Riordan Comes Out Swinging in Valley Speech Against Split

Faced with the prospect of his city rent in two, Mayor Richard Riordan came to the hotbed of secession Tuesday, the San Fernando Valley, and vowed to campaign aggressively against the breakup of Los Angeles.

Riordan said the drive for a study of secession, which ended successfully Monday, is “democracy in action,” but he predicted the analysis will find Valley cityhood is not financially feasible.

In his first public appearance since the Valley cityhood petitions qualified Monday, Riordan told 70 Republican activists secession will not benefit any resident, will especially hurt poor people and is wrong.

“I will use every persuasive power I have to show the people of the Valley that secession is not in the best interest of the Valley, and it certainly is not in the best interest of the city as a whole,” Riordan said in Tarzana in a speech to the Valley chapter of the Lincoln Club.

The mayor predicted the secession study will show that Valley cityhood is “not feasible or practical” financially.

“I think that when the study comes out, you will find that the increased taxes which would have to be paid to build up an infrastructure in the Valley would not be worth the price,” Riordan said. “It’s going to cost the people in the Valley more in taxes.”

In an interview later, Valley VOTE Chairman Richard Close disputed Riordan, saying Proposition 13 would require any new taxes to be approved by the voters.

“We call that the big lie, that taxes will go up,” Close said. “My opinion is that the study will show we can increase the level of services and keep taxes the same.”

Riordan, mayor for the last six years, said that is simply not possible.

“Much of the infrastructure of the city is run from downtown and various [other] parts of the city, so they are going to have to duplicate a central police station, fire station, public works, building and safety and on and on,” Riordan said. “I have no estimate of what [the cost] is, but I can assure people it’s going to be astronomical.”

The mayor also said it would send the wrong message for the more affluent Valley to “desert” poorer areas in other parts of Los Angeles.

“If you are putting [helping] poor people as the main goal, I think this is the wrong message and the wrong approach.” he said.

Close said Valley cityhood would not hurt the poor.

“I think he’s wrong, because he’s remembering the Valley of 10, 15 years ago,” Close said. “Today, it is a mixture of the rich, the middle class and the poor. We will take care of the people in need in the Valley.”

Riordan told reporters after his speech that he realizes the Valley has low-income residents.

“There certainly are poor people in the Valley, but there’s disproportionately more poor people in the rest of the city,” Riordan said. “I think people in the Valley and the people throughout L.A. should be concentrating on how do we make the city as a whole better and how do we help poor people get the kind of education they deserve so they can become part of the middle class, and not have this kind of internecine fighting.

“I think it is in everybody’s interest to help poor people become part of our middle class,” Riordan said. “And to separate any part of the city from people who haven’t had the advantages that I have had and others have had is not the right thing to do.”