County to Help Pay for Secession Petition Check

Arguing that constitutional rights were at stake, a sharply divided Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to help San Fernando Valley secession activists foot the bill for checking signatures gathered on petitions to advance the breakup movement.

As a result of the vote--which was strongly opposed by Supervisors Gloria Molina and Yvonne Brathwaite Burke--activists will be required to pay no more than $10,000 to check the 205,000 signatures submitted for a secession study.

If the petitions are found to contain 132,000 valid signatures, the county Local Agency Formation Commission must perform a secession study under state law. If secession is found to be economically viable, the issue would probably be placed on the ballot in 2002. The measure would require a majority vote in the Valley and in the city as a whole to pass.

With support from the American Civil Liberties Union and several constitutional scholars, Valley VOTE--the group pushing to break off more than a third of Los Angeles--told supervisors that the fee of $1.36 per signature amounted to an unconstitutional poll tax. Lawyers for Valley VOTE threatened to sue if forced to pay the fee.

Burke argued that the decision had far-reaching consequences for counties throughout the state--and should have been left to the courts. She complained that the decision opened the door for others to seek similar financial assistance in the future--including groups in Eagle Rock, San Pedro and Westchester now pursuing secession drives.

“What we are doing is establishing a precedent that will go on for years and years and affect incorporations and school district [breakups],” Burke said. “We are making a mistake.”

Tuesday’s action represented a compromise suggested by Supervisor Don Knabe, and was quickly embraced by Valley VOTE.

Under the agreement, secession activists will pay for a random sampling of 3% of the signatures, all that the county usually requires. If county elections officials discover many invalid signatures and the sample is not definitive enough, however, the county will pay to count all the signatures--which could cost as much as $270,000.

“If we had gone to court, we feel we would have prevailed,” said Valley VOTE President Jeff Brain. “But this is an apparent compromise that allows us to go forward.”

At the heart of the debate was whether the fee charged by LAFCO--or any fee at all--to check signatures in drives to incorporate or secede was an unconstitutional hurdle to the ballot. Elections officials do not charge petitioners for initiative drives, making the LAFCO fee peculiar.

Siding with secession advocates, Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Mike Antonovich asked county leaders to waive the fee, saying it did not matter whether Valley VOTE could afford it.

“Part of the democratic process is to allow the people to address their government through initiative and petition,” Antonovich said. “To deny them that would be to deny them due process.”

But Molina and Burke pointed out that others had been charged the fee, including those who fought to incorporate Malibu and Calabasas, and charged that there appeared to be special consideration given to the Valley activists.

Burke said she would agree to waive the fee--if Valley VOTE opened its books and showed that the petitioners were “paupers.” Valley VOTE representatives called that misguided.

“To establish one rule for one group of people when it goes against the history of what we have done--I think we really need to think about this,” she said.

Valley VOTE has turned down repeated requests from The Times to review its finances. The group has acknowledged having received $60,000 from the Daily News of Los Angeles and substantial contributions from Bert Boeckmann and David Fleming, two influential Valley businessmen.

Supervisors even discussed charging the city of Los Angeles for the signature-checking costs, noting that they were the apparent source of Valley activists’ feelings of disempowerment. After discussing the issue in a brief closed session, they emerged, calling the plan unrealistic.

Yaroslavsky had already left the closed session, however, saying the matters being discussed went beyond the suit.

“I am not going to send the county attorney on a wild goose chase,” he said.