BOLAND PLAN GOES TO SENATE : LEGISLATION FACES HOSTILE PANEL AS CLOCK TICKS.

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.

But in a move that could spell doom for the legislation, the Senate Rules Committee is planning to ship the bill this morning to a committee loaded with Democrats who oppose the measure, including Sen. Richard Polanco, a downtown lawmaker, Senate officials said.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Johnston, D-Stockton, said he is preparing to hear the bill - not the Senate Local Government Committee, where the compromise was expected to easily pass before moving to the full upper house.

``If this is what they do, they can't run, they can't hide, they can't pontificate,'' said an irate Assemblywoman Paula Boland, the bill's driving force.

``It's pure and simple politics,'' she continued. ``It's totally disappointing to me because I thought at some level in this building they would put politics aside and statesmanship first. If this isn't dealt with fairly, they are playing with a million and half lives.''

Initially, the Senate Local Government Committee was planning to hear the measure today. But late Friday evening, several Senate staffers said they were told the bill would go elsewhere.

Johnston said he believes the move is designed to allow Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer to revive his own proposals calling for a state commission to study the secession issue for 18 months.

``I think that's true,'' said Johnston, a loyal Lockyer lieutenant. ``I just do what I'm told.''

The Lockyer proposals have been rejected by Boland, as a way to kill her legislation.

Lockyer refused to respond to questions about his plans. But he was in no hurry Friday to assign the measure with the clock ticking. The Senate sat on the bill until it adjourned at 10 p.m. without acting.

Lockyer was coy about his plans earlier in the day.

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

Earlier Friday, the Assembly on a 43-13 vote, sent the compromise vehicle - which now lists Sen. Ross Johnson, R-Irvine, as the author - to the Senate.

The advance in the Republican-controlled Assembly and the delay tactics in the Democratic-dominated Senate set the stage for a nail-biting, partisan war over the bill in the last few hours of the session.

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

After the Assembly vote, Boland, R-Granada Hills, 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 the two lawmakers have not discussed the bill in more than a week.

On Friday, 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 and you're out'' law, create a state agency selling earthquake insurance, and deregulate the electric utilities industry.

If the bill were to be 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 to seek a compromise following the narrow defeat of AB 2043 in the Senate last week.

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 a resident 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, were still 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.

Polanco, meanwhile, announced he was dropping plans to amend Boland's legislation.

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

Once talk of an Appropriations Committee hearing began, Polanco saw no need for the amendments.

``I have no amendments. Nada,'' he said. ``They won't be necessary.''

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.

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 there bills in the same situation that have to be moved.''

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.''

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

Associated Press