Secession Watch Archive
Archive Sept. 11 - Sept. 20
Return to current Secession Watch
Media links open in a new window. Sites may ask for registration or a fee for older stories.
• Friday roundup: Secession candidates Keith Richman and Mel Wilson ventured deep into the L.A. maw to sell the break-up to what the Daily News calls "the downtown crowd", but apparently to no avail ... Column One in the Times from Long Island, Maine, a small city that the story calls "one of the nation's few secession successes." ... More criticism in Chatsworth of the city council's decision to appeal a court ruling that went against developer and anti-secession fundraiser Ted Stein ... Daily News editorializes that the emerging scandal over use of funds by the Entertainment Industry Development Council is "Tinseltown's latest tawdry tale of decadence, corruption and greed" and declares DA Cooley its early hero of this drama. Meanwhile, the EIDC head defends giving money to Pittsburgh for its effort to lure production.
• Thursday roundup: Keith Richman detailed his plan (Daily News and Times) to break a new Valley city into seven boroughs, something other mayoral candidates generally panned ... Beth Barrett in the Daily News breaks the story that the EIDC, which is supposed to encourage film crews to shoot in Los Angeles, spent $10,000 to help the Pittsburgh (!) film office attract business ... The L.A. Times follows up on a Secession Watch posting of a few weeks ago with a feature on a newsletter editor who argues, quite seriously, that secession will be good for pets. She heard from several reporters after the SW item appeared ... At New Times, The Finger looks at the EIDC another way ... An L.A. Times editorial looks ahead to the post-election hangover that probably awaits...The City Council convened last night in Lake View Terrace hoping to defuse secession talk, with barbecue, Girl Scouts and a Holstein cow on the scene ... The Field Poll surveyed California voters who can't vote on secession what they think anyway. Statewide, 43% think secession would be good for the Valley, and 46% say it would be bad for Los Angeles. A third of those polled had no opinion. Report in the San Francisco Chronicle or data junkies can go right to the Field Poll site.
• Uh-oh, the pro-secession loyalists are riled now. A Valley Secession Fever screed rants at Secession Watch that the Daily News was right to not mention that its favorite Rose Institute study was paid for by secession leaders. Basically, the blog says 1) Everybody knows David Fleming and the Daily News are for secession, and 2) Readers could look it up on the search function. And just too bad for occasional followers of the issue, which is most people in the Valley, or anyone who (gasp) actually reads the print newspaper and not the Web site. Sorry, you don't have to be against secession or a tool of the L.A. Times to see that the DN broke a rule. The DN even ran a separate sidebar on who paid for the study -- and didn't let on that the backers are secession leaders. A long history wasn't required, just a nod. It's Journalism 101, and every other paper got it right. Incidentally, the Daily News denies that its news coverage is skewed to push secession, but as VSF shows, the true believers assume it is on a mission and like it that way. It's a fairly unusual profile for a mass-market U.S. newspaper, especially one with a potential reader base so divided. That's why the DN's coverage will become a bigger not smaller part of the unfolding story, for Secession Watch and quite likely others. The L.A. Times' openly-stated editorial page opposition and peculiar story selection is not in the same league, but we're watching them too. VSF acts as if he just discovered that the editor of this Web site has ties to the Times. Well, he's known of them a long time. He learned it here, from the many times they have been cited or disclosed. (Including just to the right, a few inches away, 24/7, and here, and here.) VSF himself has commented on them before, so go figure. Partisans believe strongly; they only want media that makes their side look good, and they hear things selectively. But if there's a more bi-partisan, complete and independent gathering of news and comment on Valley secession than this one, we'd love to see it. And it's an all-volunteer effort. Wondering what this is about? Scroll down two items.
• Culture Watch: Another Valley-based movie is about to launch. Fate of the Blade is said to be a cross between Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Clueless, another film in which the Valley played a part. In Fate, an adopted Asian American teen living in the Valley turns out to be the sole surviving descendant of a Samurai clan. Next month, the latest film with a Valley setting by Paul Thomas Anderson hits theater screens. Punch-Drunk Love is a romantic comedy that stars Adam Sandler and Emily Watson and includes two mainstays of the Anderson-Valley oeuvre, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Luis Guzman.
