SECESSION DOOR STILL AJAR : LOCKYER SAYS LEGISLATIVE PANEL COULD SEARCH FOR COMPROMISE.

Byline: Mark Katches Daily News Sacramento Bureau

Two hours before the final vote was cast on her bill to restore the San Fernando Valley's right to self-determination, Assemblywoman Paula Boland sat slumped in her fourth-floor Capitol office with her shoes off.

She was editing a press release accepting the bill's demise.

Fighting off the flu, Boland knew she had lost this round. But the battle in the state Capitol over her bill may not be completed.

Both Boland and her nemesis in the upper house, Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer, the Hayward Democrat, have left the door open, barely, to some kind of deal - even though the clock is running out on the legislative session.

Many Democrats are attending their party's national convention in Chicago this week, and the Assembly and Senate are scheduled to adjourn for the year Aug. 31.

``I'm open to hearing anything the senator has to say,'' Boland, R-Granada Hills, said Friday. ``I've said I will fight for this bill to the last gasp, and we won't be there until midnight Saturday (Aug. 31.)''

Lockyer said Friday that he would consider joining with Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle, R-Garden Grove, in naming a joint Senate-Assembly six-member conference committee to negotiate a compromise product next week.

The Senate leader's comments came at the urging of Sen. Tom Hayden, D-Los Angeles, who said he believes too much energy has gone into the Boland bill to see it wasted.

``I don't think the search for a solution should die with a week to go,'' Hayden said. ``I want to include the whole menu of options, and we can go from there. This keeps the issue in the emergency room rather than letting it expire.''

Boland's AB 2043 would have taken away the Los Angeles City Council's ability to veto a detachment from the city of Los Angeles.

The measure was shot down in the Senate on Thursday on a 19-18 vote. Even though she had 19 backers in her corner, the bill needed 21 votes for passage. A reconsideration vote expected Monday is unlikely to change the outcome.

With the bill having been defeated in its pure form, Boland has opened talks about a compromise that would substitute the council's veto for a citywide vote on any detachment.

So far, Lockyer has held out for more concessions - including a study on the economic feasibility of a new Valley city.

The question remains whether Boland and Lockyer - two headstrong lawmakers who have attacked each other publicly for months - will be able to overcome a deep distrust of one other's motives before the Legislature adjourns.

Hayden said there could be no deal without Boland playing a major role at the table.

``If she doesn't want to compromise, it's in her hands,'' Hayden said.

But there is some sense of optimism that a deal could be struck.

``I haven't discussed this yet with Lockyer or Ms. Boland, but I support the bill and hope we can address ways to move it forward,'' said Pringle, who is Boland's leader in the lower house.

Lockyer said he would not anticipate any attempt to appoint a conference

committee until early next week.

``I need to involve people in the discussion and talk to the assemblywoman and the speaker,'' Lockyer said.

Lockyer even offered one of his own bills as a potential vehicle for the changes. Hayden also has a bill stuck in the Assembly that could be amended, or AB 2043 could be used.

Other Senate Democrats who moved to kill Boland's bill on the floor are not interested in any more discussions on the subject.

Sen. Richard Polanco, D-Los Angeles, said Hayden's idea to throw all the talking points into a bill sounded ``like a platform for his mayor's race.''

``There's a charter revision movement in Los Angeles,'' Polanco said. ``Why not just take all these issues over there?''

Hayden proposed amending a bill to include ``everything and the kitchen sink,'' ranging from reform of local agency formation commissions that decide on issues of detachment, to a straight swap of the City Council veto with a citywide vote in any secession election.

Hayden said the idea is to start with everything on the table in the hopes of fashioning some compromise.

Boland has been willing to bend, but has rejected Lockyer's study proposals - contending they are a means to kill the bill. She is also skeptical of Hayden's proposal for LAFCO reform, and for more neighborhood control over zoning issues.

Lockyer said he believes Hayden's LAFCO ideas may be too complicated to deal with at this late stage in the session, but he did not rule out the simple idea of a citywide vote, which would return state law to its 1978 form, when Los Angeles lobbyists pushed for the veto power to stall a burgeoning secession movement in the Valley.

Hayden and Lockyer are scheduled to attend the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week, but both intend to shuttle between Chicago and Sacramento.

At a news conference Friday to discuss his nostalgic return to Chicago, Hayden opened by saying, ``The first thing I want to talk to Mayor Daley about is the Boland bill.''

``You're joking, of course,'' a reporter responded.

``Yes, I am joking,'' Hayden said.