Group seeking to make East Los Angeles a city has gathered enough signatures to begin a comprehensive fiscal analysis of the proposal.
By Don Wanlass
Story Published: Jan 15, 2009 at 6:55 PM PDT
Story Updated: Jan 15, 2009 at 7:11 PM PDT
EAST LOS ANGELES — The drive to incorporate East Los Angeles as a city took another step forward last week when the Local Agency Formation Commission, also known as LAFCO, announced that the East Los Angeles Residents Association had submitted enough signatures on petitions to proceed with a fiscal analysis.
In a letter to the residents association, Sandor Winger, executive officer of LAFCO, said the group had turned in more than enough valid signatures to take the next step in the cityhood process.
Winger said the residents association had submitted 16,259 signatures on petitions. Of those, 11,340 were found to be valid, almost 3,000 more than the required 8,601.
Almost 5,000 signatures were not valid and another 1,094 were duplicated.
LAFCO will spend the next nine months conducting a comprehensive fiscal analysis of East Los Angeles to determine if there are enough resources to fund a city and all of its operations.
If the analysis shows that it is possible to sustain city services within the area, LAFCO can set an election date for residents to decide on the cityhood issue.
According to the East Los Angeles Residents Association’s Web site, www.cityhoodforeastla.com, that election could be held in June 2010 and if voters favor cityhood, the city of East Los Angeles would become a reality July 1, 2111.
But there are still major hurdles to clear for cityhood proponents.
Initial analysis shows that the 7.5-square-mile area of unincorporated East Los Angeles that lies between the cities of Los Angeles, Monterey Park, Montebello and Commerce has about 140,000 people living within its boundaries.
The analysis said that the area would generate about $51 million in tax revenues in a year and would spend about $44 million for basic services like police and fire protection and street maintenance.
But the East Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce is one local organization that disputes the $44 million figure.
Eddie Torres, a chamber board member, said the $44 million would cover basic services but more money would be required for special programs or to combat a major increase in crime.
To the members of the East Los Angeles Residents Association, cityhood should be favored for three reasons: local governance, local control and the time is right.
Currently, the most local elected official for East Los Angeles is county Supervisor Gloria Molina. Her 1st Supervisorial District serves more than two million residents. Even though Molina has represented East Los Angeles for most of her political career, the 140,000 people in the area are a fraction of the people she represents on the Board of Supervisors.
Molina so far has remained neutral on the issue of cityhood and was recently appointed to the LAFCO board, which will have considerable influence on the cityhood issue.
She told the Los Angeles Times last week that with the current state of the economy she was doubtful that the area was ready for cityhood.
“This is not a good time for cities,” she told The Times. “East L.A. doesn’t have a huge sales tax base. It doesn’t have a Costco or car lots or things like that. “Every city is working hard to build a tax base, and they’re still struggling. East L.A. is mostly residential.”
As a member of the Board of Supervisors, Molina has helped develop a cluster of county buildings and services into the East Los Angeles Civic Center on Third Street, west of Atlantic Boulevard.
The Civic Center includes a local sheriff’s station, health center, library, Belvedere Park and other county services and will include a stop for the Eastside Extension of the MTA Gold Line when it opens later this year.
If Molina is hesitant on the issue of cityhood, state Sen. Gloria Romero, who represents most of East Los Angeles, could be cityhood’s biggest booster among elected officials.
“We’ve got the name brand already. Everyone knows East Los Angeles,” Romero said in November 2006.
Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard and state Sen. Ron Calderon, who represent part of East Los Angeles, have also endorsed cityhood.
The last attempt to incorporate East Los Angeles was in 1974, when cityhood proponents were trying to keep surrounding cities like Monterey Park, Montebello, Commerce and Los Angeles from annexing prized parts of the area and leaving the remaining areas to fend for themselves.
That cityhood effort failed and Monterey Park successfully annexed the area around East Los Angeles College.
Unincorporated East Los Angeles extends east from the Los Angeles City line at Indiana Avenue. It includes the communities of City Terrace, Belvedere and Belvedere Gardens.
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