Scope and Contents: The Harrison Sheppard Secession Movements Collection documents Sheppard’s work as a reporter for the Daily News of Van Nuys, California, and covers the grassroots efforts of the citizens of the San Fernando Valley, Hollywood, and Los Angeles' Harbor City area to secede and form independent cities between 1999 and 2002. The majority of the collection deals with the San Fernando Valley secession movement, with fewer materials documenting secession movements in Hollywood and Harbor City. The collection does not include Sheppard’s notes, drafts of his news stories, or the completed news stories themselves. The collection has been divided into two major series: Reports and Proposals (1999-2002), and Working Files (1961-2002).
Series I, Reports and Proposals, documents official responses to the secession movements in the San Fernando Valley, Hollywood, and the Harbor City area. It contains fiscal analyses of the proposed reorganizations, maps of the regions before the proposed secessions, reports on potential legal and financial liabilities, a report on the potential impact of secession on low income residents, and redistricting proposals and maps. Agencies producing these reports and proposals include the Local Agency Formation Commission, City Hall and the Mayor of the City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, and the UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education. The series is arranged alphabetically.
Series II, Working Files, documents the secession movements through Sheppard’s research, primarily through local and national news stories on the movements, as well as articles on Valley secession movements of the 1960s and 1970s, and Daily News articles 1996-1999. This series also contains ballots and ballot statements, polls, election returns, press releases, agendas from debates and meetings, memorabilia, and TV advertisements. This series also documents official and unofficial responses to the movements, including statements from Mayor Hahn and city council members opposing secession, and grassroots responses for and against secession. It also contains campaign materials from the individuals who started the secession movements and hoped to serve on the new city councils, including business owner Gene La Pietra and realtor and journalist Pashree Sripipat for Hollywood; California State Assemblyman Keith Richman, M.D. and political activist and businesswoman Terry Stone for the San Fernando Valley. The series is arranged alphabetically.