Mayor, 2 Council Members Protest Secessionists’ Plan

Mayor Richard Riordan and two City Council members fired off a letter of protest Tuesday to the panel overseeing the San Fernando Valley’s potential secession from Los Angeles, alleging it was illegally proposing that a consultant do critical work that secession proponents should do.

The letter to the Local Agency Formation Commission alleged that the proposal to be considered by the panel today to hire a consultant for a study of secession would break state law and constitute a misuse of public funds because it requires the consultant to perform work that should be handled by a secession applicant.

It was signed by Riordan, City Council President John Ferraro and Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, who chairs the council’s Ad Hoc Committee on Secession.

Specifically, the letter cites a requirement that a consultant perform an “initial fiscal analysis” of secession before backers of the breakup submit their own proposals.

That analysis would require the consultant to draft several potential models for a new city--or new cities, since the Harbor area is also pondering a split from the city--before the applicants turned in their own visions for independent cities.

“The public funding is intended to fund the study of these proposals, not their creation,” the letter states.

Larry Calemine, LAFCO’s executive director, said late Tuesday that he had not seen the letter and would wait for the county counsel’s office, which serves as the panel’s attorney, to review it before responding.