SECESSION DRIVE STAYS ON TRACK.

Byline: Paul Hefner Daily News Sacramento Bureau

A day after the Los Angeles City Council and San Fernando Valley activists agreed to a landmark compromise on the issue, a bill to remove the council's veto power over any secession drive sailed through its first Senate committee hearing Wednesday.

Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer shepherded his bill - one of four introduced on the subject - through the first of at least seven tests in the Legislature. The Local Government Committee passed the bill, SB 176, on a 5-1 vote.

State Sen. Diane Watson, D-Los Angeles, cast the sole no vote. At times, she sparred openly with Lockyer and with City Councilman Richard Alarcon, who also spoke at the hearing.

Lockyer, D-Hayward - who engineered the defeat last year of a similar bill, carried by then-Assemblywoman Paula Boland - offered a spirited defense of his own bill.

He said that his work against Boland's bill gave him an obligation to seek a compromise that would address the concerns of both Valley activists and secession opponents.

``It seems to me the City Council veto is an indefensible policy,'' Lockyer told the committee.

Lockyer's bill calls for lifting the veto, but replacing it with a citywide vote on any secession effort. It also would set up two commissions to study the issue.

Lockyer said he ``happens to love the city of Los Angeles'' and hopes that if a secession drive gets to the ballot, it fails at the polls. But he said voters, not elected officials, should have the final say.

``As a `majoritarian,' I think that's the appropriate and populist mechanism,'' Lockyer said. ``It shouldn't just be the City Council that has too much of a vested interest in the status quo.''

The committee's 90-minute hearing marked the first time leaders of a San Fernando Valley group, pushing since last year for self-determination, found themselves on the same side as lobbyists for the City Council, which approved a resolution endorsing the central thrust of the bill.

``I don't think it could have gone any better,'' said Valley Vote co-chairman Jeff Brain as he walked out of the Capitol.

Brain was joined by community activists Harry Coleman and former Rep. Bobbi Fiedler, who made their case as the committee met in one of the Capitol's ornate hearing rooms, where senators sat beneath a sweeping mural of Yosemite Valley.

Fiedler urged the committee to allow the San Fernando Valley's residents to free themselves from an outdated form of local government.

``We need to be able to set aside those things that have not worked,'' she said.

Neither the council nor Valley Vote has endorsed Lockyer's bill, but both have agreed to support replacing the veto with a citywide vote. Valley leaders are on record supporting a secession bill by Assemblyman Tom McClintock, R-Northridge, and Assemblyman Robert Hertzberg, D-Sherman Oaks.

Lockyer's bill is moving ahead of that bill because it has funding in it for two commission studies: one to look at secession drives statewide and one specifically to study the potential effects of Valley secession.

The bill now moves back to the Senate Rules Committee, which Lockyer chairs, for a second hearing. It would also need the approval of the Appropriations Committee before a vote by the full Senate, where it would need a two-thirds majority to pass.

No new hearings have been set for the bill or for three competing measures on the issue introduced in the Assembly.

Watson predicted that Lockyer's bill would prevail this session.

``It looks like it's a done deal,'' she said. ``It looks like Bill has got the votes lined up.''

Alarcon told committee members he supports giving residents the power to vote their way out of the city. He told the senators that the veto has deepened the disconnection many residents feel from their local government.

But Alarcon came under fire from Watson, who suggested that if Valley residents weren't being effectively represented, Alarcon should look for another job.

``If you're there, and you don't have a voice, then maybe you should run for the Assembly,'' she said.

``Well, thank you for the endorsement,'' Alarcon responded.

Valley activists told the committee that their communities get too small a share of basic city services and personnel, from library books and museums to police officers.

But Watson rejected that notion, pointing to the huge response by Los Angeles police to last week's shootout outside a North Hollywood bank.

``Last Friday, you had 300 law enforcement officers in the Valley,'' she said. ``They hold up my bank every Friday, and we never get that kind of a response.''

Sen. William Craven, R-Carlsbad, joined Republican Richard Rainey of Walnut Creek and Democrats Ruben Ayala of Rancho Cucamonga, Patrick Johnston of Sacramento, and Charles Calderon of Montebello in voting for the bill.

But Craven dismissed one notion Lockyer advanced - that the distance from the Valley to City Hall is part of the problem.

``That's ridiculous. Nobody's going to guarantee how close you are to City Hall,'' Craven said.