Secession Donors Can Stay Secret, Report Says

The panel presiding over the San Fernando Valley’s potential secession from Los Angeles does not have the power to force groups lobbying for or against the split to disclose their finances, officials said in a staff report.

The Local Agency Formation Commission, the panel that will oversee a study of secession and decide whether to place the issue to a vote, lacks the authority to impose such disclosure rules because it is an arm of the state government, according to the report.

The opinion is contrary to that of the city Ethics Commission, which asked LAFCO to require that groups trying to influence the secession process reveal their war chests and campaign contributors. The report concluded the Ethics Commission should ask the Legislature, not LAFCO, to enact the change.

Larry Calemine, LAFCO’s executive director, went a step further Monday, saying he believed the Ethics Commission’s request was an unfair attempt to burden proponents of Valley secession with new regulations.

“There is nothing in the government code that specifies this commission has the power to do something like this,” Calemine said. “That’s my position. Even if we do have the power to do it, I don’t think it’s being applied fairly.”

LAFCO’s nine appointed panelists will take up the issue Wednesday, and the county counsel’s office, which provides legal advice to LAFCO, is scheduled to explain its view of the issue. The report recommends that LAFCO take no action on the Ethics Commission letter, other than to thank the commission “for its interest in the subject.”

Ethics Commission Executive Director Rebecca Avila said Calemine may have misinterpreted the request for lobbying laws, adding that it appeared to be well withing LAFCO’s power. Nevertheless, she said the Ethics Commission is already talking with the state Fair Political Practices Commission about potential statewide regulations.

“If there is a will, I think there is a way to make public efforts to influence the political process on issues like this,” Avila said.

Through its letter to LAFCO, the Ethics Commission was attempting to close what it regarded as a loophole in the state’s campaign finance laws, which require disclosure of contributors in nearly every type of political campaign that results in a public vote except for secession and cityhood drives.

As a result of the loophole, Valley VOTE, the main group pushing for a study and possible vote on secession, has not been required to reveal its financial backers. And it has chosen to do so only on a very limited basis, saying it fears retribution against donors by powerful city officials.

Valley VOTE has said it would comply with any new regulations, as long as they are applied to everyone seeking to influence the secession process. Leaders of the group say it is also weighing releasing information on its own finances in coming weeks, regardless of whether new laws are enacted.

Valley VOTE estimates it has raised and spent more than $500,000 on the secession issue, including roughly $290,000 on a signature drive to trigger a secession study. Last August, it revealed that its biggest donor at that time was the Daily News of Los Angeles, which had contributed $60,000.

“We’re polling our contributors and developing a policy,” said Valley VOTE president Jeff Brain. “The issue we’re dealing with is what to do about past contributions, whether there should be a different policy for contributions from here forward.”

Councilman Mike Feuer, who had urged the Ethics Commission to pursue closure of the disclosure loophole, declined to comment on the LAFCO report Monday, saying he had not had time to read it.

Mike Gotch of CalLAFCO, an umbrella group advising and representing all LAFCOS throughout the state, could not be reached for comment Monday, but said earlier this year that each local panel had the power to enact its own regulations. Every county in California except for San Francisco, which has a hybrid government structure, has a local LAFCO panel.