Secessionist Secrecy Mania

Big bucks can buy a lot of political power, which is good reason to keep a close watch on any political campaign. That includes the crusade preceding the Nov. 5 vote on breaking up Los Angeles. But please, no sanctimonious sniping by leaders of the San Fernando Valley secession movement about Mayor James K. Hahn’s fund-raising. The chief secession organization, Valley VOTE, for years has refused to even identify its financial backers.

According to Monday’s Times, Hahn has been asking companies and lobbyists who deal with the city to make large contributions to the campaign, known as L.A. United, that is opposing Valley and Hollywood secession. Playing the role of pot to Hahn’s kettle, Richard Katz, a Valley VOTE board member and head of its spinoff fund-raising committee, said that for the mayor to request such big sums “sure raises questions about propriety.” Look to yourself, Mr. Katz.

Like most political fund-raising, Hahn’s solicitations have obvious quid pro quo potential for anyone wanting to do business in or with Los Angeles. It was precisely to thwart mutual back-scratching that city voters elected to rein in runaway spending and thus dilute the influence of special interests. Unfortunately, city and state campaign reformers never anticipated secession. Contribution and spending limits don’t apply to campaigns for or against a city breakup or to the campaigns for Valley and Hollywood mayor and city council that will be waged simultaneously.

However fat its contributions, the L.A. United campaign is at least complying with disclosure rules. The next report is due in July.

Public reporting of donors, donations and spending has been central to campaign reform nationwide since Watergate. Katz, however, told The Times that his fund-raising committee technically was not required to say who its backers were until the county Board of Supervisors officially voted to put secession on the ballot, never mind that everyone knows it will do so.

That vote is scheduled Aug. 6, conveniently just past the July 30 deadline for disclosing fund-raising and spending during the first half of the year. The next deadline is Oct. 5, a mere month before the election.

Another avenue to the same goal exists. At the urging of ethics watchdogs, the state Legislature two years ago gave the government body overseeing secession, the Local Agency Formation Commission, the power to require disclosure. The commissioners, many of them sympathetic to Valley VOTE, have not done so.

Secrecy is nothing new to Valley VOTE. Since launching its 1998 petition drive, it has withheld the names of all but a handful of its financial backers: auto dealer Burt Boeckmann, lawyer David Fleming and the Los Angeles Daily News.

Secession advocates have promised voters a more open, accountable and responsive city government in the Valley. Their record portends the opposite.