Alarcon to Propose City Give Up Veto on Secession

The Los Angeles City Council will be asked to give up its veto power over San Fernando Valley secession efforts under a plan that will be introduced at City Hall today by Councilman Richard Alarcon.

Alarcon said at a news conference Monday that he will ask his colleagues to abdicate their veto authority if two-thirds of Valley voters approve seceding from the rest of the city.

In a related development, Assemblyman Tony Cardenas (D-Sylmar) said at the same news conference that he plans to introduce state legislation that would allow secession to proceed if it wins two-thirds of the vote by residents of an affected area, removing voters elsewhere in the city from the decision.

His bill would join three other proposals in Sacramento that deal with the secession question.

Calling the 15 years of talk about secession “the debate that won’t die,” Alarcon said that the council should move on to other issues, and that eliminating the council’s veto power could end the long dispute. His motion calls the two-thirds vote requirement “an effective compromise” in relinquishing veto authority.

Jeff Brain, co-chairman of Valley VOTE, a group pushing to eliminate the council’s veto power, praised Alarcon’s announcement. Noting that half the council members are up for reelection in April, Brain said a vote “forces them to have to deal with this issue.”

He said that currently, eight of the 15 council members who do not represent the Valley can ignore secession threats as long as they have veto power.

“By removing the veto power, you force the elected officials to be accountable,” Brain said, “because you can always say, ‘If you don’t give us the services, the resources, the leadership . . . then we are going to leave.’ Then the other 14 [council members] have to suddenly pay attention to you. Right now, they don’t.”

Assemblyman Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) agreed. One of three Valley lawmakers working to draft a bipartisan compromise measure on secession, Hertzberg said secession is no longer just a Valley issue. He pointed to similar calls for greater local control in Venice, San Pedro and other areas among the 106 communities that make up the city of Los Angeles.

“There is a significant change this year from last year,” Hertzberg said. “We are seeing a great sense of camaraderie in the issues of smaller, locally controlled government.”

The bottom line, Hertzberg said, is “people are looking for ways to be closer to their government, whether they live in Encino or whether they live in Wilmington.”

Council President John Ferraro, however, whose intergovernmental relations committee would probably study Alarcon’s motion, said he is opposed to any move that would allow one area of the city to secede without a vote by the entire city.

“I have no objection to giving up the veto power,” Ferraro said. “But if [secession] is going to affect the rest of the city, the rest of the city should have a vote on it.”

Hertzberg, Cardenas and Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Northridge), who has also authored a secession bill, met last week to begin work on a bipartisan compromise measure. Cardenas said Monday he had discussed with the others a two-thirds vote as a compromise to the issue of a citywide election--the main focus of debate over secession issues. However, a compromise has not yet been worked out, Cardenas said. The trio expects to meet again this week.

All three lawmakers said they are confident they can agree on a bill before Feb. 28, the state Assembly’s deadline for the introduction of bills.

The group also is working with powerful state Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward), the legislator most effective in the defeat last summer of the secession bill by former Assemblywoman Paula L. Boland (R-Granada Hills).

Lockyer has introduced his own compromise measure--also eliminating the council’s veto power. A key to his proposal is a state-funded study that would answer critical questions about whether the Valley is really underserved, and if so, by how much. The study would include a cost-benefit analysis of the financial impacts of dividing assets and debts should the city be split.

While Cardenas said he has not yet decided whether he supports Valley secession, he said he believes residents of an area proposing to break away have a right to determine their future.

“I believe that by requiring approval by a two-thirds majority vote of any secession proposal, we will maximize grass-roots participation and guarantee the inclusion of interests from all communities in the process of creating a successful secession proposal,” Cardenas said.