• The Daily News makes the Rose Institute analysis of Los Angeles fiscal performance its top news story AGAIN today -- with the lead quote from FOTDN (Friend of the Daily News) David Fleming. He is portrayed as a neutral study co-sponsor, when in truth he is a top bankroller of the secession cause. OK you say, maybe it's an honest and ethical oversight? Well, also for the second day in a row, the DN feels the need to run a sidebar assuring readers that the Rose study is on the up and up. In doing so, it admits that $65,000 for the study came from a Valley group formed by Fleming and Bert Boeckmann. So far so good. But it describes the men only as "community leaders" -- no mention that they are the sugar daddies of the secession effort, and have been since 1998 when it was revealed that their co-partner in secretly financing the movement was....yes, the Daily News. Shame on reporter Beth Barrett and her editors. Fleming, a lawyer at Latham & Watkins, is the heavyweight of the secession camp, and he's leading the drive to get the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn. to endorse break-up. (The DN coyly urged only that the group take some position). Meanwhile, Tuesday brings another DN editorial pegged to the Rose study. This Rose Institute business seems like a weak point for the paper to risk its credibility on, especially with national reporters flooding the Valley this week to write about secession. The Daily News values the study most as a tool to shoot down anti-secession claims that an independent Valley would lose clout -- which it does well, or did before the taint of being bought by Fleming and friends. But so what? The anti side is hardly basing its campaign on the clout issue. Even so, the DN has run a dozen items since August 22 -- including cartoons -- citing Rose or the grants and clout discussion.
Daily Breeze: Copley's David Zahniser gets it right
Blog apologist: Make the Times the issue
Earlier: Ex-reporter says Fleming got DN story killed
Earlier: Managing Editor explains crusade's roots
• The Rev. Zedar E. Broadous, whose family name counts for something in the Northeast Valley, became the top African American leader to endorse secession. Broadous is president of the Valley's NAACP chapter and chair of the Black Chamber of Commerce in the Valley. (Neither group has endorsed secession). Broadous's father was a key Valley leader during the racial tensions of the 1960s and '70s and his name is on Hillery Broadous Elementary School. It's not a surprise since Broadous was on the board of Valley VOTE, but a good pickup anyway. Not a clear beat for the pro side though, since also on Tuesday the state's oldest black democratic club came out against secession.
• Quote Watch: "One can hardly drive into the Valley without becoming aware of streets recently paved or under construction." A wry comment on the secession-deflecting siege of public works going on now? Nooo. The remark is from a University of Chicago graduate dissertation written in -- 1928.
• L.A. United, the anti-secession effort that Mayor James Hahn spearheads, finally has a campaign Web site up. It's slick, with a slide show of Los Angeles scenes and the logos of break-up opponents, the case against secession, many links and a calendar of events. Of the 10 "Feature Articles" on the front page, obviously picked to help make the case, seven are from the Times, only one from the Daily News. On the pro-secession side, mayor candidate Keith Richman has his new site up as well. Twenty-eight Valley candidates now have a working Web presence, and all are linked here.
• Secession proponents are questioning the neutrality of The Civic Forum, a group formed to offer self-described objective information on the break-up issue. In particular, the Civic Forum's 16-page voter guide and weekly television series, Secession 101, have irked some secession leaders. The examples of suspected bias cited in the Times story, however, seem a bit like nit-picking; just a guess, but let's surmise there have been suspicions among the Valleyistas about the forum's leanings all along. Its head, Ken Bernstein, used to work for Laura Chick, the city controller opposed to secession. On the other hand, partisans in any fight often see bias where all that exists is insufficient favoritism to their side.
• The L.A. Times runs an Op-ed piece from Mayor James Hahn on the process of appointing a new police chief. Secession does not come up.
