CITYHOOD FOES, CANDIDATES STIR.

Byline: Harrison Sheppard Staff Writer

As secessionist opponents announced a new campaign committee Monday, two more candidates formed campaign committees to run for the council of a new San Fernando Valley city.

That brings the total to 27 self-declared Valley city candidates - fewer than secession leaders had hoped for - with the Aug. 9 filing deadline less than a month away.

Los Angeles City Council President Alex Padilla formed a campaign committee - One Family, One Los Angeles/Una Familia, Un Los Angeles - to raise money and work against secession in his Northeast Valley council district.

``There's a lot of issues and consequences about secession that people need to know,'' Padilla said. ``We'll put together an outreach effort, a campaign to inform and educate voters, primarily in my district, and I'm sure in other parts of the East Valley as necessary.''

His campaign joins a similar group formed by Councilman Nick Pacheco to work against secession in his Eastside district, as well as Mayor James Hahn's citywide campaign that so far has raised several million dollars in donations and pledges.

Monday was originally scheduled to be the first day for Valley city candidates to take the next step and submit nominating petitions to the county Registrar-Recorder's Office as a declaration of their candidacy.

But the county office is not accepting the papers until the Board of Supervisors formally places the measure on the ballot, which is expected to occur July 25.

The filing period will end Aug. 9.

The city Ethics Commission, however, for several months has been accepting forms to create campaign committees and raise money. The commission received them from 25 candidates for Valley council, one for Valley mayor, and one for Hollywood city council.

The change in the county filing dates confused some candidates who were prepared to formally launch their campaigns Monday, only to be told to come back next week.

Scott Svonkin, an aide to Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood, wanted to be the first to file papers to run for Valley city council, so he showed up with his wife and infant daughter at 8 a.m. Monday at the registrar-recorder's main office in Norwalk. But when he got there, he was told he would have to wait.

``I was a little disappointed, because I was hoping to get the paperwork, get my signatures and know my name was going to be on the ballot in November,'' the Sherman Oaks resident said. ``Now I have to wait till the 25th.''

Secessionists hope that more than 100 people will run for office, including some prominent names for mayor. They believe that the more people who run, the more it will help the secession campaign - and the more the general public will be apt to support secession because they know someone running for office.

So far, however, there are two Valley council races that still have no candidates and there is only one announced candidate for mayor. One possible candidate, state Sen. Richard Alarcon, D-Van Nuys, decided last week not to run and, instead, to oppose secession.

``I think it's probably an indication of an awareness of the futility of the whole thing,'' said secession opponent Larry Levine, co-chairman of One Los Angeles. ``People are coming to grips with the fact this is very unlikely to pass, there is a high probability there won't be any offices to hold, so why spend the time, money and effort running for it.''

But secession supporters remain confident they will have full races in every district.

``I expect there to be a large number of candidates,'' said Richard Katz, chairman of the Valley Independence Committee. ``I think candidates are slow to start because of some of the uncertainty in the process and time to gear up the campaign.

``There are a lot of people who view themselves as citizen legislators and aren't familiar with the rhythm of a campaign as some of us who have been involved in them.''

Among the candidates who have created campaign committees so far are Assemblyman Keith Richman, R-Granada Hills, who is the only candidate for Valley mayor.

OTHER CANDIDATES

District 2 - Oscar R. Mendoza

District 3 - Paula Boland, Jerry L. England, Gene Vanderford, Curtis A. Wood, Michael C. Robbe

District 5 - Ken A. McAlpine

District 6 - Irwin Silon

District 7 - Georgina Goldman-Ruiz Guerena, Jose Roy Garcia

District 8 - Garrett R. Biggs, Jay H. Rosenzweig

District 9 - Robert B. Lamishaw, Robert B. Clary 

District 10 - Glenn Bailey, Richard Perry, Terry Squire Stone

District 11 - Hal Netkin, James P. Cordaro, Noel A. DeGaetano

District 12 - Victor N. Viereck, Dion Nichola Gazzaruso

District 13 - J. Richard Leyner

District 14 - Jerry Allen Hays, Marc Strassman.

CAPTION(S):

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Box: OTHER CANDIDATES (see text)