Valley Cityhood Leader Urges Ouster of Padilla

The head of the San Fernando Valley cityhood group said Friday that Los Angeles City Council President Alex Padilla should be ousted because of his removal of Councilman Hal Bernson from a panel studying secession.

Valley VOTE President Jeff Brain, who now lives in Glendale, sent an e-mail to dozens of the group’s supporters asking whether they would support such a campaign.

Escalating a dispute with Padilla, Brain also suggested to the group’s supporters that they have the option of calling council members and urging them to vote Padilla out of the council presidency. Brain said he was speaking for himself, and not the Valley VOTE group.

“Every resident of the Valley has a right to feel betrayed by Alex Padilla’s actions,” Brain wrote.

Padilla’s camp dismissed Brain’s maneuver.

“To have this recall generated by people outside the district shows how disingenuous this recall effort is,” said David Gerswhin, a spokesman for the council president.

Brain said Friday he has received more than 100 responses so far. He said he plans to put supporters of a recall in touch with other like-minded residents of Padilla’s northeast Valley district.

Brain said some northeast Valley residents, whom he refused to name, had approached him to say they would be open to launching a recall campaign. To qualify a recall measure for the ballot, residents of Padilla’s 7th Council District would have to collect about 10,200 signatures in a 120-day period, Brain said in his e-mail.

“Would you be willing to contribute to a recall organization if one was formed by northeast Valley residents?” Brain asked in the e-mail.

Padilla, of Pacoima, raised the ire of Valley secessionists by replacing Bernson, who had supported Valley cityhood in the past, with Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, an opponent of the breakup, on the Local Agency Formation Commission, which is studying the feasibility of Valley and harbor cityhood.