Riordan Assails School District, Valley Secession

Calling the San Fernando Valley “vibrant” and “better than ever,” Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan lashed out at the local school bureaucracy Friday and renewed his pleas to Valley business leaders to reject secession as the answer to local problems.

Riordan’s fourth annual State of the Valley speech at the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn.’s conference in Woodland Hills sounded all the familiar themes of his administration--his commitment to getting more police officers on the streets, improving education and reforming the City Charter.

But some who support the Valley’s secession from the city of Los Angeles--a move that could create the nation’s sixth-largest city but break apart its second-largest--faulted Riordan for neglecting to mention issues of local concern such as breaking up the Los Angeles Unified School District and the formation of a separate transportation agency in the Valley.

Splitting up Los Angeles, Riordan has said, would increase bureaucracy and ultimately cost residents more. Advocates of the idea counter by arguing that Los Angeles has grown too big to govern effectively and that smaller cities might work better.

Rather than support secession, Riordan has urged support for a reformed City Charter, along the lines of a proposal being drafted by an elected commission.

“While I support citizens’ right to self-determination, I do not believe secession is the answer for the Valley,” Riordan said Friday. “Even if you are for secession, you should be for charter reform.”

Not all his listeners were impressed.

Marvin Selter, immediate past chairman of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn., said: “I’m very disappointed. I don’t believe charter reform will happen. . . . It is just moving the furniture around in the house, that’s all.”

“The mayor is a good cheerleader, but we are beyond the cheerleading stage,” John Berry of Canoga Oil & Lube said after the speech.

“I was a little disappointed,” said attorney Bob Scott, a prominent figure pushing for a study of Valley secession. “It was a very moderate speech. It didn’t break any new ground. . . . But I think he is beginning to understand and share our frustrations.”

Citing the growth of the LAPD from 7,400 officers to 10,000 during his administration, Riordan took credit for a sharp decline in violent crime.

“That alone has had a profound effect,” he said. “Business is up, volunteerism is up, and business and industry are rediscovering the Valley.”

But moving swiftly into what’s wrong with the city, Riordan struck again at the education bureaucracy. He lashed out at a system that he said promotes children who have not mastered grade-level skills and school bureaucrats who transfer incompetent administrators from school to school instead of firing them.

Riordan’s call for support for his own hand-picked slate of school board candidates was the only policy declaration in his speech that was interrupted by sustained applause.

The meeting was the annual gathering of the Valley’s largest and most influential business group. The Los Angeles Times was among the sponsors.