Bill Signed on Secession Disclosures

Gov. Gray Davis signed into law Wednesday a measure providing for the disclosure of contributors and spending by groups formed to push for secession studies.

Davis also approved a bill guaranteeing that a new city in the San Fernando Valley would have at least 12 city council members if a political breakaway takes place.

Both bills were written by Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) to address issues that sparked heated debate as the Valley and other areas of Los Angeles have proposed secession.

“Disclosure is important,” Hertzberg said Wednesday. “It is always in the public interest to understand what forces are behind whatever political efforts are out there.”

The bill empowers the Local Agency Formation Commission in each California county to force disclosure of the identity of financial backers of groups such as Valley VOTE, which acknowledged spending more than $500,000 to push Valley secession while refusing to reveal its donors or expenditures.

The biggest financial backer in 1998 turned out to be the Los Angeles Daily News, which has campaigned for secession.

Movements to secede from the city of Los Angeles also are underway in the Harbor and Hollywood areas.

The disclosure bill requires the commission in each county to hold a hearing in 2001 to discuss and deliberate on new rules involving contributions, expenses and lobbying activity, but does not require their adoption.

For that reason, the law is seen as a “halfway measure” by Robert Stern, head of the Center for Governmental Studies and an author of some of the state’s campaign reform laws.

“This is a step, but it’s too bad it did not require disclosure,” Stern said. “The public should know who is behind these secession movements.”

Hertzberg said the law does not mandate disclosure but rather leaves the decision to local authorities.

Any disclosure requirements adopted next year would not apply to groups such as Valley VOTE and Harbor VOTE, which already have filed secession applications. The bill takes effect Jan. 1.

“We didn’t want to change the rules in the middle of the process,” Hertzberg said.

But if LAFCO puts the Valley and Harbor cityhood proposals on the ballot in 2002, the state Political Reform Act would require disclosure by the groups of contributions and expenditures.

LAFCO members in Los Angeles County said they would seriously consider adopting some form of disclosure requirement, although there is uncertainty about how tough the rules will be.

Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson said the public should know who is supporting an initiative on secession but said he is not sure whether there is a compelling need to know who is financing the early stages of an application for a cityhood study.

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Valley VOTE Chairman Richard Close, an alternate on LAFCO, also had some concerns about how much would be disclosed for fear that contributors might face retaliation from City Hall opponents of secession.

“We don’t want to have a chilling effect on people contributing,” Close said. “If they are a city commissioner, the mayor or City Council may remove them from the commission.”

But LeeAnn Pelham, deputy director of the Los Angeles Ethics Commission, said the public has a right to know who is bankrolling an effort to break up the city.

“Disclosure is important in terms of letting the public know what kinds of interests are out there trying to influence the process,” she said.

Pelham had asked LAFCO last year to require disclosure of Valley VOTE contributors, but the panel declined, saying it did not have the authority under existing state law.

The disclosure provision is part of a larger bill providing an overhaul of local agency formation commissions, which exist in each county to oversee applications for setting municipal boundaries. They will be granted greater power to consider the effect of growth and control urban sprawl when creating new cities and setting new municipal boundaries.

“LAFCOs were created to help rein in urban sprawl,” Hertzberg said. “This bill gives them much better tools to do the job.”

The legislation gives the commissions the power to consider the availability of water, for instance, in deciding whether to create new cities.

The governor also signed Hertzberg’s AB 185, which would allow any new Valley city to have at least 12 city council members, based on population, in addition to a mayor elected citywide. Based on the Valley’s growing population, it would probably start with 14 council members.

The law states that any new city with more than 1 million in population must create council districts that represent no more than 100,000 people. Currently, each of the 15 council members in Los Angeles represents 230,000 people.

Without the new bill, a Valley city would have had to start off with a five-member council.

“With this bill on the books, better local representation will be part of the equation if secession proceeds,” Hertzberg said. “I am glad we were able to give this protection to Valley residents--who want more local representation--not less.”