Fee Proposed for Secession Study

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

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

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

County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, a commission member, said it is premature to impose a fee until the commission has a better idea of how expensive the study will be. 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, the commission’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.

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

“What we are doing here is a big deal,” he said. “It’s the Donald Trump divorce to the 10th degree.”

He said the commission has 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 commission secession study.

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

State law allows the Local Agency Formation Commission 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 are members of the commission object to imposing the full cost on the group seeking the study.

Commission member Hal Bernson, a Los Angeles city councilman from the northeast 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.”

The commission has never studied a simultaneous break away and incorporation of a community. The Valley, with about 1.3 million people, would be the sixth-largest city in the nation.

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In recent years, the unincorporated areas of Agoura Hills, Malibu and West Hollywood have become independent cities. In those cases, the commission 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.