ValleyVote Update for 5-24-01 |
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By Dominic Berbeo Staff Writer
Religious and civic leaders from the San Fernando Valley told a clerical inquiry into the morality of secession Wednesday that a "more efficient and responsive" government would result from Valley cityhood to better serve everyone -- rich and poor.
The closed-door meeting at the downtown headquarters of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles was called at the request of Cardinal Roger Mahony to study the moral and ethical implications of slicing Los Angeles into separate cities.
Key leaders of the Valley Voters Organized Toward Empowerment secession movement objected to the closed-door inquiry and refused to appear but sent seven representatives mainly involved in programs aimed at helping disadvantaged people.
"For 20 years, the people of the San Fernando Valley have felt shortchanged by City Hall," Barry Smedberg, executive director of the San Fernando Valley Interfaith Council, said after the meeting. "The city spends only 1 percent of its budget on programs that serve the needy. In many regards the city of Los Angeles (is) already failing its residents every day."
Mayor Richard Riordan, who urged Mahony to get involved in the secession discussion, has said Valley secession would be immoral because it would hurt the poor.
But the Rev. Zedar Broadous, another Valley representative and president of the NAACP Valley chapter, said the assumption that the poor would be hurt by secession is misleading. "The reality is that there are needy living across the entire city," he said. "We know that smaller governments on both sides would be more responsive to everyone living on both sides."
Broadous said the meeting with the panel, appointed by a 12-member citywide Council of Religious Leaders, was "very friendly" and was primarily an opportunity for Valley leaders to explain to the panel the benefits of secession for those historically underrepresented at City Hall. "The people involved in this effort truly have a concern for everyone, including the needy," he said. "A more efficient and more responsive government would ensure that those that are less fortunate are served."
Members of the panel did not attend the news conference following the private meeting, and they were not available for comment.
The stated purpose for setting up the panel and holding meetings is to assess whether there are any moral or ethical questions that should be raised over current secession efforts in the Valley, Hollywood and San Pedro-Wilmington areas, according to archdiocese spokesman Tod Tamberg.
But Valley secession leaders, including Valley VOTE chairman Richard Close, have likened the meetings to an "inquisition" with a political agenda of challenging secession efforts. They have instead invited the council to hold an open public meeting in the Valley, an idea Tamberg said the council would consider.
Future meetings are also planned to hear from Hollywood and San Pedro secession leaders, Tamberg said. A final analysis of the meetings will be submitted to the council in the fall.
Close declined an invitation to Wednesday's meeting, claiming its closed-door format was not democratic, a criticism also voiced in a letter Tuesday to Mahony from the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, which described the inquiry as neither open nor balanced.
"The Council's study of the morality of municipal reorganization, in VICA's opinion, would be an open and balanced process," three VICA officials -- Bob Scott, Randall Neudeck and Sanford Paris -- wrote in the letter. The three are co-chairmen of a VICA ad hoc committee on Valley secession and said they wrote on behalf of the board of directors of the 52-year-old association.
"We would urge the Council to reconsider its approach to this issue and to address the broader range of moral and ethical issues, to weigh and balance the political and economic elements -- and most importantly to err, if at all, on the side of representative democracy."
Tamberg said the meeting was cordial and productive and panel members acknowledged that the [LA] city must improve its services to the poor.
"They were very helpful in giving us the human face of the people that need to be serviced better, regardless of secession," he said.
Tamberg said the council chose to hold the session behind closed doors to allow invitees to express themselves more freely without scrutiny, making for more "dynamic" discussion, he said. [The invitees from the Valley all objected to the closed door hearing]
But former state legislator Richard Katz, representing Valley VOTE at the meeting, said the process would have been much more productive had it been public. "How do you determine morality in a vacuum?" he said.
Besides Katz, Smedberg and Broadous, others representing the Valley included Pastor Scott Bauer of the Church on the Way, Rev. Ron Cumler of St. Martin in the Fields, Ellen Michiel, executive director of the West Valley Development Corp., and Northeast Valley activist Benny Bernal.
