A PLAN TO `SAVE' L.A. BOROUGHS REPLACE CITY COUNCIL.

Byline: Harrison Sheppard Staff Writer

Former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg has crafted a detailed plan to create a borough form of government in Los Angeles that would empower neighborhoods and abolish the City Council, the Daily News learned Tuesday.

Hertzberg, a Van Nuys Democrat serving his last term in the Assembly, has floated his plan among a wide range of city officials and civic leaders, many of whom see it as a way to head off secession of the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood.

According to those familiar with the details, the plan would replace the City Council with a legislative body made up of nine borough presidents who would meet every two weeks to deal with citywide issues. Each borough would be empowered with budgetary authority and control over local issues.

The boroughs, each representing 400,000 residents, would be run by five elected officials chosen from districts of about 80,000 people each. By comparison, the current 15-member Los Angeles City Council has districts of about 246,000 residents each.

Hertzberg hopes to unveil his plan publicly later this week or next week and have it placed on the November ballot. He declined to provide details, but others he has spoken with said the plan is impressive for its scope and level of analysis. Hertzberg has precise maps detailing the boundaries of every district, as well as ethnic breakdowns and voting rights issues, and proposed language for the new City Charter.

``I've been working my entire elected career on issues relating to creating a great (system of) representation,'' Hertzberg said.

``I've been speaking to a number of community leaders, getting input and ideas on this (borough system). At the appropriate time - hopefully next week - I will start talking publicly about it.''

Hertzberg has worked on Los Angeles and Valley governance issues since he was elected to the Assembly in 1996. He is forced to retire later this year because of term limits. While not supporting Valley secession, he has passed several bills that made secession easier and overhauled the laws governing the process.

The district maps, according to those who have seen them, also minimize the degree to which communities are split up into different districts - a common complaint with the current Los Angeles council maps as well as the proposed Valley city plan.

``He's obviously thought everything out,'' said Don Schultz, president of the Van Nuys Homeowners Association.

Schultz is a Valley secession supporter who pulled out of the Valley Voters Organized Toward Empowerment secession group because his community would be split into six districts if the Valley becomes a city.

``He's got the new charter written up. It's one way to keep the city together without going through secession. Whether all the pro-secession people buy off on something like this - I'm sure the devil will be in the details.''

Councilwoman Wendy Greuel has proposed her own borough plan to go on the November ballot. Her proposal is to ask voters to create a commission and give it a specific framework to create a borough proposal and return with it in the next election.

Hertzberg has been lobbying Greuel and other council members to sign on to his plan, but she was noncommital, saying she wants to see all the other plans that are proposed by the public. The council's Education & Neighborhoods committee met Tuesday night in the Valley to start talking about her borough plan.

``Bob and I have come together to agree that the status quo is unacceptable,'' Greuel said.

``It may be nine (boroughs), it may be 11. We've talked about getting public input, like this process,'' she said. ``My goal is to provide services to the community, with community input.''

San Fernando Valley and Hollywood cityhood measures likely will go before voters on the Nov. 5 ballot and the borough plans are seen as a way to address Valley residents' concerns about neglect by a distant City Hall, while stopping short of breaking up the city.

But some secession supporters see any borough plan as a gimmick and a last-minute attempt to beat secession other than campaigning against it.

Bob Scott, a longtime secession supporter who is involved in planning and economic issues throughout the Valley, said the Hertzberg plan seems ``thorough, comprehensive and meaningful.'' But he worries it will be diluted by the City Council and said it appears to be primarily an attempt to defeat secession.

``I think the timing is a little wrong for it,'' Scott said. ``I have ultimate faith in Wendy Greuel and Bob Hertzberg, but it's very difficult for it not to at least appear they're being used as tools to thwart secession.''

Scott said for such a proposal to be meaningful, it should have advanced during the charter reform debate several years ago, before Valley secession was ready to go on the ballot.

The full title of Hertzberg's plan is ``Recapturing the vibrancy of Los Angeles, by creating a sense of place, excitement, willpower and commitment.''

He proposes the creation of nine boroughs, each divided into five districts. The Valley would get three boroughs and about one-third of another. Voters in a district would elect an official to represent them on the five-member borough board, and each board will then elect a president to serve on the nine-member council of presidents, which will decide citywide issues.

The mayor's powers would remain mostly the same, although he would have less responsibility over local issues, such as individual parks. Some commissions such as the Recreation and Parks Commission might disappear as the borough boards take over some of their responsibilities.

Mayor James Hahn, who has been leading the campaign against secession, has not taken a formal position on boroughs and has not yet seen Hertzberg's plan.

Deputy Mayor Matt Middlebrook said Hahn is focused on keeping the city together and on making sure the new advisory neighborhood council system is successful. Advisory neighborhood councils were created in the 1999 voter-approved charter reform. The councils are designed to give neighborhoods a voice in city government, although they have no real authority and minimal budgets.

``It's an interesting idea, but we haven't seen Bob Hertzberg's plan,'' Middlebrook said. ``What the mayor is strongly supportive of is the neighborhood council system we've established in the city of Los Angeles, as something that's in place now, growing rapidly and giving people a real voice at City Hall.''

Kevin Starr, the California state librarian, has long advocated a borough system in Los Angeles. While he didn't want to state a preference for any one proposal, he said Hertzberg clearly has the ability and drive to craft a good plan.

``There are very few people on the planet that understand Los Angeles government better than Bob Hertzberg,'' Starr said. ``He knows everything.

``I think it's incomprehensible to think of Los Angeles without the Valley and it's incomprehensible to think of the Valley without Los Angeles. This is a part of a great city. On the other hand, you can't bully the Valley people the way Mayor Hahn is doing. You've got to listen to what they're saying about local government.''

A borough system, Starr said, would accomplish exactly that - respecting the Valley's complaints by giving it more control, without having to break the city apart.

Julie Butcher, general manager of the influential Service Employees International Union Local 347, which opposes secession, said she has also talked with Hertzberg about his plan and the union is open to a borough concept.

``We have long supported any measure that empower neighborhoods and people,'' Butcher said. ``So we're going to look very seriously at what he's proposing.''

At the council's Education & Neighborhoods committee meeting Tuesday at Victory Boulevard Elementary School in North Hollywood, several Valley residents said they were open to a borough system, including several who had experience with New York City's system of five boroughs.

``It's got close local input, not quite as remote and distant and unapproachable (as City Hall downtown),'' said Judith Ann Corbett, 67, of North Hollywood. ``A lot of people can't get downtown to City Council meetings.''

Staff Writer Dana Bartholomew contributed to this report.

AT A GLANCE

Here are the basic elements of former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg's plan for a borough system of government in Los Angeles:

--The Los Angeles City Council would be eliminated.

--Instead of 15 council districts, Los Angeles would be divided into nine boroughs with 400,000 people each, including three and one-third for the San Fernando Valley.

--Each borough council would have five elected members, based on districts of 80,000 people each, compared with about 250,000 currently under the City Council system.

--The boroughs would have their own budgets and would have control over local matters such as zoning and local parks.

--The boroughs would each elect a president.

--The nine borough presidents would meet every other week as a Council of Presidents to decide citywide issues.

--The mayor's function would remain mostly the same - jurisdiction over citywide issues and departments, but he would have less responsibility for local issues.

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AT A GLANCE (see text)