Petitions Qualify Valley Secession for Official Study

One-fourth of San Fernando Valley voters have signed petitions authorizing the first official step toward secession from Los Angeles, county officials said Monday, triggering what is sure to be a highly complex and politicized debate on the consequences of breaking up the city.

More than 132,000 of the 202,000 signatures submitted by the pro-breakup group Valley VOTE are valid, according to the county registrar-recorder’s office, forcing officials to conduct an unprecedented analysis of the cost and impact of secession. Such a study is the first step in the arcane process of municipal divorce, which has not occurred in California since Montebello detached from Monterey Park in 1920.

Leaders of the secession movement rejoiced after learning that they had moved closer to their goal, saying that their successful signature gathering campaign indicates that their effort to forge the nation’s sixth-largest city from the Valley’s prototypic middle-class suburbs has tangible public support and can no longer be taken lightly.

“I was involved in the creation of Proposition 13, and this is just as big for me,” said Valley VOTE Chairman Richard Close, a longtime Sherman Oaks homeowner activist. “This is like that, an idea that was kind of cuckoo but then went mainstream. Politicians didn’t want anything to do with Howard Jarvis. But once people signed the petitions, every politician wanted to be photographed with him.”

The fate of the breakup movement now rests in the hands of the county’s Local Agency Formation Commission, a nine-member panel that usually oversees the redrawing of municipal boundaries. The panel must now find money to conduct a detailed analysis--the largest of its kind in history--tallying and dividing Los Angeles’ assets and liabilities.

Among the politically explosive issues to be examined are whether the Valley has a right to share ownership of the Department of Water and Power, and if not, whether the nation’s largest publicly owned utility can charge Valley residents a higher rate for its services. Another controversial issue is whether a split can be done in compliance with a state law that requires municipal alimony payments to one side or the other to ensure breakups are “revenue neutral.”

After conducting the study, panel members--including Councilman Hal Bernson and county Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Yvonne Brathwaite Burke--will decide whether secession can occur without hurting either the Valley or the rest of the city economically. If so, the commission will place the secession question on the ballot for a citywide vote. To pass, it will have to receive a majority not only within the boundaries of the proposed municipality, but also within the existing city of Los Angeles.

Riordan Maintains Opposition to Breakup

The study is expected to take as long as two years, so Valley secession is not likely to go before voters until 2002 at the earliest.

“The dynamic has changed as of this morning,” said Yaroslavsky, who heads the subcommittee that will direct the study. “All of us who are a part of this process have to step back and make this process work. It would be folly for any of us--the city, the county, the state or [the Local Agency Formation Commission]--to do things that would surreptitiously block this.”

Mayor Richard Riordan, who has repeatedly voiced his opposition to even studying a city breakup, said in a terse statement Monday that he will continue to speak out against secession. He declined to elaborate.

“I continue to be opposed to secession,” Riordan said in the statement. “I believe secession will ensure nothing but another big bureaucracy, and it’s in the best interest of the city for all its parts to stay together.”

However, mayoral spokeswoman Jessica Copen said Riordan has not yet taken a position on what is expected to be the next political battle in the secession process--whether the city should help pay for the study, which is expected to cost several million dollars.

Although no formal proposal for funding has been submitted, Valley VOTE leaders have for months been advocating that city, county, state and federal governments share the cost, arguing that it would present an unconstitutional hurdle to the ballot if the private organization were asked to pay the expenses. With strong opposition among many city and county leaders to funding any part of a secession study, many observers expect the issue to wind up in court.

Another issue likely to lead to legal squabbles is whether Los Angeles bureaucrats must comply with what are expected to be voluminous requests for data. Some of the data the agency may request from the city does not exist or is not up to date, said Ron Deaton, the city’s chief legislative analyst.

“They need the current value of city facilities, but we don’t do appraisals every year, so that would not be readily available,” Deaton said. “Someone would have to hire appraisers.”

Many Valley leaders have been supportive of a secession study, saying that their constituents have a right to determine whether they would benefit from “Valley independence.”

“The study is really important,” said Councilman Joel Wachs, who represents parts of the southeast Valley and lives in Studio City. “I signed the petition because I thought it was important to have the facts.”

But many other city politicians, especially those from outside the Valley, have expressed strong concerns about the breakup, fearing it could hurt the remainder of the city.

Councilwoman Rita Walters, who represents much of the central city, said one of the main issues fueling the call for secession--that the Valley is being deprived of its fair share of public services--has no basis in fact.

“I’m disappointed that it has come to this, that they want to pick up their marbles and run,” Walters said. “Their cause is not a just one.”

State Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) said in a recent interview that “the city is what it is because of its diversity and totality. It’s a world class city, and for us to break it up would be a horrible thing.”

Many Latinos Fear Impact

Valley secession has generated stiff opposition from Latino groups that fear it could be an attempt by residents in the relatively whiter Valley to undo some of the political gains made by Latinos in Los Angeles.

“Political representation for Latinos in the San Fernando Valley would be worse if we secede than if we stay a part of Los Angeles. That is just a fact,” said Xavier Flores of the Mexican American Political Assn.’s Valley chapter. “You don’t need a huge study to know that you have more clout when you are 40% of the total population compared to 30%.”

But other Los Angeles Latino leaders say the secession issue is fueled by a lack of faith in government.

“It’s too simple to say this is racial, that this is about certain communities wanting to secede from other communities,” said Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) in a recent interview. “What this shows is that the support is broader than people thought. The motivations are more complex than that.”

To counter claims that support for studying secession did not exist outside wealthier, whiter parts of the Valley, leaders of Valley VOTE released figures earlier this month that it said showed the largely Latino northeast Valley supported secession more strongly than any other area.

Even those cool to Valley secession acknowledged Monday that it had taken a step closer to reality.

“It’s obvious that it’s more likely it will become a reality,” Supervisor Burke said.

She added that she believes the city and state should pay for the funding, a frequent refrain around the Hall of Administration, where supervisors want to see those entities open their wallets first.

“I don’t see where the city has any choice but to be cooperative,” Burke said.

Miguel Santana, a spokesman for Supervisor Gloria Molina, said petitioners should pay for the study themselves, much as do those seeking to incorporate unincorporated areas of the county.

In the 1980s, Santana said, East Los Angeles residents backed off on plans to incorporate because of the daunting cost of such studies. “That standard that has been applied to the unincorporated areas should stand,” he said.

* BACKING CHARTER REFORM: Three leaders of Valley secession movement endorse charter reform ballot measure. B2

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Changing the Map of L.A.

Leaders of the San Fernando Valley secession movement have accomplished a key step. But a breakup still has many hurdles.

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WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

The Local Agency Formation Commission studies economic impacts of a breakup.

The study will take the following steps:

* LAFCO asks the city for data to decide how to divide assets and liabilities.

* Valley VOTE submits its plan; the city of Los Angeles responds.

* LAFCO decides whether to place Valley secession on the ballot

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WHAT MUST THE STUDY SHOW?

For LAFCO to place the issue on the ballot, the study must show that a Valley city would be economically self-sufficient, and that a split can take place without hurting the rest of the city economically.

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HOW MANY VOTES ARE NEEDED?

For secession to take place, the approval of a majority of voters in the Valley, and in the remainder of Los Angeles, is required in an election not likely to take place before 2002.