Goldberg to Seek City Advisory Vote on Secession

In a move that she says is aimed at heading off a potentially divisive signature-gathering campaign, City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg plans to ask her colleagues today to call a special citywide advisory election on allowing the San Fernando Valley to secede from Los Angeles.

Goldberg, who acknowledged that the move appears “counterintuitive” because she does not support secession, said she wants to spare the city the negative campaign that would surround an independent drive to obtain enough voter signatures to put such a measure on the ballot.

“On behalf of trying to diminish the hostility, I am willing to do something quite out of character,” Goldberg said in an interview. “Why have all this division, animosity and hostility?”

But her motion isn’t likely to arouse much enthusiasm around the council table. Other members staunchly oppose secession and seem unlikely to give its supporters a free electoral forum.

Moreover, City Hall insiders and Valley secessionists appear equally skeptical of Goldberg’s motives: The former wonder whether she is trying to win Valley support for a possible mayoral bid; the latter speculate that the motion is an attempt to strangle their movement in its crib.

“Quite frankly, it’s thanks but no thanks,” said Jeff Brain, the co-chairman of a group formed to lobby for secession, who added that the group would examine the motion when it’s introduced. “We’ve seen how the council manipulated charter reform, and we expect them to manipulate secession. I think what Jackie is proposing is a way to manipulate the process and the people.”

To GOP political consultant and pollster Arnie Steinberg, “It sounds like she’s trying to reach out and pretend she’s someone she’s not by appearing sympathetic to the middle class in the San Fernando Valley.”

But others at City Hall say Goldberg’s motives are as she describes them. “Jackie might really believe this,” said one City Hall observer, who asked not to be identified. “This issue of divisiveness--particularly racial divisiveness--over secession is felt more strongly in the council chamber than it is in the community.”

Gov. Pete Wilson signed legislation 10 days ago abolishing the council’s power to veto secession, reinvigorating the movement in the Valley and, to a lesser extent, in other discontented areas.

Valley secessionists plan to begin circulating petitions in January to trigger a survey of the effects of a breakup, Brain said. If the study concludes that a breakup is economically viable both for the city and the Valley, the issue would be put on the ballot for a citywide vote.

Under Goldberg’s proposal, which vastly differs from state law, the advisory vote would be placed on the June 1998 primary election ballot. If the measure was approved by a majority of voters in the city and the Valley, the study could begin. A second vote requiring a majority in the city and a majority in the Valley would be taken shortly after that study was completed to determine whether the Valley would become its own city.

Goldberg said she merely wants to avoid the signature-gathering step and, if voters approve the secession idea, set in motion the survey, to be conducted by the Local Agency Formation Commission.

“Either it’s a good thing for the city or not,” Goldberg said. “Let’s find out first. It’s a no-brainer.

“Win or lose,” she said, “if we could do anything to lower the levels of hostility, let’s do it.”

Councilman Hal Bernson, who represents the northern Valley, said voters would probably approve an advisory vote, and that it would be helpful to launch the survey to determine the economic and other related issues of secession.

An advisory vote “might be a good idea to see what the sentiment is,” Bernson said. “This is not going to go away. Maybe the best way is to set the county study into motion.”

Council President John Ferraro said he has already asked the city’s chief legislative analyst, Ron Deaton, for information on the steps secession supporters must take. He said he is waiting for that information before making any decisions on Goldberg’s motion.

But he agreed with Goldberg that the campaign could be ugly. The secessionists, Ferraro said, are “not going to pass this by being nice.”

But Valley secession activists say that their petition drive will be launched in the Valley and that they don’t believe it will create citywide animosity. Placing a vote on the ballot before all the information from the county is available, however, could be detrimental to their effort, secessionists say.

“If you suddenly put this on the ballot, that would be divisive,” Brain said. “It’s a Valley petition drive. We’re not knocking on a single person’s door outside the Valley.” And Brain, among others, said the secession leaders in the Valley would use private money for their campaign. Using public funds for an election is unwarranted, they said.

“To the extent they continue to manipulate this . . . only reinforces the sentiment that the City Council is only interested in one thing: their political futures,” Brain said.

Still, Goldberg said she believes voters would approve an advisory measure. She said she would vote for it to enable the county study so she could learn more of the facts.

“I suspect it will be a pretty easy vote to get,” she said. “The only people who will vote [no on the advisory measure] are the people who will never vote for [secession].”