Lockyer Gives Warning on Secession Bill

State Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer called the rejection of his proposed amendments to the Valley secession bill “most unfortunate” Thursday and warned Assemblywoman Paula Boland he would fight any efforts to amend the bill on the Senate floor.

Lockyer’s warning appeared to be an effort to prevent Boland from getting the votes she needs by making last-minute compromises with other legislators.

It comes on the heels of Boland’s decision Wednesday to send her bill directly to the floor, rather than struggle in committee with Lockyer’s unwelcome amendments during the closing weeks of the legislative session.

Boland is in San Diego for the GOP convention, where she learned Wednesday that Lockyer had set a hearing on his amendments for Thursday. Saying time was short, Boland said her best chance of prevailing was to take the bill directly to the full Senate.

A vote on the measure could come next week.

As written, the bill removes the veto power of the Los Angeles City Council over secession requests, but does not itself pull the Valley out of the city.

Lockyer suggested in a letter to Boland on Thursday that turning down his amendments was a disservice to San Fernando Valley residents.

“I believe that your constituents, including those who are vocal in their support for a San Fernando Valley detachment from the city of Los Angeles, would have greatly benefited from each and all of those proposals,” Lockyer wrote.

Specifically, Lockyer noted that under his proposal, the timetable for studying the impacts of secession was faster than under current law “and would not have required a costly and difficult signature-gathering process.”

The Hayward Democrat said he would hold Boland to an agreement she made last week to have any proposed amendments studied in committee.

Boland insists she does not want what she calls her “simple bill about democracy” amended, but some Capitol sources say she would acquiesce to certain amendments if that’s what it took to pass the bill.

The most fundamental objection many opponents have to the measure is that it would limit a plebiscite on Valley secession to Valley voters. The sources say that if need be, Boland would accept an amendment to allow the entire city to vote on the issue.

Lockyer has said the bill has no chance of passing the Senate in its current form.

But Boland aide Scott Wilk said that taking the bill directly to the floor, sidestepping the Appropriations Committee, is like the World Series. “You have a 50-50 chance of winning.”

Lockyer also offered Boland time to analyze his proposed amendments, which she received late Thursday--too late, she said, to study them and prepare for a committee hearing that had been set for today.

”. . . [R]ules can be waived and a hearing held in the Senate Appropriations Committee,” Lockyer wrote Boland in a letter released by his office.

A day after opting to send her unamended bill straight to the Senate floor, Boland did study Lockyer’s amendments, which arrived at her San Diego hotel Wednesday evening after she had left for the GOP convention session.

Boland bristled at Lockyer’s vow to prevent floor amendments.

“The last time I looked, this was the United States of America, not a dictatorship,” Boland said.

Boland is expected to make public a written analysis of the Lockyer amendments today, but it is unlikely she will change her strategy.

Lockyer sketched the outlines of his proposed amendments last week. Now available in detail, they propose the issue be studied by a 15-member Blue Ribbon Commission made up of five appointees each by the governor, the Assembly Rules Committee and the Senate Rules Committee.

A seven-member advisory committee would be appointed with slots for Valley representatives.

The commission would have the same authority as LAFCO, the agency now authorized to rule on secession requests affecting local governments in California.

In addition to a comprehensive study of the impacts of secession, the commission would have been empowered to conduct a statewide study of the law relating to forming and breaking up cities.