• If nothing else, the Daily News is predictable. Once again, after a front page news story that suggests the Valley gets screwed, the paper follows up with an editorial that's angry at the unfairness of it all, blames downtown and urges that secession would set things right. This time, it's about the Valley getting less than its share of federal dollars. The story ran Sunday, and on Tuesday, under the headline "Stiffed Again," the DN channels its argument through Rep. Brad Sherman. It's an old crusading-newspaper trick, coordinating editorials to ensure that a story receives two days of exposure, and gets the proper spin. A lot of papers do it, but the DN is piling it on so heavy it seems a tacit admission that the secession campaign needs help. (Thankfully the DN usually eschews reporters filing self-serving "reaction" stories, a gambit favored for many years at the L.A. Times after the publication of exposes, especially those that didn't quite have the zing to set the town buzzing for real).
Speaking of piling on: After touting for weeks a study by the Rose Institute -- finally released Tuesday -- that supports its belief that L.A. is flawed, the DN runs a sidebar touting the institute's credibility. The sidebar does point out that the study was partly paid for by secessionists. The Times notes it also was overseen by secession leader Bob Scott.
• Interesting story by Dana Bartholomew in the Daily News about a neighborhood dispute over building too much house on one lot -- an issue riling up residents in many areas of the city. What makes this one extra compelling is it touches on the future of equestrian zoning, and it is set in the little-known but historic community of Stonehurst, a corner of Sun Valley developed in the 1920s with homes built of river boulders. Stonehurst seems to exist in a time warp, with dirt streets and small rock houses.
• The Daily News catches up on the TV ads for Hollywood secession from yesterday and adds the news that SFV Independence isn't ready yet with any commercials. Hahn's side has ads ready go to, but will be holding them in reserve.
• On this day in 1959, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev dropped in on Granada Hills. Crowds lined Balboa Boulevard to see his motorcade, but Khrushchev wasn't too happy about his sojourn in the Valley. See a special feature at History and Lore on AmericasSuburb.com for more on the visit.
• Quoting just four hopefuls by name, Harrison Shepard summarizes in the Daily News that "many candidates...have remarkably similar visions" of what a Valley city would be like. You know, less government, longer library hours, faster filling of potholes, etc. It probes not deep at all, and even then there's a proviso: "They may disagree on details." Hard to tell what the point was in the DN doing this story, since it won't even serve to reassure doubters that secession is viable. The paper couldn't find a single political analyst who talks up secession's chances, and quotes anti-campaign leader Larry Levine saying, "I anticipate it would be a pretty much directionless city." One of his arguments is that, even if secession wins, the chances of getting a second voter approval to make the city council full-time (at a full-time salary) are slim to...well, let's hear it in Levine's words: "I don't think there is a snowball's chance in the Mojave Desert." (Climate Watch: Snow falls in the Mojave just about every winter, for what it's worth.)
• Hollywood secession is coming to TV...cable anyway. The campaign for Hollywood independence has bought time on Adelphia Cable for a pair of 30-second spots produced by former local TV and radio newsman Bob Jiminez. (His wife works for the secession campaign). If the commercials manage to win over any voters, that helps the Valley break-up cause.
• The Daily News' Jason Kandel stays up on the unfolding street gang violence situation in the Valley. Here's the stunning statistic: 20,000 members of 80 different gangs in the Valley, according to police. Three people have been killed and seven wounded since Labor Day. Just on Sunday, police reported a drive-by shooting in Pacoima that killed a 23-year-old woman and the Winnetka shooting of a 15-year-old boy.
• The John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation sponsors a major conference on secession, boroughs and other Los Angeles reform issues this Thursday and Friday at USC. Most of the heavy secession topics are on the agenda for Friday, Sept. 20.
• An intriguing and potentially potent issue arose in a Sunday Opinion piece in the L.A. Times called "The Next Great Water War." Water rates in a new Valley city would have to rise at least 23% due to provisions in the Los Angeles city charter that neither LAFCO nor a majority vote on secession can change, the former general manager of the Department of Water and Power and a former city attorney contend. Outside entities that buy water from the DWP -- such as Universal City and the city of West Hollywood -- pay the higher rate now. In addition, the writers suggest that future plans for development in the Valley would be constrained by laws that require a secure source of water. Los Angeles has that secure source, its contracting customers may not. A new Valley city would surely protest the higher water rates, but would have to do so without the political heft it enjoys today in Los Angeles city hall. That heft bought the Valley a break from higher rates in 1992. This is one of those rare Opinion pieces that demands a response from the other side and some independent reporting.
