Valley Secession Plan Appears Ballot-Bound

By PATRICK McGREEVY

May 22, 2002 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

The future of Los Angeles as the nation’s second-largest city could be put in the hands of voters today as a nine-member commission prepares to authorize a ballot measure that would allow the San Fernando Valley to break away from the city and form a major metropolis.

In interviews, a majority of the members of the Local Agency Formation Commission said they intend to vote today to place the secession measure on the Nov. 5 ballot, barring any last-minute finding that a Valley city would be financially unhealthy or would leave the remainder of Los Angeles in fiscal trouble.

An updated report on the secession proposal concluded Tuesday that the Valley would be required to pay the remaining city $128 million a year to protect it against fi-nancial harm. That payment would drop 5% a year for 20 years.

The report clears the final hurdle to today’s LAFCO deliberations, a watershed moment in the history of Los Angeles’ secession movements. For years, advocates of a municipal breakup have fought to bring the idea to a city vote. More recently, even some critics of secession have agreed that a vote is needed, if only to test Los Angeles’ willingness to reconsider itself.

“I’m likely to put it on the ballot,” said county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, a LAFCO member. “I think it’s time to let the people decide. The burden now is on the opponents.”

Even Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, a LAFCO member and secession foe, has told her council colleagues she believes the state-created commission will schedule the citywide vote on Valley independence. If it does, only a successful court challenge could block a breakup election.

With a staff of just seven employees, LAFCO is responsible for analyzing cityhood applications to ensure they meet state legal requirements that deal primarily with financial issues. It then drafts the final plan for the ballot. That includes the proposed city’s boundaries, government structure, start-up revenues and expenditures, as well as a selection of suggested names for the municipality.

Many on LAFCO Are

Small-Town Officials

And yet, despite the political reach of those decisions, Yaroslavsky, Miscikowski and county Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke are the only LAFCO members who represent large constituencies as elected officials. The others are mostly small-town officials from outlying areas of the county, appointed to LAFCO by a variety of agencies. Among them are city council members from Diamond Bar and Pico Rivera, a former Whittier school board member and a Santa Clarita water board director.

In interviews, five said they are likely to vote for a secession election. Three said they are undecided. Pico Rivera Councilwoman Beatrice Proo did not return calls for comment.

“I haven’t seen anything to keep me from supporting it,” LAFCO Chairman Henri F. Pellissier said. “I don’t see anything in the Valley proposal that doesn’t say ‘go.’ ”

Mayor James K. Hahn, who is leading the anti-secession fight, called on the commission Tuesday to delay its decision until next week. Hahn said the public should be given more time to review recent changes in the Valley cityhood report by LAFCO Executive Director Larry Calemine. Commissioners did not indicate whether they would grant a delay.

Members Say Rhetoric

Hasn’t Swayed Them

As secession has gained attention in recent months, commissioners increasingly have been placed at the center of a sometimes impassioned debate over Los Angeles’ future. LAFCO also is set to decide in the next two weeks whether to place secession proposals for Hollywood and the harbor area on the November ballot. The commissioners said they have not been offended by the criticism or swayed by the political rhetoric.

For most, the secession study has taken chunks out of their lives, forcing them to spend long hours reading dense, technical material from demographers, financial experts and attorneys.

James DiGiuseppe is a retired Municipal Court judge from Van Nuys and one of two LAFCO members appointed to represent the public at large rather than cities, special districts or Los Angeles County. The Board of Supervisors named DiGiuseppe to the commission specifically to represent the Valley. Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who supports secession, asked him to serve.

DiGiuseppe said he signed the Valley secession petition because he wanted to see what a LAFCO evaluation would find.

“If it’s legal, I would vote in favor of it,” DiGiuseppe said, noting that Calemine has determined the plan meets all lawful requirements.

Now in his third four-year term on LAFCO, DiGiuseppe said not even his judicial career prepared him for wading through the thousands of pages of technical documents on dividing Los Angeles, its assets and its liabilities.

