BOLAND TRIES TO PREVENT BILL'S DEMISE.

Byline: Mark Katches Daily News Sacramento Bureau

Assemblywoman Paula Boland urged Senate President pro tem Bill Lockyer on Friday to send her secession bill to the Senate floor rather than a committee where it is expected to be killed.

The bill, AB 2043, is set to be considered next in the Senate Rules Committee, where Lockyer presides.

Focus on the measure in the Senate shifted dramatically this week from a debate over policy to one of politics.

On Thursday, Senate Democrats discussed killing the bill in retaliation for the way Assembly Republicans have gutted some of their own pet legislation.

Lockyer told Senate Democrats he intended to send the bill to the Senate Committee on Elections and Reapportionment, chaired by the bill's biggest critic, Sen. Richard Polanco. The committee has been called a ``graveyard'' for the Boland bill.

``I ask you to reconsider your decision,'' Boland wrote. ``I urge you to forward this bill directly to the Senate floor.''

The Boland bill - which gives Valley residents the right to decide for themselves whether to form a new city without the threat of a City Council veto - was approved on a 5-2 vote this week by the Senate Local Government Committee.

The bill passed with one small amendment. But Boland is concerned the amendment would give Lockyer an excuse to ship the bill to Polanco.

The measure was supposed to be up for consideration in Lockyer's committee Monday but was not placed on the agenda because the bill wasn't printed with its amendment in time.

Lockyer refused to comment on the issue Friday.

Sen. Quentin Kopp, I-South San Francisco, meanwhile, sent his own letter to Boland and members of the Rules Committee, saying he is dropping his request for any further amendments to Boland's bill.

In the letter, Kopp said he would not allow his remarks to be used to derail the bill.

``I don't like my ingenuous curiosity leading to unforeseen or subverting consequences. . . . You need not honor that commitment to me,'' he wrote.

Polanco sent Lockyer a letter Thursday calling for the bill to be sent to his committee.

The senator contended that a small amendment made to the bill Wednesday necessitates that the measure go before him. The bill was amended to say that any secession election must take place at the first general election after review by the Local Agency Formation Commission.

Since it moved out of committee Wednesday, politics have taken center stage.

As the leader of the Democratic-controlled Senate, it is in Lockyer's interest to make sure Boland, R-Granada Hills, doesn't get elected to the upper house in November.

From the day she introduced AB 2043, Democrats have complained that Boland was simply grandstanding to win the 21st Senate seat being vacated by Republican Newton Russell, R-Glendale.

Boland has denied that she introduced the bill to increase her name recognition for her Senate run. But she acknowledges that the bill has helped her.

``We've gotten more of a wave from this than we even thought,'' said Boland's chief of staff, Scott Wilk.

Not all Democrats believe the bill should be killed, and they are trying to persuade Senate leaders to move the bill to the full upper house.

Sen. Tom Hayden, D-Los Angeles, spoke with several colleagues on the Senate floor Thursday - including Lockyer - in an effort to help the bill move forward.

He has argued that a political play would be a mistake. Although he has not taken a final position on the bill, Hayden thinks it is unfair that it be killed by a small group of senators.

``As a matter of policy and politics, the Senate should debate the bill,'' Hayden said.