Secession Bill Clears Committee; Final Test Due Today

The Valley secession bill escaped unscathed from a tough, confrontational committee hearing Thursday, setting the stage for its final legislative test in the Assembly today--the final day of the session this year.

Although the bill passed the Assembly earlier this year 74 to 1, its success is by no means assured now that it applies statewide, not just to the city of Los Angeles.

Also, Gov. Pete Wilson has not decided whether to sign the bill if it passes the Assembly.

But opponents’ best chance of derailing the measure was at Thursday morning’s 1 1/2-hour hearing, called by the chairman of the Local Government Committee, Assemblyman Mike Sweeney (D-Hayward).

Sweeney wanted to kill the bill because he said its ramifications for the state had not been thoroughly studied.

The bill’s foes, including the powerful League of California Cities, were out in force at the hearing.

Also opposing the bill were the cities of San Jose, Long Beach, El Cajon, Thousand Oaks and Stockton.

They insisted that eliminating the city council veto over secession would, one way or another, spell disaster for California’s urban areas.

Proponents of the measure, including co-author Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Northridge), countered that letting people in a democracy decide the secession issue should not strike fear in lawmakers’ hearts.

“I don’t know what people are so fearful about,” McClintock said.

But opponents of the measure set forth a number of concerns:

* If city councils don’t have a veto, areas of a city could blackmail a council to get more than their fair share of services by threatening to secede, said Ernest Silva, a lobbyist for the League of California Cities.

* “People’s self-interest and a little bit of racism” will spark secession efforts around the state, said Brian Hatch of the California Firefighters Union. “If you think this can’t happen anywhere but Los Angeles, you better think about it.”

* “Control of borders [by government] is a basic of a democratic system,” said Roxanne Miller, a lobbyist for San Jose.

One opponent of the bill, Assemblyman Mike Honda (D-San Jose), even likened secession backers to “deadbeat dads” who flee rather than face responsibility for problems.

“This bill creates flight from what I call the civic responsibility to stick it out and stay,” Honda said.

Assemblyman Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) responded that people already flee urban areas in droves, moving from Van Nuys to Agoura as a way to change their situation.

The way to prevent flight, he said, is to offer people more of a stake in the place they live now.

Other committee members who spoke in support of the bill included Assemblymen George Runner (R-Lancaster) and Dennis Cardoza (D-Merced).

The right of the people to decide their form of government is fundamental, Cardoza said. “I can’t imagine why we as a society would delegate that right to a public official.”

Hertzberg and McClintock needed eight votes to get the bill to the Assembly floor.

They got nine. Two members wanted to kill the bill in committee. The remaining four participated in the hearing but did not vote.

“We’re going to the floor and taking nothing for granted,” Hertzberg said.

The committee results were unusual because Chairman Sweeney’s wishes to kill the bill would typically be followed by fellow Democrats, who hold a majority on the panel.

But Hertzberg’s place on the committee changed the status quo.

He won support from two other Democrats, who joined with six Republicans in moving the bill along to the full Assembly.

Doing so required overcoming an apparent effort by Sweeney to draw out the hearing, making it difficult for lawmakers to stay in the room while the full Assembly was upstairs voting on other bills.

If enough backers strayed from the room, the bill could have been defeated.

Aides for the bill’s authors intercepted the lawmakers outside the room and encouraged them to stay and vote.

Assemblyman Steve T. Kuykendall (R-Long Beach) brought the issue to a head by asking Sweeney to open the roll so he and others could vote and leave.

“Your maneuvering does not help us move through the agenda,” Sweeney said.

“Neither does yours, Mr. Chairman,” Kuykendall retorted.

In the Valley, some of the bill’s backers monitored the hearing by telephone at McClintock’s district office.

They were prepared with champagne on ice for good news and had scotch on hand if the vote went against the bill.

“We’re excited,” said former Rep. Bobbi Fiedler, who was involved in a Valley secession effort in the 1970s.

“This is one of the last hurdles we have to go over.”