Breakup: Valley clerics tell panel studying ethics of split that the needy may get more attention, services.
By PATRICK MCGREEVY, Times Staff Writer
Los Angeles is failing its poor, and splitting the city in two could result in better help for the neediest, a delegation of San Fernando Valley clerics on Wednesday told a panel investigating the morality of secession. Six religious leaders and others addressed a panel convened by Roman Catholic Cardinal Roger Mahony and appointed by the multidenominational Council of Religious Leaders.
"We are confident that we made a compelling case that the people of Los Angeles, particularly the poor, seek to gain a great deal by reorganizing Los Angeles into two smaller cities," said Barry A. Smedberg, executive director of the San Fernando Valley Interfaith Council, at a news conference after the two-hour closed-door session at the Archdiocesan Catholic Center near downtown.
The panel is looking into the moral and ethical implications of proposals for the Valley, Hollywood and Harbor areas to break away from Los Angeles. Several said the panel should consider the consequences of the city's failure to serve the poor, as well as the effect of secession by the Valley.
Smedberg, whose interfaith council represents about 420 Valley congregations, said the session was "very productive and enlightening." He told the panel that Valley cityhood has been structured so as not to drain money from the rest of Los Angeles.
The Rev. Ron Culmer told the working group that only 1% of the Los Angeles city budget is for housing, health and community development, compared with 13% in Burbank and 20% in Glendale. "My chief concern as a minister of the church is to be a voice for the poor, and I spoke of how having the Valley separating from Los Angeles could be a way in which the poor are empowered," said Culmer, pastor of St. Martin in the Fields Episcopal Church in Canoga Park. He and Ellen Michiel, a Catholic lay minister who heads a Valley affordable-housing agency, also said smaller cities could better tailor social programs to local needs.
Participants said some panel members acknowledged the city's shortcomings but questioned whether secession is the best solution. There may be other alternatives, but some, including charter reform, have not yet shown results, said the Rev. Zedar Broadous, president of the Valley branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People.
Broadous, a member of the board of Valley VOTE, the main group pushing Valley secession, told the panel he doesn't see the breakaway proposal will amount to the more affluent abandoning the poor. He said he himself is undecided on secession. "I don't see this as a white-flight issue," said Broadous, an associate minister at Calvary Baptist Church in Pacoima.
The Valley clerics were accompanied by Adrian Dove, president of the California Congress for Racial Equality. Dove, a resident of South-Central, told the working group that poor residents of his area and the Valley would have better access to their government in smaller cities.
Tod Tamberg, a spokesman for the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, said the panel will convey the information it collects to the Council of Religious Leaders, which may or may not issue a report, depending on whether it determines there is a moral or ethical problem. "These meetings are informational meetings, so it was an opportunity for the people who are representing Valley secession to give us their best arguments as to why secession is the only option," [The stated purpose of the meeting was to see the effect of secession on the poor] Tamberg said.
Meanwhile, leaders representing the board of directors of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn. sent a letter to Mahony on Wednesday objecting that the working group "is neither open in its processes nor balanced in its membership." The letter, signed by Bob Scott, Randall Neudeck and Sanford Paris, co-chairs of a VICA committee on secession, urged the working group to hold its meetings in public and to weigh political and economic issues. Scott is also a board member for Valley VOTE. "It is our belief that the special reorganization process is not a religious exercise but one of political analysis," they wrote.
Others addressing the panel were the Rev. Scott Bauer of the Church on the Way; Jeff Brain, President of Valley VOTE; former Assemblyman Richard Katz, a board member of Valley VOTE; and Benny Bernal, a union activist from the northeast Valley.
By Dominic Berbeo Staff Writer
Valley secessionists will send local religious leaders to speak in favor of cityhood at a closed-door meeting of Cardinal Roger Mahony's panel studying the "moral and ethical implications" of breaking up Los Angeles.
