Riordan Assails Valley Effort to Break Away

Mayor Richard Riordan denounced the San Fernando Valley secession movement Friday, asserting that the Valley would still be rebuilding from the 1994 Northridge earthquake if not for his efforts.

“I and others lobbied to get tens of billions of dollars from the federal government to bring the Valley back, and in fact, we did,” Riordan said. “We have a lot of pride. We brought the Valley back . . . much faster than San Francisco after the Loma Prieta earthquake.”

Riordan’s remarks--which underscored his long-standing opposition to splintering the city and included strong pleas for city charter reform--came in Van Nuys before a state commission charged with suggesting changes to local government laws.

Riordan chose not to propose any specific changes to the panel, the Commission on Local Governance for the 21st Century, saying he would not lobby against secession unless it became a more serious possibility.

But he did address the issues he said had spurred the ongoing Valley breakaway drive.

Riordan said the Valley had been “ignored” by city leaders before he became mayor, but he has labored to secure “Valleyites” representation on city commissions and attract businesses to the area.

“Those who argue that the Valley now pays to supplement services to the rest of the city are simply wrong,” Riordan said. “Valley residents make up about 35% of our population, and pay about 33% of taxes. Our tax resources are invested according to demand and need, not simply by geography.”

Latino Activists Express Concerns

Valley Latino activists also expressed strong concerns about secession before the commission, created last year by Assemblyman Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) to recommend changes to the byzantine laws that govern municipal divorce and boundary shifts. The group pushing for secession, Valley VOTE, made a lengthy presentation as well, pleading for more specific, but less burdensome, regulations on city breakups and a ban on all fees for petitioners.

“We’re potentially going to end up in court, which we don’t want to do,” said Valley VOTE President Jeff Brain.

The commission is required to submit a final report to the governor and Legislature by the end of the year, and is in the process of holding a series of hearings throughout California. Its 15 members include San Diego Mayor Susan Golding, former MTA chair Larry Zarian and Los Angeles police commissioner and businessman Bert Boeckmann.

Xavier Flores of the Mexican American Political Assn.’s Valley chapter told the commission that he became increasingly concerned about the feelings motivating secession after a group of Latino community leaders met to discuss the issue last year without Valley VOTE present. Among the conclusions drawn from the gathering, he said, were that a Valley city would clearly be far whiter than Los Angeles as a whole, possibly hampering efforts to increase Latino political representation.

“The ‘whitening’ of the vote in the San Fernando Valley is not something we think is going to benefit us,” Flores said, adding that the same forces driving school district breakup were spurring secession. “The racial undercurrent of these movements is something we are very, very concerned about.”

Irene Tovar of the Latin American Civic Assn., a social service group, argued that the views expressed by leaders of the Valley secession movement, many of whom are prominent in Valley business affairs, did not suggest they were thinking of helping minorities and the poor.

“Those that have run this Valley have not been very generous to the working poor in this area. So I am very concerned about what might be motivating Valley secession,” Tovar said. “Some of these leaders have not even come to our neighborhoods.”

Umbrage Taken at Remarks

Boeckmann, a longtime Valley political power broker who has contributed to Valley VOTE, took exception to the remarks and responded, saying he and others were merely working to create better governments for everyone.

“When you say that people that were involved did not visit your neighborhood, how do you know?” Boeckmann said. “I’ve been living in the Valley a long time.”

In response to concerns that residents in the northeast Valley--which has the area’s largest population of Latinos and African Americans--do not support secession, Brain said Valley VOTE would unveil statistics today that show a higher percentage of registered voters who signed petitions to study Valley secession were from that area than any other. Valley VOTE collected more than 202,000 signatures to launch the secession process--more than the 132,000 needed. County elections officials are expected to finish verifying the signatures this month.

Tovar said she was insulted by Brain’s remarks, adding that the secession group must have misled northeast Valley residents if it persuaded so many to sign the petition.

“It’s kind of offensive to be told the northeast Valley has the majority of the [signatures] when we, who live in the area . . . talk to people all the time, and the majority say something quite different,” Tovar said.