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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Secession

d.taub/secession/1stjc/mark2nd An Assembly bill to remove the Los Angeles City Council’s right to veto a citywide vote on San Fernando Valley secession moved a step closer to approval late last month. Co-sponsored by Assembly members Tom McClintock, R-Granada Hills, and Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, Assembly Bill 62 would eliminate the ability by cities to overpower a community’s secession effort an authority cities were given in 1977 following an earlier Valley secession effort. AB 62 passed the Assembly last month on a 74-1 vote, with Assemblyman Roderick Wright, D-Los Angeles, casting the one dissenting vote. The bill is an outgrowth of last year’s failed effort by former Granada Hills Assemblywoman Paula L. Boland to allow the Valley to decide on its own whether to secede from Los Angeles. The bill was reintroduced unchanged by McClintock, Boland’s successor, a day after he was sworn into office, but later was revised to allow for a citywide vote. Meanwhile, a separate secession bill by state Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer, D-Hayward, recently passed through the Senate Rules Committee on a 4-1 vote, but likely won’t be voted on by the full Senate until at least early June. Lockyer’s bill is similar to the McClintock-Hertzberg bill, but also calls for the state to spend $1.2 million to fund two commissions one to study the issues of community secession on a statewide level, and one to study San Fernando Valley secession. “Our bill is really about the right to self determination, and his bill is really about secession,” said Scott Wilk, McClintock’s chief of staff. Daniel Taub

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