ValleyVote Update for 3-29-01 |
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Reference documents
ValleyVote's original (6-1-99) Vision statement http://www.ValleyVote.org/lafco/090601data.htm
The Full LAFCO report It is a 1.5m PDF I hope you have DSL http://lalafco.co.la.ca.us/IFASanFernandoValley.pdf
The Start of our effort to convert it to a more readable form section 1 only so far. http://www.ValleyVote.org/Lacity/IFA1.htm
Now that an in-depth study confirms that the San Fernando Valley could be a viable, independent city, without harming the rest of Los Angeles, a citywide vote on secession is likely in November 2002.
A 350-page consultant's report for the Local Agency Formation Committee found that an independent Valley city could do just fine without the rest of Los Angeles, and vice versa. That news will come as little surprise to the Valley's 1.3 million or more residents, but it should send a loud and clear message to City Hall: Time is running out.
The study found that the Valley does not get a fair share of city services just as residents of the Valley have long believed. The disparity was estimated to be 7 percent -- that is the Valley pays that much more in taxes than it gets back in city services. So, in a strange irony, secession has a price tag: The study said an independent Valley city would have to pay about $68 million a year to make sure the rest of Los Angeles suffers no harm from Valley secession, as state law requires.
Let's repeat that: The Valley has been and is being shortchanged and because it can't hurt L.A. if it separates, it will have to continue to pay this amount, or the equivalent.
Valley cityhood leaders say that's a small price to pay for a better-run city and that they likely could make up that amount -- and probably more -- with a more efficiently run government.
So unless city leadership can start providing decent services and a better return rate on the Valley's tax dollars, the secession movement will gain strength in the 19 months leading up to the expected cityhood vote in November 2002.
The burden is on City Hall to prove it can treat the neighborhoods fairly after decades of abuse, in which downtown interests, union interests, developer interests and influence peddlers have come first.
If it doesn't, it might not have the Valley to kick around any more.
A good way to tell whether City Hall is serious about keeping Los Angeles united is how it goes about drawing up the plans for a potential divorce. Does City Hall care enough about the Valley to see that an L.A. split would be amicable, or will it use secession as just another opportunity to shortchange the Valley?
The heart of the L.A.-Valley divorce question is the matter of community property. City Hall has abused its power so long it has forgotten that Los Angeles belongs to the people, not the government.
In crafting the terms of separation, City Hall officials will be tempted to make this potential divorce as bad a deal as possible for the Valley, both to prevent Vals from seceding and to punish them if they do.
But respecting the Valley means trusting and respecting it enough to give residents and the city as a whole fair and equitable terms for considering breakup. And that means having respect for the voters who in the end will decide: Which is better, one city or two?
If City Hall tries to rip off the Valley once again, it will surely be the last time.
By Harrison Sheppard Staff Writer
In a major victory for the secession movement, a landmark study for the county agency overseeing breakup found Wednesday that an independent San Fernando Valley city would be financially viable and its creation would not harm the city of Los Angeles.
The study for the Local Agency Formation Commission smooths a path for secession advocates, who have argued for years that a Valley city of 1.3 million people -- which would be the nation's sixth largest -- would provide better services at the same cost to residents.
Water and power could be provided to a Valley city under contract from Los Angeles at the same rates residents of Los Angeles pay, the study said, while the new city could provide police, fire and most other services, and maintain a slight budget surplus even with transition costs.
Richard Close, chairman of cityhood group Valley Voters Organized Toward Empowerment, hailed the study's finding that the Valley does not get its fair share of city services -- identifying a $68 million gap between revenue raised from the Valley and services provided to it. "The report proves what we've said all along: The Valley is not getting its fair share of city services," he said. "The Valley will be viable as a separate city without harming the remainder of Los Angeles. We will get local control."
City officials led by Mayor Richard Riordan spoke out against secession, which is expected to go before voters in November 2002 with majorities needed in the city as a whole and in the Valley for passage. "If the Valley secedes, why not Brentwood, Bel-Air, Pacific Palisades or Eagle Rock?" Riordan said. "That will just leave us with the poor in the city. I think that is immoral. It isn't right and I think, in the end, people will reject this."
This study defuses that argument, often made by secession opponents, finding instead that breakup can be achieved without hurting either side -- as state law requires. The study's finding that the Valley does not get its fair share of city services was surprising only in that the amount was $68 million out of a $4 billion budget -- a fact explained by increased services provided to the Valley by the Riordan administration.