Concerned about the secrecy of the hearings and deliberations of the panel, Valley Voters Organized Toward Empowerment leaders decided Monday to send local religious rather than civic leaders to discuss efforts to help the poor -- the main focus of the inquiry -- and the failure of City Hall downtown to support them.
"If two new cities are created, does that benefit or harm poor people? That's the moral question," said Ellen Michiel, executive director of the West Valley Community Development Corp., which helps provide low-income housing. "It is my belief and conviction that poor people are benefited where they are empowered and have access to government."
Michiel and others are scheduled to attend a meeting of the religious panel Wednesday, with the working group appointed by the 12 members of the Council of Religious Leaders representing different faiths.
While secession leaders -- such as Jeff Brain, president of Valley VOTE, and Richard Katz, the group's government relations chairman -- might attend the sessions, they say it would be more appropriate for civic activists involved in religious work to explain why Valley secession would have morally positive consequences. "We welcome the opportunity to have these individuals step forward and speak on behalf of the Valley, and explain why secession efforts are moral," Brain of Valley VOTE said.
"These individuals are going because they believe that whether or not they support secession, they feel that the issue of Valley independence will in fact benefit the poor both in the Valley and in Los Angeles and they will make the case for why they believe that, he said."
Those attending the session from the Valley will include Barry Smedberg of the Valley Interfaith Council, the Rev. Zedar Broadus of the NAACP's Valley chapter, the Rev. Scott Bauer of the Church of the Way, the Rev. Ron Culmer of Saint Martin's in the Field. Michiel said she will attend on her own behalf and not as a representative of the nonprofit she directs.
Mahony called the sessions after being urged to do so by Mayor Richard Riordan, who has asserted that secession is immoral because Valley residents have an obligation to help the poor that would not be met if the area became its own city. Mahony has said the sessions are only for information-gathering purposes and the church has no official stance on secession yet.
The members of the religious panel include Thomas Chabolla, who heads the Catholic Archdiocese's office of justice and peace; Fran Burnford, representing the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America; the Rev. Jim Conn of the United Methodist Church; Father Arshag Khatchadourian of the Diocese of the Armenian Orthodox Church; the Rev. Madison Shockley of the United Church of Christ; and Rabbi Mark Diamond of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California.
Breakup: Valley VOTE chairman says closed-door discussion with ethics panel is inappropriate.
By PATRICK MCGREEVY, Times Staff Writer
Comparing it to an "inquisition" shrouded in secrecy, a leading San Fernando Valley activist Monday refused to attend a closed-door discussion called by Roman Catholic Cardinal Roger Mahony on the morality of secession.
Richard Close, chairman of the secession group Valley VOTE, said he expects that a group of Valley religious leaders will appear instead on Wednesday. "Because of the secretive nature of the proceedings, I feel it's inappropriate for me to attend," Close said. "It has been compared to an inquisition. It's impossible to refute the statements being made to the group by others because we don't know what they are saying."
Secession opponents, most noticeably Mayor Richard Riordan, insist that municipal breakup is an abandonment of the poor in the rest of Los Angeles by the more-affluent Valley. "It will be better to have people with that background, including clergy, who can discuss morality and ethics," Close said.
Tod Tamberg, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, called it "unfortunate that he's not coming since he is one of the most articulate spokesman for Valley secession." Those who might appear include the Rev. Zedar Broadous, a Valley VOTE board member and president of the Valley branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, and Ellen Michiel, a Catholic lay minister and executive director of the West Valley Community Development Corp., an affordable-housing agency.
Ex-Board Member Will Testify Michiel, a former Valley VOTE board member, said she will testify that she does not believe Valley secession would be ethically or morally wrong if it results in two smaller cities that provide better access and representation for the poor. "I do not believe detachment is an abandonment of the poor by any stretch of the imagination," Michiel said. "We have a very large number of very poor people."
Broadous said he is still undecided about his position on secession, but believes there is nothing ethically wrong with one part of the city wanting to break away in order to obtain better city services. "I don't see any moral issues that preclude the Valley from becoming a separate city," Broadous said. "I know the term 'white flight' has been used by some, but the reality is the Valley is probably the most diverse place in the city."
