PROTEST RAISED IN BREAKUP PETITION; COUNTY PROTECTING LAUSD, GROUP SAYS.Byline: Terri Hardy Daily News Staff Writer A group leading an effort to break the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. away from the Los Angeles school The Los Angeles School of Urbanism is an academic movement emerged during the mid-1980s, loosely based at the University of Southern California and UCLA, that poses a challenge to the dominant Chicago School of Urbanism. district says its request to circulate a petition is being thwarted by the county. The group's executive director charged Friday that the county is requiring members of the organization to draw up a cost-prohibitive map that the law does not require, before they are allowed to collect signatures in support of a breakup breakup The division of a company into separate parts. The most famous breakup to date was the 1984 division of AT&T (formerly, American Telephone & Telegraph Company). This breakup was intended to increase competition in the communications industry. . ``They are asking for us to comply with a nonexistent non·ex·is·tence n. 1. The condition of not existing. 2. Something that does not exist. non law so they can stop us,'' said Scott Wilk, executive director of Finally Restoring Educational Excellence. ``The county is supposed to be neutral, but it's clear that they're protecting a $5 billion cash cow Cash Cow 1. One of the four categories (quadrants) in the BCG growth-share matrix that represents the division within a company that has a large market share within a mature industry. 2. - the Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. .'' Deborah Simons, the head of the county division that oversees breakup applications said they are ``checking into'' whether or not they acted legally in requiring the map. However, an attorney contracted by the county because of FREE's challenge, found that the map should not be required, said Simons, director of the county's business adviser services. Simons said the county was now deciding if it should seek an opinion from the state Attorney General's Office. ``If the process is going to change, we can't move forward based on one attorney's opinion,'' Simons said. ``For at least 20 years, we have asked for this map to be included with the petition.'' Wilk said the county is using the request for an Attorney General's Office opinion as a ``delay tactic.'' FREE is proposing plans to break away from the mammoth LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) and split the Valley into two districts, one in the north and one in the south. FREE members believe the county's delays are driven from pressure by the LAUSD. In a letter to county Superintendent of Schools Donald Ingwerson, FREE's attorney charged that the map requirement ``raises serious concerns about the motives and intent of the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Office of Education officials.'' Lawrence Labovitz, FREE's attorney, wrote in the letter that the county has met with lobbyists from Sacramento and the LAUSD to ``determine how to frustrate (FREE's) efforts in this reorganization effort.'' Simons said that she did have conversations with lobbyists on the map controversy and that one of the men also is a lobbyist for the LAUSD. ``We talked about the whole issue, about which code section was applicable and how to get a resolution to the matter,'' Simons said. Asked if it was a conflict of interest to consult with a lobbyist for the LAUSD, Simons said, ``I can't respond to that.''``We always have remained neutral in everything we have done,'' she said. FREE contends that they should only be expected to supply a boundary map and description of the proposed districts so the county can determine how many voters were needed to sign a petition. The county, however, requires a breakup applicant to file a detailed legal boundary map to be used by the Board of Equalization In communications, techniques used to reduce distortion and compensate for signal loss (attenuation) over long distances. for taxing purposes. |
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