Valley VOTE Expects to Cash In on Fashion Trend

A new style wave may be hitting the San Fernando Valley soon that will make a political statement as well as a fashion statement.

Facing possible expenses of up to $500,000 this year to pursue the study of cityhood, Valley VOTE has begun a campaign to sign up 10,000 people for paid memberships in the group.

Those who pay an annual membership fee will, depending on the level paid, be entitled to Valley VOTE jackets, T-shirts, hats and lapel pins.

“I think people will wear them,” said Jeff Brain, the group’s president. “People are proud to be a part of Valley VOTE.”

The embroidered jackets are still in design, but the T-shirts will probably have the name Valley VOTE with a check mark next to it--a reprisal of the old T-shirt used during the petition drive to qualify a cityhood study.

Although a Valley VOTE leader found one of the old T-shirts in a secondhand store recently, the group expects the latest line of secession apparel to be popular.

“I don’t know if it is going to be a fashion statement, but I think it will turn out to be a valuable collectible,” said Richard Close, the group’s chairman.

The memberships start at $20 and go up to sponsorships of $5,000. Everyone gets a Valley VOTE membership card.

So far, three weeks into the membership drive, only about 200 people have signed up.

Although the group has set a goal of signing up 10,000 members by the end of this year, Brain said 5,000 is a more realistic number.

The membership dues will not only help defray expenses involved in the cityhood study, but will also help pay for Valley VOTE’s effort to break up the school district and register 120,000 people to vote during the next two years.

“Funding of a voluntary organization like this is always going to be a problem,” Close said. “If we don’t raise the necessary funds, it could affect what we are doing.”

Even if the membership drive falls short, Valley VOTE may get some additional help from a fund-raising drive by Valley civic leaders Bert Boeckmann and David Fleming. Fleming said the drive has so far raised about $100,000.

BACKING DOWN: Valley VOTE leaders were alarmed last week to get a letter from the head of the group conducting the cityhood study that appeared to ask for detailed information on the number of employees and pieces of equipment needed for a Valley city.

On Wednesday, Brain and Close voiced concerns about the request to the Local Agency Formation Commission, and the panel, which is overseeing the study, agreed that the “vision statement” need not be so detailed at this time.

Instead, the commission and its executive director, Larry Calemine, agreed to put into writing a new request for a vision statement that would be a more general description of the new city’s structure.

“Clearly what was asked for last week was not feasible,” Close said. “Without having all of the revenue and expense data that the city is providing, we can’t make a decision on how many employees the Animal Regulation Department should have.”

Brain said the vision statement, due April 28, will probably call for the new Valley city to initially be a mirror of Los Angeles, with a continuation of existing city departments and services.

“A City Council for the new city could decide what to add and drop,” Brain said.

With one issue resolved Wednesday, another one was raised. The commission agreed to ask the county counsel to come up with a clear definition of “revenue neutrality,” the key test of the Valley cityhood proposal that would demonstrate how secession won’t financially hurt the city of Los Angeles.

Brain complained that depending on which commissioner he asks, he has received different interpretations of what the term means.

Some Valley VOTE leaders think that if they seek only to transfer the Valley’s pro rata share of city services and assets to the new city, the proposal would be revenue neutral.

Calemine said some people have applied the definition when unincorporated areas of the county join a city. In those cases, the county has paid for services it provides that the city would not, such as welfare and medical care.

Calemine said he does not believe that definition applies in the case of a special reorganization such as Valley cityhood.

SUNSHINE AUDIT: For a second time, Assemblyman Scott Wildman (D-Los Angeles) delayed a vote Wednesday of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee on launching an investigation of the city of Los Angeles’ expansion of the Sunshine Canyon Landfill into Granada Hills.

This time, Wildman put off a vote until next month.

Wildman met in Glendale last week with Ron Deaton, L.A.’s chief legislative analyst, who said he had answers for all of the questions that the audit might examine about the city’s role in the dump approval.

Deaton said he suggested that the audit instead look at how the state regulates landfills in general.

Wildman said he is considering whether to expand the Sunshine audit to look at regulatory issues involving other landfills, but denied that he is giving up on a look at the landfill because he lacks the votes.

“We are not backing down,” he said.

ANOTHER TOUGH RACE?: Still licking his wounds after getting beat in the 21st District state Senate campaign, Wildman is thinking of taking on another difficult race.

Wildman, who is being forced by term limits to give up representing Burbank, Glendale and Hollywood in the Assembly, may run next year for the Hollywood-based 13th District seat on the Los Angeles City Council.

Incumbent Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg is a favorite to win election in November to the state Assembly.

“I’m seriously considering it,” Wildman said Wednesday. “It will be a tough campaign, but if I throw my hat in the ring I intend to win it.”

Wildman, who would have to move into the council district to run, could face a formidable field of candidates.

Big names floating around political circles as potential candidates include former 13th District Councilman Mike Woo; former elected charter reform commissioner Bennett Kayser; Eric Garcetti, whose dad is D.A.; and Art Goldberg, Jackie’s brother.

PIERCING QUESTION: It was not the typical line of questioning that Los Angeles City Council members are used to from the City Hall press corps, but Councilman Alex Padilla answered frankly when he was grilled last week by sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders at Guardian Angel School in Pacoima.

The students asked what kind of car the 27-year-old Padilla drives. A city-owned Jeep Cherokee, he answered.

Which radio stations does he listen to? Jazz on KLON, Banda on KBUE and news on KNX and KFWB.

Then a student stood up and asked Padilla a question he has never been asked as a councilman.

Do you have any tattoos or piercings, the student asked.

Padilla, who lives at home with his parents, paused just a second.

“Absolutely not,” Padilla said, “and if I did my dad would kill me.”