Like other LAFCO members, DiGiuseppe said he has not been heavily lobbied by either side. Commissioners said they have not been contacted by Hahn.

Commissioner Carol Herrera said the only feedback she has received is a handful of letters from Valley residents who are opposed to holding an election for a Valley city council on the same ballot as secession itself. By law, the election of prospective city officers must be held concurrently with a cityhood vote.

Herrera, a former Sears, Roebuck & Co. supervisor and a Diamond Bar City Council member for the last seven years, was appointed last year to LAFCO by the League of California Cities. She also views the Valley proposal favorably, although she hopes to resolve some disagreements with Los Angeles officials.

“The Valley looks positive,” she said.

Commissioner Jerry Gladbach said he also will probably back an election unless Calemine retreats from the position that a Valley city would be financially viable.

Gladbach, a retired engineer for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, has been an elected member of the Lake Castaic Water Agency’s board of directors since 1985. The agency is a water wholesaler for Santa Clarita Valley. A committee representing special districts appointed Gladbach to LAFCO.

Despite his ties to the DWP, Gladbach has been skeptical and critical of Los Angeles officials’ assertions that secession would cause the city great harm.

L.A.’s Numbers Inflated, Commissioner Says

“I think their numbers are inflated and they haven’t been forthcoming,” Gladbach said.

He also said he supports Calemine’s proposal that the DWP continue to serve a Valley city, at rates no higher than those charged Los Angeles residents.

Pellissier also is retired, having run a family real estate development and property management firm in Whittier.

He has served on LAFCO since 1980, and was first appointed during his 12 years on the board of the Whittier Union High School District. He is the other LAFCO member designated to represent the public at large.

Pellissier said he doesn’t feel any pressure to decide one way or the other on secession, but he believes it will end up on the ballot.

“I’m not sure we are going to settle this. The voters are going to settle it,” he said.

Yaroslavsky, who served 19 years on the Los Angeles City Council, is a Westside resident whose supervisorial district includes part of the Valley.

He said he has received letters and e-mail from union leaders and the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley urging him to oppose a secession election. But he said he is inclined to favor the election.

“I do feel pressure to do this right and reach a fair and judicious decision,” Yaroslavsky said.

Burke also has raised many questions about the LAFCO studies, and officially is undecided on a secession vote. Her supervisorial district is anchored in South Los Angeles.

“I do want to make sure the area that is left, that I represent, is not unduly burdened, that it can continue to provide services,” said Burke, who was elected to the Board of Supervisors in 1992 and has been on LAFCO for eight years.

Also undecided is Commissioner William Wentworth, an elected member of the Walnut Valley Water District and former mayor of Walnut. He is a retired medical representative for a pharmaceutical company.

Miscikowski Expected

to Lead the Dissent

Likely to lead the dissent at today’s meeting is Miscikowski, who has continued to express reservations about putting the secession proposal on the ballot.

Miscikowski, who was elected in 1997 and whose council district includes Sherman Oaks, Encino and part of Van Nuys, has repeatedly spearheaded council decisions protesting the LAFCO study as flawed.

Most recently, she voted to ask LAFCO not to put secession on the ballot unless major revisions were made in the plan, which would increase the so-called alimony the Valley would pay Los Angeles to cover revenue losses.

“LAFCO is not doing the job it needs to do on an analysis of equity, fiscal viability and revenue neutrality,” Miscikowski said.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

LAFCO Commissioners’ Positions on Valley Cityhood

The Local Agency Formation Commission is a nine-member panel created by state law to decide border changes for government jurisdictions, including cityhood proposals. The commission members’positions on cityhood ballot measure:

Henri F. Pellissier

Appointed by: The eight other commissioners

Residence: Whittier

Position: Supportive as long as it is viable and legal

James DiGiuseppe

Appointed by: Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors

Residence: Van Nuys

Position: Would vote in favor, as long as it is legal

Beatrice Proo

Appointed by: City Selection Committee of California League of Cities

Residence: Pico Rivera

Position: Unknown