By law, the secession proposal has to be "revenue neutral," meaning it can't financially harm either the Valley or Los Angeles. That means the new Valley city might have to make $68 million in annual payments to Los Angeles as a sort of "alimony" for an indefinite period of time. By the Valley paying that amount, the city of Los Angeles should be able to provide the same level of service to its residents, according to the study.
Some critics questioned such a payment, noting that if the Valley is underserved in the first place, it doesn't seem fair to make it continue paying that difference. "We've paid it (already) by virtue of the fact that we paid for the services we didn't get," said J. Richard Leyner, chairman of the United Chambers of Commerce of the San Fernando Valley and a Valley VOTE board member. "It's like double taxation."
HIGHLIGHTS
• A Valley city would be financially viable.
• The rest of Los Angeles would suffer no financial harm.
• The Valley now pays $68 million more than it gets back in services and would have to continue paying its unfair share to Los Angeles after cityhood.
• The Valley would contract with Los Angeles for water and power at the same rates as residents pay.
• The Valley would contract with Los Angeles for police and fire services for up to three years while setting up its own departments.
• Secession supporters say the Valley would be run more efficiently and grow faster economically so services would improve without higher taxes.
WHAT'S NEXT
• Valley VOTE has 45 days to respond to the LAFCO report and finalize its cityhood plan.
• The city of Los Angeles then has 45 more days to analyze and respond to the Valley VOTE report and LAFCO study.
• LAFCO will analyze both plans, then submit a final study.
• LAFCO will decide whether to present the issue to voters and finalize the terms of detachment.
• The Valley cityhood initiative likely would go before voters in November 2002, with the votes of a majority in both the city as a whole and in the Valley needed to pass.
Still, even with those payments, the Valley city would have a $20 million budget surplus by 2005, the study found. The Valley's total budget would be about $1 billion and it would have 8,564 employees, about half providing police and fire services, out of the 34,607 now employed by Los Angeles.The 370-page report suggests that some major assets, such as Van Nuys Airport, would remain under the control of Los Angeles, while other services, including utilities and technology and communications for police, would be provided on a contract basis by Los Angeles to the new city.
Those suggestions are not absolute, and Valley VOTE can propose other alternatives in the 45-day period it has to respond, but they remain the most likely path.
LAFCO hired Newport Beach-based Public Financial Management in March 2000 for $1.4 million to conduct this study and others. Reports on the Harbor area cityhood proposal should follow later this year, while LAFCO officials are still seeking funding for a Hollywood cityhood study.
Besides studying the feasibility of secession, the study represents the first time the city of Los Angeles has had such a comprehensive portrait of its assets and departments. It contains a series of assumptions and plans for how secession would be achieved, without favoring either support or opposition. It is up to LAFCO to shape the final proposal and decide whether secession should be placed on the ballot, with a target date of November 2002.
Among the study's suggestions:
If the Valley city contracts with the Department of Water and Power, Valley ratepayers would pay the same amount for electricity and water. But the excess revenue that the DWP transfers to the city would remain with Los Angeles.
That would avoid one of the most serious obstacles raised by opponents: how to divide up the massive infrastructure -- underground pipes, reservoirs, water rights outside the city limits, electrical power plants -- that the DWP owns.
That plan contradicts Valley VOTE's original vision, which was that the Valley and Los Angeles would initially create a joint-powers authority to run the DWP together, while negotiating to split up the assets proportionately.
Van Nuys Airport should remain in the possession of Los Angeles World Airports.
This again contradicts Valley VOTE, which proposed a similar joint-powers agreement and negotiations for splitting assets.
But the study said transferring possession of the airport would require approval of the Federal Aviation Administration and the city Board of Airport Commissioners, and the study assumed for now that permission would not be granted.
Police and fire crews transfer to the new Valley city, including 3,374 sworn and civilian police personnel and 1,078 firefighting personnel, in addition to the police and fire stations now located in the Valley. But the Valley city would contract with Los Angeles to provide the centralized dispatch and technology services that are too difficult to divide.
The study still leaves many questions unanswered, such as what happens if Los Angeles refuses to negotiate a contract with the new Valley city. LAFCO officials said they were still studying whether the commission has to power to force an agreement on the two cities.
Valley VOTE President Jeff Brain said the disagreements in the study will not derail their effort. "They felt their scenario is the more appropriate approach," Brain said. "We're not arguing with that. We knew all along that LAFCO had the final say on most of these issues."
