NEW EFFORT UNDER WAY TO RETURN CROSS TO L.A. COUNTY SEAL.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

Despite three failed attempts to gather enough signatures to return the cross to the Los Angeles County seal, proponents aren't giving up.

David Hernandez and Valley Village resident Deborah Leigh are mounting yet another effort, expected to be joined by thousands of volunteers who have spent their weekends and free time for the past 18 months attempting to gain 170,606 names to put the issue to voters.

``This is a lot bigger than the seal,'' said Leigh, a 53-year-old American Indian traditionalist who is a division manager at a sports industry products company.

The efforts reflect the broad and ongoing nationwide controversy over the constitutionality of religious symbols on government and public display.

While Los Angeles County supporters call the cross on the seal a reflection of regional history, the ACLU maintains that it is an ``impermissible endorsement of Christianity'' and violates the First Amendment requirement for separation of church and state.

``It's easy for God and religion to flourish in the United States,'' said Peter Eliasberg, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. ``I would argue it flourishes more when we keep government out of it and don't have government put God on a seal as the preferred religion.''

The controversy erupted in early 2004 after the ACLU threatened to sue the county, claiming the cross on the original 1957 seal was unconstitutional.

Officials said the cross represented the historical influence of the missions in California, and was in a panel with two stars above a depiction of the Hollywood Bowl. The panel is one of six around the seal's main figure, Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruits and fruit trees, representing the region's agriculture.

But in several 3-2 votes last year, the Board of Supervisors ordered the cross removed. Since then, the county has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars replacing the original seal on thousands of vehicles, buildings and uniforms.

The first attempt to put the issue before voters began July 4, 2004, and lasted a week before supporters learned that their petition format was flawed and could be successfully challenged in court. They stopped the petition drive after collecting about 40,000 signatures. The second attempt collected 109,000 signatures.

The last effort ended in September and came the closest of all - gathering 141,000 signatures.

Supporters say they now have a database of about 200,000 people who have signed previous petitions and if they can raise about $150,000 for printing and postage, they plan to mail those people new petitions, asking them to sign it, get two more people to sign and mail it back.

Hernandez, chairman of the Committee to Support the Los Angeles Seal Ordinance, said he had expected the last petition drive to be the final one.

``With the different coalitions that have joined, the support of the American Legion and the thousands of volunteers, it's like this snowball going down a hill and it keeps acquiring more and more supporters,'' Hernandez said.

Tod Tamberg, spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, said the church is allowing individual parishes to set up signature-gathering booths on public sidewalks so people can sign petitions if they desire.

``So while we look favorably upon the efforts of these people, we cannot take an official position on the measure,'' Tamberg said. ``The persistence of the people who care about this issue should be a sign to the Board of Supervisors that they hit a nerve here, and of course, as we believe, this is not a religious issue, it's an issue of being historically accurate with regard to the history of how Los Angeles was founded.''

Troy Anderson, [phone]

troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com

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(color) David Hernandez says the effort for the cross is getting more backers.