Secession, Yes . . . but, Then, ‘Secession’ Is Such an Ugly Word

The secession euphemisms keep stacking up. Earlier this month, Valley VOTE, a group organized to carry the secession drive forward, weighed in with its preferred term for the you-know-what movement to separate the Valley from L.A.

Please, they said, don’t call it secession, but “Valley independence.” “Secession” is too combative, they said, too reminiscent perhaps of gunslinging Confederates.

But use of the word “independence” may offend yet another constituency--the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn., the Valley’s most powerful business organization.

VICA favors yet another term: “Valley incorporation.”

Incorporation. Now here’s a word stripped of martial overtones, as bland and bureaucratic as chalkboard. Above all, it’s a word that reduces Valley secession to a kind of spontaneous generation, as if L.A. didn’t exist at all.

Now that’s revolutionary.

Revolutionary Idea

VICA has taken other steps to cut L.A. down to size this week. At a hearing of the Los Angeles Charter Commission on a proposal to form citywide neighborhood councils, VICA representative Joyce Prager stepped to the podium with a stack of papers in her hand, and a bombshell of an idea.

Eliminate the City Council altogether, she said, calmly laying out a plan drafted by some VICA members, but so far not endorsed by the whole. Replace the council with a “Metro Council,” selected by members of multiple neighborhood groups. And shift local budget decisions to neighborhood councils, who would “buy services” from the city.

By the time Prager was through, there was hardly a shell left of city government as it exists today.

Several heads in the crowd were nodding, but at least one person blanched. That was Laura Chick, city councilwoman, a supporter of neighborhood councils--to a point.

Chick, whose job would be eliminated under Prager’s plan, squirmed. That’s not what she meant by neighborhood councils. “I don’t like it,” she said later. “No, I don’t like that proposal.”

Enough Is Enough

For the most part, though, neighborhood councils are a feel-good idea that nearly everyone seems to want a piece of. Most every politician at City Hall has a version.

But a lone dissenting voice was heard last week, that of the ever-feisty Ernani Bernardi, former city councilman, who also took the podium at the charter reform hearing.

Only politicians could think the answer to the city’s problems is more politicians, he suggested, adding:

“We don’t need neighborhood councils. Fifteen members of the City Council are enough,” he said.

Food Fight

Yes, even food is political. Just ask City Councilman Mike Feuer.

The councilman who has embraced such such far-reaching issues as campaign ethics became the standard-bearer for the most mundane of local causes this week, speaking out on behalf of people who shop at Hughes markets.

Hughes shoppers in Studio City have been protesting a proposed acquisition of the chain by Ralphs. They are even planning to burn their Ralphs cards in a demonstration Saturday.

Throwing himself in the path of the Ralphs juggernaut, Feuer penned a letter to state Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren opposing the merger and arguing that it would damage local competition.

Naturally, the Studio City activists were exultant. Feuer gets it, they said: Food matters.

As the saying goes, a chicken in every pot.

A Small Affair

For 20 years environmentalists have been trying to acquire the funding to complete the long-sought Backbone Trail through the Santa Monica Mountains.

Yet when the momentous day came as he White House approved $5.5 million to buy the last parcels of private property needed to complete the 70-mile trail, the announcement seemed somewhat anti-climatic.

The news was announced Tuesday by Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks), who stood on the edge of a cliff overlooking the trail and the Pacific Ocean. Next to him was Arthur Eck, superintendent of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

Noticeable in their absence at the news conference were leaders of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, which has long spearheaded the parkland acquisition effort.

Also missing was Councilman Marvin Braude, who has championed parkland preservation in the mountains for more than 30 years.

And where was County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who long lobbied to spend county parkland money on the Santa Monica Mountains?

All of these folks were not invited to the news conference and only learned about the funding from a newspaper reporter.

Why didn’t Sherman invite all of these environmentalists and community leaders and perhaps take a photo with them that could later appear on a campaign brochure during his upcoming reelection bid?

Sherman’s staff conceded that more could have been done, but said that Sherman only learned of the funding four days earlier and did not have time to arrange a big production.

Besides, an aide said, if you start making a big affair out of it, someone inevitably is left off the invitation lists and gets offended.

Cozy in City Hall

Relations have long been chilly between Mayor Richard Riordan and the City Council. But with the New Year came news that in at least one area, they may be warming up.

That’s because Riordan’s aide on economic issues, Deputy Mayor Rocky Delgadillo, proposed to City Councilman Joel Wachs’ legislative deputy Michelle Namen. The two have been dating since they met, appropriately at the mayor’s second-term inauguration.

Namen accepted the mayor’s man, a good omen for future cooperation. Delgadillo, once coaxed to comment, rose to the occasion:

“If I can find a princess in City Hall it bodes well for the future of Los Angeles,” he said.

“Though I’ve always worked well with the council,” he added. “Maybe that’s why we’re engaged.”

Nuptials are in August.

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Quote of the Week

“We need the Raiders like the Titanic needed an iceberg.”

Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs responding to rumors that the Raiders would return to Los Angeles.