No Happy Ending Expected in Hollywood’s Bid for Secession
POLITICS by Howard Fine
Proponents of Hollywood secession may have scored a victory last month when the effort to break away from the city of L.A. was placed on the Nov. 5 ballot. But they appear to be losing the war badly. The most recent Los Angeles Times poll shows only 25 percent support for Hollywood secession both within the proposed city’s limits and throughout all of L.A.
Gene La Pietra, president of Hollywood VOTE and the leader of the secession effort, is determined to turn the tide. For starters, he says that Hollywood secession would smooth the way for the area to split off from the Los Angeles Unified School District a broad leap considering that secession doesn’t involve the LAUSD, which is a separate government entity from the City of Los Angeles.
But that doesn’t faze La Pietra. “This has always been about creating our own school district,” he said. “Once Hollywood is a separate city, it will be easier for elected officials in the new city to get LAUSD secession on the ballot.”
To win the citywide vote, La Pietra is taking his campaign to the Valley and to the Harbor area with direct mailers and speaking appearances. “To win, we need that 65 percent support from the (San Fernando) Valley,” La Pietra said, sounding like Valley Independence Committee chair Richard Katz.
La Pietra likens the effort to a mutual aid society. “We vote for them; they vote for us. We both need each other.”
La Pietra’s support for Valley secession goes way beyond rhetoric. He gave $50,000 to the Valley secession campaign in June, making him the single largest contributor in the opening weeks of the formal campaign.
What about Hollywood itself? La Pietra cited a recent internal poll showing secession gaining a little ground, with 31 percent support within the city of Hollywood. “That’s a six percent gain in one month. If we do that every month until November, we’re over the top,” he said.
Secession and Police
It’s been commonly assumed the Valley would have three options for policing the new city: contract with the Los Angeles Police Department, set up its own police force or contract with the L.A. Sheriff’s Department.
But on the weekly television series Secession 101, Valley VOTE president Jeff Brain said it would make no sense for a Valley city to contract with the Sheriff’s Department. He said that under state law the new city would be responsible for all employees the Sheriff’s Department stations in the Valley. “After the one year transition period, we would either continue to contract with the LAPD or form our own police department,” he said.
Another guest on the program, LAPD spokesman (and candidate for police chief) David Gascon, said it would be difficult for the new Valley city to hire 1,700 to 2,000 officers from scratch, thus making it more likely that the new Valley city would continue to contract with the LAPD.
Westside Council
Westside cities long have been at each other’s throats, attacking other cities’ project approvals, road works and the like.
But collaboration now seems to be the name of the game. Recently, this column reported on economic development officials and businesses in the four Westside cities of Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Culver City and Beverly Hills getting together to form the Westside Economic Development Collaborative.
Now comes word that officials from those same cities are considering a Council of Governments, which would take regional approaches to thorny problems like transportation and housing. The group of councilmembers from all four cities and possibly the city of L.A. itself also would lobby as a unit for federal or state funding for infrastructure projects.
Other areas of L.A. County, such as the San Gabriel Valley and the South Bay, already have COGs. The Westside is one of the last holdouts.
Staff reporter Howard Fine can be reached by phone at (323) 549-5225, ext. 227, or by e-mail at
[email protected].
