Proponents to Emphasize Mutual Benefits of Secession

The campaign to break up Los Angeles will aim to convince voters citywide that they will be better off if the San Fernando Valley, harbor area and Hollywood secede.

Secession proponents, whose numbers include some Valley and Hollywood business leaders, say they will depend heavily on precinct-level volunteers, but will also try to raise up to $4 million for the campaign.

“We will appeal to people on two levels,” said Richard Katz, a former assemblyman who is co-chairman of the Valley secession campaign. “One will be a grass-roots level of people who really want to see change. And the other will be people who have businesses in the Valley [and elsewhere] who feel this is an issue worth supporting.”

Katz said fund-raising has been difficult for secessionists so far, and opponents have access to more deep-pocket donors. He declined to say how much the secession effort has raised.

The state Local Agency Formation Commission is expected to decide late this month whether to place the secession proposals on the November ballot. For a secession measure to win, it must gain a majority of voters both within the breakaway region and the city as a whole. Ben Goddard, a political consultant who has been retained by the Valley and Hollywood secession movements to run the campaign citywide, said grass-roots organizing would be augmented with television commercials and other mass media efforts aimed at voters throughout the city.

“The overarching message is that this is going to be good for everyone,” Goddard said. “A smaller city of L.A. is going to be much closer to the local residents. It’s going to be more responsive. Council districts are going to be smaller.”

Goddard said the campaign will enlist volunteers to walk door to door in the Westside and South-Central Los Angeles. It will try to change the language of the debate, encouraging people to use the terms “independence” and “cityhood” instead of secession, he said.

Mayor James K. Hahn, who is leading the opposition, dismissed the idea that secession could have citywide benefits.

“Breaking up the city would be bad for everyone,” Hahn said. “I’m going to be talking about the fact that the economy is beginning to rebound, our real estate market is strong, and city government is working to develop relationships with neighborhoods. It would slow all that momentum down and throw the city into chaos if people are persuaded to vote to break up Los Angeles.”

The secession group Valley VOTE held an organizing meeting Monday night. About 100 people attended.