Hollywood Secession Study OKd

The movement for Hollywood secession from Los Angeles passed a significant hurdle Monday when county officials announced that petitions have triggered a formal study about possible cityhood for the movie industry cradle now pulling itself out of decay.

With enough signatures ruled valid, Hollywood independence activists will join their counterparts in the San Fernando Valley and Harbor area who previously succeeded in petitioning for government studies of breaking away from Los Angeles.

If those analyses determine that the cityhood proposals will not cause financial harm to both the new cities and what is left of Los Angeles, voters may be asked in November 2002 to decide whether to divide the metropolis into four cities. In Hollywood’s case, that vote could be taken just as citizens start to see the fruits or failures of redevelopment efforts in once sleazy parts of the district.

“I am elated. This is an exciting day for Hollywood,” said Gene La Pietra, chairman of the secession group Hollywood Voters Organized Toward Empowerment (VOTE). “The revolution is on. Hollywood is not just the city of the stars. It’s the city of the people, too.”

Hollywood VOTE was notified Monday by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office that at least 19,867 of the 45,294 signatures the group turned in calling for a study were valid signatures of registered voters in Hollywood, an amount satisfying the requirement that the petitions equal 25% of the registered voters.

The proposed Hollywood city would be about 4 square miles in size and is home to 206,000 people. Besides the famous Hollywood Boulevard entertainment district, it would include affluent neighborhoods in the hills and poorer and crowded tracts in the flatlands that are home to recent immigrants.

Opposition to Hollywood independence remains fierce.

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, who has been the most vocal opponent of breaking up Los Angeles, said through Deputy Mayor Ben Austin on Monday that the Hollywood cityhood proposal is a bad idea.

“Part of the strength of L.A. is our rich cultural, ethnic and geographic diversity,” Austin said. “Hollywood is a central element of that. . . . Nobody wins in a divorce.”

As the nation’s second-largest city, Los Angeles wields political influence far beyond what it would if broken into pieces, Riordan and others argue. In addition, if various sections secede, each would need to replicate--or contract for--the full range of municipal services, from police to water and sewer.

That, Riordan says, would result in higher taxes or reduced services for the new cities. That would hurt the poor and minorities most of all, he says.

Council President John Ferraro, whose district includes part of Hollywood, said that Los Angeles’ redevelopment efforts have helped mend Hollywood and that creating a new city is not in the community’s best interests.

“In recent years, Hollywood has been making quite a comeback,” Ferraro said. “I believe the secession effort will mean the diversion of considerable time, energy and resources toward a cause that is not a good solution.”

Hollywood’s proposed city boundaries would be the Hollywood Freeway and the Los Angeles River on the north; Hoover Street, Myra Avenue and Griffith Park on the east; West Hollywood and Laurel Canyon Boulevard on the west; and 3rd Street, Beverly Boulevard and Clinton Street on the south.

Word that Hollywood secessionists had won a cityhood study was welcomed Monday by leaders of the movement for San Fernando Valley independence, who said it would give momentum and credibility to their drive to break up Los Angeles.

“I consider it a major boost to our effort,” said Jeff Brain, president of Valley VOTE. “It legitimizes our effort.”

Richard Close, chairman of the Valley secession group, said city officials may have had an easier time dismissing cityhood proposals from the Harbor area, which is distant from City Hall, and the Valley, where such proposals have been floating for years.

“Psychologically, this might be a wake-up call for City Hall,” Close said. “To many people, Hollywood epitomizes Los Angeles.”

Having Hollywood on the same ballot as cityhood proposals for the Valley and Harbor area also could have political implications, making it easier to win the required majority citywide vote that is required in addition to the majority vote in each of the proposed cities, secessionists say.

Fares Wehbe, president of Hollywood VOTE, said the cityhood petition drive, begun last February, is seeking a smaller, more responsive government.

Hollywood secessionists said the task of qualifying the petitions and triggering the study was tough, and they had some doubts at times that they would succeed.

“It is difficult to get the signature of 25% of the voters,” Wehbe said. “I walked every square inch of the area.”

City Council members in a new Hollywood city would represent far fewer people than the average 230,000 represented by each of the 15 Los Angeles City Council members.

Los Angeles County’s Local Agency Formation Commission will expand its study of Valley and Harbor area cityhood to examine whether a Hollywood city would be “revenue neutral” for the new city and the remainder of Los Angeles, said Larry Calemine, LAFCO’s executive director.

Calemine said he is confident that the three cityhood studies can be completed in time for a decision on whether to place the proposals on the November 2002 ballot.

“It is a big task and it will require time and effort, but it will get done,” Calemine said.

The city of Los Angeles has turned over to LAFCO dozens of boxes of data, including inventories of every city vehicle, building and employee, to help in a determination of how to divide assets as part of the municipal divorce.

Calemine said his agency will ask Los Angeles officials to provide additional information to indicate which of the assets might eventually be allocated to the proposed city in Hollywood.

LAFCO will determine how much more money to ask for from the city, county and state to pay for the Hollywood cityhood study. The three government jurisdictions have allocated $2.68 million to pay for the Valley and Harbor studies.

If voters approve the three cityhood proposals, it would reduce the population of Los Angeles by half. Los Angeles now has 3.5 million residents, making it larger than the populations of 25 states.

After Hollywood secessionists turned in their first batch of signatures in August, county election officials determined that they were 2,623 signatures short of having sufficient valid signatures.

That gave Hollywood VOTE two more weeks, during which they collected 7,200 more signatures.

The county determined that 3,496 of the additional signatures were not valid, but that 2,623 were valid before they stopped counting, said Michael Petrucello, assistant registrar-recorder.

Hollywood VOTE leaders said they have 90 days to draft a preliminary vision statement for the new city, detailing how police and fire services will be provided, for instance.

That statement will be used by LAFCO in determining if that new government would financially harm Hollywood residents or the remaining residents of Los Angeles.

Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, who also represents the area, said she opposes cityhood for Hollywood, but supports the study and the right of people to vote on it.

“I think it probably won’t come to much, because people will realize it will cost a lot,” she said.

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce has been neutral on cityhood and wants to see the results of the study before taking a position, said Leron Gubler, the chamber’s president and chief executive officer.

“There are a lot of questions about cityhood that have to be answered,” he said, adding that businesses want to know how secession would affect taxes.

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Times staff writer Jim Newton contributed to this story.