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Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, D-Los Angeles, threw his support behind a measure for the state to pay a large part of the San Fernando Valley secession study.
Villaraigosa, who met with Valley VOTE leaders last week in Los Angeles and expressed his willingness to help get the study going, is taking a positive leadership role and siding with residents who just want answers and accountability from government. If the state comes up with $1.8 million, it ought to be easy for the city and county to find the $500,000 still needed to conduct the study that could lead to a vote on cityhood for the 1.3 million people of the Valley.
Good job, Mr. Speaker. Good job, Assemblymen Bob Hertzberg and Tom McClintock, who have stood tall on pushing this legislation
Backers of the San Fernando Valley secession movement are talking out of both sides of their mouth when it comes to who's bankrolling the push for divorce.
They say they may release the names of at least some contributors--after first polling donors to see who wouldn't mind going public. At the same time, they're sending out letters soliciting more donations while dangling the promise of secrecy. "The names of contributors are not required to be reported and will be kept confidential upon request," the letter says.
Unfortunately, as their letter states, the law designed to prod campaign consciences apparently does not apply to the secession campaign. The authors of the state's Political Reform Act simply never anticipated a movement like Valley secession.
Yet clearly the secession drive is a political campaign with a political goal. And clearly a significant amount of money is being raised. Now that its hired signature-gatherers have collected enough names to force a study of municipal divorce, Valley Voters Organized Toward Empowerment, or VOTE, and a sister organization, the Civic Foundation, are raising more money to pay the secessionists' share of the required study, defend possible lawsuits and promote what kind of city they believe the Valley should be. Yet so far, Valley VOTE has released the names of only a handful of its biggest donors, and then only reluctantly.
Secessionists' rationale for secrecy is that some secession backers are active in city affairs, work for the city or sit on city commissions and fear reprisals. So much for the courage of conviction. But what about the repercussions of launching in secret a supposed drive for greater accountability?
;Backers of secession need to put their mouths where their money is. They say they want the Valley to split from the rest of Los Angeles so that the new city's government will be more open, accountable and responsive to the people. Yet they refuse to say who is bankrolling the drive to create this new accountable and responsive city. Surely they have to recognize the contradiction here.
By Jane Robison Omigosh,
"Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace," is an allegory about Valley
self-determination. Good vs. Evil. The demise of democracy.
A shadowy, nefarious figure with a crooked smile who controls everything behind the scenes and sets people against each other, a k a Ron Deaton, the Los Angeles City Council's chief legislative analyst.
From the second the story unfolds in bold, galactic headlines, it's clear George Lucas is using all his force to promote the secession study and Valley cityhood.
I get goose bumps just thinking about his homage to the good people of the Valley fighting the dark and evil overlords of Downtown Los Angeles. Lucas obviously has captured a brilliant foreshadowing of how the planet will go to Tatooine in a handbasket if Valley residents don't get their fair share.
Except for the waterfalls, planet Naboo is so the San Fernando Valley, idyllic and Edenlike before the jackbooted droids force Valley residents to pay a $13 brush clearance fee and turn it back into a desert.
Lucas' vision brought tears to my eyes as I dreamed of a restored Van Nuys City Hall. Using Italian marble and a Bellagio Hotel facade, the municipal building could be a palace for the ultimate Val gal, Queen Amidala, who rules planet Naboo. I don't think I was reading too much into the plot when I deciphered that the greedy Trade Federation is really "The City Council Lost in Space."
The subtext of the movie is a history of the council ravaging and marauding the Valley. Having done nothing to build a healthy economic infrastructure, the Trade Federation seems intent on siphoning money from Naboo to build planet Coruscant, a visually toxic, nonstop high-rise with no parking spaces, no landscaping and no night life. Hello. Downtown Los Angeles in the next millennium.
It's clear from the movie that Lucas is trying to get the message out to the world: The peaceful yet spunky and resourceful people of the San Fernando Valley are the only ones who can save the planet.
I think it's just as apparent what Lucas is telling the Valley: Start dressing like Jedi warriors and carrying lightsabers if you want the City Council to take you seriously.
But there are dark and sinister forces at work. Enter Darth Sidious, no doubt "The Phantom Menace." Sidious is a shadowy controller of the universe who appears out of nowhere and likes to whisper in people's ears.
Without giving away the plot, I feel it my duty to rip the hood off Darth Sidious. I believe he is based on L.A.'s very own Doctor Evil, Ron Deaton, the real-life character who calls the shots at City Hall and pits Valley council members against each other. The two characters share too many traits to discount the very real possibility that, in fact, Deaton played himself in the movie.
Naturally, evil travels in pairs. And the evil sidekick to Darth Sidious is his apprentice, Darth Maul, a character who paints his face to look like Mattel's Hot Wheels and who is unleashed on the world to destroy the Valley, er Naboo.
Hmmmm. A clone with a hate complex and a penchant for details who is controlled by Darth Deaton? Who could it be? Who could it be?
We'll probably have to wait for the next episode, due out in 2002, about the time of the cityhood election, if there is one, to find out.
In the meantime, the council, and in particular, Councilman Mike "The Mauler" Feuer, is furious over rumors that Lucas' epic saga is helping finance the Valley secession movement, which is why Feuer is so intent on getting contributor records of Valley VOTE.
If they find Lucas' name on the list, hide your Wookie. The dark side of the Force will not be pleased.
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