SECESSION—Secessionists Try ‘Education’ Campaign

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Faced with apparent apathy and a fairly small piggy bank, advocates of San Fernando Valley secession have launched what they are calling a grassroots campaign to educate the public on the pros and cons of breaking away from the city of Los Angeles.

Organizers said the effort is a prelude to what is likely to be a high-priced and wildly confusing political campaign. In the meantime, they insist, putting placards in front yards, holding petition drives at local shopping centers and initiating a methodical door-to-door education campaign is not aimed at persuading them to vote one way or the other.

“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 Laura DeGilo, appointed to head the canvassing effort. “It means don’t be denied, uninformed or misled. We feel the politicians have misled us. They’ve kept us uninformed and they have denied us the truth.”

She said her goal as head of the Valley VOTE Volunteer Corps is to walk the neighborhoods and share the findings of the secession feasibility study, a nearly 400-page report by the Local Agency Formation Commission released in March.

The volunteer effort, however, has gotten off to a disappointing start. Only 50 of a projected 500 people showed up for the group’s first meeting in late July.

“We are starting to make some noise around the Valley,” said Richard Leyner, president of the United Chambers of Commerce and a Valley VOTE board member. “But this is just an educational process. We are not trying to sell secession, we just want to inform.”

Leyner said with the 2002 election a little more than a year away, an information campaign needs to be in place quickly, though the cause has been hampered by minimal contributions. “We pick up a few hundred dollars here and a few hundred dollars there,” he said.

Critics of the process are already voicing concerns about confusion over the issues, including the potential need to fill as many as 14 council seats and a mayor’s office.

Concerned that having all these questions on one ballot would confuse the voters, some are calling for a vote on secession first, followed by a separate vote for council and mayor. Candidates are not likely to come forward until LAFCO has established potential city council districts, something not expected before this fall.

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