Ruling Extends Period for Secession Petitions

The office of the state legislative counsel said Tuesday that San Fernando Valley secessionists should have six months, not three, to complete a petition drive that could kick off an effort to carve up Los Angeles.

Deputy Legislative Counsel Paul Antilla said efforts by a group known as Valley VOTE fall under a “special reorganization” law that would give the activists 180 days to gather the required 135,000 valid signatures--twice as long as worried Valley VOTE leaders believed last week they might be limited to.

While cheering the development, the group’s leaders acknowledged that the tussle over the length of time allowed to collect signatures would be but one of many as they seek to create what would be the nation’s sixth largest municipality.

“Today we’re celebrating a victory that will give us major time,” said Valley VOTE co-founder Richard Close. But, he added: “The number of [required] signatures hasn’t gone down, we just have more time. It is a huge task when you have to get one out of four voters in the Valley.”

The ruling by the legislative counsel is not binding and could be challenged by opponents.

“Other law offices or the attorney general or city attorneys or anyone else can disagree,” Antilla said. “It’s our interpretation of the statute.”

Valley VOTE members, who have sought legislation granting them the more common 180-day time limit, said they would wait to evaluate the counsel’s written decision before deciding if they would continue to seek a legislative solution in Sacramento and just how they might go about that.

Assemblyman Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks), who helped write the secession bill last year and asked for the counsel’s evaluation, has asked to have the written decision in-hand by the end of the month, said Christopher Carlisle, a legislative analyst in Hertzberg’s office.

While Close said his group decided to take a wait-and-see approach, Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky planned to put a motion before the board Tuesday asking that body to encourage six-month legislation.

“That’s encouraging,” said Yaroslavsky spokesman Joel Bellman upon learning of the legislative counsel’s ruling. But, he added: “Since this is nonbinding advice, it would be risky to rely on this [decision]. It would seem the better part of valor to seek unambiguous legislation.”

A bill adopted last year that strips the City Council of the power to veto secession also requires Valley VOTE to collect 135,000 signatures as a first step toward an eventual citywide vote on the issue.

The group hopes to begin its petition drive in May, though it may initiate the process at any time. The stopwatch would begin ticking when the first signature is collected.

Valley VOTE organizers said that 6,000 volunteers will be needed to collect the necessary signatures, and that just 2,000 have expressed interest so far.