Report on Valley City’s Administrative Costs OKd

Sparking new protests from San Fernando Valley secessionists, the Los Angeles City Council approved a report Friday pegging the first-year cost of administering service contracts for a new Valley city at $16.3 million.

That cost, which includes creation of a new citywide contract office, would probably be factored into the contracts for the proposed Valley and Harbor area cities for continued police, fire and other services during a transition period of up to three years, said Chief Legislative Analyst Ron Deaton.

“I don’t think there is any doubt that there are going to be costs to administer this contract,” Deaton said.

Valley VOTE President Jeff Brain dismissed the estimate as “exaggerated.”

Brain said the deputy police chief in charge of Valley policing can continue in that role, and the assistant general manager in charge of parks in the Valley can maintain his oversight.

“They don’t need to require a new department,” he said.

Deaton said there will be additional duties involved in administering the contract.

“You are not running a department when you are administering the contract,” he said.

Almost all of the costs for administering the contract the first year--$16 million--come from the Information Technology Agency, which says it will be expensive to revamp the city’s 145 computer systems to handle two or more cities.

“The estimate was based on the city’s experience with Y2K-related systems costs,” said City Administrative Officer William Fujioka in a report to the council.

The report goes to the Local Agency Formation Commission, which is studying whether it is financially feasible to create new cities in the Valley, Harbor and Hollywood areas. LAFCO, which has not yet decided whether to put the cityhood proposals on the November ballot, had previously estimated the transition costs for changing computer systems for contracting would be about $3.6 million for the Valley.

City officials said Friday that they would need to dedicate 36 employees to contract administration functions, as well as provide office space, adding to the costs. After the first year, the city would need $3 million annually to administer the contract, Fujioka said.

Coming a week after city officials estimated they may need $304 million in alimony from the Valley city after contracts end, the latest city report was denounced by Valley VOTE Chairman Richard Close as “another attempt to sabotage the process.”

“This report today is just another accounting fiction put out by the city,” Close said.