Ron Kaye missed an important detail

A recent opinion piece, “The advantage of coalescing,” (April 29) by Ron Kaye failed to tell the whole story.

The San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments’ long history of success at ensuring their fair share of countywide resources started with the realization that the only way to compete against Los Angeles City was to unite its 31 cities and unincorporated areas.

However, since the city of Los Angeles is the majority partner in the San Fernando Valley Council of Governments, it must overcome years of mistrust and lost resources drained from the Valley for downtown and West Los Angeles. For this reason, maintaining a unanimous vote is vital for the SFV COG to achieve a track record of success.

Kaye’s dues structure proposal — having each L.A. City Council district pay the same dues as each partnering city (Santa Clarita, Burbank, Glendale, San Fernando) — would give the city of Los Angeles complete control over the COG’s purse strings. If the County doubled its dues to reflect the San Gabriel COG, the County would be responsible for 60% of the funding but only have 20% of the vote.

For this reason, maintaining a consensus-driven working relationship and the current dues structure, until which time this SFVCOG develops a track record of success, is vital.

Michael D. Antonovich

Los Angeles County Supervisor

Metro 1st Vice Chair