Cities mull joining forces

CITY HALL — Glendale could join a new coalition of San Fernando Valley government agencies where members would address regional issues and coordinate public infrastructure projects, under a proposal the City Council will review Tuesday.

The proposed formation of the San Fernando Council of Governments has been in the works for several years and would include elected representatives from Glendale, Burbank, the city of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County and Santa Clarita, among other potential cities.

“It becomes a forum for those agencies, those cities coming together,” said City Manager Jim Starbird, who recommends that the city join the coalition in its infancy.

Each city that wishes to join must approve a joint-powers agreement. The group will become official upon the approval of at least three proposed member agencies.

The body would serve as a regional planning group that could serve as a mechanism for state and federal grant applications for various projects of regional interest — such as transportation efforts, Starbird said. He pointed to the success of the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments

“They’ve been tremendously effective in addressing regional planning issues, in attracting planning dollars,” he said. “The San Fernando Valley — because it doesn’t have a lot of cities in it — has been behind the curve in bringing the cities together. This is the first step in beginning to open up those lines of communication.”

The city belongs to a similar regional planning body, the Arroyo-Verdugo Cities Steering Committee, which includes representatives from Glendale, Burbank, Pasadena, South Pasadena and La Cañada Flintridge.

If the City Council approves joining the body, the council must appoint a council member to serve as the city’s representative and approve the appropriation of $10,000 in local transit assistance funds to pay the organization’s initial annual dues, which will support administrative costs.

The proposed makeup of the body’s board would include one representative from each of the seven Los Angeles City Council districts in the San Fernando Valley, one representative from each of the two supervisorial districts in the San Fernando Valley and one board representative from each other member city.

Any board action would require unanimous consent, Starbird said, to address initial concerns that the one member agency could hold greater power than other members.

“It’s structured so that it really has to drive a consensus,” he said. “There has to be agreement among the agencies to do anything.”

If approved this month, the group is expected to hold its first meeting sometime in January, according to a city report.

City Councilwoman Laura Friedman said she looks forward to hearing the pros and cons of joining the group, adding that initially it sounds like a good idea.

“Certainly planning as a region is very important,” she said, “We don’t exist in an island, and we need to make sure we look at some of these regional issues.”