Secession Leaders to Give Support to Charter Reform

Mayor Richard Riordan’s decision to support city funding for a San Fernando Valley secession study will draw support for his charter reform plan, Valley leaders said Friday.

Secession leaders have tentatively agreed to a request by Riordan to lend their names in support of the charter reform proposal on the June 8 city ballot.

Their support was won during a meeting Thursday at which Riordan agreed to help fund a study of the effects of a municipal breakup, said Richard Close, chairman of the secession group Valley VOTE.

The study is the next step in the secession effort, which began with the collection of signatures from a quarter of the registered voters in the Valley.

Close discounted any deal with Riordan, saying most Valley VOTE leaders had already publicly supported the charter reform measure.

Jessica Copen, a Riordan spokeswoman, said, “The mayor is not providing funds for the secession study in exchange for anything.”

But by pledging some city funding for the secession study, Close said, Riordan is disarming a potentially explosive issue for Valley voters.

“I think he decided to make friends with the Valley on this issue so people will vote for charter reform on June 8,” Close said. “If he is seen as fighting cityhood, Valley voters might get back at him by voting against charter reform.”

Encino attorney Rob Glushon, who is a member of the city’s elected charter reform commission, said the mayor had been warned that his hard-line stand on the funding issue could hurt charter reform.

“There are people in the Valley who have a view that the mayor, up to this point, has taken an adversarial approach to the cityhood study,” Glushon said. “There was some concern people might react negatively to that by voting against the new charter the mayor is pushing.”