By Beth Barrett and Rick Orlov Staff Writers
With the financial soundness of cityhood for the San Fernando Valley validated, the debate over secession now will become an unabashedly political affair, proponents and opponents predicted Wednesday.
Formalizing a final plan will still take months, but the Local Agency Formation Commission's fiscal study found that a Valley city could pay its bills and run services at least at current levels without causing harm to the rest of Los Angeles.
The study found the obstacles to secession could be overcome by a Valley city buying water and power from Los Angeles at the same rates residents pay and contracting for a few special services, but would be able to run police, fire and all the other departments that make up a city government.
"This is all a political question that's been window-dressed in the financials," said Los Angeles County Supervisor and LAFCO member Zev Yaroslavsky.
The LAFCO study showed that what critics of secession have posed as insurmountable obstacles could be resolved fairly, though some thorny questions remain, such as its finding that Los Angeles legally must retain control over Van Nuys Airport.
Although those issues seem navigable, Yaroslavsky said all bets are off if the process is sabotaged by political interests. "The consultants' assumptions are based on people acting like ladies and gentlemen," Yaroslavsky said. "The key issues include electricity, and would the Valley get it from DWP at today's rates, or would the city hold it hostage as a leverage point? It's something I would advise them not to do."
City leaders immediately assailed the study's conclusion that the San Fernando Valley and city could split apart without damaging either, repeating previous assertions that the city could charge the Valley higher water rates.
Mayor Richard Riordan, a longtime opponent of breaking off any part of Los Angeles, criticized LAFCO and dismissed the study's conclusions.
"LAFCO is a very political organization -- made up of politicians who have an ax to grind to see the secession," Riordan said. "I have to disagree with the findings. They (Valley city residents) aren't going to have water and energy -- they'll have to buy that from us. "They don't have our police department or fire department, and I think they'll be taxed more than they are now."
Riordan ordered department heads to review the detailed consultants' report, which was a year in the making, for "accuracy and to provide comment."
The mayor has consistently touted how Valley services have increased during his tenure, despite the study showing it is still shorted some $68 million in services per year. "Secession won't ensure anything but another big bureaucracy," Riordan said.
The issue already has become central to the April 10 mayoral primary in which all six mayor candidates say they oppose the San Fernando Valley breaking away, but have publicly said they will treat the Valley fairly.
City Attorney James Hahn, among the mayoral candidates, promised Wednesday to make sure the city cooperates fully with LAFCO, even as he said he'll continue to campaign to keep the city together. "We have to look at the problems of improving city services rather than spending a lot of effort in figuring out how we go through a divorce," Hahn said.
Former Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, another candidate for mayor, said the study is just the opening of a long civic dialogue. "The fact this study shows that secession can be revenue neutral is just the starting point for the debate," said Villaraigosa, who as speaker helped win approval of $1.8 million in state money to conduct the LAFCO study.
San Fernando Valley civic leader David Fleming predicted that after the primary election, candidates who lose might join in urging the Valley to break from the city with an eye to the 2005 election, in which they could run either as Valley or L.A. candidates. "There'll be a mayor and 15 council members in the Valley," Fleming said. "With the Valley a separate city, it'll be a whole separate ball game they can get into."
Opponents to secession keyed in on several central obstacles Wednesday, including how utilities would be distributed, how a new city would levy fees, and how large assets, like Van Nuys Airport, would be dealt with.
"What do you get out of a new city if the payment is $68 million a year, Los Angeles controls the water rates and you don't get the Van Nuys Airport?" said Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, who headed the ad hoc committee on special reorganizations.
Specifically, Gerald Gewe, assistant general manager of water, said the DWP's rate policies would mandate up to a 30 percent increase for Valley users, consistent with other customers outside the city. He said higher rates probably couldn't be imposed because the courts have ruled against "arbitrary" rate-setting.
There isn't a similar power policy to govern electric prices, Gewe added.
Miscikowski questioned, too, how a new city would deal with fees, and whether after a breakup it would have to win voter approval to impose sewer collection and other charges.
She predicted that L.A. will embark on a thorough review of the LAFCO study, but said she has no reason to believe at this time that it will attempt legal or other action to keep the process from moving ahead.
Airport officials declined comment on one of the most difficult points in the study: any division of Van Nuys Airport.
