2 Key Civic Leaders Back Valley VOTE Petitions

For the first time since the San Fernando Valley secession movement began in earnest, two of the area’s most powerful and politically connected leaders Tuesday called for unified support of a petition drive aimed at taking the first step toward political autonomy for the region.

In letters sent to 2,000 representatives of business, industry and homeowner groups, Bert Boeckmann and David Fleming urged organizations to put their support and money behind the petition campaign, which would authorize a feasibility study of Valley cityhood.

Boeckmann, owner of Galpin Ford and other businesses, is a police commissioner, and Fleming, a Studio City attorney, is a fire commissioner. Both were appointed by Mayor Richard Riordan. They were among the most visible of the Valley’s opinion shapers to remain on the sidelines in the secession debate, and are identified instead with the campaign to rewrite the city charter, which Riordan favors.

However, in their letter, they said that while they still encourage charter reform, they also fully support a feasibility study on independence.

“These next two weeks are becoming the most important weeks in the Valley’s history,” the pair wrote. “Your financial participation today is more important for the future of the Valley than any cause any of us have ever been asked to support in the past.”

The letter seeks to raise $150,000 in donations within 10 days in order to hire professional signature gatherers to work in the campaign sponsored by Valley VOTE.

If 135,000 signatures--representing 25% of Valley voters--are obtained by Aug. 27, the Local Agency Formation Commission would be required to study whether an independent city in the Valley would be able to sustain itself without causing financial harm to the rest of the city.

Jeff Brain, president of Valley VOTE, said the letter “sends a clear message to the leadership of the Valley of the importance of the petition campaign to the future of the Valley. . . . It is a signal for those who have been on the fence to come off the fence.”

Brain said advocates of charter reform should also back the petition drive, on the grounds that fear of the secession movement generates support for charter reform. If the petition campaign fails, he said, “all the pressure for reform of the Los Angeles Charter will disappear and there will be no reform in Los Angeles.”

Boeckmann and Fleming earlier this year commissioned a $50,000 survey of Valley voters which showed that residents favor a feasibility study by LAFCO by a margin of 5-1. According to the letter, the result of that poll “dramatically revealed to us and everyone else the deep frustrations held by Valley citizens over L.A.’s current structure of government and the voters’ pronounced enthusiasm over the prospects of Valley independence.”