Hahn Vows to Show That L.A. Can Work Without Splitting Up

Vowing to make secession his top priority, Mayor James K. Hahn promised Monday to fight efforts to split up Los Angeles by proving the city can work well as it is.

During a 25-minute speech highlighting the work of his first 100 days in office, Hahn ignored recent criticism that he has not been visible enough. Instead, he listed the steps he has taken on after-school programs, transportation gridlock, airport security and other issues since his inauguration.

Looking ahead, the mayor promised to improve city services and make City Hall more responsive in an effort to win over dissatisfied residents in the San Fernando Valley and other neighborhoods who want to form their own cities.

“People who want to divide the city believe that its different parts would be more efficient than the whole,” Hahn said during the lunchtime speech at a downtown hotel attended by about 200 elected officials and business, philanthropic and education leaders. “I intend to show that together, that this whole city can get the job done.

“Number one, we want to keep the city together,” he added.

Hahn’s comments came just days after the agency studying secession released a plan detailing a severely curtailed vision of a separate Valley city, which would be heavily reliant on Los Angeles for services. The proposal has upset many secession advocates, who said it would not give them true independence.

The mayor’s remarks Monday indicated that his administration is increasingly focusing its agenda around the threat of secession, and that Hahn himself is going to assume a more vocal role as the city’s leading anti-secessionist.

“There’s a one-way conversation that’s gone on for a long time with the secessionists, and I just think their proposal makes no sense whatsoever,” he said Monday.

In a news conference after his speech, Hahn said that if secession is placed on the ballot, he would lead the fight against it. A ballot initiative could come as early as November 2002. For now, though, Hahn said he will concentrate his efforts on demonstrating that Los Angeles is “governable” by fixing the problems that secessionists complain about.

Hahn said he will prove disaffected residents wrong by expanding after-school programs to every elementary school, reducing traffic congestions, beefing up the police force and delivering basic services to every neighborhood.

“I think breaking up the city is really the lazy way,” he said. “And there is no guarantee that this new city will solve any of these problems.”

Richard Close, chairman of Valley VOTE, a group leading the secession drive, applauded Hahn’s goals and said he hopes the mayor succeeds. The San Fernando Valley needs potholes filled, more police officers and faster paramedic response time to emergencies, Close said.

“It’s one thing to talk about it; it’s another thing to do it,” he said. “Every mayor has talked about it.”

Valley residents and business owners also need a greater role in decisions that affect them, Close said. He said the neighborhood councils could be a vehicle for that, if they get genuine power over land use and the city budget.

In his speech, Hahn also spent significant time listing the accomplishments of his first 100 days in office, a benchmark he reaches today.

The mayor cited his work in accelerating the formation of neighborhood councils, synchronizing lights to speed up traffic and creating a business tax amnesty program. He also noted that earlier on Monday he announced a new plan to redesign Los Angeles International Airport around safety concerns.

Hahn did not acknowledge recent criticism that he has failed to embrace his public role or use his platform to lay out a broader vision for Los Angeles.

“We’ve got a lot of tools to bind this city together as one,” he said. “That’s what we’ve been doing: We’ve been putting those tools together.”

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Times staff writer Michael Finnegan contributed to this report.