Pressure Point

If nothing else, a state bill making it easier for the San Fernando Valley to secede from Los Angeles adds a sense of urgency to the complicated work of two commissions currently trying to rewrite the city’s aging and cumbersome charter. Without the bill by Assemblymen Robert Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) and Tom McClintock (R-Northridge), there is a very real risk that the two commissions--one elected, one appointed--will accomplish relatively little.

That fear stems in part from last week’s inaugural meeting of the elected commission. The biggest issue debated: how the commission intends to support itself. Mayor Richard Riordan, who bankrolled the creation of the independent commission, had not yet delivered funding for the group’s work. And many on the commission loathe the idea of accepting public money from the Los Angeles City Council. At the same time, a competing commission appointed by the City Council is already well into its work. Its definition of reform is encouragingly broad, but may be too broad for the tastes of the council.

Both commissions run the risk of toiling fruitlessly unless the public can understand and appreciate the importance of their work. The ultimate goal is to create a city government more responsive to the needs of residents. In a way, that’s also the goal of the Hertzberg-McClintock bill--although through the far more drastic process of breaking the city apart. The Times opposes that, but supports making the city’s bureaucracy more nimble and open.

Charter reform is the best way to accomplish that goal. But the threat of secession keeps pressure on the commissions to work quickly and conscientiously toward a new charter. That threat has the potential to keep the issue alive in the mind of the public far more effectively than the legal jargon on which the charter is built. If nothing else, the threat of secession can help eliminate the argument to secede.