Panel OKs Bill on New Council if Valley Secedes

A new San Fernando Valley city severed from Los Angeles would get at least 12 City Council members and a mayor elected directly by the voters under a bill approved Wednesday by a state Senate committee.

The measure would set up council districts with no more than 100,000 residents--less than half the size of the current districts in Los Angeles--to achieve a key goal of secession: greater local control over government.

The bill, sponsored by state Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks), would replace an obscure provision of state law that would otherwise leave the new Valley city with council districts slightly larger than those in Los Angeles.

“We don’t want to see local representation watered down,” Hertzberg said.

Secession supporters cast the bill’s 7-0 approval by the Senate Local Government Committee as a significant victory, saying it will make Valley independence more attractive to voters.

Richard Close, the chairman of the Valley VOTE secession group, said Valley residents “will probably bump into the council member at the local grocery store or gas station.”

“When was the last time a local resident was able to talk to their council representative in Los Angeles?” he said. “It’s impossible. The districts are too big.”

Each of the 15 council members in Los Angeles represents about 235,000 residents. Four districts are wholly in the Valley, and three others are partly in the Valley.

Hertzberg’s bill would apply only to new cities with more than 1 million residents. As a practical matter, that means just the San Fernando Valley, which has a population of 1.3 million.

A proposal by Valley VOTE to create the city is pending before the Local Agency Formation Commission for Los Angeles County. If the agency finds that breaking Los Angeles apart would not harm residents on either side of the Santa Monica Mountains, it will put the proposal before voters, possibly as soon as November 2002.

But under current law, the Valley, like any other new city, would get only five council members, who would choose a mayor from among themselves. Each council member would represent about 260,000 residents.

Under Hertzberg’s bill, the Local Agency Formation Commission would create an even number of council districts--at least 12 of them, each representing no more than 100,000 residents. The agency would draw the boundaries. The mayor, elected citywide, would also be a voting member of the council.

The Valley’s first election would take place at the same time as the referendum on secession. The new city would be California’s second most populous after what’s left of Los Angeles. It would also be the nation’s sixth-largest city, just ahead of San Diego.

Hertzberg laughed when asked whether he would be interested in running for mayor of the new city.

“Not at this time,” he said.

Political strategists said the new mayoralty would offer an enticing base for ambitious politicians.

“You’re talking about an enormously powerful position,” said campaign consultant Larry Levine of Sherman Oaks.