You Get the Facts You Pay For

Two years ago, we worked together to ensure that every Angeleno had a voice in deciding whether the San Fernando Valley secedes from the city of Los Angeles. Today, we’re working together again to ensure that those voices are guided by the facts.

We continue to oppose breaking up Los Angeles. Secession would be unnecessarily divisive and is not the antidote for what ails our city.

However, it is not enough to close our eyes and wish this away. Fairness dictates that we grant a full and comprehensive hearing of the issues underlying secession. The Los Angeles Local Agency Formation Commission was created by the state to consider such requests. Providing state funding for the LAFCO process is the best way to guarantee that a fair hearing takes place.

More than 132,000 people signed the petition seeking the study, more than a quarter of the Valley’s registered voters. That’s the highest percentage to support a petition circulated in a major metropolitan area, according to the Washington D.C.-based Initiative and Referendum Institute. To ignore the popular will only would raise the stakes by fueling resentment among those who signed the petition.

Although only one of us provides direct representation for the San Fernando Valley, we both understand well voter frustrations with the delivery of municipal services and the disconnection they feel from government overall.

Indeed, Angelenos from all neighborhoods believe their areas get too little attention and too few resources from city bureaucracy. It is a sentiment so strong that we in government are compelled to give this issue serious scrutiny.

The LAFCO study will shine a bright light on the facts. It will provide both policymakers and residents with our first comprehensive look at our city’s assets, expenditures and distribution of resources. For the first time, people on both sides of the debate will have the data about how city funds are spent and be able to determine whether the Valley or any other community is getting shortchanged. Are our transportation and public safety dollars being spent where they are most needed? Are repairs to roadways, street lights, libraries and sidewalks given more attention in some communities than in others? A LAFCO study will help us to address these questions with good information rather than just rhetoric.

Some oppose spending any state funds on this study, which will cost about $2.3 million. They argue that the cost be shifted instead to the backers of the secession effort.

We disagree. There’s no question that a substantial portion of the cost of the study should be borne by government. In a democracy, people enjo a fundamental right to petition for change. A $2.3-million price tag on exercising those rights makes them inaccessible to all but the well-to-do. That’s why we propose using $1.8 million in state funds for the study--nearly 80% of the projected cost.

This approach is consistent with the role government plays in other comparable circumstances. If you file a lawsuit, you are not required to pay the judge’s salary while you’re having your day in court. Neither do we ask the backers of other initiatives or candidates for office to pay for the cost of elections.

Nor is it unusual for government to foot the bill for research. The city of Los Angeles alone spends more than $20 million a year on various studies, from examinations of waste-water management to analyses of regulations for food cart vendors and traffic studies. L.A. County and the state spend millions more.

Whether any part of Los Angeles ever detaches from the existing city, the LAFCO study will generate information we need to make city government serve us all better. That, and not the political posturing and finger-pointing we’ve become accustomed to, is what this discussion really is about.

We are at a crossroads. Los Angeles is poised on the threshold of greatness as a city, a city where diverse people, communities, ideas and lifestyles come together in a way not in evidence elsewhere. The LAFCO study will tell us more than a little about how we will step across the threshold to that future.