Corona Mulls a Declaration of Independence

Get this: The city of Corona wants to form its own county. Not break away with some other cities and incorporate a new county, but start one by itself, all 36 square miles of it.

Corona isn’t one of Southern California’s hot spots. When Larry Calemine, executive officer of the Los Angeles Local Agency Formation Commission, a man who makes his living knowing about local governments, was told about the city’s plan, he said, “Corona’s in Orange County.” That was after he stopped laughing. Close, Larry. It’s in western Riverside County, just across the Orange County line.

But at least one Corona councilman wanted to make Calemine’s misperception become reality. Riverside County Supervisor John Tavaglione, who represents Corona, said “a very reliable and important individual” told him a Corona city councilman had made inquiries about joining Orange County. “When I checked further, someone confirmed it.”

Though some people think Corona is closer in atmosphere to Orange County than Riverside County, a don’t-tread-on-me independence movement seems to have won out on the council.

But the proposal that’s gained the most ground is to become a county unto itself.

There’s one other city in the state that also is a county: San Francisco. The two are not similar.

Corona Mayor Darrell Talbert, 36, said that when he brought up the secession idea in a committee meeting a few months ago, “it was met with a resounding set of laughs” from his staff. “I’m young and I come up with off-the-wall things.”

He was as serious as the traffic on the Riverside Freeway that bisects the city. The all-Republican council and the city manager allocated $21,000 this week for a study to determine if secession is feasible.

“It’s laughable,” said Tavaglione. “It’s almost to the point where you get the feeling they want to build a wall around their city and charge admission or have a pass to get into the city.”

Serious secession movements have sprung up in the San Fernando Valley and San Pedro, but even if successful, those communities would remain in Los Angeles County.

It’s not unusual for unincorporated areas such as West Hollywood or Aliso Viejo in south Orange County to gain cityhood instead of remaining under county jurisdiction. Or for entire regions to break away and form their own county. Orange County was part of L.A. County until 1889. Corona’s home, Riverside County, was carved out of San Bernardino and San Diego counties in 1893. No new California county has been formed since 1907, when Imperial County also was separated from San Diego County.

Since the Legislature liberalized the law in 1974, there have been eight efforts to form new counties. All have failed.

No city has ever gone off by itself.

Corona has seen explosive growth in the last three decades, with the population jumping 64%, to 133,000, in the last decade.

Corona officials say they are frustrated that the city receives less in services from the county than its residents pay in local taxes. They complain that large numbers of outsiders are using their parks for soccer leagues and crowding their libraries, and that development regulations aren’t as strict in county areas as they are in Corona.

“That’s a problem for almost every incorporated city,” said Max Neiman, a political scientist at UC Riverside. “One solution is, if it’s so good to be unincorporated, Corona should disestablish itself as a city.”

Forming a county is a complicated process and is almost impossible politically, said Peter Detwiler, a staff consultant to the state Senate Local Government Committee.

First, the petition to form a county must be signed by 25% of the registered voters there. If the proposed county has less than 5% of the existing county’s population, then 10% of the voters in the rest of the county must also sign a petition.

For the new county to be established, more than half the voters in both the proposed county and the existing county must approve.

Even if the county is approved, then the new government must set up services such as jails, probation offices, indigent care and child protective services. “To explore taking on those additional responsibilities at such a huge cost is ludicrous,” Supervisor Tavaglione said.

Talbert said he has received calls from several other Riverside County cities he would not name. He expects them to wage their own fights to break away.

The last four attempts to form counties all occurred in rural areas of the state, places far different from Corona, which is part of the Southern California sprawl. “Those places weren’t too happy with the 20th century,” Detwiler said.