Assembly Approves Cardenas’ Secession Bill

SACRAMENTO — The only secession bill that would give San Fernando Valley voters sole discretion over breaking away from Los Angeles cleared the state Assembly on a 65-3 vote Tuesday.

The bill, sponsored by Assemblyman Tony Cardenas (D-Sylmar), would require a two-thirds favorable vote on the part of those living in an area detaching from Los Angeles. It would not require a citywide vote.

Assembly approval of the measure comes a week after state Sen. President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) abandoned his own legislation on Valley secession.

That leaves two measures in play as the issue moves to the Senate, where it faces more opposition than in the lower house, especially now that the powerful Lockyer has adopted a hands-off stance.

The other viable bill, already approved by the Assembly, calls for a citywide vote on secession.

Based on last year’s secession debate, the authors made the key compromise by including voters throughout the city in a decision of such magnitude. The concession was deemed necessary to get the bill passed.

Cardenas said the magnitude of splitting up Los Angeles should require “overwhelming support” after careful study, rather than be based on gut reaction to perceived slights by City Hall.

“I’m not necessarily against secession, but it should be something that passes the muster of a two-thirds vote,” Cardenas said. “Some people are taking this a little lightly. Just because we are mad at City Hall that doesn’t mean we should take that drastic a step.”

With his bill, Cardenas also seeks to ensure that lower-propensity voters in his northeast Valley district would be included in any secession dialogue. If a simple majority were required, political consultants could write off the East Valley as a unpromising pool of voters to woo, he said.

The co-authors of the other Assembly secession bill, Assemblymen Tom McClintock (R-Northridge) and Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) supported Cardenas’ bill.

McClintock argued for it on the Assembly floor Tuesday, saying “the ultimate check on an abusive or dysfunctional government is the ability to walk away from it.”

Noting that the real fight over the secession bills will be waged in the state Senate, Cardenas said he was not surprised at the support from the authors of rival bills.

“It sounds to me as though they believe in the core of both bills taking it out of City Hall and letting people decide,” Cardenas said.

But Cardenas was less pleased that some of the chief proponents of the legislation in the Valley had acceded to a citywide vote.

“It struck me as kind of odd because last year they were clamoring for a Valley-only vote,” Cardenas said.

If last year’s debate on secession legislation holds, Cardenas’ bill would seem to be a longshot, while the McClintock-Hertzberg measure has better prospects.