• The L.A. City Council voted Friday to appeal a court ruling over land in Chatsworth that went against Ted Stein, a major supporter of Mayor James Hahn and his anti-secession campaign. The council action followed by just days a fund-raiser at Stein's Encino home that raised more than $500,000 to oppose secession. The city's blessing of Stein's desire to develop 6.7 acres on Topanga Canyon Blvd. has irked fans of Chatsworth's rustic nature and fed secession sentiment there.
• Secession ardor has cooled to almost nothing in the San Pedro area, the Times' Kristina Sauerwein reports on Sunday. Andrew Mardesich, who led the Harbor area's unscuccessful break-away bid, and who signed the ballot argument on behalf of Valley secession, says: "I'm not as enthusiastic as before. People here aren't enthusiastic either. We're stuck with L.A." Valley secession boosters reply that they still hope to pick up votes in San Pedro. In the LAT Opinion section, political analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe argues that the better-funded, labor-fueled forces opposed to secession will do a better job of getting out the vote on Nov. 5, and thus Gov. Gray Davis and other Democratic candidates will benefit.
• The Sunday Daily News returns again to the issue of the Valley getting a smaller share of federal grants than its population might suggest. The story concludes, after looking at Phoenix and San Diego, that an independent Valley would likely take in more in federal aid than it does under Los Angeles. The DN's lead editorial makes clear who the paper's editors have cast in the role of villain in the secession drama. They accuse Mayor James Hahn of being dishonest and a liar "who has spread every far-fetched fabrication about secession imaginable." In opposing secession he also has "shamelessly cast aspersions on good people," the paper complains. An editorial cartoon equates Hahn with Marie Antoinette, but the guffaws evoked by this historical stretch won't be the ones cartoonist Patrick O'Connor intended.
• Several areas of the Valley already have experience with secession -- they broke away from unpopular communities to form entirely new places on the map. The latest was Lake Balboa, which left Van Nuys in search of a better reputation. In Sunday's Daily News, business writer Greg Wilcox looks at the effect on real estate values of these intra-mural secessions.
• The Daily News' revamped Web site looked like an improvement with a few bugs last weekend. A week later, it's still riddled with mistaken links, confused headings and dead ends. Time to get it right. The bigger impact, though, for followers of Secession Watch and other Web sites is that the redesign made the links to older stories invalid. You are taken instead to the DN main page, then you have to use their search function. Another lesson in how not to be user friendly on-line.
• Stephanie Carter, who led the only serious effort to break away Valley schools from the Los Angeles district, says that cityhood would not lead to schools secession. The state Board of Education, which controls the formation of local districts, has already rejected secession from the giant LAUSD. Carter announced Friday that she opposes cityhood for the Valley, appearing at a Reseda press conference with Proposition F opponent and former school board member Bobbi Fielder.
• The Daily News carries a Saturday story based on its own calculations that concludes the Valley gets the short end of federal grants and other funds pumped into Los Angeles. There's a separate story on how difficult it was to obtain the data.
• The Times runs an op-ed essay by a TV writer-producer who lives happily in the Valley and respectfully thumbs her nose at former neighbors who moved on to the newer, less diverse suburbs that today ring the Valley.
• The county Democratic Party endorsed just two candidates for offices in a new Valley city, rejecting the 18 others it considered as unqualified. The pair deemed worthy by the party central committee are Scott Svonkin, chief of staff to Assemblyman Paul Koretz of West Hollywood, and attorney Ronald Clary. Svonkin is running for Valley council in the Studio City area, Clary in Canoga Park. What's interesting here is that the Democratic Party of the Valley announced early it would decline to endorse anyone on the secession ballot, since it opposes the break-up. The county committee also opposes secession, but decided to endorse.
