that perception.

Thus, computing those numbers is a first order of business.

In some quarters, the issue is not secession itself, but using the prospect of succession as a bargaining chip to make City Hall more responsive to Valley needs.

“If this talk about secession moves the city forward to reform our government and make it more responsive to the Valley, that would be a favorable outcome,” attorney Fred Gaines, a VICA board member, said.

But Boland said she is serious about making the Valley its own city and has been for 20 years. She was active in a secession committee formed in 1975 that was stymied when the Legislature gave veto power to the City Council. Also, her bill led to legislation that made it easier to break up the massive Los Angeles Unified School District.

“This is a dream of mine,” she said.

Attorney Bob Scott, co-chairman of the last secession organization, called Committee Investigating Valley Independent City/County (CIVICC), said it’s too soon to say whether a full secession movement is brewing. That will depend, he said, on how the city reacts to the possibility.

“If the city stops being coercive toward the Valley and starts appeasing the Valley it could short-circuit any de-annexation efforts,” Scott said.

Riordan said he hoped steps he is taking to encourage communities citywide to organize and demand the support they need would help dampen enthusiasm for seceding from the city.

“The Valley is extremely important to the vitality of the whole city,” Riordan said, noting that the loss of its large population of middle-class residents would further polarize Los Angeles along socioeconomic lines.

Times staff writer Jean Merl contributed to this story.

* THE SPIN: Secessionist wave rocks City Hall. A1