SECESSION FOE JOINS KEY STATE COMMITTEE.

Byline: Paul Hefner Daily News Sacramento Bureau

Two days before a hearing on bills to give voters control over any drive to secede from Los Angeles, Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer replaced a committee member supporting the idea with an opponent.

Sen. Richard Polanco, D-Los Angeles, was tabbed by Lockyer to join the Local Government Committee, which is set to consider on Wednesday two bills stripping the City Council of its veto power over secession.

Polanco has been an outspoken opponent of the bills. He takes the place of Sen. Charles Calderon, D-Montebello, who earlier voted in favor of a bill replacing the veto with a citywide vote.

Legislators sponsoring the bills said they were still optimistic about holding the support of at least four of the seven committee members. But the move alarmed leaders of Valley Voters Organized Toward Empowerment, a group pushing for the legislation.

``I viewed Calderon as a friend and supporter. We know Polanco is 100 percent opposed to the bill,'' said Richard Close, co-chairman of Valley VOTE. ``This makes it very very difficult for us, when we have a known Valley bill-killer, Polanco, being put on the committee.''

Polanco did not return calls for comment, but Lockyer defended his selection. Lockyer maintained that Polanco and Calderon were fundamentally opposed to a division of the city - so substituting one for the other made no real difference.

``It's the same general point of view,'' Lockyer said. ``What I'm trying to do is not change any possible outcome. It doesn't change the vote in any manner.''

However reluctantly, Lockyer has been a key player in the issue. Last year he helped defeat a bill by former Assemblywoman Paula Boland, R-Granada Hills, that would have dropped the veto from state law.

He then drafted his own bill on the topic, which he maintained was better than Boland's. It would have replaced the veto with a citywide vote and formed two commissions to study secession issues.

But Lockyer - citing criticism from both sides - later dropped his bill, and vowed to stay out of the debate. Two Assembly bills that would remove the City Council veto passed out of the lower house and are now pending in the Senate.

Close said he had trouble squaring Lockyer's pledge of neutrality with his abrupt reshuffling of the committee's membership. The change was approved on a vote of the Rules Committee, which Lockyer chairs.

``I can't understand why the leading opponent would be put on the committee in place of a senator who is going to vote for the bill,'' Close said. ``I may not be a brain surgeon, but that doesn't seem to be a substitution of equals.''

Boland - a longtime adversary of Lockyer's - was even more outspoken in her criticism of Lockyer, D-Hayward.

``He has stood up, taken a giant baseball bat, and hit the people of the San Fernando Valley across the back of the neck. It's blatant,'' she said. ``If he ever trolls the San Fernando Valley for a vote, I promise him it'll be my mission in life to let the people know exactly who thwarted democracy.''

Lawmakers sponsoring the bills were less concerned about the move, however. Assemblyman Tom McClintock, R-Granada Hills, said the change in the committee's makeup would not block committee approval for his bill, AB 62.

``It doesn't affect the vote count,'' McClintock said. ``I'm confident we have more than enough votes to get the bill through the committee.''

McClintock, whose measure replacing the veto with a citywide vote is co-authored by Assemblyman Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, said he accepts Lockyer's pledge to stay out of the fight.

``I cannot imagine Senator Lockyer wanting to infuriate a population of over a million Californians,'' McClintock said. ``Everyone needs to calm down.''

Assemblyman Tony Cardenas, D-Panorama City, said he was counting on Calderon's vote for his bill, which replaces the veto with a requirement that secession be approved by two-thirds of the voters in the detaching area.

``From my understanding, between Polanco and Calderon, Calderon was very soft on the issue, and Polanco was very hard on the issue,'' Cardenas said.

Cardenas said he still hoped his bill would get through the committee. But he said he had tried unsuccessfully to win Polanco's support for his bill.

Though he has served on the Local Government Committee for seven years, Calderon said he stayed on this year only at Lockyer's request.

``Bill asked me to stay on to provide sort of an even-handed approach to the whole issue,'' Calderon said.

But Calderon said he agreed to keep his place on the committee only through its consideration of Senate bills, which ended last month. He sent a letter resigning his committee membership to Lockyer on May 20.

He said there was no pressure for him to get off the committee.

``There's no conspiracy here,'' Calderon said.

Calderon said he found out only Monday that Polanco would be replacing him on the committee. He said he didn't want to speculate about what prompted Polanco's appointment.

He said he generally agrees that lawmakers should not be encouraging communities to divide. But he also acknowledged supporting the move to strike the veto from state law.

``I would probably have voted for it again,'' Calderon said. ``I also had a desire to get off the committee.''