In 2018, a series of cityhood townhalls were held under the able leadership of Nick Antonicello. These eventually led last fall to the passage of the Motion below by the Venice Neighborhood Council (VNC) seeking to create a level playing field for a Venice cityhood vote.
It calls upon the City of Los Angeles to initiate an effort to amend State law to remove both the city council's veto of a Venice cityhood initiative and the requirement that all of the voters of Los Angeles must approve Venice de-annexation. The thesis is that, unlike many other districts in Los Angeles, Venice was an independent city from 1905 to 1926, and voted to join Los Angeles, and Los Angeles has a moral duty to allow it - on its own vote - to reverse that decision.
The Motion passed the VNC, though the council's president, Ira Koslow, has failed to send it to the members of the city council's Intergovernmental Affairs Committee, which would be the committee to consider introducing the requested legislation.
MOTION
Whereas,
Venice was an independent city when residents voted in 1926 to annex itself to
the City of Los Angeles; and
Whereas,
Venice residents deserve the right to consider reversing that decision free
from the burden of it being rejected by other residents living in the rest of
Los Angeles who have no stake in the welfare of Venice or its residents; and
Whereas,
Venice residents desire the increased responsiveness of municipal government
seen in smaller units of local government, such as our neighbors Santa Monica,
Culver City, Malibu and West Hollywood; and
Whereas,
Venice is not well served by a city government with only 15 council members for
a population of almost four million residents;
Now, therefore be it resolved that
the Venice Neighborhood Council formally requests the City of Los Angeles
to sponsor and support State legislation to amend the Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg
Local Government Reorganization Act of 2000 to:
1.
Remove the City of Los Angeles’ right to cause
the termination of a detachment request pending before a local area formation
commission submitted by a former city* which earlier voted to join the City of
Los Angeles, which now borders both another city and the Pacific Ocean, and
does not contain within its borders a port; and further, to
2.
Amend that
Act to remove the City of Los Angeles’ right to subject to a vote of all voters
in the jurisdiction of the City of Los Angeles the detachment of a former city*
now located within its borders which borders both another city and the
Pacific Ocean, and does not contain within its borders a port.
Submitted
by: Mark Ryavec, Community Officer
Nick Antonicello, Chair,
Venice Cityhood Ad Hoc Committee
C.J. Cole, Community
Officer and Member, Venice Cityhood Ad Hoc Committee
Yolanda Gonzalez, Member,
Venice Cityhood Ad Hoc Committee
*This is the legal definition of Venice for the purposes of
legislation to differentiate it from other former cities, which are now
incorporated in the City of Los Angeles.
The following list of viable, nearby cities, with populations comparable to or less than Venice, was provided to the VNC to address the concern that Venice would not be able to support itself financially.
Cities
in Los Angeles County with Populations
Comparable
to or Less than Venice, CA
Venice 40,885 (City of Los Angeles
2008 estimate)
Agoura Hills 20,330
Artesia 16,522
Avalon 3,728
Bell 35,477
Beverly Hills 34,109
Calabasas 23,058
Claremont 34,926
City of
Commerce 12,823
Cudahy 23,805
Culver City 38,883
Duarte 21,321
El Segundo 16,654
Hawaiian
Gardens 14,254
Hermosa Beach 19,506
Hidden Hills 1,856
Industry 219
Irwindale 1,422
La Canada
Flintridge 20,246
La Habra
Heights 5,325
La Puente 39,816
La Verne 31,063
Lawndale 32,769
Lomita 20,256
Malibu 12,645
Manhattan
Beach 35,135
Maywood 27,395
Monrovia 36,590
Palos Verdes
Estates 13,438
Rolling Hills 1,860
Rolling Hills
Estates 8,067
San Dimas 33,371
San Fernando 23,645
San Gabriel 39,718
San Marino 13,147
Santa Fe
Springs 16,223
Sierra Madre 10,917
Signal Hill 11,016
South El
Monte 20,116
South
Pasadena 25,619
Temple City 35,558
Walnut 29,172
West
Hollywood 34,399
Westlake
Village 8,270
(All figures
2010 U.S. Census except Venice)
