Panel Backs City Funds for Study of Secession

The Los Angeles City Council’s new committee on secession held its inaugural meeting Thursday and recommended that the city pay the final 10% of the cost needed to fund a study of the San Fernando Valley’s proposed split from the city.

After a lengthy briefing on the secession issue by city and county officials, the five-member panel recommended that Los Angeles fund the remaining $225,000 needed to cover the Valley secession study, expected to cost $2.3 million. Council members Joel Wachs, Cindy Miscikowski and Rudy Svorinich supported the recommendation, with Councilman Nate Holden dissenting. Councilman Nick Pacheco was not present for the vote.

“It’s important that we give a signal that we will cooperate,” Wachs said, rejecting suggestions by Chief Legislative Analyst Ron Deaton that the panel wait until the costs of studying secession are better known.

The state Legislature agreed to pay $1.8 million, or 80% of the study’s cost, as part of the state budget, and the county Board of Supervisors agreed to fund 10% more, but the source of the final 10% has yet to be determined. The recommendation will now go to the council’s budget and finance committee for approval, and will eventually have to be approved by the full council.

In addition to discussing funding for a Valley secession study, the commission agreed to recommend that the city pick up 10% of the cost of a study on San Pedro-Wilmington secession from Los Angeles. County officials announced Wednesday that, like in the Valley, activists in the harbor communities have also raised enough signatures to trigger a study of municipal divorce.

However, council members disagreed over what should happen if the remainder of the funding for a Harbor-area secession study, which has yet to be funded by the state or county, falls through.

Svorinich argued that, if the other agencies refuse to fund the Harbor study, the city should fund it. But Holden, an unabashed secession foe, said making that declaration amounted to the city telling the state and county that they did not have to share the tab.

Holden also said he doubted state leaders would fund a Harbor secession study, arguing that the only reason they did so for the Valley is that certain legislators were trying to curry favor with the Valley in preparation for a run at city office--a clear jab at Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles), a potential mayoral candidate.

“There is not a good chance at all for San Pedro to get 80% out of Sacramento--none at all,” Holden said. “The Valley got 80% because certain people want to run for citywide office and make themselves look good.”