Proposal to Require Disclosure Rules on Breakup Revived

The commission reviewing San Fernando Valley secession on Wednesday revived its dormant proposal to require lobbying and fund-raising disclosure by groups on both sides of the breakup campaign.

The Local Agency Formation Commission agreed to convene--for the first time--a committee it named nine months ago to review proposed disclosure rules.

But commissioners could not remember who among them was on the committee. At the suggestion of Commissioner Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, a Los Angeles County supervisor, panel members agreed to call a meeting once they determine the committee makeup.

“I personally believe in disclosure rules,” Burke said.

In the absence of rules, secession groups have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from anonymous donors. Leaders of a new anti-secession group, One Los Angeles, say it also might keep its donors’ names secret.

For more than two years, ethics watchdogs have called on LAFCO to adopt disclosure rules. A state law enacted last year required LAFCO to hold a hearing on whether to do so.

The commission held the hearing March 14. At the end of the hearing, the panel named the committee to review proposed disclosure rules drafted by county lawyers and to recommend whether to adopt them.

The committee members are Burke, Azusa Mayor Cristina Cruz Madrid and James D. DiGiuseppe, a retired San Fernando Valley judge, according to minutes of the March 14 meeting.

The Times reported Monday that the committee had never met, prompting Burke’s suggestion that it finally convene.

Both LAFCO Chairman Henri Pellissier and Executive Officer Larry J. Calemine said they believed that the committee had actually met. But they were referring to a different committee that met once behind closed doors a year ago.

To clear up the confusion, Calemine told commissioners he would give them a definitive list of the disclosure committee members next month.

Separately, he read a statement criticizing The Times for two news stories and an editorial this week about his membership in VALPAC, a political action committee.

The Times revealed that VALPAC had given $6,000 to the Valley VOTE secession group. The disclosure led anti-secessionists to raise conflict-of-interest allegations against Calemine.

Calemine co-founded a Valley secession movement in the 1970s, but says he is now neutral on the issue. He is in charge of drafting a secession ballot proposal that is fair to both the Valley and the rest of Los Angeles.

“For the L.A. Times to suggest that my membership in VALPAC is a conflict of interest without discovering or disclosing all the facts is nothing more than lazy reporting at best and yellow journalism at worst,” Calemine said.

The Times quoted Calemine as saying he was not at the VALPAC meeting where a Valley VOTE leader solicited the money and did not take part in the decision to make the donation. Critics said Calemine should step down from VALPAC, a 21-person committee that raises money for political purposes.

“If I were a member of a chamber of commerce or an environmental group or even a Rotary Club that supports Valley secession, should I resign my membership in those organizations? Of course not,” Calemine said.

“I recuse myself from all VALPAC meetings with Valley VOTE representatives, and I did not donate a single dollar to Valley VOTE,” Calemine said.

Still, anti-secessionists stood by their accusation that Calemine was biased in favor of secession. One Los Angeles renewed its call for LAFCO to remove Calemine from the secession proceedings.

“Assign it to somebody else,” One Los Angeles co-founder Larry Levine said. “The problem is older and bigger than just the VALPAC situation. It’s a pattern of behavior that dates back to the ‘70s, when he founded a secession group.”