Hahn Plans Fail to Satisfy Secessionists

Despite their defeat in last month’s election, San Fernando Valley secession leaders demanded in a meeting with Mayor James K. Hahn on Monday that City Hall undergo dramatic reform and significantly improve city services beyond what officials have proposed, or risk another drive to split the city.

Hahn, speaking to about 70 of the 132 former candidates for Valley and Hollywood city offices, pledged to reshape city government so it is more responsive to residents and more effective at providing basic services.

“I heard loud and clear, from Hollywood, from the Valley and from every other L.A. neighborhood, that you want a city government where quality services are available to all residents,” Hahn said at the Encino Community Center meeting.

“You want City Hall to empower local communities to make decisions about those quality-of-life issues that affect your daily lives,” the mayor added. “And that is what I want to do.” Hahn and a past secession backer, Bert Boeckmann, co-hosted the meeting, asking for support for the mayor’s plan.

However, it was clear from Monday’s meeting, that the mayor’s vision of reform falls far short of what some secession leaders would like to see happen.

Hahn touted the creation of 58 advisory neighborhood councils representing communities throughout Los Angeles. He said he has committed to giving each council $50,000 annually for expenses and that general managers would meet with each council for input on service priorities.

He also noted he has proposed a government reorganization plan called TeamWork LA, which would create seven Neighborhood Service Areas, each with its own city hall and managers for city departments.

But Assemblyman Keith Richman (R-Northridge), who received the most votes among 10 candidates for mayor of a new Valley city, said in an interview that Hahn’s “proposal to decentralize city government does not go far enough.”

He told the mayor Monday night that neighborhood councils should be given decision-making power over local land-use and budget issues, or the city should create a borough system in which local communities can decide their own fate.

“Empowered neighborhood councils don’t mean giving them a pittance of $50,000,” Richman said. “Those neighborhood councils need real authority or we need to move toward the borough system of government.”

Richman also reiterated his campaign proposals to expand the police force in the Valley by 500 officers, about 30%, and to eventually phase out the business tax on gross receipts.

Other secession backers called on the mayor to appoint more Valley residents as commissioners, install more street lights, clean up Valley parks, secure more state and federal grants for the Valley, and prevent changes to the Chatsworth Specific Plan that could erode horse-keeping rights.

Although Hahn has supported efforts to expand the police force, he has not committed to a specific increase in the Valley and has not backed elimination of the gross-receipts tax.

Addressing concerns that the City Hall bureaucracy makes it difficult to do business with the city, Hahn plans to announce today that he is forming a task force to streamline the contracting process for vendors.

The five leading vote-getters in the Hollywood city council election boycotted Monday’s session, telling Hahn in a letter that, if he is serious about addressing their concerns, he needs to hold a meeting in Hollywood with the former candidates from that area.

The Valley meeting drew most of the 121 candidates who ran for office in the Valley as part of the secession election.

In fact, so many Valley secession leaders attended the Hahn meeting that Valley VOTE delayed a decision during its simultaneous meeting Monday on whether to file a lawsuit to have only the Valley votes counted from the Nov. 5 election.

State law requires approval by the breakaway area and the city as a whole for a cityhood measure to pass. The Valley secession measure received support from 50.7% of Valley voters but failed 2-1 citywide. A Hollywood secession measure lost both in Hollywood and citywide.

Valley VOTE Chairman Richard Close said during the group’s meeting in Mission Hills that the group will decide by Friday whether to file a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles, challenging the validity of the election. Some argue that only the Valley vote should have counted toward cityhood.