Secession Leader Faces Tax Liens, Has Left L.A.

Jeff Brain, president of the group pushing for the San Fernando Valley’s secession from Los Angeles, has failed to pay $61,000 in taxes and related charges to the city, state and federal governments, records show.

And Brain acknowledged Thursday that he has not lived in the Valley since last year.

Federal and state tax collectors have filed liens against Brain, to get more than $57,000 in income taxes, penalties and interest due over the last 11 years.

On June 19, the Los Angeles city attorney’s office won a Small Claims Court judgment against Brain to collect $4,001 in city business taxes that were due last year for his work as a real estate broker.

Brain, 42, conceded that he has fallen behind in his taxes, but said he was “working toward getting it cleared up.”

“I meet all my obligations,” he said. “I never run away from them. But people get in trouble from time to time with their finances.”

Brain has also run into financial troubles with his Sherman Oaks brokerage. Sheriff Lee Baca’s office has tried unsuccessfully to garnishee Brain’s wages to pay a $5,751 judgment won against him by one of his former brokers in a commission dispute.

One of the most outspoken champions of a Valley split from Los Angeles, Brain is president of the secession group Valley VOTE. In an interview Thursday, Brain said he moved last year from Sherman Oaks to Glendale, which has no involvement in secession.

“I’m there temporarily,” Brain said. “My intent is to move back. I did it for personal reasons.”

He declined to elaborate.

Brain’s financial troubles and residency threaten to cast an unflattering light on the secession movement. One of Valley VOTE’s central tenets is that a new Valley city would offer residents lower taxes and more efficient and accountable government.

In political circles, Brain has long been considered a likely candidate for mayor or city council in the proposed Valley city. But Brain, who finished fourth in a 1995 bid for the Los Angeles City Council, said he has no intention of seeking public office again.

Brain’s tax debts have mounted steadily since his brokerage hit hard times in the recession of the early 1990s. The liens cover delinquent income taxes from 1990 through 1997 and in 1999.

Brain said the liens overstate his delinquency. Recent payments, he said, have lowered his tax debt to between $30,000 and $40,000.

Ex-Wife Liable for Some Taxes

Also liable for some of the taxes and charges is Maricel Pabalan-Brain, one of his two ex-wives. She said her former husband was the main breadwinner during their five-year marriage, but devoted most of his time to volunteer work for Valley secession.

“His priorities were this issue that he felt so strongly about--much to his demise financially,” she said. “If it was work or Valley VOTE, Valley VOTE came first. Those were his choices.”

Valley VOTE Chairman Richard Close said he was unaware of Brain’s tax troubles and considered them irrelevant to secession.

“He is not a candidate for office, so his personal issues are personal,” Close said.

Close said Brain’s tax debt reflected “the amount of time and effort that he’s put into civic work in the Valley for at least the last 10 years.”

Brain is the only paid staff member at Valley VOTE. But neither he nor Close would reveal his salary. Brain said that he has agreed to accept “deferred” compensation from Valley VOTE, and that the group owes him more than enough to clear his debts.

Brain said he also has collected pay from the San Fernando Valley Civic Foundation, a secession group led by Galpin Motors magnate Bert Boeckmann and Studio City lawyer David W. Fleming.

Again, Brain declined to reveal the salary.

Fleming said Brain’s pay from the foundation was “certainly not enough to live on,” but he didn’t recall the amount. He also said Brain’s financial troubles had no bearing on secession. “We’ve got him doing chores,” Fleming said. “He just runs errands.”

Brain, though, has in many ways been the public face of the movement. He led the successful drive in 1998 to get more than 200,000 voter signatures for a study of the fiscal viability of a Valley city. And he has spoken for the movement at countless public forums.

To Victor H. Spencer of Chatsworth, Brain’s financial history seems highly relevant to secession. Spencer is the former broker who has spent more than a decade chasing after his share of a $23,000 commission that he says he earned at Brain’s brokerage on the sale of a North Hollywood building in 1990.

“This is the kind of people we’re going to have run our Valley?” Spencer asked. “My God, how can a guy like this, who’s trying to run the Valley, how can he get away with that?”

After Spencer filed a complaint with the state Labor Department, Brain agreed in 1991 to pay him $8,250, records show. But Brain paid only a portion, leading Spencer to get a court judgment against Brain to pay the rest. The Sheriff’s Department tried in 1999 to attach Brain’s wages to collect the remaining $5,751 debt to Spencer, but was unsuccessful, said assistant clerk Keira Spitzer of the Sheriff’s Department.

Brain said he would resume payments if Spencer agrees to retract letters he sent to former Mayor Richard Riordan and others which, according to Brain, gave inaccurate accounts of the dispute.

Troubles Cited as Evidence of Sacrifices

Overall, Brain depicted his financial troubles as a sign of his commitment to the Valley. In explaining his tax debts, he cited not just the economic slump’s impact on his brokerage, but also a host of civic activities. In addition to secession, he recalled that he organized a Ventura Boulevard street festival to raise money for Sherman Oaks schools. He also said he saved the city millions of dollars when he was on a streetscape improvement commission by discovering flaws in a plan to widen the boulevard. The city corrected the plan, he said.

“It’s been to some extent a huge personal sacrifice to do this, and it’s had its consequences on my personal life,” he said. “When you look at all that I’ve done, it far outweighs the $30,000 or so that I owe.”