New Group Formed to Push Secession

Even before the governor has decided whether to sign newly enacted legislation that would allow neighborhoods or regions to divorce themselves from the cities where they are located, a new group has been formed to press ahead with the secession of the San Fernando Valley from Los Angeles.

A formal announcement is expected this afternoon at a news conference.

“The next phase is the implementation of the bill when the governor signs it,” said Sherman Oaks homeowner leader Richard Close. “So we’ve decided to form a group and get things done.”

The five-member San Fernando Valley Secession Board includes Close, former U.S. Rep. Bobbi Fiedler, former Assemblywoman Paula L. Boland and homeowner activists Harry Coleman and Don Schultz.

An advisory board will also be named today.

Close said swift action is essential to getting a measure on the ballot in the year 2000. The first step in the process is getting petitions signed by 25% of the Valley’s registered voters.

The group estimates it will need $750,000 to hire a lawyer to write a petition that can withstand court challenges and to see the secession movement through the lengthy, complex approval process by an agency charged with determining the financial viability of secession.

Close said the goal is to have petitions ready to circulate after the first of the year, which is when the law would go into effect if the governor signs it.

After a difficult two-year struggle, and after midnight the last night of this year’s session, the state Legislature approved a bill that would make it easier for an area to secede from a city by eliminating city councils’ power to veto secession.

A spokesman has said Gov. Pete Wilson favors giving regions in Los Angeles the right to secede, but is concerned about the law’s applying statewide. Originally, the bill only applied to Los Angeles, but its authors, Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Northridge) and Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks), were forced to extend its range on the theory that, if the change in the law was valid, the policy should be good for all of California.

The change was suggested by a foe of the bill, state Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) for strategic reasons: If the law applied to cities throughout the state, legislators would be less likely to support it because it might hurt their urban areas.

Fiedler was active in an earlier Valley secession movement in the 1970s, as was Boland, who initiated the idea of getting rid of the City Council secession veto when she was in the Assembly last year. She came close to succeeding and, McClintock emphasized, paved the way for the bill’s acceptance this year.