Secessionists Cite Mixed Feelings on Councils

With its promise of a responsive little soviet in every corner of Los Angeles, the neighborhood council concept wasn’t just meant to devolve power to the people. It was also meant to cool secession fever in the San Fernando Valley.

So what are Valley secessionists doing now that it’s time to form the councils?

Some secession advocates, such as Richard Close, are simply refusing to participate in the formation process. Others are busy writing up their local bylaws, figuring the councils will be useful in setting up a new Valley city.

Then there are residents such as Mary Edwards of Granada Hills, who is keeping an open mind on secession in case the councils founder.

“If this doesn’t work . . .” Edwards said with a weary chuckle after a tedious bylaws meeting for her council. “Well, I get on the phone and I call Richard Close!”

But Close, chairman of Valley VOTE, and other secession leaders differ on the question of getting involved in the councils.

“No. 1 is that these councils have no authority,” said Close, who is also president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. He said several associations see the council program as a mechanism to steal some of their power. “I don’t think it’s a productive use of my time . . .”

With the Sherman Oaks association opting out of the process, Department of Neighborhood Empowerment officials are concerned about the legitimacy of the council to be formed there.

“Does it pose a problem? Absolutely,” said Michelle Banks-Ordone, assistant general manager for the department, which oversees the councils.

Still, the Sherman Oaks Chamber of Commerce is forging ahead with plans for a Sherman Oaks council. Chamber President Tami Ginsburg said homeowners would eventually join the effort.

“I’m of the opinion, ‘Build it and they will come,’ ” she said.

Meanwhile, another Valley VOTE board member, J. Richard Leyner, serves on an Encino neighborhood council that has been in operation for two years without the city’s official stamp.

“There’s a group of people who want to meet and do things together for their neighborhood--from that standpoint they’re wonderful,” said Leyner, chairman of the Valley’s United Chambers of Commerce.

“If they don’t work we’re going to secede,” he added.

Valley VOTE President Jeff Brain said the organization hasn’t taken an official position on whether residents should take part in council-building, a process that otherwise is well underway across the Valley. The first deadline for city certification of the councils is in October.

“We don’t get involved in any issue but Valley cityhood,” Brain said. “Some people like [the councils] and some people don’t . . . But I believe they were [created] mostly to pacify Valley residents.”

Because the City Charter mandates that every cranny of Los Angeles be represented by a neighborhood council, some ardent secessionists, including Sunland resident Elaine Brown, find themselves participating in council-building with all of the enthusiasm of a hostage at gunpoint.

“I had no choice!” said Brown, who, as director of the Sunland-Tujunga Chamber of Commerce, helped form that area’s council.

Gordon Murley, president of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization, said his group is helping to form a council even though he’s “highly inclined to say the city of L.A. doesn’t deserve to exist anymore.”

Banks-Ordone said Mayor James Hahn chose to unveil his council-strengthening plan Aug. 3 in the Valley to combat such feelings. Among other things, it would ensure the panels have a say on the city budget and all issues affecting their areas through “community impact statements,” which the City Council would review.

Polly Ward, a Valley VOTE board member and vice president of the Studio City Residents’ Assn., predicted the councils will prove particularly successful in the Valley because of its strong resident and business groups. But she warned there are more pressing matters for City Hall to worry about when it comes to heading off secession.

“I think if the council does another bonehead move like [the planned expansion of Granada Hills landfill] Sunshine Canyon, they could lose the Valley,” Ward said. “What happens with Van Nuys and Burbank airports, or the MTA bus route across the central Valley--those are the kinds of issues that could be win or lose for secession.”