Bill for Secession Study Is Up for Debate

The panel that oversees the creation of new cities in Los Angeles County will today take up the long-disputed question of who must pay the estimated $1 million cost to study the feasibility of the political secession of the San Fernando Valley.

The question comes up as the Local Agency Formation Commission considers adopting a new $10,000 processing fee as a down payment for the full cost of the secession study, a step required by law before an election may be held.

But the proposal is already drawing fire from some LAFCO commissioners and leaders of the Valley group that is collecting petitions favoring the study.

County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, a LAFCO member, said it is premature to impose a fee until LAFCO has a better idea of how expensive it will be to complete the study. He said the agency has already set aside $75,000 to begin investigating the costs and the analysis needed to complete a Valley secession study.

“There has not been any discussion on this,” Yaroslavsky said. “I think it’s premature.”

Jeff Brain, president of Valley Voters Organized Toward Empowerment, said the group is willing to pay a processing fee of $6,000 but is opposed to paying the entire cost.

“We believe that the county should pay for the study,” he said.

The fee was proposed by Larry Calemine, LAFCO’s executive director, who said money is needed to hire consultants to estimate the cost of the full study, which he said would then be billed to Valley VOTE.

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Calemine has estimated that it may take up to two years to figure out how best to divide public facilities, city staff, water rights and bond debts, at a cost of more than $1 million.

“What we are doing here is a big deal,” he said. “It’s the Donald Trump divorce to the nth degree.”

He said that LAFCO has a staff of three full-time employees and a budget of about $500,000.

“Where is the commission going to get it?’ he asked. “We don’t have this money.”

This month, Valley VOTE members launched a drive to collect 135,000 signatures on a petition requesting a LAFCO secession study.

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But the question of who will pay for the study has remained unanswered for years.

State law allows LAFCO to impose the cost of the study on the petitioners--in this case, Valley VOTE. The law also allows the commission to require a deposit before a study is launched.

But some elected officials who sit on the commission object to imposing the full cost on the group seeking the study.

LAFCO member Hal Bernson, a Los Angeles city councilman from the northwest Valley, said it would be unfair to charge Valley VOTE the entire cost of the study.

“To say it has to be paid for entirely by the people who want it is the same as a veto,” he said.

Bernson also said the $10,000 fee should be paid by city, county or state taxpayers with a contribution from Valley VOTE, “something that shows good faith.”

LAFCO has never studied a simultaneous breakaway and incorporation of a community. If it comes to that, the Valley, with about 1.3 million people, would be the sixth-largest city in the nation.

In recent years, the unincorporated areas of Agoura Hills, Malibu and West Hollywood have become independent cities. In those cases, LAFCO charged backers of the new city a $6,000 filing fee for each cityhood study and a $1.50 fee to verify each petition signature.

Calemine said a Valley secession study would be a much more complicated matter.

“The incorporation of Agoura Hills or Malibu or West Hollywood is a simple matter compared to what we are talking about here,” he said.

Calemine said there is no fee on the books for a simultaneous detachment from a city and incorporation as a new city. But there is a $4,500 fee for a detachment study and $6,000 fee for an incorporation study, he said.

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Times staff writer Jeff Leeds contributed to this story.