in Los Angeles history. Secession Bernson took a leading role in a drive at the turn of the 20th–21st centuries for the San Fernando Valley to secede from the city of Los Angeles and perhaps even from the county. As well, the councilman advocated that the Valley pull out of the Los Angeles Unified School District and form its own district for its own schools. He called the proposal the "hottest issue around"" and said the current school system was "a farce." Later, he was a member of the county's Local Area Formation Commission, even while he was a "vocal advocate of speeding up the process" of getting Valley secession on the November 2002 ballot. Despite his statement that he would be neutral as a commissioner, City Council president Alex Padilla replaced him on the commission in August 2001 with Council Member Cindy Miscikowski, a secession opponent. Ethics In 1992, it was reported that the California Fair Political Practices Commission had opened "five separate inquiries into charges of various improprieties against Bernson, but each time closed its files without formal charges" being made. The city's Ethics Commission found in 1994 that Bernson had failed to disclose the source of $11,000 in campaign contributions made by a private company and ordered him to repay the funds. While rejecting the commission's authority requiring him to repay the money, he said he would donate an equal sum to the police in his district. In 1997 Bernson ended a two-year battle with the Ethics Commission by paying a $1,500 fine levied against him for spending $1,140 in officeholder account funds to buy season tickets to the Hollywood Bowl. The account is funded by lobbyists and supporters and can be used only on expenses related to serving and communicating with constituents. It was the first case of its kind brought against an elected official since the commission was created in 1990. Later the same year, the Ethics Commission rejected a Bernson request to let his staff use Hollywood Bowl tickets that were intended for poor and disabled constituents, after about a hundred of them were left unused because residents who had asked for the complimentary passes never claimed them. Three years later, the Ethics Commission and Bernson agreed that he would pay a $3,000 fine "for improperly accepting an excess amount of free legal services from the law firm of City Hall lobbyist Neil Papiano,"