BOLAND PLAN GOES TO SENATE : LEGISLATION FACES BIG HURDLES IN LAST DAY OF SESSION.

Byline: Mark Katches Daily News Sacramento Bureau

With time running out to pass new laws, the state Assembly sent to the Senate on Friday a compromise plan that strips the City Council of its veto power over any secession movement and calls for a citywide vote in any election to split up Los Angeles.

On a 43-13 vote, the compromise vehicle - Senate Bill 112 - was shipped to the Senate shortly before 1 p.m., with just 36 hours remaining for the upper house to act.

Following Senate regulations, the bill pushed by Assemblywoman Paula Boland was sent directly to the Senate Rules Committee - the same panel that bottled up Boland's legislation for more than a month earlier this summer.

With both houses scheduled to work late into the evening Friday, the Rules Committee, chaired by the powerful Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer, was scheduled to decide whether to refer the measure to the Senate Local Government Committee for one last hearing to occur this morning. The committee met twice Friday after receiving the bill, but skipped over it both times to deal with issues the panel considered more pressing.

The action from the Assembly and the anticipated move by Senate Democrats set the stage for a nail-biting last few hours for Boland.

The measure must be approved by midnight today or Boland's eight-month effort will result in no changes in state law.

``The only reason it would not be heard or dealt with before the session closes down at midnight is pure and simple politics, and the people be damned,'' said Boland, R-Granada Hills.

After the Assembly vote, Boland urged Lockyer to move the bill straight to the full Senate.

``The subject matter has been heard,'' Boland said. ``It's been in committee. It's nothing new, so I don't see why the Rules Committee wouldn't send it directly to the floor.''

But Rule 29.10 requires that any Senate bill amended with new subject matter in the Assembly must be referred to a policy committee before the upper house can consider it.

Lockyer did not disclose his plans for the bill, which lists Sen. Ross Johnson, R-Irvine, as the new author.

``I haven't given it a lot of thought,'' Lockyer said. ``I have had a lot of other distractions.''

Both houses were dealing with more than 400 bills - some of them the meatiest of the year - in the final hours of the session, including measures to fix the ``three strikes, you're out'' law, create a state agency selling earthquake insurance, and deregulate the electric utilities industry.

But before the Senate broke for dinner Friday, Lockyer hinted that the Boland measure - and other bills that have been completely rewritten in the lower house - would be sent to policy committees for hearings today.

``We are going to have a lot of committee hearings that need to occur,'' Lockyer told his colleagues on the floor. ``We're obligated to have committee hearings on those matters.''

If the bill is sent to the Local Government Committee, it would be considered friendly territory for Boland. Her original bill, Assembly Bill 2043, was passed on a 5-2 vote by the committee in June. The committee also includes Senate Majority Leader Charles Calderon, who voted against the initial proposal but has accepted the compromise.

Boland was forced into the last-minute procedural moves following the narrow defeat of AB 2043 in the Senate last week.

Embracing a compromise she had long rejected, Boland took her existing bill, plus the citywide vote provision, and placed it into SB 112, which dealt with contractor licenses and public records. The original SB 112 provisions were deleted.

Boland's new measure would require Valley residents to vote twice if they ever wish to secede - once as the area seeking to split from Los Angeles, and once as residents of the entire city.

The same citywide vote provisions were in place before Los Angeles lobbyists persuaded the Legislature to adopt new rules nearly 20 years ago, making secession nearly impossible.

Some Democrats, meanwhile, still were grumbling Friday that Boland's compromise should not have been allowed to move forward because she chose to rewrite a Senate bill that had no similarities to her own proposal.

Assemblywoman Diane Martinez, D-Alhambra, refused to vote for the bill on the floor, saying it was not ``legitimately before the house.''

Two days earlier, Boland received a helping hand on her home turf - the Republican-controlled Assembly - when a controversial ruling that her amendments were ``germane'' allowed her compromise to proceed.

Even the bill's original author, Senate Minority Leader Rob Hurtt, R-Garden Grove, said Friday that Boland's amendments were ``probably not'' germane.

``They're easily not germane,'' said Secretary of the Senate Rick Rollens, who Lockyer often asks for recommendations on parliamentary procedure.

The question of whether the amendments are germane may still come back to haunt Boland. Although a committee cannot rule on the issue, the full Senate could vote against hearing the bill again based on the controversy over the way the amendments were handled.

If Boland's compromise is sent to the Local Government Committee, it is also expected that amendments proposed by Sen. Richard Polanco - the bill's archenemy - could also be considered.

Polanco, D-Los Angeles, submitted a set of amendments last week, but they were considered vague and he withdrew them. He proposed a simplified version Friday that calls for a citywide vote to replace the council veto and applies the bill statewide, not just to the city of Los Angeles.

In the Assembly, meanwhile, Polanco's allies tried again Friday to derail Boland's bill without success. After the vote was announced, Martinez, asked for a reconsideration vote to delay the bill's arrival in the Senate.

``You cannot notice reconsideration on the last day of the session,'' responded Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Fred Aguiar, R-Ontario, who issued the controversial ruling on the bill's contents earlier this week.

``Why not?'' Martinez asked.

``Because that's the rules,'' Aguiar snapped.

During an abbreviated debate on the floor, most of the same arguments were rehashed.

``It's a simple bill,'' Boland said. ``It gives democracy to a million and a half people. It removes the veto power of the City Council of Los Angeles and will empower people of the San Fernando Valley.''

Assemblyman Antonio Villaraigosa, D-Los Angeles, voted for the Boland amendments Wednesday night, but changed his mind on the floor Friday.

``If it's such a good deal, if it's so good for democracy, why doesn't it apply to the entire state?'' Villaraigosa said. ``The answer is, it's not that good a bill.''

Boland said Villaraigosa's change of heart smacked of more interference by Los Angeles city lobbyists.

``That gives me great pause as to whether the city of Los Angeles has been back into this building again,'' Boland said of Villaraigosa's flip-flop.

In Los Angeles, City Council President John Ferraro said he welcomed the proposal to require a citywide vote on secession but said the proposal does not go far enough unless it requires a thorough state study of the effects of secession, as proposed by Lockyer.

``A citywide vote is important, and I'm pleased there is support for such a requirement,'' Ferraro said. ``However, it's just as important that the voters have the facts about the consequences before they cast their ballots.''

Assembly Minority Leader Richard Katz, D-Panorama City, was joined by Assemblywoman Barbara Friedman, D-Sherman Oaks, and Wally Knox, D-Los Angeles, in favor of the bill.

All three Valley representatives opposed Boland's initial bill on the Assembly floor in May, but have supported the compromise. Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl, D-Encino, arrived late from Chicago where she was attending the Democratic National Convention and missed the vote. Kuehl said she supported the compromise.

Katz, however, tried to make matters more difficult for Boland. He sided with Martinez, a Polanco protege, in attempting to block Boland's efforts to expedite transmittal to the Senate ahead of other bills on the agenda.

``I'm in favor of the bill and I voted for the amendments, but I'm not in favor of her getting special treatment,'' Katz said afterward. ``There are a lot of bills in the same situation that have to be moved.''

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Photo: Paula Boland says she'll blame ``pure and simple pol itics'' if her compromise plan dies tonight.

Associated Press