Valley Cityhood

Re "Civic Jabberwocky," March 8. Once again, The Times has cast its shadow on the dark side of the movement to form a new city in the San Fernando Valley. If there is a negative angle to be found, The Times manages to seek it out. As part of the process of investigating Valley cityhood, we discovered that current state law requires that the initial government be formed with five city council members. The Times does properly state that a quick expansion to nine council members is available.

Call it the revenge of the secessionists. Two years after Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn headed the campaign that defeated San Fernando Valley's bid for cityhood, leaders of the breakaway effort are lining up to back former state Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg to unseat the incumbent. Hertzberg, an attorney from Sherman Oaks, represented the Valley for six years in the Assembly.

Call it the revenge of the secessionists. Two years after Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn headed the campaign that defeated San Fernando Valley's bid for cityhood, leaders of the breakaway effort are lining up to back former state Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg to unseat the incumbent. Hertzberg, an attorney from Sherman Oaks, represented the Valley for six years in the Assembly.

Despite their defeat in last month's election, San Fernando Valley secession leaders demanded in a meeting with Mayor James K. Hahn on Monday that City Hall undergo dramatic reform and significantly improve city services beyond what officials have proposed, or risk another drive to split the city.

Despite reservations, the Los Angeles City Council approved $265,000 on Wednesday as its share of the cost of studies to determine the financial effects of the San Fernando Valley's and Harbor area's potential break from Los Angeles. The council voted 10 to 1, with Councilman Nate Holden in opposition, to provide $225,000 toward the Local Agency Formation Commission's $2.2-million study of Valley cityhood and $40,000 toward the agency's $400,000 study of Harbor cityhood.

A study that found San Fernando Valley cityhood feasible but dauntingly expensive gives secessionists some ammunition for their campaign but also provides support for those who want Los Angeles to stay together, political experts said Wednesday. The 400-page report, billed as the most extensive analysis ever of local government operations, has provided a feast for the political spin doctors on both sides of the issue.

[On March 16] a poll was released by two of Los Angeles' most respected residents. It confirmed overwhelming support for the study of Valley cityhood and revealed that two-thirds of Valley voters would vote to form a new Valley city now ("Valley Survey Indicates Support for Secession," March 17). The poll showed extremely high support for cityhood among Valley voters of all economic strata and ethnic backgrounds. Eight out of 10 are prepared to sign a petition to request that the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO)

Re "Mirror, Mirror," Political Briefing, March 20. I read with great interest comments regarding how Valley voters perceived the effectiveness of various City Council members in a recent poll. The poll indicated that first-term Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski received a "very good" rating of only 3.2%, with an unsure / declined rating of 59.5. [Miscikowski] has worked hard and effectively on behalf of her constituents during her relatively short tenure on council. She is more interested in getting things done than merely seeking headlines.

Re "Backing a Secession Study Doesn't Equate to Favoring a Split," Jan. 7. As chairman of the United Chambers of Commerce, I can assure your readers that Valley VOTE has significant organizational support, including virtually every Valley Chamber of Commerce and homeowners group. Never before has the San Fernando Valley been so united behind any one issue. From one end of the Valley to the other, people support the LAFCO [Local Agency Formation Commission] study to determine if the Valley would be better off as its own city.

Tiny, quiet Castaic was invaded Saturday by a dozen leaflet-toting proponents of cityhood for the Santa Clarita Valley. The quiet community of about 1,000 households, which lies along the Golden State Freeway near Lake Hughes, is at the center of a struggle for the creation of the city of Santa Clarita. The committee pushing for cityhood had included Castaic within the proposed boundaries of the city, along with Canyon Country, Saugus, Newhall and Valencia.

The margin of defeat for San Fernando Valley secession grew slightly Tuesday with a new tally of citywide votes that were not counted on election night. The measure was defeated Nov. 5 by 66.98% of the vote, according to the new results released Tuesday by the county, up from 66.93% on election night. About 43,000 provisional ballots have yet to be reviewed countywide, and some of those may be counted in a final tally.

Hours after their hopes of forging a separate city from Los Angeles died at the polls, San Fernando Valley secessionists grasped onto a silver lining Wednesday in the slender margin of yes votes cast by Valley voters. Los Angeles voters rejected both Valley and Hollywood breakup proposals by resounding margins in Tuesday's election. But in the Valley, the secession movement's birthplace and enduring stronghold, voters were almost evenly split.

If the San Fernando Valley aspires to be its own city, where would main street be? Which of the Valley's roadways best summarizes the area's character and commerce? "Well, it would be Ventura Boulevard. It always has been," said Sam Hodes, picking up his morning paper at a newsstand just off the busy street. "It's the hub of the Valley--Encino, Sherman Oaks, office buildings."

San Fernando Valley secession leaders told a skeptical audience of downtown executives Thursday that breaking up the city would force Los Angeles to lower taxes and take other steps to nurture business growth. Venturing into what one executive called a "lion's den," Valley mayoral candidates Mel Wilson and Keith Richman addressed a forum of more than 250 members of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, Central City Assn. and Los Angeles Headquarters Assn. The chamber and Central City Assn.

A dispute within a national Latino political group over San Fernando Valley cityhood has become public, with a vice president announcing the organization's support for secession and the president saying no such endorsement had been made. Both sides said the matter would probably be settled Saturday at a meeting of the Mexican American Political Assn.'s national executive board. "Until then, there is no national MAPA endorsement of Valley secession," national President Steve Figueroa said.

San Fernando Valley cityhood proponents are expected to lose a high-profile aspirant for mayor of the would-be city today, at a time when two secession leaders say they would drop the civic breakaway attempt if a plan for a vastly revamped Los Angeles government could replace it on the November ballot. The twin developments are a sign of the waning prospects of voters approving a separate city in the Valley, some political analysts and supporters of a united Los Angeles said Wednesday.

Pointing to the results of a new Los Angeles Times poll, city officials Tuesday labeled Hollywood secession a flop and said the San Fernando Valley breakaway effort is already stalling months before the Nov. 5 vote. Secessionists countered that their campaigns are just getting underway and wrote off the poll results as irrelevant.