Green Party of L.A. can't agree on secession
• What went wrong with the once-hailed Entertainment Industry Development Corp. is analyzed in the L.A. Business Journal, which quotes a Rose Institute scholar saying that political contributions by such non-profit, public-private entities "just isn't done." The EIDC was formed under the watch of Mayor Richsard Riordan to streamline the granting of film permits. Says Riordan now: "I was very pleased with the agency’s progress - until I started hearing about the political donations about 18 months ago." The Business Journal also looks ahead to next spring's Los Angeles city council races.
• Another big debate over the hill has been scheduled. On Sept. 19, the secession issue goes downtown for a debate sponsored by the Central City Association, the group that represents downtown property owners. Keith Richman, candidate for Valley mayor, will go up against city council members Tom LaBonge and Cindy Miscikowski.
• A political analysis by the L.A. Times' city hall reporters makes a link between secession and Mayor James Hahn's appointments of labor figures to key city commissions. Hahn named Madeline Janis-Aparicio to the CRA board at the urging of labor leader Miguel Contreras, the story says, and is contemplating several other labor-friendly appointments. Many union leaders favored Antonio Villaraigosa in the last mayoral race, but the mayor and labor have bonded to fight against secession.
• Mayor Hahn came out to the Valley Thursday to cast doubts on the pledge of Valley candidates to keep rent controls in a new city, and some of them didn't appreciate having their honesty challenged. It sounds as if the press conference was mostly interesting for the pro-secession hecklers who turned up to make things noisy. Such low-brow tactics as disrupting press conferences have come from both sides in this campaign, and it doesn't make either side look very good. In the Daily News story, candidate Keith Richman repeats his call on Hahn to debate him. Uh-uh, Hahn's spokesman says. Hahn also said Thursday he sees nothing wrong with the Entertainment Industry Development Corp. contributing money from filming fees to political races, including $10,000 to his anti-secession effort.
• Secession 101 now airs daily on Channel 36 on cable TV systems in Los Angeles. Older shows air every day at 2:30 p.m. New programs are seen on Sundays and repeats of that week's offering run on Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. This week's show discusses the optimum size for a municipality and includes guests Geoffrey Segal of the Reason Foundation, Joel Fox of the Valley Indepedence Committee, professor Gene Grigsby from UCLA and professor Max Neiman from UC Riverside. It's produced by the The Civic Forum.
• A surprising finding out of USC: The Valley has fewer homeowner associations and community organizations than other areas of Los Angeles, rich and poor. The study's authors suggest that this is because the Valley -- despite its reputation for political foment over secession, taxes, dumps et al -- actually has a more tranquil history of upset than other sections of the city. It's the latest installment of the occasional Secession Sketchbook feature in the L.A. Times.
• The Economic Alliance of SFV volunteered a plan for education reform on Wednesday, and the Daily News used the occasion to ask the top two Valley mayor candidates, Keith Richman and Mel Wilson, their ideas for the schools.
• The Los Angeles Magazine profile of Ron Kaye, the Daily News managing editor whose role in the secession movement has come under scrutiny, is finally on-line. The September issue hit the streets more than three weeks ago but the magazine's web site lagged behind.
Earlier SW coverage and reaction
• The Valley's Democratic Party is opening its fall campaign headquarters on Saturday, offering anti-secession yard signs and buttons to the faithful. Saturday is also the day The Leadership Institute from Virginia holds an all-day session in the Valley to train the conservative faithful how to push secession and other causes.
• The L.A. city council and the county Board of Supervisors jumped into the fray over the Entertainment Industry Development Corp., the same day that various public officials claimed not to know they were on the group's board or had gotten its money. Here's the first L.A. Times story -- which reported the $10,000 donation to the anti-secession campaign -- that got this mini-scandal going.
• One of the unknown Valley mayoral candidates, Bruce Boyer, found a way to get noticed Tuesday. He flipped out, it seems in the Daily News story. Applying his own screwy take on the legal system, Boyer declared the secession process invalid and said a new city should violate state law and refuse to pay alimony to Los Angeles.
Return to current Secession Watch
