Any Friend of Paula’s Is a Friend of Mine

Politics is a motel filled with strange bedfellows. Consider, for example, state Senate leader Bill Lockyer and the promiscuous partisans of the San Fernando Valley secession movement.

Only a few months ago, the Valleyistas loathed Lockyer as much as they adored then-Assemblywoman Paula Boland, author of the secession bill. Why? Lockyer, a Democrat from Hayward, had the good sense to suggest that any electoral bid to divide Los Angeles would necessarily require a vote not just of the Valley, but of the city as a whole. When he urged Boland to amend her legislation, she insulted him as a “tyrant.”

When Boland later tried to accept Lockyer’s deal, she discovered she had burned the bridge in front of her.

Last week, Bill Lockyer, erstwhile tyrant, broke bread with the Valleyistas at the Century City law office of Richard Close, an organizer of the secession group Valley VOTE. As The Times’ Nancy Hill-Holtzman reported, Lockyer left saying he is committed to passing legislation that would make it possible for the region to break away.

Actually, nobody changed any key positions. Lockyer still insists on a citywide vote as a substitute for the City Council’s veto powers, while the Valleyistas still desire an election of their own. But the tone of confrontation has given way to one of cooperation.

Now, I happen to think that secession isn’t a good idea and it will fail on its merits. But given the new spirit of cooperation, my hope today is to boot this potentially tedious process along by divulging a little legal research of my own.

First, some context. The thinking here has always been that the dream of a Valley-only secession vote would never stand up in court. I based this not on any specific knowledge of a court precedent but, like Lockyer, on what I considered a common-sense understanding of democracy, American-style.

So I was more than a little surprised last June, when a consultant for the state Assembly’s Local Government Committee offered an opinion that a Valley-only vote could indeed be constitutional. When I asked the consultant to explain her reasoning, she cited a recent California Supreme Court decision regarding the incorporation of a new city in Sacramento County.

Oddly, nobody seemed to care that this supposed precedent wasn’t really much of one. An incorporation and a secession are similar the way an apple and an orange are similar.

Has the California Supreme Court ever decided a question of secession? The answer, it turns out, is yes--and it wasn’t too long ago.

In 1982, residents in the Orange County community of Yorba Linda sought detachment from the Fullerton Joint Union High School District. The state Board of Education sided with the Yorba Linda group and the Fullerton school district took them to court. The central issue was a striking parallel to the one raised by the Boland bill: Who has the right to vote on a secession?

“Because the secession had an impact on the school district as a whole,” explained Richard Briffault, a professor at Columbia Law School, “all voters in the district were entitled to vote.”

Too bad for Boland that she didn’t hear different legal advice last summer. Perhaps she had a false sense of security. Perhaps she wouldn’t have pushed her polarizing tactics so hard--tactics that surely alienated some voters. Maybe she would have not antagonized Lockyer and maybe the Democrats wouldn’t have worked quite as hard defeating her bid for the state Senate.

Adam Schiff beat Boland for the Glendale-area seat. But Lockyer was victorious too. Now he’s collecting the spoils by making nice with the Valleyistas. They would be wise to abandon dreams of a Valley-only vote and build on the fledgling group called the Alliance for Self-Determination, which would bring them together with secession-minded activists from San Pedro, Venice and other communities over the hill. Lockyer may help with legislation.

What’s in it for him?

The policy wonk in Lockyer, some observers say, is sincerely intrigued by questions of how to improve local government. Then there’s the pol in Lockyer, said to be sincerely intrigued by the possibility of running for state attorney general.

Making more friends in Los Angeles isn’t a bad idea at all.

Scott Harris’ column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Readers may write to Harris at the Times Valley Edition, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311. Please include a phone number.