COMMUNITY-BASED RULE SERVES RESIDENTS BETTER.

Byline: KEITH RICHMAN 

DESPITE the desperate histrionics and fear-mongering already being employed by Mayor James K. Hahn and the downtown interests, the issue of Valley independence is really pretty straightforward.

Is the future course of the Valley best decided by local leaders with a single mission to improve quality of life or by downtown elites who have shown little ability to juggle dozens of political hot potatoes?

It would be easy to look back at the city of Los Angeles' long string of failures and remind voters how much room is available for improvement. Yet many of the leaders who made those poor decisions are gone, and the public is rightfully dubious of Monday-morning quarterbacks who depend upon 20/20 hindsight.

The real issue of Valley independence is about what is happening right now and what leaders are doing to ensure a better future.

For most people in our community, crime is a major concern. Protecting citizens and their property from harm is local government's first responsibility. Indeed, if people do not feel safe leaving their homes or turning out the light at night, other measures to improve transportation, enhance our parks and boost our business climate are for naught.

That is why a recent report showing a staggering rise in serious crime in the city of Los Angeles has alarmed many residents and posed a serious question about when this slide into lawlessness is going to end.

While the murder rate in the city of Los Angeles is up 47 percent for the first five months of 2002, the Valley has seen an 80 percent increase in killings. We do not have to look back to the Rodney King incident or Rampart Division corruption for what is wrong in Los Angeles.

We find evidence of continuing leadership failures on the floor of a Universal City jewelry store where police found the bodies of Garbis and Mayda Tarakjian, killed during a robbery on May 25.

Shot several times with a small-caliber weapon, the fate of these small- business owners was not determined by headline-grabbing scandals and cannot be improved by even the most aggressive blizzard of press releases promoting the business climate.

Our cops on the street are overworked and cannot take a proactive approach to preventing crimes. The exodus of police officers and the low morale of the remaining ones make law enforcement a very difficult but essential priority.

Setting priorities, ensuring adequate resources and motivating the rank and file are leadership tasks that must be performed.

The solutions to our crime problem are not easy - but they are not complicated either. Just ask the cops and district attorneys. They will tell you we need to return to community-based policing with senior lead officers in each neighborhood. We need to establish a zero tolerance for small crimes that often start criminals on the path to armed robbery and murder.

We need to take cops out of bureaucratic jobs and place them on the street. We need to provide after-school programs for kids to keep them out of gangs, off drugs and on track for a healthy life.

Yet all we hear from the downtown folks is how Valley independence would be a ``disaster of biblical proportions'' for the city of Los Angeles.

Instead of holding sparsely attended rallies to create an atmosphere of fear, Mayor James K. Hahn should visit the Tarakjian family and offer comfort in the midst of their real-life disaster where fears about their future are all too real.

By taking control of its future, Valley residents and their community leaders can turn things around. The hard-fought battle for a chance to vote on Valley independence provides a rare opportunity to make important, fundamental changes to our local government.

These civic reforms would create a locally responsive and accountable government that would ensure a better future for all Valley residents.

Residents already know, and academic studies clearly prove, that local government works best when citizens have easy access to their leaders who come from their own communities. They drive the same streets, they see the same problems, they enjoy the same entertainment and depend upon the same jobs base.

Size matters because studies show that in local government, smaller is better.

This principle applies in the rest of Los Angeles too. Instead of fighting people who recognize obvious problems and are seeking new solutions, city leaders should dedicate themselves to meeting their remaining challenges.

With fewer people, a smaller city and a hefty alimony payment from the Valley, improvements in East Los Angeles, South Central, Downtown, Midtown and the Westside should be easier.

If real progress were being made, maybe the Valley, Hollywood and the Harbor would not be as interested in charting their own courses.