Creating a new voice for the Valley

The San Fernando Valley is coming together, with the proposed creation of a new coalition that would amplify the region’s voice and increase its clout.

The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote next week on a motion to ratify creation of a new multi-jurisdictional agency called the San Fernando Valley Council of Governments, or COG. The new entity aims to create a greater sense of regional political identity and to foster cooperation among the various governments that serve the area’s 2 million residents.

The motion by Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Michael D. Antonovich would unite four Valley cities—Glendale, Burbank, San Fernando and Los Angeles—plus nearby Santa Clarita and county unincorporated areas under one umbrella. Other Valley cities are welcome in the future.

Representatives from each city plus the two supervisorial districts that represent the Valley would meet to focus attention on regional issues such as transportation, education and economic development. Participation is voluntary, and all decisions would have to be unanimous.

“We think it will bring the region together to speak with one voice,” says Mitch Englander, chief of staff for Los Angeles City Councilman Greig Smith.

Participants hope to use the COG to raise the region’s profile in Sacramento. Banding together makes it easier to launch studies about issues of regional interest and may improve chances of securing state and federal grants by eliminating competition between neighbors.

Similar agencies already exist nearby in the Las Virgenes-Malibu area, the Westside and the San Gabriel Valley.

The effort to “increase the Valley’s autonomy and self-determination” sprouted from the failed Valley secession movement of 2002, says Robert Scott, director of the Mulholland Institute at the Valley Economic Alliance, who spearheaded the drive. “The Valley has not been first on a lot of people’s list,” says Scott. “Now it can be.”

Posted 5-20-2010