Secession Bill May Be Edging Closer to Vote

Breaking a tense stalemate, the Democratic leader of the state Senate agreed Thursday to send the original version of the San Fernando Valley secession bill to the Senate floor, but warned it will be defeated unless amended.

At an afternoon Rules Committee meeting, state Sente President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) offered a choice to the secession bill’s author, Assemblywoman Paula L. Boland (R-Granada Hills): Send the bill straight to a floor vote--something she has repeatedly sought--or send it to the Appropriations Committee for amendments.

At the Appropriations Committee, the bill would be amended to call for an 18-month study of the impacts of dividing Los Angeles and a separate statewide study of detachment law. The Los Angeles City Council’s existing veto power would be scrapped and a citywide vote on secession added.

Lockyer made it clear Thursday that Boland’s bill--as it is written now--would be doomed on the Senate floor, saying it would never get the 21 votes necessary for passage. “On your best day, you get to 19,” he told Boland.

Boland, however, appeared to be thinking about acceding to what has been thus far a deal-breaker--a citywide vote on a secession attempt.

Boland, who will be in San Diego at the GOP convention next week, asked for time to consider her options and Lockyer agreed to delay action until her return. However, according to some legislative sources, Boland has privately agreed to compromise with the bill’s opponents on this issue.

Lockyer said Boland asked him Thursday whether he would back the bill if she agreed to a citywide vote. Until that conversation, Lockyer said he planned to send the bill to the floor and be done with it, but reconsidered in hopes that a compromise is still obtainable.

State Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), who has also urged compromise, has been trying to persuade Boland to accept changes in her bill so reform of city government can move ahead.

Hayden, like Lockyer, said the bill can’t pass the Senate as is.

“She has the right to take it up a blind alley,” Hayden said. “It’s her bill. [But] we’d all be better off if the author would embrace the decision she seems to have already made.”

Earlier, however, Boland made it clear she was fed up with other legislators’ meddling in her legislation. “This is my bill,” she told Lockyer.

A spokesman for the city of Los Angeles, meanwhile, said he would recommend the City Council back the Boland bill if a citywide vote is added.

“Our bottom line is a citywide vote,” Los Angeles Chief Legislative Analyst Ron Deaton said Thursday.

In its original form, the Boland bill stripped the City Council of its veto power over secession, giving decision-making power solely to voters in the area seeking to secede.

Lockyer’s offer to Boland, which passed the Rules Committee unanimously, follows weeks of acrimony as Boland demanded her bill be released from the committee.

Nonetheless, Boland gained two things from Thursday’s hearing: Time and an end to the bottleneck.

“The bill moved one mini-step further today,” she said.