Bid for Valley Secession Advisory Vote Gets Cool Reception in Council

Westside Councilwoman Ruth Galanter joined her colleague Jackie Goldberg on Wednesday in asking the City Council to seek an advisory vote on allowing the San Fernando Valley to secede from Los Angeles. But a majority of council members--including all of the Valley’s representatives--either oppose the idea or have reservations about it.

“I won’t use the word sabotage,” Valley Councilman Hal Bernson said. “But I consider this an act of subversion.”

Bernson and Laura Chick, who also represents a Valley district, said they initially believed the proposal to place the advisory vote on next June’s ballot had value, but quickly changed their minds. Goldberg’s proposal was immediately rejected by leaders of organizations pushing for secession.

If the council is serious about getting involved in secession, Bernson suggested, it should “sit down and negotiate [with leaders of the secession movement] and avoid all this other stuff.”

But Goldberg and Galanter, who held a joint morning news conference to discuss the motion introduced at Wednesday’s council meeting, said they believe an advisory vote will spare the city a divisive and hostile signature-gathering campaign.

Whatever its value, some city and state officials said the proposal may be illegal under current California law. The motion proposes that an advisory vote by a majority in the city and a majority in the Valley would trigger a study of secession by the Local Agency Formation Commission. Assuming the commission found that secession would have a neutral financial impact, a second vote would then be taken on whether the Valley should secede, again requiring both citywide and Valley majorities.

But the council cannot simply ask for such a study, according to Larry Calemine, the executive director of the state Local Agency Formation Commission. Nor can an advisory vote trigger one, he said.

A new state law signed by Gov. Pete Wilson just 10 days ago abolished the council’s veto power over secession plans and limited the type of study the city can seek, Calemine said. Moreover, he said, the city would need to pay for a study, which probably would cost at least $1 million.

The motion will be sent to the council’s rules and elections committee where it will be reviewed by city attorneys and other city staff.

*

While Galanter agreed with Goldberg that a campaign could create unnecessary hostility, she also said she is tired of being threatened with secession by Valley leaders.

“We have been hearing what I call threats over the last two years . . . that the Valley’s going to take its marbles and go elsewhere,” Galanter said. “I am tired of listening to threats all day long. . . . Let’s get down to brass tacks.”

But Jeff Brain, a leader of the Valley secession group, said it plans to circulate petitions among registered voters in the Valley. If the group gets the required number of signatures, a study would be triggered and a vote on secession could then take place.

(City Clerk Mike Carey said adding the advisory vote to the June ballot could cost the city between $600,000 and $800,000.)

While several council members objected to the costs of Goldberg’s motion, they said they are more concerned about getting involved in a campaign in which they feel they should not intervene.

“It’s the City Council being intrusive into a process now that’s been carefully and thoughtfully crafted that had the support of the very people who want secession,” Chick said.

*

Councilman Mike Feuer, whose district extends into the Valley, said he opposes the proposal because it is “presumptuous and contrary to the principle of self-determination.”

And Councilman Joel Wachs, among others, said an advisory vote on the issue is unnecessary because the survey will give voters more information on which to base their opinions.

“To call for a vote now before you get the facts, and then to say that you want people to vote based on facts, is just . . . ludicrous,” Wachs said. The motion, he charged, is “simply an effort to derail [the secession movement], stall it, kill it.”

Goldberg and Galanter dismissed that view, saying they want the voters to make informed decisions and they want merely to speed the process.

“For us to begin to divide up just over the question of whether there should be a study makes no sense,” Goldberg said.

Former Assemblywoman Paula Boland, who pushed for the secession legislation in Sacramento, said Goldberg’s effort “reminds me of a dictatorship trying to maintain control over 1.5 million people.”

Councilman Richard Alarcon said he “can’t imagine” supporting an advisory vote on secession. “I’d like to see the City Council downplay its role,” he said.

Other council members, including council President John Ferraro, Mike Hernandez and Cindy Miscikowski, who also represents part of the Valley, said they have concerns about the advisory vote and would need more information.