Holden Cards Go to Valley in Ferraro’s Shuffle

As president of the City Council, John Ferraro has the power every two years to assign council members to posts on the council’s 15 standing committees and several ad hoc panels.

This year, there were a few surprise changes for San Fernando Valley lawmakers.

First of all, Councilman Richard Alarcon, an alternate member of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, was assigned to chair the council’s Transportation Committee. That panel had for years been headed by Councilman Nate Holden, who has long been the butt of Ferraro’s sarcastic wit.

But what may have caused Ferraro to bump Nate off the panel is that transit firms and others have been complaining that Holden tables and delays action on too many key transportation contracts and ordinances.

Other changes Valley residents may applaud are Ferraro’s assignments to the influential Public Safety Committee, which oversees police, fire and building and safety matters. Councilwoman Laura Chick remains the chair of the panel. But Ferraro assigned Councilman Mike Feuer the post of vice chair and replaced Holden with Alarcon--making it a slate of lawmakers who represent parts of the Valley.

Now if the Valley doesn’t get its fair share of cops, firefighters or building inspectors, it has no one to blame but its own lawmakers.

The Gang of Five

Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Northridge) attended a “rubber stamp festival” in Sacramento this week.

That’s what he called the legislative session to vote on a state budget that lawmakers had little to do with producing.

These days, McClintock said, the budget is put together behind closed doors by the Big 5, a perversion of the state Constitution that gives legislators the power to spend the state’s money.

“Five people go into an office, lock the door and write a budget,” McClintock said. “We’re literally told to take it or leave it.”

The Big 5 are the governor and the four leaders of the Assembly and Senate.

McClintock said the five usurped the role of the Legislature in the late 1980s and are going strong.

Who’s to blame?

The legislators who haven’t put up a fight:

“We’ve surrendered quietly by our own inaction,” he said.

So, this week legislators got word of what the Big 5 had agreed to only 36 minutes before the session to vote on the budget began.

McClintock turned “thumbs down” on a budget he says spends too much, saves too little and raises fees, rather than cuts taxes.

Delaying Tactics

Secession legislation authors Assemblymen Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) and McClintock slowed the progress of their own bill this week.

But, not to worry, they say.

McClintock said there’s plenty of time to get the measure passed after the Legislature comes back from vacation Aug. 25.

Here’s what happened this week:

The bill was ready to be heard in the Appropriations Committee, but the authors had added a couple of amendments.

One was on how a commission to study secession would be picked, and another changed a provision that any California city could get a state-funded analysis of secession just for the asking.

This did not sit well with opponents of the measure, namely Sens. Richard Polanco and Diane Watson, both of Los Angeles, who sit on the policy committee that had approved the bill with different amendments.

So, they asked that the bill come back to the Local Government Committee, of which they are members, for further consideration.

The dispute over whether another Local Government Committee hearing is warranted will be settled by the Senate Rules Committee Aug. 25.

Remember who controls the Rules Committee? Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward).

No problem, said McClintock, who said he’s confident the Rules Committee can and will decide no new hearing is needed and ship the bill back to Appropriations, its last stop before a vote of the full state Senate.

Lockyer press secretary Sandy Harrison agreed there is no call for alarm.

“The opponents are going to seize on these procedural things to try and stop [the bill],” Harrison said. “It’s a minor procedural setback, if anything, but not anything that spells the death of the bill.”

Pet Peeve

An item in last week’s column erroneously reported Councilman Holden’s position on Mayor Richard Riordan’s appointment of Gini Barrett to a second term on the Animal Services Commission. Holden voted against confirming Barrett when the matter came before a council panel and later when it came to the full council.

Barrett was nonetheless confirmed to the post on a 10-1 council vote. Councilman Hal Bernson joked that even with Holden’s “no” vote, Barrett should consider herself supported unanimously. “I’ll remember that,” replied Holden.

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QUOTABLE: “You cannot trust City Hall to drive a tough bargain. The voters will drive a tougher one.”

--Councilman Joel Wachs, calling for a ballot initiative that would prevent public money from being spent on professional sports teams or facilities without a direct vote of the people