Will Law’s Diverse Backing Stay Intact?

The San Fernando Valley made legislative history recently when Gov. Pete Wilson signed Assembly Bill 62 sponsored by Assemblymen Tom McClintock and Bob Hertzberg.

Currently, the boundaries of the city of Los Angeles stretch about 225 square miles across geographical divides such as the Santa Monica Mountains and metaphysical divides like “we” versus “they.” Some of the Valley’s 1.2 million residents believe that the city’s political makeup, services and spending levels represent the needs of downtown rather than their own needs. The Valley, according to some, is really the “cash cow” being drained of its tax base supporting more city services on the other side of the hill than it receives back. No definitive study has ever proven this hypothesis--it is merely felt and sensed. Detachment from Los Angeles and formation of the Valley as its own city--the sixth-largest in the nation--has had a long incubation as a concept. AB 62 made the concept concrete by removing the Los Angeles City Council’s right to veto such an initiative.

Actually, AB 62 represents a return to state law as it read from 1889 to 1977, when both the area proposed for detachment and the entire city affected had to vote on the proposal and the affected city council could not veto it. In 1977, the Legislature redefined local boundary laws and eliminated this “dual majority” vote requirement. After the modification, only the detaching area was required to hold an election, although the city council from which the area would detach could veto it.

What strikes me as interesting are the unique political forces and alliances that have gotten us to this point, and the more provocative questions: What will happen to them as we move forward? Has Valley detachment brought forth a new “post-partisan” era in which liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans can join together to put the Valley first, above petty ideology? Will this new trend of partners help carry secession through the rigors demanded by the Local Agency Formation Commission and see the “devolution revolution” to its natural conclusion, the formation of a new municipal jurisdiction?

The Valley historically has sent to Sacramento a different kind of legislator. One might harken back not too long ago to the career of state Sen. Alan Robbins. Although later caught up in the “Shrimp-Gate” scandal, Robbins was the consummate inside player and very effective at representing Valley interests. A moderate Democrat, he was able to form alliances with other key players, including former LAPD chief-turned-Republican-Sen. Ed Davis, and together they brought the pork home. Later, lawmakers such as state Senate leader David Roberti, a Democrat, tended to be more partisan but nevertheless skillful in the art of reaching out to the other side of the aisle when it came to representing the home base.

A few years ago, then-Assemblywoman Paula Boland sponsored AB 2043, which would have made it easier for the Valley to detach by eliminating the City Council’s veto power. The measure did not require a dual majority vote or propose a commission to review detachment, nor was it specific to the Valley alone (it applied statewide). AB 2043 died on the Senate floor.

The reason was mostly political. The current Senate leader, Bill Lockyer, a Democrat, did not want Republican Boland to have a legislative victory in her campaign for the 21st senatorial district seat over Democratic rival Adam Schiff. Besides, political observers were always perplexed as to why Boland would use a San Fernando Valley issue as the defining campaign issue in her quest for a seat in the heart of the San Gabriel Valley.

In this last legislative session, Lockyer underwent a transformation, due largely to his probable run for state attorney general and the expectation of being term-limited out of the Senate. Lockyer now needs the Valley for its vote-rich base and to make up to Valley activists for killing Boland’s initiative. He sponsored his own bill, SB 176, which would have created a special commission on Los Angeles boundaries to review Valley detachment.

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Taking lots of heat--ironically, from his own political caucus, especially state Sens. Richard Polanco and Diane Watson, who see succession as anti-minority--Lockyer quietly dropped SB 176 and joined the McClintock / Hertzberg effort. Lockyer was a hero again, guiding AB 62 through the Senate, although he was unable to block Polanco’s “poison pill amendment” that made it apply to all statewide detachments, not just the Valley’s. The governor took the pill and signed it anyway.

AB 62 was officially co-sponsored by Sens. Tom Hayden and Herschel Rosenthal, both Democrats and neither a pal of McClintock or the governor. The measure passed with a huge margin of bipartisan support in both chambers: in the Assembly by 74 to 1 (in its amendment version by 50 to 15), in the Senate by 23 to 5. Assemblyman Tony Cardenas of Sylmar, originally not on board, wound up lobbying for AB 62 on the floor.

The unanswered question now is, will this unholy alliance continue? Will the love-fest between such players as Wilson, Boland, McClintock, Hertzberg, Lockyer, Hayden, Rosenthal and former legislator Bobbi Fiedler last? I believe not.

What appeared on the surface to be post-partisan action was really a convergence of different agendas, which probably will not be repeated. Democrats’ support for this measure was nothing more than the fundamental Jeffersonian belief in the people’s right to vote. Republicans saw it more in terms of government efficiency and tax-control formulas. Hertzberg and others are not true secessionists. They have shrewdly used this measure as a trump card to force the hand of both the elected and appointed city charter commissions to pay attention to Valley and neighborhood-empowerment issues as reforms come to the ballot. Lockyer may not actually be forced out of his Senate seat, due to a recent 9th Circuit Court ruling that threw out term limits. He may thus have less political need to appease Valley activists should the issue make it back to the Legislature. City Council members such as Laura Chick, Richard Alarcon and Michael Feuer have taken a cautionary stance: They want to see the final report of the proposed breakup and its fiscal implications before they go out on a limb.

All this is weird politics but a serious matter for those who believe that someday the San Fernando Valley will detach from the city of Los Angeles. Stay tuned.