Responsibility Is VOTE’s

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors wisely decided last week to put off a vote on how much--if anything--to contribute toward a study of San Fernando Valley secession. Supervisors Mike Antonovich and Zev Yaroslavsky put forward competing proposals to pay at least part of the costs of a study examining the fiscal effects of splitting the nation’s second-largest city. Problem is, no one knows for sure how much such a study would cost so cracking open the taxpayers’ checkbook is premature.

The costs won’t be known until early next year, after the Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCO, figures out what should be included in the feasibility study. The study would be required if Valley Voters Organized Toward Empowerment, or VOTE, collects at least 135,000 signatures on a petition asking for a split of Los Angeles. No one doubts that VOTE will achieve its signature goal and unleash the divisive process of tallying assets in anticipation of a municipal divorce.

But the big question remains: Who should foot the bill, expected to be in the $1-million range? VOTE leaders want the city and county to pay. They correctly point out that recently formed cities such as Santa Clarita and Calabasas did not have to bear the costs associated with incorporation. True enough, but those were far less complicated studies. Valley VOTE’s campaign to drive a wedge through the city is unprecedented. The rules are literally being written as the folly unfolds.

The people behind VOTE--those paying the bills and calling the shots--should bear the bulk of the costs. The responsibility ought to be on them to show voters how they might benefit from a separate Valley city. It’s easy to cast Los Angeles government as a parade of free-spending fools, but it’s far more difficult to create a better system. Witness the struggles of two commissions--one elected, one appointed--as they grapple with rewriting the city’s charter.

In terms of a future Valley government, VOTE and its volunteers offer little beyond the parking lot petition pitches of “lower taxes” and “more control.” Any new form of government in a separate Valley city would require just the kind of wrenching reform process now underway in Los Angeles. Difficult as that process may be, we support it as a path toward better government for the whole city. If VOTE wants to file for divorce in the midst of civic reconciliation, the public ought not be asked to finance it.