Boroughs Pitched as Middle Ground

Searching for a middle ground that acknowledges separatist sentiments but that would keep Los Angeles whole, City Councilwoman Wendy Greuel said Sunday that her proposal for a borough system would likely give local areas meaningful control over zoning, development and delivery of services.

Such a structure would go far beyond the city’s existing neighborhood council system in spinning power away from City Hall and to communities across Los Angeles.

“It is beholden upon us to look at more creative and concrete solutions to deal with their dissatisfaction,” Greuel said of those who advocate secession by the San Fernando Valley, Hollywood and harbor areas of Los Angeles. “There’s such a feeling of distrust and cynicism from our constituents. We have to change that.”

In office just five weeks, Greuel wants to put a ballot measure to create city boroughs on the same Nov. 5 ballot expected to include some secession proposals.

The proposal to devolve some power away from downtown--which also has the endorsement of Councilwoman Janice Hahn, the mayor’s sister, and Councilman Tom LaBonge--suggests that some city leaders are taking the secession threat seriously and are prepared to consider sweeping municipal changes to head it off.

Indeed, a previous attempt to spin off land-use authority to communities was turned down during the rewriting of the city charter several years ago.

But news of the borough proposal surfaced just as secessionists were dealt a setback in their efforts: The head of the state-run commission considering secession measures concluded Saturday that the harbor area would not be a viable independent city.

That undermines the harbor’s chances of making it to the ballot and also weakens the overall secession effort by lessening the chances that three areas of the city might all be able to try to break away at once, supporting one another as part of an overall Los Angeles breakup.

Whatever secession proposals make it on the ballot, the borough measure could give voters an in-between alternative on Nov. 5, less extreme than ripping the city apart, more demanding that letting a vote against secession stand as an endorsement of city government status quo.

“I’m not going to stop and be silent while people try to rip apart this great city,” LaBonge said. “I’m going to go out and debate all the options.”

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Mayor’s Silence Fuels Speculation

Hahn’s brother, Mayor James K. Hahn, has so far been silent on the subject, declining to answer questions about the substance of the idea or even to say whether he has discussed the issue with his sister.

His reticence has fueled some speculation that the borough proposal is being floated to test the response before the mayor commits one way or the other. On Sunday, Greuel denied that, saying details were leaked before she intended to make the proposal public.

Greuel isn’t the first, or the only, person talking about bringing boroughs to Los Angeles.

The idea of creating a borough structure similar to those in New York and London was proposed three years ago during the city’s debate over charter reform, but was rejected by the panels charged with rewriting that document.

The city’s new charter, adopted by voters in 1999, instead created a citywide network of neighborhood councils whose role is purely advisory.

In the charter debate, some neighborhood council advocates had urged the commissions drafting the new city charter to give those councils zoning and land-use authority and to have their members elected rather than chosen more informally. Some commissioners initially favored that idea, but dropped it over concerns about who would serve on the councils and over fears that they would stifle growth and balkanize the city.

Still, the issue did not end with adoption of the new charter.

California State Librarian Kevin Starr recently gave a well-attended lecture at UCLA called “Borough, Si! Secession, No! Or, It’s Time to Start Thinking About a Borough System for Los Angeles.” (Greuel and LaBonge were in the audience.)

In Sacramento, state Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar), who has announced his intention to run for mayor of an independent Valley, has authored a bill that would call on the University of California to study secession alternatives, including boroughs and wards. That study, however, would not be completed before a November secession vote.

Greuel said she spoke to Alarcon and David Fleming, a Studio City lawyer and chairman of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley, who has long been an advocate of the borough alternative but is also a financial supporter of Valley secession.

Kam Kuwata, the political strategist working on the mayor’s promised campaign against secession, said he only just learned of the borough ballot plan and was not involved in it. He said that the mayor’s campaign had no stand on the issue, but that on the surface, a new plan for city government seemed premature in light of the recent charter reforms.

“The neighborhood council idea--of having neighborhood groups form and have real input into how they’re governed--is just beginning,” he said. “We’re foursquare behind the neighborhood councils.”

Jaime Regalado, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs at Cal State L.A., said he was unsure on hearing of the borough idea whether or not it was simply symbolic, a way of showing voters that city leaders hear their concerns. He said that he too thought sticking with neighborhood councils made sense.

“One way to do this is to really try to arm neighborhood councils as best they can,” he said of City Council members. “That’s something that already exists, even though it’s untested and they don’t have formal powers.”

Greuel, who supports the councils, said news of the borough plan leaked out Friday before she was ready with some substantive details about how it might work. Among other things, Greuel said, she was still undecided about how many boroughs to recommend. She suggested anywhere from five to 15 might be feasible.

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More Control Sought Over Local Schools

Greuel also said she would like to find a way in the plan for local areas to get more control over their schools. Secession would not change the relationship between city governments and schools, which are operated separately now and would be even after a municipal breakup.

Ideally, Greuel said, she would like the ballot proposal to be flexible enough to allow for more debate on details but firm enough to ensure that a borough system with real substance be put in place by a certain date.

County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said Greuel called him about her proposal Friday.

“It’s very late in the game for this. They’ve got less than three months to put this on the ballot, and it’s a very complicated thing,” he said. “If they can do it, it has a lot of possibilities, but I think one has to be very skeptical about how much they can do in the time left.”

Yaroslavsky said the only real possibility he saw of getting a borough measure in place in time would be to make it quite vague. “If it’s not all the way, it’s going to be met with skepticism, and that’s not good for anybody,” he said.

Greuel said news of the harbor area report released Saturday only pointed out the uncertainties of secession. But she added that she was continually struck during her recent council campaign by how deep the frustrations with Los Angeles government go--and how serious the need for change is.

“I kept hearing people say, ‘We have so many problems with the city, and if the city doesn’t do something, we’re going to vote for secession,’” Greuel said.

“What we have to be able to demonstrate is that this proposal has real power, that it is something that has real teeth in it.”