Secession Foes Plan Unified Strategy

Convinced that secession proposals by the San Fernando Valley, Hollywood and the harbor area will make the November ballot, Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn and other opponents are shaping a strategy to fight the plans at the polls.

City Council members, municipal labor unions and an anti-secession citizens group say they will not try to head off a secession election through procedural or legal challenges.

Mindful of the potential backlash of thwarting a vote, Hahn has made a similar pledge.

Now, the anti-secession allies are preparing for a fall campaign that will combine an expensive advertising effort with sweetened city services in the breakaway regions, which are home to nearly half of Los Angeles’ population.

“This has been festering for years,” Hahn said. “Let’s get it over with.”

The mayor, who intends to raise $5 million for the election, already has begun showering the secession areas with such perks as white-gloved traffic officers, new parks and special attention from the city’s business development team, all intended to bolster preserve-L.A. sentiments.

The campaign is being developed against a backdrop of increasing credibility for the secessionists.

Just Wednesday, they scored a major victory when a state agency declared that Hollywood would be financially healthy as an independent city. Finances for the Valley and harbor secession plans also have passed preliminary muster.

That agency, the Local Agency Formation Commission, which oversees the incorporation of new cities, is expected to decide in late spring whether the secession bids should be placed on the November ballot.

LAFCO has given strong indications that it will call for a vote on all three plans. If it does, the county Board of Supervisors would be asked to authorize an election.

The proposals reached LAFCO after secessionists gathered the signatures of 25% of the registered voters in each region. The commission is reviewing the plans to ensure that the areas could survive on their own as cities, and that their departure would not leave the remainder of Los Angeles in a financial bind.

The review and an election could be delayed if the city or another party files a lawsuit challenging the commission’s procedures.

By foregoing such action, secession opponents are resigning themselves to a huge election battle over civic identity, city services, taxes and even Hahn himself. To win, each secession measure must get a majority of votes both within the breakaway region and citywide.

“The reality is that this never goes away unless people get a chance to vote on it once and for all,” said Lisa Gritzner, chief of staff to Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, who represents the West San Fernando Valley and is a secession opponent.

An executive of the largest city union agreed. “There is a general consensus not to do anything that keeps it from getting on the ballot in November,” said Julie Butcher, general manager of the Service Employees International Union, Local 347, which represents 8,500 city workers.

The union opposes secession because it fears a breakup would endanger their members’ contracts and job security. Last month, it asked LAFCO to reject the secession measures outright. At that time, Butcher called a study of the proposed Valley city’s financial base “materially defective.”

Hahn’s representatives lobbied hard to convince the union and One Los Angeles, a Valley-based anti-secession group, not to try to block an election, breakup opponents say.

A big reason for focusing on 2002, insiders say, is fear that Hahn would be politically damaged by a delay in the vote. Hahn had promised during his mayoral campaign not to sabotage a secession ballot measure.

Since then, the mayor has antagonized civic leaders in the vote-rich Valley by removing secession supporters from appointed positions and taking actions that seemed aimed at shelving a vote. He also angered African American leaders by not backing Police Chief Bernard C. Parks for a second term. In the harbor area, his position on Parks has prompted African American leaders to join forces with secessionists.

“We don’t want to give them a big issue by postponing the vote,” said Kam Kuwata, a political consultant who worked on Hahn’s election and is helping develop the anti-secession campaign.

The opponents also believe that the November election will attract a large number of voters unsympathetic to secession. The idea is that blocs of liberal and minority voters, drawn by the gubernatorial race and other statewide contests, will resist arguments that the city should be dismantled.

Moreover, delaying the vote would mean that Hahn might have to fight secession in 2004, while preparing for his reelection bid the following spring.

Hahn’s anti-secession campaign will combine generous city services, including a massive tree giveaway and a new park a month in the Valley, with a two-pronged advertising campaign, breakup opponents say.

Some ads will probably evoke an emotional theme about keeping Los Angeles together. Others will point out what opponents see as flaws in the secession proposals.

“Our attitude is the more flawed that thing is when it goes on the ballot, the easier it will be to beat it,” said Larry Levine, a Van Nuys political consultant who has organized One Los Angeles.

So far, the anti-secessionists have focused on the Valley, because the breakaway movement there is the oldest and best organized and has the most support. Valley secession is also the most likely to make the November ballot.

There, opponents plan to frighten voters with warnings about higher prices for services from water to public safety, Hahn advisors say.

The campaign would also attempt to convince voters that if the Valley, Hollywood and harbor area form their own cities, they will remain at the mercy of L.A. politicians who might not be responsive to them.

The proposed cities would probably lease major city services, including police and fire protection, as well as water and power, from Los Angeles for several years after they are formed.

Fodder for the campaign is expected to come from secession analyses requested by the mayor and council. The analyses largely address municipal finances.

“It’s ammunition for the campaign,” said a Hahn advisor, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The mayor also is counting on a significant fund-raising advantage over the secessionists, who have not begun to solicit donations in earnest.

Richard Katz, a former state assemblyman who serves on the board of the secession group Valley VOTE, said secessionists will start their fund-raising drive in late spring or early summer, after it is clear that the measure will be on the ballot.

Until then, Katz said, he expects potential donors to hold back out of fear of alienating Hahn and other powerful secession opponents.

Katz said that the secession movement has not yet set a fund-raising goal or developed a campaign, although Jeff Brain, president of Valley VOTE, has consulted with pro-secession groups in Hollywood and the harbor area.

Meanwhile, Hahn and other opponents continue to try to strengthen the city’s hand through legal opinions and positions the city takes in negotiations with secessionists.

Recently, the city proposed that Los Angeles keep ownership of Van Nuys Airport in a post-secession Valley. A LAFCO committee rejected that idea.

Hahn “wants a politically unattractive measure on the ballot in November,” said Richard Close, chairman of Valley VOTE. “His strategy is to kill it on election day.”