VOTE Petition Drive Heats Up as Cutoff Nears

The mercury topped 100 degrees on the sidewalk beneath the Target store’s bright red bull’s-eye, but petition-touting Joan Mitchell barely broke a sweat as she pounced on unsuspecting shoppers Sunday afternoon.

“OK, so it’s hot and a lot of people really don’t want me in their face, but time is short,” said Mitchell.

Mitchell and a legion of petitioners worked full-force over the weekend to collect enough signatures to trigger a possible vote on secession of the San Fernando Valley from Los Angeles.

This comes despite a likely, last-minute reprieve from Sacramento.

Although the official deadline for the petition drive is Thursday, the Legislature is expected today to grant Valley activists a 90-day extension. Gov. Pete Wilson also has expressed support for the measure.

“It might happen, but it might not,” said Mitchell, 24, of Glendale. “I don’t really care. We want to get it done.”

Mitchell continued her friendly yet forceful solicitation outside the Ventura Boulevard store throughout the broiling afternoon. She was motivated less by politics than by money.

Mitchell works for Progressive Campaigns, a professional petitioning firm. She pockets $1 for every signature she nabs from a registered voter in the Valley.

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The company was hired by Valley VOTE, the group of Valley activists leading the petition drive, to help deliver the signatures required to prompt a state-sanctioned study and possible ballot initiative on the creation of a new, independent Valley city.

Valley VOTE must collect about 135,000 valid signatures--25% of the registered voters in the Valley--to trigger the study.

As of Tuesday, Valley VOTE said it had collected 116,900 signatures. The total is far short of their goal of 180,000 to 200,000, the number needed to make up for signatures disqualified by county elections officials.

With the petition drive today entering its 87th day, the pool of fresh supporters is drying up.

“We’re finding a very high level of saturation--a lot of people have already signed,” said Bill Westermeyer of Progressive Campaigns, director of the company’s effort with Valley VOTE. “We’re not finding a lot of people opposed to the issue, it’s just the high number of signatures we need to get. That’s what’s making this a nightmare of a campaign.”

If Valley VOTE is given three more months to collect signatures, there is no doubt they’ll net the 135,000 needed, Westermeyer said.

Still, Valley VOTE plans to continue its campaign under the assumption Thursday’s deadline stands, said Richard Close, the group’s chairman. To do anything else would be foolish, at least until the governor signs legislation granting the extra 90 days, Close said.

The governor surprised Valley VOTE on Friday by vetoing state money to help pay for a secession study, saying it should be funded locally.

Valley VOTE volunteers, who have toiled throughout the summer and whom group leaders say collected the majority of petition signatures, also canvassed the Valley all weekend, going door to door and staking out supermarkets, home improvement stores and shopping malls.

Jan Novelli of Reseda wheeled a box full of petitions into the Topanga Plaza mall Sunday morning, once again putting off a visit to her baby granddaughter in Simi Valley and a hike on the cool trails of Griffith Park. For the past three months, Novelli has pestered people for signatures, hawking the prospect of Valley independence and giving up weekends and a summer vacation.

“I haven’t had much of a summer,” said Novelli, 47, a comptroller for a property management company. “That’s why I want us to get all the signatures we need by Thursday. I could have my life back.”

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Sunday morning, Novelli staked out an unrelated town hall meeting by Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) outside the mall entrance of Robinsons-May department store. Despite dozens of concerned voters who dropped by, Novelli collected only a handful of signatures.

“When I first went out a couple months ago, I was getting 80 signatures a day. Now I’m lucky if I get 10,” Novelli said.

Maria Banuelos of Canoga Park was one of Novelli’s few catches of the day.

Banuelos, 38, said she’s disgusted about how the city of Los Angeles treats people in the Valley.

A few months back, when her son failed to pay a traffic ticket for failing to wear a safety beat, Banuelos had to go downtown to pay the fine.

“I had to take a day off, it was outrageous,” said Banuelos, who works for an answering service and uses city bus lines.