VOTE WORKERS FAVOR SOFT SELL; VOLUNTEERS WORK PUBLIC SPACE FOR VALLEY CITYHOOD STUDY.

Byline: David R. Baker Daily News Staff Writer

After pacing the parking lot of a Northridge supermarket for 90 minutes, Sarah Jongepier stopped to count the signatures on her clipboard.

Nineteen shoppers had signed her petitions calling for a public study of San Fernando Valley cityhood, a good haul for a midweek morning, she said.

Some days, she snags just four or five names in an hour. Many people seem pleased to sign, already convinced that the Valley secession from Los Angeles is worth exploring. Others just glide past, mouthing something about being in a hurry.

Few stop to debate the issue.

``If they don't want to sign it, they don't want to waste a second of their lifetime talking to you,'' she said.

With five weeks left to go, the petition drive launched by Valley Voters Organized Toward Empowerment has amassed about half of the 200,000 signatures organizers say they need to ensure success. If the current flow of signatures - about 15,000 to 20,000 each week - keeps up, they should just reach their goal.

But it is still slow work for the drive's foot soldiers - between 35 and 60 volunteers like Jongepier and paid gatherers from a petition-circulating company.

Rarely do they encounter the kind of difficulty they faced last weekend, when police forced them to leave an air show at the Van Nuys Airport, setting off an investigation and outrage from the City Council.

Instead, signature gatherers spend hours trolling the entrances of stores and theaters, approaching total strangers who may or may not think kindly of secession.

The job often means catching 10 signatures per person per hour, a process that will have to be repeated 10,000 times in the weeks ahead if the drive is to succeed.

``It's not glamorous work - it's not quick work,'' said Valley VOTE President Jeff Brain. ``We're really grateful for the hard work the volunteers are doing.''

Halfway there

Since the drive's May 30 kick-off, just under 100,000 people have signed the petitions, Brain said. Valley VOTE needs 135,000 valid signatures - representing a quarter of all registered voters in the Valley - to compel the Local Agency Formation Commission to study the ramifications of Valley cityhood. In any petition drive, some of the signatures collected turn out to be invalid, so Valley VOTE leaders figure they need 200,000 names to be safe.

With so many signatures required, the group has focused much of its attention on public events - like last weekend's aviation expo at the Van Nuys Airport.

Brain said Valley VOTE had hoped to collect 15,000 to 20,000 signatures at the air show and lost a priceless opportunity when airport police forced the signature gatherers to leave. City officials are currently investigating the incident.

Some volunteers, Brain said, were collecting 80 signatures an hour before being forced to leave.

``We have to scurry to make that up,'' Brain said. ``If someone wanted to sabotage our petition drive, they picked a good time.''

Exploiting outrage

Resting in the shade near a Ralphs market Thursday, Jongepier wondered if public anger over the incident might be prompting more people to sign. Several shoppers had mentioned it to her that morning, she said.

Stopping to scribble her name and address on Jongepier's clipboard, Karen Macofsky of Northridge was still appalled at the incident and the inability of public officials to explain how it happened.

``It was so outrageous, and no one had anything to say about it,'' she said.

Like most of those signing Jongepier's clipboard Thursday, Macofsky was already interested in signing before the airport fiasco. Volunteers often hear many of their own concerns about perceived mismanagement at City Hall echoed in the comments of those who sign.

``I want to secede,'' nodded Robert McTaggart after handing the clipboard back to Jongepier. ``It's been a long struggle. . . . The Valley has gotten short shrift for many years.''

Lack of interest

Volunteers also find some hostility to secession and a lot of apathy.

``Hello! Have you signed the petition yet?'' Jan Novelli called into a crowd of fast-moving moviegoers at Pacific Theatres in Chatsworth of Thursday night. Some people stopped to sign. One woman said she had already and has started pushing the petition on her friends. Another merely grimaced at Novelli's pitch and hurried past without a word.

There is little time or opportunity for Novelli to convert people who may be undecided. Nor is she a die-hard secessionist herself, despite carrying a ``Free the Valley from City Hall'' sign on a small clipboard-filled cart.

``I'm still on the fence,'' she said. ``I have this sentimental tie to Los Angeles. On the other hand, I have a financial need to know'' whether secession would make sense, she said.

Nearby, volunteer Melissa Scribner said most people, even if they disagree with the petition, are at least civil. She has only run into one man who took issue with what she was doing, yelling at her as she tried to collect signatures near a grocery store.

``He was saying, what you're doing is illegal, immoral, stupid,'' Scribner said. ``That's not going to stop this effort - some jerk.''

Novelli and Scribner both favor the soft sell. Decked in red Valley VOTE T-shirts, they don't shout or wave their arms to grab attention, although Scribner will sometimes call out to no one in particular like a carnival barker. Jongepier is even more subdued. Her gray bob capped by a broad straw hat on hot days, she starts by asking shoppers in a quiet voice if they're registered to vote in the Valley, then if they'd like to sign a petition.

Paid to collect

By now just about all the volunteers have learned what Hugo Ramseyer, a paid signature gatherer on the Valley VOTE campaign, considers a cardinal rule: be very, very nice. Pushing people to sign something won't work.

``If you're not polite, they won't even talk to you,'' he said, taking a brief break at a Woodland Hills shopping center. He should know.

As an employee of Santa Monica-based Progressive Campaigns Inc., he has worked on five petition drives in the past month as his wife, Alisha, and 2-month-old son, Cyrus, waited at home in Portland, Ore. While volunteers have a personal interest in secession, paid circulators have a financial one - they earn 75 cents for each signature gathered, said Bill Westermeyer, Progressive's local director for the Valley VOTE effort.

Ramseyer represents the second firm to work on the petition drive. Valley VOTE recently switched to Progressive from Kimball Petition Management, where the man supervising the effort developed health problems that occupied his attention, Brain said.

Compared to some of the other petitions Ramseyer has circulated, Valley VOTE's can be a tough sell because it would lead to just a study of Valley cityhood and not secession itself, Ramseyer said. Some voters, sick of government studies, don't like that, he said.

But others can be convinced to sign for exactly the same reason.

``I've had people say, no, I don't have the time, and they'll come back later and say, what the hell,'' he said.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1 -- color) Joaquin Garcia of Northridge, left, talks with Valley VOTE volunteer Sarah Jongepier before signing a petition calling for a study on Valley secession.

(2) Sarah Jongepier stands outside a Northridge supermarket hoping to collect signatures for Valley VOTE.

Terri Thuente/Daily News