Secession Study, Land Purchase in Line for Funds If Budget Is OKd

Nature lovers, Mission College, the Skirball Center and political activists pushing to study the effect of secession from Los Angeles are among the biggest beneficiaries in the San Fernando Valley of the $76-billion state budget that appeared to be nearing a final form Monday night.

The state spending plan, which stalled in its last phase in the Assembly, included $5 million for a major land purchase in the undeveloped Verdugo Mountains overlooking Burbank and Glendale.

After intense politicking last week, state lawmakers also agreed to pay a third of the estimated $1-million cost of studying Valley secession from the city of Los Angeles. The state’s share, $340,000, is contingent on the city and Los Angeles County picking up the rest of the tab and of Valley activists gathering 135,000 petition signatures by Aug. 27.

Legislators delivered the mammoth budget 56 days past its legal due date and tossed in a grab bag of goodies for Valley colleges and schools, the Skirball Cultural Center and Griffith Park.

But nothing is official yet--not until the governor finishes wielding his powerful blue pencil, employing his line-item veto power to slash budget items he considers unworthy.

“The governor can blue-pencil anything, so I don’t know what may or may not survive,” said Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica). “I wouldn’t dare second-guess him.”

Among the highlights being touted by lawmakers from the Valley as the budget neared its final stage were:

* $1.5 million to start fixing faulty plumbing at Griffith Park. Eventually, an estimated $60 million in repairs may be required to fix the park’s water system, which has fallen into such disrepair that state health officials are monitoring water quality at the park. Firefighters called to battle brush fires in the park have found out-of-service fire hydrants.

* $150,000 for a health survey of residents near Rocketdyne’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory, northwest of Chatsworth on the border of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Kuehl and Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) pushed for the funding, although federal financial support for the survey may not come through.

* $4.2 million for the expansion of Mission College in Sylmar. The money is for the purchase of up to 60 acres next to the community college, which will be the home of a new multimedia program and fine arts facility.

* $2 million for the Skirball Cultural Center, a museum that focuses on the Jewish experience, for a new educational center. The center will explore how immigrant children of all ethnicities settle in the country and adjust to American democratic values.

* $11.3 for Cal State Northridge, to be used to renovate the old Camarillo State Hospital in Ventura County into a satellite campus.

* $100,000 for the Burbank and Glendale unified school districts for a training program to help students learn high-tech job skills. The Manufacturing Technologies Laboratory also will teach students how to compete for coveted, high-paying jobs. The cost of the program will be shared with the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn.

Monday night, VICA Director Bonny Herman also called on state lawmakers to include funding for additional SuperScooper firefighting aircraft to help Los Angeles County during the brush-fire season. The status of the request could not be determined Monday night. The county leases two planes each year, and legislators were considering a lease-purchase agreement for two to four additional aircraft.

The state money for land purchases in the Verdugo Mountains will help preserve a valuable oak habitat that is home to deer, mountain lions, foxes and other wildlife threatened by city sprawl, said Rorie Skei of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

“It’s one of those unusually pristine, open-space mountain areas that survives in the heart of an urbanized area,” Skei said.

The $5 million in state money, lobbied for by Assemblyman Scott Wildman (D-Los Angeles), will pay for 238 acres in a region south of the Foothill Freeway near Glendale and Burbank.

The state’s $340,000 contribution to a study of Valley secession helps settle a brewing controversy over who was going to pay for the research--the state, county, city or Valley activists petitioning for the study.

“It will give a real boost to our efforts,” said Jeff Brain, president of Valley VOTE, the group leading the petition drive. “The steps that the state has taken recognizes the citizens calling to have this issue explored.”

The study will be conducted by the Local Agency Formation Commission, a state authority whose members are appointed by local governments, if Valley VOTE is able to gather 135,000 signatures from voters by Aug. 27.

The budget also includes $220,000 for the Commission on Local Governance for the 21st Century, a state panel that will conduct a yearlong study on how California’s local governments set their boundaries. The panel was created last year by legislation sponsored by Assemblyman Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks), but was not funded.