Valley City Could Survive on Own, Report Asserts

The San Fernando Valley is financially robust enough to survive on its own, a report released Friday concluded, clearing the way for a possible November vote on whether to break up Los Angeles, the nation’s second-largest city.

The proposed Valley city would have 1.35 million residents, 14 city council districts, an elected mayor, an airport and a $1-billion budget, according to the report by the Local Agency Formation Commission. A Valley city would be the nation’s sixth largest, and Los Angeles, with just 2.34 million people remaining, would fall to third place behind New York and Chicago.

Valley cityhood now has another step to take before landing on the ballot: a vote next month by the nine-member LAFCO board, which oversees the creation of cities. If the board finds secession would not financially hurt the Valley or the rest of Los Angeles, it could call for a citywide vote as soon as Nov. 5.

“The people of the city of Los Angeles and the people of the San Fernando Valley will have a choice to make in November if LAFCO puts this on the ballot, which I expect they will,” said county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who sits on the state commission and heads a key secession subcommittee.

The report--a blueprint for splitting up the city--set the stage for a contentious political campaign to come, a contest that both advocates and critics have welcomed as a showdown over the shape of Los Angeles.

“It’s historic,” said Richard Close, chairman of the secession group Valley VOTE. “This will benefit everyone in the city, because everyone will have smaller, more responsive government.”

Critics, led by Mayor James K. Hahn, disagree, saying that secession will add to bureaucracy and do little to help either the breakaway areas or the city that they are attempting to leave.

To ensure that L.A. is compensated for revenue lost with the departure of a third of its residents and nearly half its land, a Valley city would pay Los Angeles $55.8 million per year, an amount that would decrease by 5% a year, over a 20-year term.

Under the terms laid out in the report, a new Valley city would launch on July 1, 2003. During a transition period of one year, it would contract with Los Angeles for essential services such as garbage collection, police and fire protection, but could set up its own departments after that.

It would be shaped like an arrowhead, its bottom running along Mulholland Drive and its top arching up through Chatsworth to Sylmar and then jutting out into Sunland and Tujunga. It would completely surround the tiny city of San Fernando, just as northern Los Angeles does now.

Utility Rates Would Be the Same in Valley, L.A.

Los Angeles would retain control of its water, power and sewer systems beyond the transition period, and would continue to provide those services to a Valley city. Utility rates paid by Valley customers would be the same as those in Los Angeles.

City employees would decide for themselves whether they wanted to apply to work in a Valley city. Collective bargaining agreements would be honored, and most workers would keep their pensions. But about 5,100 police and fire employees could lose the money in their pension plans if they transfer to the new city, because those pensions don’t vest until employees have been with the city for 10 years.

Van Nuys Airport, which is owned and operated by Los Angeles, would become the property of the new city, pending approval from the Federal Aviation Administration. Most parks, libraries, police and fire stations would also transfer to the new city.

The new city would also get some of Los Angeles’ cash reserves, but would have to overcome an $18-million shortfall the first year through either a hiring freeze, borrowing or new fees.

The report questioned the Hahn administration’s contention that larger cities provide services more cheaply, suggesting instead that Los Angeles would save money if the Valley were jettisoned.

LAFCO is widely expected to adopt the report, perhaps with minor changes, at its meeting May 15. The secession proposal would then go to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, which must place it on the ballot if asked to do so by LAFCO.

A secession election would be held citywide. To win, the proposal must be approved both by a majority of voters within the Valley and a majority citywide. The commission is also considering separate secession measures for Hollywood and the harbor area.

“My recommendation is that it should go forward,” said Larry Calemine, executive director of the commission and the author of the report.

In the works for 2 1/2 years, the report could provide fodder for both sides in the secession election campaign, which already has begun in earnest. Hahn, joined by former Mayor Richard J. Riordan, City Council members, the heads of most labor unions and some of the city’s leading power brokers, has sworn to fight secession, which grew out of the Proposition 13 and antibusing movements in the Valley.

Under state law, a community can only secede from a city or county if a study such as the one released Friday shows that it can survive on its own. In addition, if the community’s departure would harm the remaining city or county, it must pay an annual fee--known colloquially as an alimony payment--to the part of town left behind.

On Friday, the mayor focused on the potential negative effects of secession.

Contrary to what many believe, Hahn said, breaking apart the city will not split up the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Secession “will likely mean reduced services for the new city and it will harm the remaining neighborhoods of Los Angeles,” the mayor said. “It means more bureaucracy, more politicians, fewer resources and fewer services.”

Jeff Daar, co-chairman of the anti-secession group One Los Angeles, criticized the report, saying that it ignores key questions about the cost and quality of services in a new city.

He also said his group would petition LAFCO to change the way the election would be handled. According to the report, a Valley council and mayor would be elected on the same November ballot as the secession question. But that, Daar said, would distract voters from the real issue of whether secession would be appropriate.

Although the secession movement started in the Valley, it has expanded over the years to include proposals for the harbor area and Hollywood, which might also go on the November ballot.

Last month, a Times poll showed that 55% of registered voters in the Valley and 46% of voters citywide favored secession for the San Fernando Valley, an increase of 10 points citywide over the previous year.

Black Voters Could Be Key in Decision

Secession also picked up steam recently thanks to an unlikely alliance between secession proponents and some of the city’s African-American leaders, who are angry about the decision not to reappoint Police Chief Bernard C. Parks for a second term.

Their frustration could be key to the measure’s success, said William Fulton, president of the consulting group Solimar Research of Ventura and a noted expert on Los Angeles history and politics.

“There is an odd alliance of white citizens who want to leave and African Americans who want them to leave,” he added. “That will be an interesting political strategy that Valley secessionists will have to mount.”

Both campaigns, Fulton said, “will have to go after the hearts and minds of African Americans. They will become the most important voting bloc in this election.”

The Valley joined Los Angeles in 1915 in order to use water brought in through the 233-mile Los Angeles Aqueduct. Although the water gushed through the San Fernando Valley on its way to L.A., Valley residents could not use it unless they annexed themselves to the larger city.

But under rules laid out in Friday’s report, if Valley residents quit the city now, they’ll have their water--and at the same price Los Angeles residents pay for it.

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Times staff writer Karima A. Haynes contributed to this report.

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