Secession Bill Prospects Brighten

Prospects for the stalled San Fernando Valley secession bill brightened Thursday when state Senate leader Bill Lockyer, who supporters have accused of blocking the bill, said he expects to set a hearing on the measure next month when legislators return from recess.

While Lockyer would not commit himself to a definitive course of action, he said the measure would probably be shipped back to the Senate Local Government Committee to resolve a dispute about an amendment.

“Sometime in August, there will be a hearing,” said Lockyer, a Hayward Democrat who insists the bill is receiving fair treatment in the Democrat-controlled Senate, disputing accusations by its sponsor, Assemblywoman Paula L. Boland (R--Granada Hills).

In an interview, Lockyer blamed Boland for the bind her measure has been in, saying she agreed to an amendment that could have sent the bill to the Senate’s Elections Committee.

“She amended it to make it arguably an elections issue,” Lockyer said. “That’s not my problem. I’m trying to figure out how to deal with it in a fair and consistent way.”

If Boland had her way, the measure would be sent directly to the Senate floor for a vote, rather than getting bottled up in a committee. She has blasted Lockyer for political gamesmanship, saying he was sitting on the bill on a procedural pretext.

The bill would make it easier for the Valley to secede by eliminating the veto power of the Los Angeles City Council over any attempt to leave and form a new city. Under this legislation, only Valley residents would get to vote in a secession election, a provision that has led many city and state officials to oppose the measure.

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Lockyer’s retreat Thursday revives the bill’s chances of making it to the Senate floor before the session ends in August. Its prospects there remain uncertain. Some Senate Democrats still vow to kill it by whatever means available.

As a compromise, Lockyer suggested returning the bill to the Local Government Committee--which passed it earlier--to deal with the amendment dispute. Opponents of the bill had tried to have it sent to the Elections Committee, where the chairman, Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles), is waiting to kill it as unfair to non-Valley residents of Los Angeles.

The emergence of a possible compromise followed a week of escalating attacks on Lockyer by Boland. “I don’t think the intemperate comments of the assemblywoman were conducive to working things out,” Lockyer said.

Boland declined comment Thursday, except to say she “anxiously awaits Aug. 5”--the first day back after the recess--to see what Lockyer will do with her bill.

Even before Lockyer’s change of heart, those on both sides of the secession issue had talked about the need for a cooling-off period. In an exchange of criticisms--all made to reporters--Boland accused Lockyer of tyranny. He retorted that she raised hypocrisy to a new level.

The stalemate on the bill occurred when Lockyer decided not to move it forward until Boland made good on a deal made at a Senate committee hearing. Boland agreed to submit an amendment stating who would pay for a possible secession election. But after realizing this would put the bill in the jurisdiction of the Election Committee, where it would be killed, Boland did not want to go through with the pledge.

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Boland said the deal was with one senator, not the entire Local Government Committee. That senator, Quentin Kopp (I-San Francisco), absolved her of her pledge almost immediately to keep the secession bill away from the unfriendly Elections Committee.

Now Lockyer will apparently leave it up to the Local Government Committee to decide what the agreement involved.

In an attempt to move Lockyer this week, Boland enlisted the help of Kopp and Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Van Nuys), among others.

Supporters of the bill say returning to the Local Government Committee is fraught with peril for the bill because any delay can be deadly with the end of the session looming.