Pressure Rises on LAFCO Exec Over Role in Secession

Opponents of San Fernando Valley secession on Monday raised new conflict-of-interest charges against the official drafting a referendum on the proposal to break apart Los Angeles.

But others supported the official, Larry J. Calemine, who was a leader of an aborted Valley secession movement in the 1970s but says he is neutral now.

As executive officer of the Local Agency Formation Commission, Calemine plays the role of a divorce judge, balancing the needs of the Valley and the rest of Los Angeles as he crafts a breakup plan to put before voters.

Calls for his removal were sparked by disclosure in The Times on Monday that Calemine is a member of VALPAC, a political action committee that gave $6,000 to the Valley VOTE secession group in 1999.

“It’s an obvious conflict of interest, and Calemine should resign without any question,” said Arthur Hirshberg, a co-founder of the One Los Angeles anti-secession group. “It’s easy for him to say he’s neutral. I don’t buy it, and I’m very disturbed by him being there.”

Calemine has said he did not take part in the decision by VALPAC to make the donation and that none of the money came from him.

“People are free to say whatever they want to say,” Calemine said Monday. “I have nothing to say on the subject.”

LAFCO Chairman Henri Pellissier said there was no reason to remove Calemine.

“This is nothing more than a great smoke screen from people who want to make sure that secession never gets to the ballot,” Pellissier said. “They are trying to delay it any way they can, and they’re picking on him.”

Valley VOTE Chairman Richard Close, an alternate LAFCO commissioner, declined to comment on whether Calemine had a conflict of interest, but defended him nonetheless.

“He’s done a great job,” Close said.

But Azusa Mayor Cristina Cruz Madrid, another alternate LAFCO commissioner, said Calemine’s membership in a group that gave money to Valley VOTE was “very disturbing”--whether he knew about the donation or not. She called on Calemine to cut his ties to VALPAC.

“I had hoped--and I think all the LAFCO commissioners had hoped--that he would refrain from activity that embarrasses LAFCO or raises questions about the integrity of these proceedings,” she said. “All of us need to be like Caesar’s wife--above question.”

“It’s beginning to smell a little too bad,” said One Los Angeles co-founder Larry Levine. “LAFCO owes it to the public to remove even the perception of a conflict or lack of integrity in the process by removing Calemine from his role on the Valley secession question.”

A spokeswoman for Mayor James K. Hahn said that Calemine seemed to have a conflict of interest.

“It might be something that the LAFCO board should take a look at,” she said.

Hahn wants his anti-secession committee, L.A. United, to disclose its donations “to avoid appearances of conflicts of interest like Mr. Calemine’s,” she said.

Members of VALPAC, a group of Valley developers and businesspeople, said their donation to Valley VOTE did not signal support for breaking apart Los Angeles, but for studying secession and putting it to a vote.

Secession Opponents Call for Disclosure

“Most of us are reserving judgment until we see what the facts are,” said VALPAC member George Moss, an Encino developer.

City Council President Alex Padilla said, “There may be somebody out there who better represents neutrality” than Calemine. But Padilla did not call for his removal. Padilla also urged LAFCO to adopt rules requiring disclosure of fund-raising, spending and lobbying by secession groups.

In the absence of rules, Valley VOTE has kept most of its donations anonymous. On the anti-secession side, Levine has said One Los Angeles would keep its donors secret too. But other One Los Angeles leaders called for disclosure.

“We have a long history of disclosure in politics, and I see no reason at all why we shouldn’t have disclosure here,” Hirshberg said.

One Los Angeles member Mimi Robbins said, “Philosophically, I always err toward disclosure.”

Georgia Mercer, another One Los Angeles co-founder, was more reticent in light of Valley VOTE’s refusal to name its donors.

“I’ve always been an advocate for public disclosure, but you’ve got to play by the same rules,” she said. “It’s very naive to think you’re going to have a totally open, gracious setup when your opponents are not.”