Who Pays for Secession Bid Still at Issue

A regional panel put off a decision Wednesday on who should pay for an estimated $1-million study on the feasibility of a San Fernando Valley secession but agreed that a Valley group calling for the study should not be saddled with the entire cost.

The Local Agency Formation Commission rejected a proposal by its executive director to charge the group a $10,000 deposit toward the entire cost of the study, which could run as high as $1 million.

Instead, the panel adopted a one-time $8,000 fee to process a secession application and instructed its executive director, Larry Calemine, to come up with a plan to fund the accompanying study.

“I don’t think we should have the battle royal over this today,” LAFCO member and county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said.

But there was no agreement among board members or backers of the Valley secession study on how to pay for the study, which Calemine estimates could take two years to complete.

It has been one of the most irksome questions surrounding the entire secession movement.

Jeff Brain, president of Valley VOTE, the group circulating petitions calling for the study, suggested the total cost be borne by the state, county and city, with a contribution by Valley VOTE.

“We do feel that imposing this $1-million cost on the people is an obstacle we cannot overcome,” he said.

County supervisor and LAFCO member Yvonne Braithwaite Burke argued that Valley VOTE is responsible for the entire cost and suggested the group try to set up an assessment district in the Valley to pay for it.

Her colleague on the board, City Councilman Hal Bernson, who represents the northwest Valley, suggested the state create a fund to pay for this and other secession studies. Bernson said secession talk has been gaining momentum in San Pedro and Eagle Rock, among other communities.

When Burke suggested the city of Los Angeles help pay for the study, Bernson said, “The chances of me getting eight votes from the council to pay for this are about the same as you getting three votes on the Board of Supervisors.”

A representative for Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Northridge), who co-sponsored the legislation that created the secession process, said the city of Los Angeles is responsible for the cost because it was the city’s neglect of Valley residents that prompted the secession movement.

“The cost ought to be paid by the callous and unresponsive government that forces people to take such a radical step as seeking detachment,” McClintock aide Scott Wilk said.

Under the bill drafted by McClintock and Assemblyman Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks), Valley VOTE must collect 135,000 signatures, or 25% of the Valley’s voters, to prompt a LAFCO study on the feasibility of a Valley secession.

If the study determines the Valley can sustain itself as a separate city without financially hurting the city of Los Angeles, the county Board of Supervisors can put the question of secession on a citywide ballot. A majority in favor--both in the Valley and the rest of the city--is required for passage.

But the McClintock-Hertzberg bill did not include funding for the study.

State law gives LAFCO the right to pass on the cost of such studies to groups such as Valley VOTE, Calemine said. He said LAFCO--a state-created panel funded by the county--does not have funds to pay for the study.

Nonetheless, the commission instructed Calemine to come up with a funding plan that does not impose the entire cost on Valley VOTE.

Asked after the LAFCO meeting where the money would come from, Calemine shrugged his shoulders and said, “At this point, I just don’t know. All local cities and municipalities are strapped for operating funds.”

In addition to the cost of the study, it was also unclear Wednesday who will pay to verify the petition, at a cost of $1.63 per signature.

Normally, that cost is borne by the group that submits the petition. But Brain said he wasn’t sure if his group is prepared to pay for that cost.

“We have to look into that,” he said. “It could be a significant cost.”