Secession Support Strong Last year, Valley VOTE worked a minor miracle by creating the momentum necessary to pass AB 62, which put the power to decide whether to create a new, independent city in the San Fernando Valley back where it belongs: in the hands of the voters, not the City Council. Now, less than six months after Gov. Wilson signed this landmark legislation, you want us to believe that support for an independent city in the San Fernando Valley is waning? (“Secession Momentum Waning,” March 1998.) Nothing could be further from the truth. State law requires that LAFCO study any reorganization proposal before it goes before the voters. The San Fernando Valley residents, educators, business leaders and community activists who comprise Valley VOTE are very busy speaking with community groups, signing up volunteers, planning petition drives and fund-raising events in short, doing everything necessary to place this issue before LAFCO. These are steps forward, not backward! The momentum behind Valley VOTE’s efforts is building steadily. Calls come into the Valley VOTE offices every day. People are energized about Valley VOTE’s work and they want to know what they can do to help, whether it is sending a small donation, volunteering their time or agreeing to circulate petitions. Unfortunately, rather than examining these issues impartially, you focused your article on a small number of people, such as Steve Lew of VICA, who never supported Valley VOTE’s efforts on AB 62, let alone on putting this issue before LAFCO. How can you call their lack of support a retreat when they were never with Valley VOTE in the first place? If you wish to print editorials opposing efforts to create an independent city in the San Fernando Valley, or criticizing the efforts of Valley VOTE, please feel free. But don’t try to pass them off as impartial reporting. Your readers know better. STEVEN G. PEARL Attorney Beverly Hills