An Unlikely Leader Steers Valley Secession

It wasn’t Jeff Brain’s charisma that helped get San Fernando Valley secession on the Nov. 5 ballot. Even he acknowledges that he tends to appear stiff and trips over his words.

The Valley VOTE president has made other stumbles as well, embarrassing himself and sometimes clouding the message of his campaign.

He owes thousands of dollars in city, state and federal taxes, debts that in some cases stretch back 12 years and continue to mount. He cast ballots in several Los Angeles elections while living in the city of Glendale and later registered to vote at a Sherman Oaks business address, prompting county officials to revoke his registration.

And Brain says he had been unaware of his five-year membership in the American Independent Party, best known as the 1960s vehicle of onetime segregationist George C. Wallace. He says he registered with the party by mistake.

Brain’s critics seem astounded that he could have played such a major role in putting the historic secession initiative before voters. But they and his supporters agree that the measure wouldn’t have happened without the 43-year-old’s energy, single-minded devotion and wonkish ability to wade through bureaucratic jargon and procedure.

“No person has worked harder at getting secession on the ballot than Jeff Brain,” said Richard Close, chairman of Valley VOTE. “The odds of this getting on the ballot were a thousand to one.”

His tax and voting troubles aside, Brain has many typical secessionist traits. The former high school wrestler is a longtime Valley activist who disdains the downtown power structure. He tried to make himself heard through neighborhood groups and by running for the City Council in 1995 and the city charter commission two years later, losing each time.

He has a bigger audience now. His boyish face and Woody Woodpecker hairstyle are a constant presence at hearings, forums and living room gatherings around the Valley and throughout much of L.A. At every opportunity, he spins his vision of a new Valley city, his demeanor always calm, his focus never wavering.

His quiet intensity makes Brain hard to really know, fellow separatists say.

“I’ve worked with Jeff for a while,” said David Fleming, a prominent secession backer, “but I can’t say that I know him well personally.”

Brain gives the impression that the secession campaign is the whole of his existence. He holds no other regular job, and hasn’t for several years. The New York native bounces from residence to residence, the latest a small apartment in Sherman Oaks. Twice divorced and the father of four, he concedes that the long hours spent on secession have cost him precious dad hours.

“He eats and sleeps secession while others of us have a life,” said Valley VOTE board member Bob Scott. “I’m sure he’s had to make a lot of personal sacrifices.”

That’s true, said Brain. But he adds that he still finds time to unwind with his sons and daughters, ages 6 to 17. Snapshots of them decorate his Ventura Boulevard office in Sherman Oaks.

“I hope they see that people do care about the community and they do have a role in the community,” Brain said of his children, as he drove along Woodman Avenue in the northeast Valley. He pointed out the litter and graffiti that he blamed on poor city services. “I hope they see that people can make a difference.”

Early Interest

Brain developed an interest in local government while growing up in the Long Island town of Bayport, one of seven children. His mother was active in the PTA. A community parade was a heralded event. Town leaders could be called to account at the local diner.

In 1971, Brain’s world expanded when his father, an aerospace manager, moved the family to Encino. Riding for the first time through the Sepulveda Pass on the San Diego Freeway, Brain was overcome by views of the sprawling Valley.

“I’ll never forget it,” he said, sitting at his desk in Valley VOTE’s peach-colored office, where an Enya CD was playing.

Brain’s family moved back to the East Coast, but he returned to the Valley after his high school graduation. With $600 in his pocket, he hopped on a bus for a four-day, nonstop trip to L.A.

He worked at various jobs, as a Radio Shack salesman and a bookkeeper at a Studio City dress shop. He earned accounting and finance degrees from Cal State Northridge in 1983. Three years later, Brain founded a real estate company in Sherman Oaks, which he ran for a decade. He also twice served as president of the Sherman Oaks Chamber of Commerce in the 1990s.

Brain started the annual Sherman Oaks Street Festival, which has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for schools since 1991. He also helped Valley residents and businesses hurt by the 1994 Northridge earthquake secure federal money. And he uncovered an accounting error in a City Council plan to revive Ventura Boulevard, saving taxpayers millions of dollars.

The council district that Brain sought to represent included parts of the southeast Valley and Westside. His campaign buttons featured “Brain Man,” a caped superhero with sagging muscles and a huge exposed brain. Brain finished last in a field of four.

Both that campaign and his 1997 bid for the charter commission, in which he was third out of seven candidates, left him in debt.

His civic successes, however, had gotten the attention of Valley VOTE, and the group tapped him in 1996 to head the secession effort. “The guy was willing to put his heart and soul into a project,” Scott said.

The secession project has made Brain a target at times. City officials and others take glee in pointing out that the mismanagement of his own affairs clashes with his assertions that a Valley city would provide more efficient and accountable government.

Financial Troubles

“I wouldn’t want to count on [Brain] to be my financial advisor,” said former U.S. Rep. Bobbi Fiedler, a secession enthusiast who broke with the Valley VOTE leadership and now opposes the cityhood measure.

Brain links his financial problems to his all-consuming commitment to secession, even though his tax debts predate the breakup movement. The delinquencies reached a total of $63,305, including taxes, penalties, interest and related charges. Ten liens have been filed against him by the state and federal governments, the most recent by the State Franchise Tax Board in March.

The city of Los Angeles also obtained a court judgment against him for back taxes.

“I believe the benefits I’ve contributed to society far outweigh any financial difficulties,” Brain said. “I’m not a wealthy person because I sacrificed to help the community.... I will meet all of my financial obligations.”

Brain said he has reduced his tax debts by almost a third, although the most current public records available do not show this.

As the only paid staff member at Valley VOTE, Brain and other secessionists said, he receives a “nominal” salary, a sum they refused to disclose.

Brain said he has worked out his voting difficulties by moving back to the Valley. He also changed his registration from the American Independent Party to “decline to state.”

Last winter, the Los Angeles Times reported that Brain had voted in three Los Angeles elections after moving from the city to Glendale in 1999. He had registered at his old Sherman Oaks residence, records show.

“I did nothing wrong,” Brain said. “It was a temporary move.”

But legal experts questioned Brain’s definition of temporary. Election officials acknowledged the law is loosely defined.

Late last year, Brain said, he moved to his brother’s house in Woodland Hills. He found the Sherman Oaks apartment last month.

In the meantime, Brain had registered to vote at Valley VOTE’s address. The county deemed that registration invalid, because voters must use their home address.

He again became eligible to vote when he registered using his apartment address.

“I made a mistake,” he said. “I didn’t know I couldn’t use a business address.”

Brain said his registration with the American Independent Party, from September 1996 until September 2001, was also unintentional. He said he meant to register as an “independent,” but was confused by the voter form. He said he never received election material from the party.

But election officials said voters usually receive sample ballots for their party.

Brain said he doesn’t believe in the American Independent Party’s platform, which advocates repealing the U.S. Voting Rights Act and expelling the children of illegal immigrants from public schools.

Wallace, who served four terms as governor of Alabama, ran for president as the American Independent Party candidate in 1968.

Secessionists say Brain’s financial and voting problems are irrelevant to the secession debate. They say The Times’ reporting on his troubles reflects an anti-secession bias.

“When the L.A. Times attacked Jeff, it made him stronger within the organization,” Valley VOTE’s Close said. “No one has taken more criticism than Jeff Brain, and no one has worked harder.”

Brain boasted that he must be doing something right. After all, he is in the middle of a campaign that will help shape the city’s future.

“This is history,” he said in his deadpan manner.

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Times staff writer Jeff Rabin contributed to this report.