Other departments, however, agreed with consultants that the transition could be made with relative ease. "It would not appear problematic to police the Valley," said Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Lt. Horace Frank, adding that contractual terms would have to be worked out.
Coalitions that believe the city is better off if it stays together, meanwhile, were gearing up Wednesday to fight a secession movement gaining momentum.
Labor unions, fearing their members will either lose jobs or benefits under a new government despite state legal protections, are preparing to oppose secession of the Valley, said Julie Butcher, general manager of Service Employees International Union, Local 347.
"I think it is totally in the interest of unions within and without the city to keep the city together," Butcher said. "I'll push for labor's voice to be heard loud and clear as to how we can make this wonderful mosaic that is Los Angeles work together."
City employees may begin to host town hall meetings throughout the city to discuss how to address the issues underlying secession movements, particularly better services. "We share these concerns," Butcher said. "We want to figure out how to fill potholes better."
Butcher said city workers are working on innovations, like tree trimmers carrying bags of coal patch so they can fill potholes. Such efforts have intensified in the Valley, she said.
Some politicians also continued to assail breakup as a way to marginalize poor neighborhoods in the inner city.
"I think there has to be an evaluation of the impact to the inner city, when you talk about revenue neutral -- not just the question of this month's costs, revenues and expenditures or this year's budget," said county Supervisor and LAFCO member Yvonne Brathwaite Burke. "We also have to look at investment over a period of time, and exactly the impact to what's left in the city of Los Angeles."
Yaroslavsky said the Valley's secession efforts cannot be viewed as a "white flight" movement. "The San Fernando Valley would be one of the most diverse cities in the country," he said.
Former Assemblywoman Paula Boland, who struggled against heavy political opposition to champion the secession movement, said it will be difficult now that the study has been completed for the city to block allowing the question on the November 2002 ballot. "It would be disingenuous of them to pursue that effort," she said. "I don't think the public will stand for it."
The City Council lost its power to veto secession efforts in 1997 as the result of legislation led by Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, a Democrat from Van Nuys, and Sen. Tom McClintock, a Republican from Thousand Oaks.
McClintock said no anti-secession efforts have surfaced yet in Sacramento, where the electricity crisis has overshadowed everything else. "There's nothing on the horizon, but I'm sure the opponents of self-determination will pull out every stop they can muster, but the issue will ultimately be decided by the voters," McClintock said.
"The great question is whether the people of Los Angeles will restore to the people of the San Fernando Valley the right to choose their own destiny."
By Harrison Sheppard Staff Writer
Now that the first major study of San Fernando Valley cityhood has been released, the clock is ticking.
Valley Voters Organized Toward Empowerment has 45 days to scrutinize the 370-page report that was released Wednesday, analyzing areas it disagrees with, and then drafting its own cityhood plan. Then the city of Los Angeles has 45 days to respond to the study and Valley VOTE's plan.
After that, the consultants for the Local Agency Formation Commission will write their final report, the Comprehensive Fiscal Analysis, expected possibly by October. LAFCO will then use that report to draft the cityhood plan and decide whether the question of secession and creation of a new city should be on the ballot.
Meanwhile, the consultants will also be working on the Harbor-area cityhood proposal, and a Hollywood study as well, if additional funding is secured.
Valley VOTE aims to get the issue on the November 2002 ballot, a goal that can be achieved at the current pace if there are no significant delays, according to LAFCO director Larry Calemine.
Valley VOTE has retained several consultants to help analyze the study. They include the Rosenow Spevacek Group Inc. of Santa Ana and Economic and Planning Systems of Berkeley.
"These two companies have by far the most experience in (municipal) incorporations across the state," said Valley VOTE President Jeff Brain. "They are involved in virtually every incorporation in California."
Attorney Clark Alsop of Riverside, a top expert in LAFCO laws, has worked for Valley VOTE since 1997. He formerly served as counsel to the California Association of LAFCOs.
Brain said the amounts of the contracts have not been determined yet, but he expects them to total in the low six figures. Valley VOTE will also have to step up its fund-raising efforts to pay for the consultants, as well as other efforts leading up to the election.
Valley VOTE board member J. Richard Leyner, chairman of the United Chambers of Commerce of the San Fernando Valley, said the group was reluctant earlier to call on larger companies that do business with the city because they might fear recrimination.
"Now's the time to approach some of those large businesses," Leyner said. "We've been existing on $20, and $50 and $100 (donations) from a lot of smaller people. We (also) have to continue that effort."
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