Race card is rejected by canadidates. (The Secession Question).

Black and Latino business leaders, including the only black candidate for a new city government, say the findings of a recently released report commissioned by County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke are statistically flawed and based on old-school, racially inspired politics.

One high-profile black business leader in Los Angeles proper, who opposes secession, says secessionist opponents are attempting to use race as a framework for their campaign when they should be focusing on economics instead.

Burke said her $25,000 report, crafted by Eugene Grigsby, a professor at UCLA's School of Public Policy and Social Research, contains data showing blacks in her central and southern L.A. County district and citywide would be harmed economically by a breakup. Burke has used the findings as justification for her recently announced opposition to Valley secession.

She is now touting the findings of the report to her black constituents in an effort to convince them that a breakup would increase Latino voting power in their district, thereby cutting into their share of tax dollars and access to city services.

Mel Wilson, a black Realtor running for mayor of a new Valley city, and other minority leaders in the Valley say a breakup would give minorities, especially blacks in South Central Los Angeles, more political clout than ever, even with a Latino majority.

"I reject the argument that African-Americans and people of color in general would be worse off with an independent San Fernando Valley," said Wilson. "People of color will be more empowered than they are now because their numbers will grow, and they will grow without any sort of migration. What the African-American community in (Burke's district) will get is a smaller district of 130,000 people represented by one official, just like that, overnight. They will have the ability to have what we (in the Valley) will have: smaller government, better representation."

According to a recent census study, the black population in a post-secession Los Angeles would increase by 43.5 percent if both Hollywood and the Valley broke away. If just the Valley forms its own city, the figure increases by 35 percent.

Burke asserts any political advantage that accrues from a breakup should take a back seat to economic implications. She says she's concerned about Valley minorities losing out if new city leaders do away with the current business tax structure (leaving less revenue available for city services) or if a prolonged economic downturn forces changes in the terms of the LAFCO-approved proposal.

"This report is not an opinion report, it's based on census data," Burke said. "The report has charts and data that show if you take out tax dollars or if, for example, the alimony payments (which the new city would pay Los Angeles) were to change due to a recession, you are in a situation where people will lose services."

But some say the subtext of Burke's report and comments is a message to blacks, Latinos and other minorities that the political status quo offers them their best hope for social and economic improvements in their communities. This kind of thinking, they say, undercuts minority efforts to overcome racial inequalities and the myth that blacks, Latinos and other ethnic groups decide how to vote because of their race and not the issues.

"One of the things about data is that you can kind of form it to what your own personal opinion is," said Zedar Broadous, president of the San Fernando Valley Black Chamber of Commerce. "One of the things a lot of people opposed to secession in Los Angeles have tried to impose on the African-American community is that the Valley is this white enclave and not the real diverse economic engine that it really is, that we are divided or we don't support those outside our own ethnic community."

Broadous said neither he nor his group of roughly 185 members have taken a public position on secession, but he sees advantages for blacks with a breakup.

"As it now stands, the African-Americans in the Valley have been overlooked not only by the white establishment in Los Angeles, but by African-Americans on the other side of the hill," said Broadous. "In the Valley, they don't have the kind of access to our government that others do. And because we are so dispersed, our voices are not heard in the same manner as African-Americans in South Central.

"That's not to say we haven't reached out and they haven't tried to reach out to us. But it's like any long-distance relationship: after a while, it gets old."

Gene Hale, chairman of the Greater Los Angeles Black Chamber of Commerce, said his group is opposed to secession because of the economic impact. Although he doesn't think the black community would gain any significant political clout under a breakup, he agreed there is not unanimity on the issue.

"You do have two camps," he said. "We happen to be an economic camp. In terms of political clout, I don't see much changing. In fact, I think we'd stagnate. But I agree this shouldn't be an issue of race or minorities. I think that where we want to go is to show we have a strong African-American community that can take a stand without bringing into it the issue of race."

The Grigsby report claims Valley blacks would have little political clout with a city government dominated by non-Latino whites.

Census figures show the Valley's 60,000 blacks currently represent about 11 percent of the Valley's population of 1.6 million.

There are about 642,000 Latinos in the Valley but, of 111 mayoral and city council candidates, only 13 are Latino.

David Hernandez, a candidate for both Valley mayor and the U.S. Congress, says most of the Valley's Latino community supports secession because they recognize the opportunities that could come with a smaller city government.

"They are overwhelmingly in favor of it," Hernandez said. "They have relied on so-called Latino politicians for a while, but they turn around at every level and they see failing schools and neighborhoods and decaying sidewalks."

Hernandez said he gives "no credence" to the Grigsby report or to the assumption that blacks would be harmed by a breakup. In fact, he compared Burke's views to those of groups such as the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, which opposes secession and recently attempted to redraw L.A. City Council district boundaries to give Latinos more political muscle.

Hernandez said Latinos have fought for and won enough political clout to make what he called a "La Raza" mentality unnecessary and harmful.

"The Latino opponents of secession are holding on to the old-school perception that Latinos still can't make it on their own," said Hernandez. "They are attempting to hold on to their power base, just as some of the downtown interest groups, including African-Americans opposed to secession, are doing. They want to speak for all of us Latinos, but the fact is, they don't."