Latinos Choose Sides in Secession Debate

With polls showing most San Fernando Valley Latinos favoring secession, a coalition of Latino political and community leaders launched a campaign Friday to persuade their community that a breakup will be harmful to those who reside on both sides of the Santa Monica Mountains.

It was a day of dueling news conferences as several pro-secession Latinos held their own event less than 50 feet away from the anti-secession rally as soon as it ended.

More than 50 Latino activists, including Assemblyman Tony Cardenas (D-Panorama City) and Los Angeles City Council President Alex Padilla, rallied at the new Pacoima Branch Library to argue that secession is not needed because Los Angeles is beginning to improve service to the long-neglected Latino areas in the Valley.

The secession opponents also warned that a new Valley city may not provide rent control, affordable housing and other aid programs available in Los Angeles.

“Secession, we believe, will be detrimental to our quality of life in the Latino community,” said Cecelia Barragan, a leader of the Latino Coalition for a United Los Angeles.

She said a large percentage of renters in the Valley are Latino, and they currently enjoy protections of Los Angeles’ rent-control laws, but there is no guarantee a Valley city would adopt the same laws.

Los Angeles has proposed creating a $100-million trust fund for affordable housing, something that would not be guaranteed by a new Valley city, said Barragan, a longtime Pacoima resident who represents a group of faith-based and community-based nonprofits.

Latino Clout

“The power of the Latino community will be diluted if we separate from Los Angeles,” added Maria Calleros of the Valley chapter of the Mexican American Political Assn.

A poll by The Times on July 2 indicated 52% of Valley Latinos supported secession, while a survey this week by KABC-TV Channel 7 also found majority Latino support for the proposed breakup.

Padilla said he was not worried by the polls, believing Latino voters will turn around once they get facts from the anti-secession campaign.

Secessionists Respond

As soon as the anti-breakup rally ended, a dozen pro-secessionists, mostly Latino, called their own news conference to declare that Padilla and Cardenas are out of touch with the wishes of the Latino majority in the Valley.

“The individuals who have the audacity and the arrogance and the self-serving interests to say they speak for all Latinos are wrong,” said David Hernandez, a secession supporter running for mayor of the Valley city. “They do not speak for me.”

Motives Questioned

Carlos Ferreyra, a council candidate in the proposed city, said the poll results make clear that Latino voters recognize the benefits of secession.

The secessionists, who were interrupted by heckling and a car alarm that repeatedly sounded, said Padilla and Cardenas are opposing secession out of their own self-interest because they plan to seek higher office in Los Angeles.

Cardenas is running for Los Angeles City Council because he is being forced out of the Assembly by term limits, and Ferreyra said Padilla wants to be mayor of Los Angeles.

Ferreyra said those ambitions also explain some noticeable absences from the anti-secession rally.

Originally, the organizers said the rally would show the unity of all the major Latino elected officials in the Valley, and said state Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar) and San Fernando Mayor Cindy Montanez would be at the event, but neither appeared.

Alarcon said he tried to attend but had to chair a hearing on the threat of a dockworker strike.

Organizers said Montanez would hold a separate news conference later.

However, others noted that Alarcon has been at odds with Cardenas and Padilla ever since Padilla ran for his old council seat against a candidate that Alarcon backed in 1999.

And, with Alarcon’s support, Montanez recently defeated the candidate handpicked by Cardenas and Padilla for Cardenas’ Assembly seat in the Democratic primary.

Political Futures

Ferreyra said he wasn’t surprised that the promised appearance of Padilla, Cardenas, Alarcon and Montanez did not materialize, adding that he believes it comes down to Alarcon and Padilla both wanting to be mayor of Los Angeles.

“They are concerned about their careers and their political future,” Ferreyra said.

Alarcon denied there is a rift in the anti-secession campaign, saying he is not even considering a run for mayor, and he has been in communication with Padilla and Cardenas on coordinating their fight against a breakup. Montanez did not return calls for comment.

Valley Candidates

Meanwhile, the county registrar-recorder said Friday that of the 121 candidates for Valley city office who filed petitions on time, 10 have been disqualified for lack of sufficient signatures.

The screening process cut the number of candidates for mayor of the Valley from 12 to 10, with Allen Bradford Kennamer and Wayne Crochet scratched from the list of those making the ballot.