4 COUNCIL MEMBERS MEET VALLEY LEADERS.

Byline: James Nash Staff Writer

SHERMAN OAKS - Hoping to capitalize on momentum built during the recent secession campaign, Valley business leaders and secession advocates met with four Los Angeles City Council members Thursday to push for boroughs, stronger neighborhood councils or more City Council districts.

The meeting - two days after the cityhood measure won in the Valley but lost 2-to-1 citywide - was billed as the beginning of a new dialogue on how to improve governance and city services in a less heated atmosphere than that of the secession campaign.

In a press conference after the meeting at the Valley Industry and Commerce Association building, City Council President Alex Padilla and council members Tom LaBonge, Wendy Greuel and Dennis Zine said they heard the message of discontent expressed at the polls Tuesday.

But the council members proposed few specific measures, saying discussions were still in their early stages.

Zine, whose West Valley council district voted 57 percent in favor of secession, said he supports revisiting the City Charter to strengthen neighborhood councils and to divide the city into mostly self-governing boroughs.

``It rests on our shoulders to move forward,'' Zine said.

While several leaders of the secession movement took part in the hour- long discussion, none of the 111 candidates for Valley offices, including the 15 who prevailed in 14 Valley council districts and the mayor's race - were at the table.

But in an interview Thursday, Assemblyman Keith Richman, the top vote-getter for Valley mayor, said he will stay active in efforts to reform Los Angeles city government.

Richman, who proposed boroughs even in a smaller Valley city, said he intends to raise the issue in discussions with Mayor James Hahn, Los Angeles City Council members and the victorious candidates in the 14 Valley council races.

``It would be an opportunity to decentralize both the government and the delivery of city services,'' said Richman, R-Granada Hills, who on Tuesday also was elected to a second term in the state Assembly. ``There is no question in my mind that the structure of governance and the delivery of city services are related.''

Meanwhile, even candidates who did not win in Tuesday's election said they plan to form a federation of activists. Businessman Frank Sheftel, who placed second in a North Hollywood-area district, said a new group called United Valley Congress will hold its first meeting Monday. The group is open to anyone who ran for Valley council or mayor, he said.

Jeff Brain, president of Valley Voters Organized Toward Empowerment, said the group will reconstitute itself as an advocacy group for reform in Los Angeles government. Valley VOTE will align itself with other groups in the city that have called for more local services and decentralized government, Brain said.

At the VICA press conference, Zine pushed for reforms to Los Angeles' City Charter to decentralize government in the city, while Padilla said the 1999 charter reforms - which spawned advisory neighborhood councils - haven't had enough time to demonstrate their effectiveness.

Assemblyman Bob Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, who proposed a borough system in Los Angeles that was defeated, said he believes that the idea will return.

``I think it's the future of Los Angeles,'' he said. ``The question is when.''

Bob Scott, a Valley planning consultant and one of the leaders of the secession drive, said several of the topics discussed related to the concept of ``treating (the Valley) as a place instead of treating it as some appendage to another place.''

For example, he said, one idea was to treat the Valley portion of Los Angeles, as well as Burbank, Glendale and Calabasas, as its own planning area for purposes of lobbying by the Southern California Association of Governments.

Currently, the Valley is lumped in with the entire city of Los Angeles as one subdistrict within SCAG, but that doesn't seem to make sense given how geographically separate the Valley is from other parts of the city, Scott said.

``Several of the council members made notes and said they were going to take those right to the table immediately,'' Scott said, adding that he was referring to Greuel and Zine.

``Several other council members went on with their usual rhetoric and gave us the impression that they weren't listening at all, that they would rather hear themselves talk than us talk.''

Staff Writer Harrison Sheppard contributed to this report.