Bill Paving Way for Valley Secession Effort Clears First Legislative Hurdle

A bill that would make way for the San Fernando Valley to secede from Los Angeles sailed through its first legislative test Wednesday after a committee hearing later described by one speaker as a “love fest.”

The 5-1 vote of the Senate Local Government Committee moves the measure, sponsored by Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward), to the Rules Committee for consideration.

Similar Assembly versions of the secession bill have not yet been heard, but most Valley Assembly members are in substantial agreement with Lockyer and each other on the basics of the legislation.

The Wednesday hearing was in sharp contrast to last year’s rancorous battles over secession legislation sponsored by former Assemblywoman Paula L. Boland. Factions who had fought during last year’s session were now exchanging compliments.

Although there are details yet to iron out, the lawmakers predict that a bill will clear the Legislature this year.

Lockyer’s bill would remove the veto power of the City Council over secession attempts, but would require a citywide vote before an area could secede.

“Democratic values demand that change,” Lockyer said at the hearing. The veto power, its foes say, is an insurmountable obstacle to secession because the council’s interest is in protecting the status quo, not ceding territory.

The veto power sticks in the craw of residents of the Valley and elsewhere, whether they favor forming their own city or not, critics said.

“The issue is constant in every community in the San Fernando Valley,” Councilman Richard Alarcon told the committee.

Even the Los Angeles City Council has agreed to give up its veto power, as long as there is a citywide vote on any secession.

Nothing in Lockyer’s bill would set a secession movement in motion, and some speakers noted that leaving Los Angeles is not the point--at least not now.

“It is leverage,” said Sherman Oaks businessman Jeff Brain, a representative of Valley VOTE, a coalition of homeowner and business leaders backing the bill.

Without veto power, the council would have to address the contention that the Valley is underserved by city government.

The lone dissenting vote Wednesday was cast by state Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles), who said she does not accept the premise that the Valley suffers from relative neglect.

Noting that 300 police officers were in the Valley after the bank robbery and shootout in North Hollywood on Friday, Watson said robbers could hold up her bank every Friday and it would never get that response.

Watson said she worried that the measure would allow the Valley to secede before the local charter reform effort had a chance to work or before a study called for in the Lockyer bill was completed.

“What is confusing to me is why this bill moves ahead of what we’re trying to do locally,” Watson said.

She was unconvinced by several assurances from several speakers that it would be virtually impossible to secede before a study could be completed addressing its economic and social impacts.

“The likelihood of that happening is somewhere between infinitesimal and impossible,” Lockyer said.

Other speakers at the hearing included former U.S. Rep. Bobbi Fiedler, the executive director of the Los Angeles County agency that oversees detachments; and Larry Calamine and other leaders of the Valley VOTE group.