Secession Push Fails to Inspire Everyone

Xavier Flores has heard the claims that if the San Fernando Valley secedes from the city of Los Angeles, it will give local residents more control over their political destiny.

That may sound appealing, particularly for Latinos and other minorities in the Valley who feel that they are often ignored. But Flores, the head of the Valley chapter of the Mexican-American Political Assn., is staying clear of the secession movement.

“It’s our position that there is not enough information to determine whether secession will impact Latinos in the San Fernando Valley negatively or positively,” he said. “If we are going to err, we are going to err on the side of caution.”

Flores’ reservations are shared by many minorities in the Valley who are cautiously watching the secession debate from the sideline, some worried that dividing the city could dilute their political strength, others fearing it might erase years of minority achievements made in concert with the city of Los Angeles.

Several minority activists have suggested that the secession drive has racist undertones and see it as a move by Valley whites to divorce themselves from the problems of a large, racially diverse city.

“The leaders from the minority communities are suspicious of the motives [behind the secession drive],” said Fernando Guerra, director of Loyola Marymount’s Center for the Study of Los Angeles.

Others suggest that few minorities are involved in the secession drive because they have other, closer-to-home worries to contend with.

“Maybe secession is not as important an issue as being financially viable,” said Rose Castaneda, an instructor at the Pacoima Community Youth Culture Center.

Leaders of the secession movement concede that their message has yet to strike a responsive chord with minorities, but they say it is not for lack of trying.

“We have actively solicited minority representation,” said Richard Close, co-chairman of Valley VOTE, a group dedicated to supporting state legislation to make secession easier. “They are getting the invitation, but they are not coming.”

The group’s efforts to attract minorities, he and others say, proves that racism is not a motive behind the drive.

Unlike the mostly white, homogeneous Valley of yesteryear, the Valley of today is almost as racially diverse as the rest of Los Angeles, with a population that is 30% Latino, 4% African American and 8% Asian American.

However, the call for secession has resonated loudest in the white and middle- and upper-income Valley neighborhoods of Sherman Oaks, Studio City and Encino. Many leaders in those communities say the city of Los Angeles has ignored them and cheated them out of their fair share of city services.

The turning point in the secession battle will come in the next few days, when Gov. Pete Wilson is expected to decide whether to sign a bill that would make secession easier by eliminating the City Council’s power to veto a breakaway move. If he does not make a decision by Oct. 12, the bill will become law without his signature.

Close and other secessionists contend that the campaign is still in an early stage.

“As part of the second phase, we realize we have to go to the [minority] community leaders and show why this makes sense for them and their communities,” he said.

Although minorities in the Valley account for more than 40% of the total population, their role in any future secession effort is difficult to determine because they traditionally tend to vote in much smaller numbers.

This year, however, Latinos voted at record levels, partly in response to such ballot measures as Proposition 187, which eliminated benefits for illegal immigrants, and Proposition 209, which ended affirmative action in public university admissions and state hiring and contracting.

Secessionists say they plan to appeal to minorities by arguing that a split from Los Angeles would allow them greater say in their future because they would be part of a smaller, easier-to-govern city. They will also argue that secession would ensure that local tax dollars are spent in the Valley and not in other parts of the city.

On this issue as in others, minority leaders do not speak with one voice. Some support secession, while others simply support the right to vote on a breakaway.

The 11-member executive committee of Valley VOTE includes two minority activists, Marie Harris, an African American community leader in Pacoima, and Carlos Ferreyra, a Latino activist in Van Nuys.

Both Harris and Ferreyra say minorities should not try to gauge how secession would affect them, but instead should consider how it would affect the Valley as a whole.

“I see everyone not getting their fair share regardless of race, creed or color,” Harris said.

C.K. Tseng, president of the Asian Business Assn. and owner of a travel agency in Northridge, said he supports secession because it would ensure that Valley tax dollars are spent in the Valley.

Susan Ng, executive director of the San Fernando Valley Asian-Pacific Islander Council, also believes that Valley residents don’t get their fair share of city taxes. But she is not yet convinced that secession is the way to remedy that problem.

“Once we break away from Los Angeles, where do we go from there?” she said. “I’m like most people, watching from the sidelines.”

The Rev. Zedar Broadous, president of the Valley chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, said he has been approached to join the secession drive.

But Broadous said he fears that minorities would have to start over to gain a voice in a new city.

“We have been kicked to the curb so many times, why would we want to set ourselves up to be kicked again?” he said.

He and other minority leaders say they have made great strides in getting their voices heard in City Hall and fear that secession could wipe out such achievements.

The 15-member Los Angeles City Council includes three African American and three Latino members. In 1993, Councilman Richard Alarcon was elected as the first Latino representative from the Valley.

Tony Cardenas (D-Sylmar), who was elected last year as the Valley’s first Latino Assemblyman, said he worries that secession could dilute minority strength by dividing the city’s minorities.

“I think the minority communities in the other side of the hill have a longer history in the city and there are relationships that have developed [with Valley minority groups] and that separation may hinder those relationships,” he said. “Will that translate to a step backwards?”

Cardenas introduced his own secession bill this year that would have required a two-thirds majority vote in the Valley to approve a breakaway. He said his intent was to ensure that secession could not take place without widespread support, including support from Valley minorities. That bill died in committee.

But Ferreyra, a member of the Valley VOTE executive committee, said minorities would have the power to vote for their own representatives and make demands for their own services under the structure of a new Valley city.

“I don’t think minorities will be any worse off,” he said. “I don’t think they can be ignored.”