Senate Approves Extension for Valley Petition

SACRAMENTO —  The state Senate on Wednesday unanimously passed emergency legislation to give San Fernando Valley activists three extra months to petition for a study and possible ballot initiative on Valley secession from Los Angeles.

The additional time would be a godsend to Valley VOTE, the group leading the campaign, which is struggling to collect the 135,000 signatures of registered Valley voters required to trigger the secession study. Valley VOTE had collected 116,900 signatures as of Tuesday, with nine days to go until its Aug. 27 deadline.

Assemblyman Robert Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) introduced the time-extension bill to clarify a legal dispute over whether Valley VOTE had 90 or 180 days to complete its petition drive. Leaders of Valley VOTE decided to err on the side of caution, and organized their campaign under the assumption they had only 90 days.

The measure, which would postpone the deadline to late November, passed the Senate 37-0 and now heads to the Assembly, where it may come up for a vote as soon as Monday, Hertzberg said.

He said he expects another favorable vote, pointing out that Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) is among the bill’s co-sponsors.

“It’s certainly looking better,” said Hertzberg, who filed the emergency bill just a week ago. “The vote on the Senate floor is very, very positive.”

The final hurdle will be Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, whose office indicated Wednesday that he will probably sign the bill.

“The governor hasn’t had a chance to review the bill yet, but will look upon it favorably,” said Sean Walsh, Wilson’s spokesman. “He supports self-determination for the Valley.”

Valley VOTE Chairman Richard Close said the organization still plans to run its campaign as if time runs out on Aug. 27--and won’t relax until the governor signs the 90-day reprieve.

“There’s still a lot that has to happen for this to be any help to us, but it’s good news,” Close said.

Gathering 135,000 valid signatures would be a “virtual certainty” if the deadline extension were approved, Close said. If the signature drive is successful, the Local Agency Formation Commission must study the feasibility of creating an independent Valley city and assess the financial effect it would have on the remaining city of Los Angeles. It would be up to LAFCO to decide whether to place secession on the ballot for a citywide vote--which could happen as early as 2000.

Even Hertzberg acknowledged that, at first, approval of the bill was a long shot. The measure requires a two-thirds vote in both the Senate and Assembly, plus the governor’s approval.

The outlook brightened considerably when staunch secession opponents in the Legislature came out in support of the bill, with Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) chief among them.

While still opposed to the creation of an independent Valley city, Polanco said he voted for the extension to make amends with Valley VOTE after officials ousted its signature gatherers from an air show at the city-owned Van Nuys Airport in July.

The petition process should not be hindered, Polanco said.

“With me, it’s an issue of fairness,” he said. “I still do not believe the city of Los Angeles should be broken up, but I distinguish between the two issues.”

Valley VOTE leaders, who contend that the airport incident might have cost them upward of 40,000 signatures, have filed a lawsuit against the city in U.S. District Court.

In a related action Wednesday, Valley VOTE criticized the Los Angeles Times, saying the newspaper should release financial statements showing it supports a downtown business group that Valley VOTE said opposes secession. Times Publisher Mark Willes is a member of the group--Los Angeles Business Advisors. He said the company had paid his personal dues to belong to the group, but that his membership has no effect on the newspaper’s reporting.

Valley VOTE’s board passed a motion urging “the Los Angeles Times to clarify its role in the Los Angeles Business Advisors, [and] deal openly and honestly with this issue.”

“The Times Mirror Corp. is not only one of the most powerful corporations in the city, but the Los Angeles Times is the regional shaper of opinion,” said Valley VOTE board member Steve Pearl, an Encino attorney. “That can’t be overestimated.”

Willes called the Valley VOTE demands “silly.”

He said Times Mirror paid his $40,000 membership dues to LABA, and that three members of the parent corporation’s board of directors also are members of the downtown business group. However, Times Mirror does not pay their dues.

Willes said LABA is a broad-based business coalition, and while city charter reform is of great concern to the group, it is by no means the primary focus: “LABA tries hard to take on issues that are good for the whole community,” he said.

Also, Willes said, his $40,000 dues account for less than 5% of LABA’s total funds. In comparison, the Daily News has become Valley VOTE’s largest donor, and has contributed $60,000 to the organization, which amounts to more than 30% of the group’s finances, he said.

Still, Willes said he “didn’t have any philosophical problem” with the Daily News contribution to the Valley VOTE campaign, saying it is not unusual for newspapers to strive to improve their communities.

The important factor is to keep the corporation’s activities from influencing what is printed in its news columns, he said.

“The key is to be very clear institutionally about the line between the independence of reporters and editors in the newsroom, and what the newspaper does institutionally on its editorial or the newspaper’s corporate side, in terms on being involved in nonpartisan political activities,” he said.

Willes said he opposes Valley secession, saying it would be harmful to the Los Angeles area, and he opposes reforming the city charter to give neighborhood councils more power. Creating “another layer of bureaucracy” hinders accountability and would make doing business in Los Angeles more difficult, he said.

In still another development, a group claiming to represent Valley business leaders--although the major Valley business group denied it had joined--announced it has formed an alliance with homeowners groups to push for shifting some power away from the City Council to neighborhood councils, an option under consideration by city charter reformers. The group said it would fight downtown-based business interests that oppose such a shift.

The Valley business group, which calls itself The Coalition, says it favors the power shift to neighborhood councils and opposes the downtown-based LABA, which opposes such a shift. Bill Powers, a spokesman for The Coalition, said it will make its views known Thursday at a Charter Reform Task Force hearing.

“Our objective is to provide local empowerment to our community,” said Powers, an attorney and vice chairman of the United Chambers of Commerce in the Valley. “LABA doesn’t want to do that. They refuse to even consider neighborhood councils.”

Powers said The Coalition also includes the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn., the San Fernando Valley Federation and the Westside Civic Federation.

But VICA Chairman Steve Lew said his association--the major voice of Valley business interests--”has not joined a coalition.”

VICA will continue to cooperate with LABA and other Valley and downtown organizations interested in meaningful charter reform, Lew said Wednesday. His organization agrees with some of LABA’s proposals and disagrees with others, he said. In general, VICA supports more local empowerment by establishing independent city boroughs, loosely similar to those in New York City, Lew said.

Willon reported from Los Angeles and Vanzi from Sacramento.