CITYHOOD BATTLES HEAT UP PRO-, ANTI-SECESSION LEADERS RALLY TROOPS.

Byline: Lisa M. Sodders Staff Writer

With three days left before Tuesday's election, forces for and against San Fernando Valley secession turned out Saturday to rally voters to their cause.

In San Fernando on Saturday morning, Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn and a host of elected officials met with hundreds of union members ranging from government employees to entertainment industry workers for a rally followed by a precinct walk.

``Secession was a bad idea yesterday; secession is a bad idea today,'' said Eliseo Medina, international executive vice president of Service Employees International Union, which includes city employees.

``We in labor know you do not get stronger when you grow smaller,'' he said. ``We in labor know we are stronger together. And on Tuesday, we need to make sure that bad idea is buried under a mountain of 'no' votes.''

In Hollywood, meanwhile, about a dozen candidates for office in the proposed new Valley and Hollywood cities turned out to deliver the opposite message. They held a get-out-the-vote rally that featured a parade of women candidates in antique cars and Hula-Hooping supporters.

``The current bureaucracy is like a cancer,'' said Wilma Bennett, a candidate for Valley city council. ``Cancers can't cure themselves, you have to cut them out. Cancers only know how to grow.''

Terry Stone, another candidate for the Valley city council, said the anti-secession movement is about people in power wanting to stay that way.

``We want the power to make our own decisions now,'' she told the crowd. ``We're going to take power from Hahn whether he likes it or not. He's got his fingernails in the cement and we're dragging him out of the Valley and out of Hollywood kicking and screaming.''

Secession candidates at the Hollywood rally included David Hernandez, who is running for Valley mayor as well as the 28th Congressional District; Hollywood city council candidates Gene La Pietra, Pahree Sripipat, Neal Jano, Garry K. Sinanian, Rosa Martinez, Richard Eastman and Michael Ackerman; and Valley council candidates Susan Deas, Stefanie Spikell, Shaunn Cartwright and Virginia DePew.

Back in San Fernando, Hahn was joined on stage by City Council President Alex Padilla, San Fernando Mayor and state Assembly candidate Cindy Montanez, state Assembly candidate Lloyd Levine, Assemblyman Tony Cardenas, D-Mission Hills, Sen. Richard Alarcon, D-Van Nuys, and former Assembly speaker Antonio Villaraigosa.

Before the rally, Hahn said voter turnout was the key. Although polls show the secession movement lagging, ``polls don't vote,'' Hahn said, which is why door-to-door campaigns like the one Saturday were important.

From Hollywood, secessionist La Pietra agreed, noting that polls predicted Proposition 13 would lose, too, shortly before it passed.

Secessionist Cartwright said she believes there are large numbers of people who support secession, but may not broadcast their views, who will vote ``yes'' on Measures F and H.

Hahn said the city is listening to people and is working to improve government through neighborhood councils and better delivery of city services.

``Just as things are getting better, that is the wrong time to throw everything into chaos by breaking things apart,'' Hahn said.

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4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Candidates for proposed cities, from left, Rosa Martinez, Terry Stone and Shaunn Cartwright, join in a chant at a pro-secession rally in Hollywood.

(2 -- color) Rosa Ayala, Patricia Araujo and Yolanda Flores, from left, and hundreds of other union members attend an anti-secession rally in San Fernando.

(3) Mayor James Hahn gives Carol Wheeler a hug as she and other union members join him in a precinct walk in Valley Village on Saturday as part of his anti-secession campaign.

(4) In Hollywood, pro-secession leaders hold a festive get-out-the-vote rally on Saturday.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer