Agency to Reluctantly Accept Funds

The agency overseeing cityhood studies for the San Fernando Valley reluctantly agreed Wednesday to accept $265,000 in funding from the city of Los Angeles, despite conditions that members said are aimed at hindering their work.

The Local Agency Formation Commission also voted Wednesday to enter final negotiations with a consulting firm to conduct the massive studies to determine the financial impact of any breakup.

On the funding issue, the commission agreed to accept the Los Angeles City Council’s demand that none of the city’s 10% share of the $2.7-million study cost be spent on the drafting of alternative cityhood plans.

“Sometimes we have to do things we don’t 100% want to do, but we do need this money,” Commission Chairman Thomas E. Jackson said.

The vote to accept the funding with the council’s conditions was unanimous, even though Jeff Brain, president of the secession group Valley VOTE, urged the panel to reject the money and allow private fund-raising to cover the city’s share.

“LAFCO must remain independent of the city and not allow any entity to put strings on the study,” Brain told the commission.

Some commissioners said the city’s conditions may lay the groundwork for a lawsuit.

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, a commission member, called the conditions “ridiculous.” He said, “I’m sensing that the city is trying to do everything it can to slow this down, and in the end that’s not going to work.”

Yaroslavsky warned that rejecting the city funding would jeopardize an equal amount of matching funds from the county, putting the entire study at risk.

“I think we ought to just bite the bullet and just proceed,” Yaroslavsky said, calling the council’s action “an obstructionist trap.”

Councilman Hal Bernson, another commission member, said the agency can dedicate the city funds to the collection and analysis of data and use the county funds, and $2.2 million provided by the state, to conduct other elements of the study.

The clause prohibits use of city funds to develop cityhood proposals, but an opinion by the Los Angeles city attorney’s office went further, stating LAFCO may not use city funds to assist secession groups in developing cityhood plans.

The Los Angeles County counsel’s office disagreed, and Bernson said the council did not adopt the city attorney’s broader opinion. Consequently, he said, LAFCO’s only obligation is to comply with the conditions set by the council action, as well as state law.

Bernson said his colleagues at City Hall actually handed Valley VOTE a victory by appearing to throw up roadblocks to the study.

“They had great ammunition given to them why they should secede,” Bernson said.

Also Wednesday, the commission agreed to enter final negotiations for a contract with Public Financial Management Inc. to conduct the financial studies of cityhood.

The Newport Beach firm was ranked No. 1 by a LAFCO subcommittee that reviewed competitive proposals from four companies.

“We are going to look at what are the fiscal impacts of creating new cities and what they need to make them viable, as well as the fiscal impacts on the rest of Los Angeles,” said Keith Curry, an executive with the consulting firm.