Foes Spar Over Secession Ballot Language

A state panel Wednesday sought to head off a last-minute court battle over the way the costs of San Fernando Valley and Hollywood cityhood will be presented to voters.

A committee of the Local Agency Formation Commission proposed compromise ballot language for separation payments the Valley and Hollywood would have to make to Los Angeles if the areas secede. The language would inform voters of the annual payments but explain that the amounts would not represent new costs to taxpayers.

“It clarifies the language and provides the voters with a better understanding,” LAFCO member Carol Herrera said of the proposed ballot text. “The earlier language only told part of the story and gave a skewed impression that perhaps would raise some alarm bells.”

The Board of Supervisors is scheduled today to formally place the Valley secession measure on the Nov. 5 ballot. Because of a recent change in state law, LAFCO has the final say on placing the Hollywood measure on the ballot, and is set to do so Friday.

Secession opponents, led by Mayor James K. Hahn and the City Council, have insisted that the ballot language include the so-called alimony payments that a Valley or Hollywood city would make for 20 years. But breakup advocates say inserting such language without a fuller explanation would mislead and frighten voters.

Both sides say they might take legal action if the final ballot language is not to their liking.

The payments would compensate L.A. for the loss of tax revenue from the Valley and Hollywood, and represent the amount of taxes the two areas pay in excess of the value of services they receive.

The Valley payment would be $127.1 million the first year and decline by 5% annually. Hollywood’s payment would start at $21.4 million; it also would drop each year.

Los Angeles officials have highlighted the payments in attacking secession, claiming the new cities would not be able to afford them.

The secessionists, however, note that LAFCO accounted for the payments before determining that Valley and Hollywood cities would be financially fit. They also say the payments are proof the two areas are shortchanged by City Hall.

The county supervisors seemed split Wednesday on LAFCO’s proposed ballot language.

But City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski and other Los Angeles officials were skeptical. She said the LAFCO wording could unfairly help the secessionists.

Miscikowski said the language proposed by the council is “nothing but full disclosure, fully informing the public about what this is all about.”

Assemblyman Keith Richman (R-Northridge), the only declared mayoral candidate for a Valley city, denounced the council and Hahn as “downtown power mongers using desperate tactics” to confuse voters about a split’s costs.

Richman held a news conference Wednesday at the Northridge Recreation Center, where a city-owned swimming pool has been closed for two summers.

“We’re here because of unpaved Valley streets, inadequate police deployment, wasteful city spending and unaccountable bureaucrats who neglect their most fundamental duties to provide city services,” Richman said.

Meanwhile, Hahn’s anti-secession campaign picked up the support Wednesday of nearly 50 civic, faith-based and nonprofit leaders and groups, forming the Civic Coalition for a United Los Angeles.

*

Times staff writers Nita Lelyveld and Sharon Bernstein contributed to this report.