Boland Pushed for the Valley to Go It Alone

Former Assemblywoman Paula L. Boland reports that someone walked up to her recently and said, “You realize you turned the city upside down.”

That’s not a bad description of the mark this self-proclaimed “citizen legislator” made in her six years in the Assembly.

“All I did was bring our voices there,” said Boland, 57, a former real estate saleswoman and longtime Granada Hills community activist.

And although her Sacramento career ended on a sour note with a resounding defeat in a state Senate race in the Burbank-Glendale area last November, the impact of Boland’s work continues to be felt.

Take the two competing Charter Reform Commissions, one of which she was elected to in April.

Both came about as a response to discussion sparked by legislation she introduced last year to make Valley secession easier.

While that bill was killed in the state Senate, the debate rages on this year.

An even bigger part of the Boland legacy is her Los Angeles school district breakup bill-- which she considers her greatest achievement as a legislator.

But she is also partial to her crime-related work.

When Boland first went to Sacramento from the northwest Valley-based 38th District, victims appearing at Public Safety Committee hearings were rebuked by legislators if they cried while testifying.

When she became committee chairwoman, Boland put an end to such treatment and championed victims’ rights issues.

Recently, an alleged child molester was arrested because of Boland’s bill that eliminated the statute of limitations on sexual abuse charges involving children, Boland said proudly.

Boland serves as a gubernatorial appointee on a narcotics offenses parole board and reports she can now have her family over to dinner without rushing out the door to catch the Sacramento shuttle.

“It’s nice to just be home,” she said.