Hahn Raises $5.5 Million to Fight Secession

Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn’s anti-secession drive reported Thursday that it has raised $5.5 million, nearly four times the combined amount collected by the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood cityhood committees.

The financial figures were released as leaders of the two sides in the secession campaign clashed in a Valley debate that focused on utility rates and public safety.

In the last report of its kind before the Nov. 5 election, Hahn’s L.A. United committee said it raised $781,000 from Oct. 1 to Oct. 19, pushing the organization’s total above its goal of $5 million. Another $1 million has been raised by anti-secession committees controlled by City Council members and City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo.

Much of the money has come from companies, individuals and labor unions that have contracts with or other business before the city. It has paid for an advertising blitz that the secessionists have been unable to counter.

Major new contributors to the Hahn campaign include Jerry Perenchio, the head of Univision, who gave $318,000 in cash and television air time, and Beverly Hills Construction Management, which gave $175,000.

The Service Employees International Union contributed $125,000, Panda Restaurants gave $50,000, and Fleishman-Hillard, a public relations firm with city contracts, donated $30,000. Verizon Services Group and Police Commission President Rick Caruso gave $10,000 each.

The Public Safety Coalition, an anti-secession group formed by Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, reported raising $614,496, of which $19,000 came in the form of billboard space donated by Viacom Outdoor.

Councilman Alex Padilla’s anti-secession committee, One Family, One L.A., reported taking in $162,000, including $43,404 in billboard space provided by Viacom.

An anti-secession committee formed by Delgadillo received $247,000, including $10,000 from Majestic Realty Co., the firm involved in building Staples Center.

On the pro-secession side, the Valley Independence Committee reported raising a total of $609,364. Since Oct. 1, the committee received $10,000 each from Lodwrick Cook, vice chairman of Pacific Capital Group, and Clay Lacy, who runs an aviation firm at Van Nuys Airport.

Giving $5,000 each were Valley VOTE leader Richard Close, Auto Stiegler Inc., the Auto Gallery and property owner Guy McCreary.

The Valley campaign ended the period with $100,000 in debts, including $52,000 owed to a consulting firm that quit the secession effort because its bills were not being paid.

The Hollywood Independence Committee reported raising $912,313, including $806,000 from chairman Gene La Pietra. La Pietra, a Hollywood nightclub owner, reported having $307,645 for his Hollywood city council campaign, all but $250 from his own pocket.

As the numbers rolled in, a debate at the Universal Sheraton provided the day’s fireworks. State Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar), a secession opponent, squared off with Valley Independence Committee co-chairman Richard Katz, an old political rival.

Alarcon, who defeated Katz by 29 votes in a bitter 1998 contest for the Senate seat, said Los Angeles would find a legal way to increase utility costs to the Valley and Hollywood if secession wins. A state commission has ruled that Los Angeles, under a contract arrangement, could not charge customers in the breakaway areas more for water and power than it does its own residents.

“I believe politicians will fight for their community first,” Alarcon said, adding that Los Angeles would be obliged to give its own residents a better deal on utilities.

Katz said the commission’s requirement would hold, and that Valley and Hollywood cities would work well with Los Angeles in negotiating service contracts, including for police and fire protection.

“I think Richard is wrong ... “ Katz said. “I think that kind of rhetoric and war-gaming is just the wrong approach.”

Also on the debate panel were Council President Alex Padilla and Valley mayoral candidate Keith Richman, a Republican assemblyman from Northridge. Richman, who accused Hahn’s campaign of “fear-mongering,” said a Valley city would get more police patrols and other service improvements from L.A. under a contract than it gets now.

But Alarcon said Los Angeles would increase the Valley’s costs for those services.

After Katz said voters want smaller council districts, Padilla noted that voters rejected an expansion of the Los Angeles City Council during the 1999 charter reform process.

“The voters then said, ‘We don’t necessarily want more politicians. We want politicians who are doing their job.’ It’s the quality of the representation that counts, not the quantity,” Padilla said.

The forum drew about 50 people. It was organized by Town Hall Los Angeles and the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University.

Earlier Thursday, Hahn took his campaign to Sherman Oaks, where he joined affordable-housing advocates to warn that secession could harm L.A.’s efforts to create a $100-million trust fund to tackle the housing crisis.

The city has put $52 million into the fund so far, with the rest pledged for next year. The money will help build 1,500 units of affordable housing annually, Hahn said.

“We made this commitment to the housing trust fund on the basis of being a united city, including the Valley and Hollywood, and the revenues that come from those areas,” Hahn said. “If we don’t have those revenues, everything on the table at City Hall could be in jeopardy.”

Valley VOTE President Jeff Brain later dismissed the mayor’s contentions.