Plan Afoot to Kill Secession Bill, Hayden Says

State Sen. Tom Hayden said Friday he expects the San Fernando Valley secession bill to die in Sacramento and Mayor Richard Riordan to respond by personally bankrolling a petition drive to put a charter reform proposal before voters.

“A plan has been hatched to kill the Boland bill without the fingerprints of the mayor on it and then have the mayor come to the rescue,” Hayden (D-Los Angeles) said at a news conference in Van Nuys. “A struggle has to be carried out . . . to get [the bill] out of the burial mode.”

Hayden’s assessment comes as the state Senate prepares to resume work Monday after a three-week break and two days after a group of San Fernando Valley leaders asked for Riordan’s help on a charter reform ballot measure.

A spokeswoman for Riordan confirmed that personally funding a charter reform petition drive “certainly would be one of the options” under consideration by the mayor. Under this possible scenario, Riordan, a millionaire businessman, would pay for the initiative drive out of his own pocket.

An announcement on the matter could come as early as Monday or Tuesday, the mayor’s press secretary, Noelia Rodriguez, said.

Many Valley leaders, while supporting the Boland bill, have also been pushing charter reform as an alternate approach to gaining greater independence.

Thickening the plot is Hayden, who is considering running against Riordan next year. He called the charter plan a Riordan “gimmick” to win a second term.

Hayden denounced the plan to elect a charter reform commission--pushed by influential Valley political leaders--as a “Trojan horse” which “tries to create the appearance of reform by delaying reform. It’s a political gimmick to get through an election year.”

For the first time Friday, Hayden said he will vote for the Valley secession bill sponsored by Assemblywoman Paula L. Boland (R-Granada Hills) if it comes to the Senate floor.

But after recent talks with city officials and key players in the Senate, Hayden said he does not expect that to happen.

The bill’s opponents at City Hall and in Sacramento remain determined to kill legislation that would ease the way for the Valley to secede, Hayden said.

While he favors reforming city government, Hayden said the bill is a vehicle to open discussion on the best ways to accomplish reform.

Boland’s legislation has been tied up in the Senate’s Rules Committee, which will hold two meetings Monday. As of Friday afternoon, the secession bill was still not on the committee’s Monday agendas, though it can be brought up without formal notice.

“It’s still sitting there where I left it,” Boland said Friday.

But Boland said Hayden’s prediction that the bill is all but dead is premature. “It’s not time for a wake,” she said.

Although he was not available for comment Friday, Senate Pro Tem Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) has said the bill will get a fair hearing.

Still, Hayden said he’s gotten every indication the legislation will be jettisoned as early as next week.

Hayden said he then expects Riordan to rush into the breach with money to put a charter reform initiative on the ballot.

This week, attorney David Fleming and other Valley business and homeowner leaders asked Riordan to join them in putting an initiative on the April ballot to overhaul the city’s charter.

Fleming, a Riordan-appointed commissioner, said Friday it was insulting for Hayden to suggest Valley leaders, who have wanted charter reform for years, were stalking horses for the mayor.

“We said, ‘Let’s fight on two fronts. Let’s push the Boland bill and the other front is trying to restructure city government.’ ”

As Rodriguez explained it Friday, Riordan opposes breaking up the city, but agrees that an area should be able to vote on how they want to be governed.

That is what the Boland bill does by eliminating the City Council veto over secession requests.

At the Hayden news conference Friday, Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. President Richard Close called upon the mayor to put his muscle behind the bill.

“The mayor can no longer stand on the sidelines,” Close said.