Board to Vote on Waiving Secession Group’s Fee

Activists pushing to study separating the San Fernando Valley from Los Angeles expect some high-profile support today when they ask county supervisors to forgive them payment of a fee to verify the more than 200,000 signatures they collected.

An attorney for Valley VOTE, the group spearheading the drive to break off a third of the city, said civil libertarians and constitutional scholars will be among the speakers arguing that the signatures should be checked free of charge.

Valley VOTE turned in the signatures last week to the Local Agency Formation Commission, the agency that oversees the breakaway process, in hopes of spurring a study on secession.

The group refused to pay the cost of verifying the signatures--which could run as high as $270,000--calling the fee LAFCO usually charges for that service unconstitutional.

Agreeing with the secession activists, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, a LAFCO member, has taken the issue before the Board of Supervisors. Along with Supervisor Mike Antonovich, he plans to ask the board today to waive the fee in what is expected to be a close vote.

If the board refuses to waive the fee, attorneys for Valley VOTE vow to take the issue to court.

Valley VOTE needs signatures from 25% of the Valley’s registered voters--about 132,000 in all--to launch the study. If the study finds Valley secession is economically possible, the issue could go on the ballot as early as 2000.