CITYHOOD FOES ACCUSE BRAIN OF PERJURY.

Byline: Harrison Sheppard Staff Writer

A group that opposes San Fernando Valley secession Monday accused the pro-secession group's president of submitting a false address when he registered to vote in Los Angeles despite living in Glendale.

Jeff Brain, president of Valley Voters Organized Toward Empowerment, registered to vote in Sherman Oaks on Sept. 18, 2001 using the office address of Valley VOTE, although he resides in Glendale, according to a statement from secession opponent Larry Levine of the group One Los Angeles.

Levine said he filed a complaint Monday with the Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters asking that Brain's registration be canceled and that the registrar ``pursue all appropriate sanctions against Mr. Brain based on his filing of a false voter registration form under penalty of perjury.''

Brain, however, said his registration was an honest mistake on his part, and the county registrar has already caught it and asked him to reregister properly.

Brain said he is currently looking for a place to live in a Valley community within the city of Los Angeles and hopes to move by next month, and he will register at that time.

He moved out of the Valley early last year after getting divorced from his wife and moved in temporarily with a friend in Glendale, he said, always intending to move back to the Valley.

He acknowledged that he did put Valley VOTE's address - which was his own office since 1991 when he ran a real estate business - on the card because he did not know it had to be a residential address.

``This is just politics of personal destruction,'' Brain said. ``Instead of dealing with the issues, they're dealing with other issues - and they're irrelevant to the issue at hand.''