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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

SECEDE—Secessionists Downplay Dearth of Volunteers, Money

Despite a low turnout of volunteers so far and a fairly small piggy bank, secession advocates have launched what they are calling a grassroots campaign to educate the public on the pros and cons of the San Fernando Valley breaking away from the city of Los Angeles. Organizers claim a high-priced, and likely wildly confusing, political campaign will come later. In the meantime, they insist, the point of putting placards in front yards, holding petition drives at local shopping centers and a methodical door-to-door campaign will be to educate people about the effort to get a secession initiative on the ballot in 2002, not persuading them to vote one way or the other. Valley VOTE has appointed Chatsworth resident Laura DiGilo to head up the group of volunteers that will do the canvassing. DiGilo, Valley VOTE chairman Richard Close said, was the top signature gatherer during the petition drive for the secession feasibility study, the findings of which were released in March in a nearly 400-page report by the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO). DiGilo said her goal as head of the Valley VOTE Volunteer Corps is to get as many people as she can to walk the neighborhoods and share the findings of the report. “Our message to the citizens of the Valley is sort of built around a slogan I’ve been using called ‘Don’t be DUM,”‘ said DeGilo. ” It means don’t be denied, uninformed or misled. We feel that, as in the past, the politicians have misled us. They’ve kept us uninformed and they have denied us the truth. And we don’t want that to continue.” DeGilo admitted the volunteer effort has gotten off to a disappointing start. Only 50 volunteers showed up for the group’s first meeting in late July. “I was disappointed. I would have liked to have seen 500 people there,” she said. Other Valley VOTE members say they aren’t concerned about the turnout because they are working to get their message out in other ways. Richard Leyner, president of the United Chambers of Commerce and a Valley VOTE board member, is setting up speakers’ meetings around the Valley. He said the clock is ticking and, with the 2002 election a little more than a year away, an information campaign needs to be in place quickly. “We are starting to make some noise around the Valley,” said Leyner. “But this is just an educational process. We are not trying to sell secession, we just want to inform.” How much will the grassroots campaign cost? DeGilo isn’t sure. Leyner said contributions collected so far have been minimal. “We pick up a few hundred dollars here and a few hundred dollars there,” he said. Critics are already voicing concerns about potential mass confusion over the issues at stake. There may be as many as 14 council seats and a mayor’s office to fill (in case secession is approved by voters in both the Valley and the rest of Los Angeles), plus the secession question itself. Some want a vote on secession first, followed by a separate vote on council and mayoral seats. If the secession initiative were to fail, there would be no need for municipal races. Leyner said charges that having all the questions on one ballot would confuse the voters is nonsense. “The message we want to get out there is that you better start thinking who in your community you’d like to be your representative, that’s part of it,” said Leyner. “It’s Valley VOTE’S job to get an initiative on the ballot. But it’s the people’s job to elect the candidates of their choice.” Candidates are not likely to come forward until LAFCO has established potential city council districts, something not expected before this fall. Public hearings will follow and then LAFCO will decide whether to put a secession initiative on the ballot, with or without ballot choices for elected officials. The volunteer effort, said Close, will also focus on preparing residents for the upcoming public hearings. He likened the strategy to another movement he was instrumental with during the 1970s when, despite strong initial opposition, Proposition 13 was approved, lowering and capping property taxes for homeowners. “I’ve found it easier to get people involved when you are talking about an issue rather than a candidate,” said Close. “These campaigns are won and lost in the neighborhoods. You can have the best paid political consultants out there, but if they aren’t making the connection at the neighborhood or grassroots level, it doesn’t matter.”

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