Candidates Favor a Valley Police Force

Most of the candidates for mayor of the proposed San Fernando Valley city envision a new municipality with its own police force, tough rent-control laws, a light-rail line and lower taxes that would attract more businesses.

Support is also broad among the 10 candidates for tighter noise restrictions on Van Nuys Airport, continuation of Los Angeles’ “living wage” ordinance and smaller salaries for the new city’s elected officials than those proposed by secessionists.

In interviews, the mayoral contenders laid out their broad plans for a city that would be carved off from Los Angeles if a majority of voters in the Valley and citywide approve the secession measure on the Nov. 5 ballot. The candidates are running in that election and would take office only if secession wins.

A Valley city would begin operation July 1, 2003. During a one-year transition, Los Angeles would provide all services to the new city. After that, the Valley mayor and a 14-member city council would have the option of contracting with Los Angeles or the county for key services or providing them on their own.

“We essentially have a clean slate,” said mayoral candidate Bruce Boyer, who manages an alarm company.

With few exceptions, the candidates say they favor as complete a break from Los Angeles as practical. That would include ending reliance on the Los Angeles Police Department after the Valley is able to field its own police force--largely staffed with LAPD officers transferred to the new city.

“That way we can control our own destiny,” said candidate Mel Wilson, a Realtor. He and others said it may take a couple of years for a Valley city to wean itself from the LAPD.

Mayoral hopeful Leonard Shapiro, a journalist, said he wants a Valley police department because “I don’t believe the LAPD can ever reform itself. ... I think the LAPD is beyond repair.”

Other candidates supporting a Valley police department include insurance adjuster David Hernandez Jr., auditor Henry Divina, activist Greg Roberts and Realtor Jim Summers.

To make sure a Valley department would be the best option, most candidates say they would ask the LAPD and county Sheriff’s Department to submit proposals for policing the Valley under a contract arrangement.

State Assemblyman Keith Richman (R-Northridge), whom some see as the front-runner in the race, said he would consider contracting with the LAPD but not with the Sheriff’s Department, which is facing budget problems.

Richman also said the LAPD would have to significantly boost its Valley deployment of officers or he would push for the creation of a Valley force.

The Los Angeles Fire Department fares better with the candidates.

Richman, Wilson and others said they would support contracting with the Fire Department at least for the near future. They said the department has done a good job, although it is short-staffed.

“We need more paramedics,” said Wilson, a former city fire commissioner.

Boyer is the only candidate who says the Valley city should not adopt Los Angeles’ rent-control laws.

“Rent control destroys housing. It violates property owners’ rights and it needs to be phased out,” Boyer said.

Some candidates, including union activist Benny Bernal, said the rent controls should be made stronger.

On the living wage, only Boyer and Richman say they are hesitant to adopt the Los Angeles law, which applies to city contractors. The wage is $7.99 an hour for workers who receive benefits, $9.24 for those who don’t.

A former member of the city redevelopment board, Richman said the wage law is “a detriment to development.”

All of the candidates would either reduce or eliminate the city’s tax on business receipts. Many say cities like Burbank and Glendale are in a better position to attract business because they do not charge such a tax.

“Right now we are not competitive with our neighbors,” said Wilson, who would cut the tax immediately by 10% to 15%, then reduce it further as the new city got on its feet financially.

Richman said he would cut the tax in half at first, with the goal of eventually eliminating it. Candidate Marc Strassman, an Internet consultant, would phase out the tax with annual cuts of 20%, while Boyer and Shapiro would kill the tax outright.

Meanwhile, the light-rail line embraced by Roberts, Wilson, Summers and Hernandez would run east-west across the Valley, replacing a planned busway. Richman and Shapiro support the busway as a starting point for a broader transit system.

“We need a better mass transit system for the Valley,” Summers said. “The bus project is just a temporary Band-Aid.”

Wilson wants to build a second light-rail line north-south across the Valley, from Sylmar to North Hollywood.

All the candidates say they would work with neighbors of Van Nuys Airport to impose more stringent noise controls. Most were short on details. Strassman, though, said he would like to see tighter curfews for jets and helicopters.

The candidates differed on the specifics of an issue that would affect their own pocketbooks.

Under state law, the mayor and council members would be paid $1,000 a month. But leaders of the Valley VOTE secession group have proposed that a Valley city council put a measure on a future ballot to increase the pay to $75,000 for council members and $100,000 for mayor so they can serve full time.

Hernandez and Summers support the higher salaries, while Shapiro and Boyer want the pay to stay at $1,000 a month.

Strassman would set the council and mayor pay at the median salary of all workers in the Valley; Roberts supports a $50,000 annual salary for mayor; Divina says $60,000 is reasonable; and Bernal suggests something below $100,000.

Before asking voters to approve higher salaries, Richman and Wilson said, the new city should conduct a public discussion of how significant the elected officials’ role will be in the government.