Originally, Close and Valley VOTE board member Richard Katz had accepted invitations to address a 10-member working group of civic and religious leaders convened by Mahony to investigate the ethical and moral implications of the Valley, Hollywood and the Harbor area breaking away from Los Angeles.
Preconceived Notions Questioned
Katz, a former assemblyman, wavered briefly Monday
over whether to attend, but decided to testify even though he shares Close's
concerns.
"I do think it's wrong not to do it in
public," Katz said. "It should be a public meeting."
He said conducting the hearings behind closed
doors raises questions about whether the group has preconceived notions.
"What is the baseline that they are going to
measure it [secession] against?" Katz said. "Should they first look at
the morality and ethics of the current city of Los Angeles, with its high
poverty rate and high crime rate and disenfranchisement of voters?"
The working group was appointed by the
multidenominational Council of Religious Leaders, which will issue a report in
the spring.
Private sessions are appropriate because the
testimony is designed to help the panel of religious leaders decide on
secession, according to Tamberg.
"That's just not fair," Tamberg said of
Close's comparing the project to an inquisition.
Close said other supporters of Valley VOTE have
widely used the word inquisition, and he looked it up in the dictionary to see
whether it applies.
"The concept is a closed-door meeting where
you are not given information on your accuser or what you are being accused of
and the deliberations are done in secret," Close said. "It definitely
has the same elements as an inquisition, although I wouldn't call it such."
The executive board of Valley VOTE regularly excludes the media from portions of its monthly meetings. [But allows public participation at 4 meeting a year]
Mayor Richard Riordan's repeated charge that breaking up Los Angeles would be "downright immoral" got an expert hearing last week, although not a confirmation. A panel appointed by the Council of Religious Leaders, a collective of the city's mainline Christian and Jewish clergy, is investigating the ethical implications of San Fernando Valley, harbor area and Hollywood secession at the request of Cardinal Roger Mahony, a council member. Secession leaders, already none too happy at being called immoral by the mayor, point to the cardinal's friendship with the Catholic Riordan and see a plot to quash their efforts.
Claiming that secession would be an abandonment of the poor by the affluent, as Riordan does, plays into stereotypes of the Valley. Anyone who has spent time in the Valley or perused the census 2000 figures knows it is not the homogenous, white-flight enclave it once was. The Valley's Latino population, for example, grew four times as fast as in the rest of Los Angeles in the past decade and now nearly equals the white population.
The Valley remains a stronghold of the city's middle class, particularly along its hilly southern edge, but in the flatlands and especially in the northeast more than 30% of residents live in poverty. Half lack health insurance, one of the highest concentrations in the nation. Many families live in garages or share cramped apartments.
As the city's top elected official, Riordan has been right to speak out against breaking up Los Angeles. There are legitimate questions to ask about secession's effect on services to the poor, which the Council of Religious Leaders panel will try to measure by looking at federal and other funding. But scolding--even scolding that isn't based on outdated stereotypes and doesn't make sweeping generalizations about morality--tends to stiffen resistance more than persuade.
What Los Angeles needs is a mayor who can make a convincing argument for keeping the city together, an argument that has not been articulated clearly enough in the campaign leading up to the June 5 runoff election. Candidates James K. Hahn and Antonio Villaraigosa are vying to be the next mayor of Los Angeles. Unless they want to be mayor of a far different city, they need to show how persuasive they can be
I believe church leaders should not involve themselves in the Valley secession issue but instead devote their time to addressing a more important issue in our society -- discrimination. I think they need to emphasize to their respective members, especially among the youths, the evil effects when people discriminate against other people because of race, religion, age, social status and other reasons.
I hope church leaders and their active members will launch programs and activities to combat all sorts of discrimination practices and enhance further harmonious relationships among people of different origins and cultures residing in the county. Church leaders can do a lot in shaping people's attitudes and values and thus can help the government on this issue.
Florentino Surla Jr. Panorama City
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