Bernson Pulled From Secession Panel

In a blow to the San Fernando Valley secession movement, Los Angeles City Council President Alex Padilla bounced a councilman who has championed Valley cityhood from the commission that will decide whether to put the proposal before voters.

Padilla, a secession opponent, removed Councilman Hal Bernson of Granada Hills from a voting position on the Local Agency Formation Commission that is studying Valley and harbor area secession proposals.

Bernson, a former Valley secession advocate who as a LAFCO panelist has said he is “neutral,” is still widely seen as sympathetic to the push for a referendum.

To replace Bernson, Padilla named Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, a leading opponent of breaking up the city.

It’s far from certain that Miscikowski--one of nine commissioners who will vote on whether to put secession on the ballot--will even attempt, much less succeed, in blocking a referendum.

But she will no doubt offer a sharp contrast to Bernson, who had been a vocal advocate of speeding up the process to get secession on the November 2002 ballot.

Moreover, the LAFCO board is instrumental in helping to shape the overall debate on secession, directing staff research on the issue and helping form any proposal that may appear on the ballot. As a result, the board membership is a sensitive issue, and Miscikowski’s appointment drew quick fire from secession advocates.

Bernson attacked Padilla for replacing him with Miscikowski.

“She has been the most outspoken opponent of secession on the council,” Bernson said. “She only wants to go there to delay and disrupt the process. That’s not fair to the people of the San Fernando Valley.”

Miscikowski, a Westside resident, said she would support putting secession on the November 2002 ballot as long as the city’s many questions about financial feasibility are answered.

“Although I have indicated I would oppose secession as a voter, I do believe the people have a right to vote on it,” she said.

Putting the cityhood proposals on the ballot before financial feasibility is definitively determined would make the question for voters “murky,” Miscikowski said.

Her appointment by Padilla raised new questions about the impartiality of the panel.

While secession advocates accused Padilla of trying to stack the board against secession, former Mayor Richard Riordan has called LAFCO a “very prejudiced” group of secession supporters with “axes to grind.”

LAFCO Executive Officer Larry J. Calemine, like Bernson, is a former Valley secession advocate who is now officially neutral. He and the board must rely on his recommendations when it decides whether to place a referendum on the ballot.

And Richard Close, an alternate member of the board, is the chairman of Valley VOTE, the group that has applied to put Valley secession on the ballot.

Alternate members are not allowed to vote, but they receive all of the panel’s confidential briefing papers and legal opinions and they participate in all of its deliberations.

Encino attorney Rob Glushon, a board member of Valley VOTE, said he thinks Miscikowski will be fair, and he noted that most LAFCO board members appear sympathetic to putting the issue to the voters.

“I’m not sure any one vote would be determinative,” Glushon said.

LAFCO Chairman Henri Pellissier also said that one appointment will not result in a major shift in the panel.

“I really don’t see where the change of one person will have any impact on the outcome,” said Pellissier.

Close criticized Padilla for replacing Bernson with Miscikowski.

“This is an effort to prevent the people from being able to vote on this issue,” Close said. “All her actions have been to try to slow down the process, to stop the process.”

Bernson, who was part of a 1970s effort to have the Valley break from Los Angeles, challenged Padilla’s authority to replace him.

He also called for an ethics investigation into whether Padilla’s action was a quid pro quo in exchange for Miscikowski’s support for his run for the council presidency.

Bernson, who has served on LAFCO for 20 years, would become an alternate on the panel under the change announced by Padilla.

The council president denied he was trying to sabotage secession.

“I wouldn’t see it as an anti-secession move, especially because Miscikowski is known as a consensus builder and being very moderate,” Padilla said.

Bernson said that city law may require council confirmation of Padilla’s action.

As council president, Padilla is confident he has the authority to make the change, having checked with the city attorney’s office beforehand, said David Gershwin, a Padilla spokesman.

“There is no question it is within the power of the council president to make the appointment,” Gershwin said.

Last month, Bernson voted in the minority for Ruth Galanter to become City Council president. After being elected president, Padilla removed Bernson as chairman of the council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee.

Padilla also reappointed Miscikowski to chair a separate council committee monitoring secession studies, naming council members Dennis Zine, Janice Hahn, Nate Holden and Ed Reyes to fill out that panel.