Assembly OKs Bill Making It Easier for Valley to Secede

A bill that would ease the way for the San Fernando Valley to secede from the city of Los Angeles passed the state Assembly on Thursday after Assemblywoman Paula Boland (R-Granada Hills) caught opponents off guard.

The Assembly, acting swiftly and without debate, passed the bill by a 41-21 vote. The legislation would take away the Los Angeles City Council’s right to veto any secession effort. In a brief speech, Boland told her colleagues that some Valley residents want to break away from the city because they are not getting a fair share of city services. She called it “a simple bill . . . about democracy.”

Los Angeles Democrats had not expected the bill to come up Thursday and many failed to vote. “We were literally caught off guard,” said Democratic Assemblyman Wally Knox, who had left the Assembly floor to take a phone call but scurried back in time to vote. Democrats have generally opposed the breakup of the city of Los Angeles and saw this bill as a move intended to boost the election prospects of Boland, who is running for an open seat in the state Senate.

In the vote, 38 Republicans were joined by two Democrats, Sal Cannella of Ceres and Thomas M. Hannigan of Benicia, and Assemblyman Dominic Cortese, a Reform Party member from San Jose. The 21 opponents were all Democrats. The bill still faces an uphill fight in the Senate, and Gov. Pete Wilson has not taken a position.

After the Assembly vote, Mayor Richard Riordan, who has repeatedly declined to take a position on the Boland bill, announced his opposition. Riordan said the measure “should be amended to require that all city voters have the right and opportunity to vote on this matter.”

Under state law, if a local referendum on secession is ordered by the quasi-independent Local Agency Formation Commission, it would occur only in the area considering seceding and not in the entire city.

The mayor also repeated his position that secession would hurt both the Valley and the city. “I have continually said that the San Fernando Valley is a key part of the city of Los Angeles and that the rest of Los Angeles is crucial to the economic vitality and to meeting the infrastructure needs of the Valley.”

If it seceded, the San Fernando Valley would be the sixth-largest city in the nation. Many residents have long expressed the view that they were overtaxed, underserved and unheard by City Hall. Even the prospect of changing the secession rules has put city officials on notice that complaints from the Valley must be addressed.

“If nothing else, it gives us the ability to get some leverage in City Hall,” said City Councilman Hal Bernson, who testified in favor of the bill at an earlier hearing.

Though there is no active secession movement in place now, Valley political experts insist that secession sentiment lurks just beneath the surface and can easily be unleashed if the bill passes the state Senate and is signed by the governor.

After the vote, Boland said she had intended to wait until next Thursday to bring the measure to a vote. But she said she saw an opportunity to catch her opposition unaware and, after counting her votes, grabbed it.

“I was going to bring it up next Thursday, but I’m glad I brought it up today,” Boland said.

Even so, the measure faces obstacles in the Senate, which has a Democratic majority.

Senate President Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) refused to forecast the fate of the bill in his chamber. But legislation to split up governmental jurisdictions traditionally has faced an uphill struggle there. In 1994, a Senate committee killed for lack of a hearing an Assembly-passed bill to divide California into three or four states.

Lockyer said the issue looks like a local fight to him.

“I don’t have a settled opinion on the bill,” he said. “It feels like a local fight that I am reluctant to get into the middle of. I don’t like to involve myself unnecessarily in someone else’s local fights. I’ve got enough of my own.”

He said the bill probably would be sent to the Senate Local Government Committee for its first committee examination. The panel of four Democrats, three Republicans and an independent is chaired by veteran Sen. Bill Craven (R-Oceanside), a moderate who favors thorough research and study before embracing major changes.

Los Angeles County members of the committee are Sens. Charles Calderon (D-Whittier), Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles) and Newton R. Russell (R-Glendale).

Rosenthal has broken with other Valley lawmakers in Sacramento by backing the Boland bill.

Response to the bill’s passage was largely positive among Valley homeowner activists. Van Nuys activist Prudy Schultz said she was “thrilled to hear it because the Valley is ripe. I really think we have a chance this time.” But, she added, hurdles remain--namely generating enough public enthusiasm to get it on the ballot.

Richard Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn., said some of that enthusiasm could be generated simply by the bill making it through the Senate.

“People want local control,” said Close, who also sits on the agency that oversees the formation of new cities in Los Angeles County. “The current situation is too large and too unmanageable. If this bill had not passed today, the movement would have been dead. . . . The next step is going to be kind of the birth of the process.”

Close said he sees many similarities between the current drive for secession and the fight to pass Proposition 13, in which he also played a critical role. “Proposition 13 started out as conversation and a feeling that nothing could be done,” he said. “Right now, secession is just conversation, just like Proposition 13.”

The Boland bill has put some Valley elected officials in an awkward position.

Councilwoman Laura Chick, who represents parts of the West Valley, supports the bill because she believes the Valley should have the right of self-determination, but she opposes secession because she believes breaking away would hurt the Valley and the entire city.

“I hate this issue because it’s difficult to look at all the complexities of it and work those in with my personal feelings on this,” she said.

Chick said she wishes that the state Legislature and the city were focused on more immediate concerns.

“It’s a divisive issue and distracts from our work on real problems,” she said of the Boland bill.

Boland, who also engineered a successful measure that would facilitate the breakup of the L.A. Unified School District, is a candidate for state Senate in a mostly new district. Some Democrats have accused her of having political motivations for pushing her secession bill.

“It’s an issue for her to campaign on,” said Assembly Democratic leader Richard Katz (D-Sylmar). “The school [district] breakup did well for her politically. She’s running in a district where she’s a carpetbagger and looking for something to give her visibility.”

Wilson has not taken a position on the bill, said his press secretary, Sean Walsh. But Walsh did not close the door on the proposal.

“We have not seen the language, but this is a matter that our office and the governor would give serious review if and when the bill reaches our desk.”

The San Fernando Valley is not the only area of the city that is disenchanted. Residents of the Harbor area have talked of seceding and county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said, if it passes, the Boland bill could spark secession movements elsewhere.

“It doesn’t prevent me from organizing a West Los Angeles secession movement,” Yaroslavsky said. “If the Valley leaves, it will make it easier for West L.A. to leave too.”

Contributing to this story are Times staff writers Hugo Martin, Bill Stall, Aaron Curtiss, Mark Gladstone, Max Vanzi, Ken Reich, Peter M. Warren and Dave Lesher.

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Breaking Up Is Hard to Do

Currently, state law allows city councils to veto any secession requests inside their boundaries. The bill approved by the Assembly on Thursday would delete that provision for Los Angeles.

Even so, cityhood for the San Fernando Valley faces many obstacles.

To start the secession process, 20% of the registered voters or 20% of the landowners in a given area must petition the Local Agency Formation Commission to become an independent city. The commission, a quasi-independent countywide agency, studies and rules on all incorporation and annexation requests in the county.

After an intricate process involving many studies and hearings, LAFCO can call for a special election on the secession. Only residents of the area seeking secession can vote.