Gov. Acts Quickly to Name Chief of Prisons

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday put California’s troubled prison system in the hands of a new leader who vowed to improve relations with the guards union, a powerful political force partly blamed for the departures of the last two corrections chiefs.

The governor’s appointment of James Tilton came a day after acting Corrections Secretary Jeanne S. Woodford stepped down, the second top official in two months to quit amid concerns about union influence over prison management.

Tilton, 57, expressed no such qualms. In a conference call with reporters, the veteran civil servant said he “always had a good working relationship” with the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn. during his 13 years with the prison system.

“One of the first things I’m going to do is reconnect with the union and verify that those relationships are still there and make sure we still have an open dialogue,” said Tilton, who has served most recently in the Department of Finance.

That posture, coupled with similar comments from one of Schwarzenegger’s top aides, could put the governor on a collision course with the federal court.

U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson placed the medical system under a federal receiver beginning this week. Henderson scolded the administration in 2004 for ceding too much management authority to the union in a renegotiated labor pact.

A year earlier, Henderson denounced a former corrections director, Edward Alameida, for allegedly quashing a perjury investigation involving guards to appease the union -- and threatened contempt charges against Alameida.

On Thursday, John Hagar, a court-appointed expert in cases involving the state’s prisons, expressed concern about the latest developments. He said he would detail “the real reasons behind these sudden departures” -- those of Woodford and her predecessor, Roderick Q. Hickman -- in a report to Henderson within a month. Hagar would not elaborate.

As Schwarzenegger runs for reelection this year, political analysts said, he may be trying to assuage the guards union, an influential campaign player that has been highly critical of his policies. Its leaders have poured millions of dollars into past statewide races, and Schwarzenegger needs to neutralize the union, the analysts said.

His campaign team can’t “run the risk of being on the short end of a media campaign saying that Gov. Schwarzenegger is soft on crime,” said Bill Whalen, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and a former speech writer to former Gov. Pete Wilson. Like Schwarzenegger, Wilson is a Republican.

“History has shown that [the guards union is] prepared to do it and prepared to do it to candidates regardless of party affiliation,” Whalen said.

In 1990, the union spent nearly $1 million to help elect Wilson. Eight years later, it plowed $2 million into Democrat Gray Davis’ successful campaign for governor.

Union members cheered Woodford’s departure, as they had Hickman’s in February. About a dozen postings Thursday on a union-related blog generally praised Tilton, a Republican from Sacramento, as a strong, approachable leader. One said, “After two losers it sounds like we might have a winner.”

Numerous others familiar with corrections lauded Tilton as a savvy fiscal manager who understands prisons.

“He’s a smart, respected guy, and he knows corrections,” said Kevin Carruth, who was an undersecretary to Hickman.

On Thursday, Woodford, 52, issued a memo to staff announcing her departure. A onetime warden at San Quentin State Prison who began her 28-year career as a prison guard, she said her decision related to her “commitment to my family and in no way reflects any change in my belief that this department is headed in a positive direction.”

But officials familiar with her thinking, but not authorized to discuss the circumstances, said she was frustrated that the administration had recently nixed candidates that she proposed for jobs in the department -- after consultations with the union.

In one instance, Woodford had proposed naming Tim Virga as deputy secretary for labor relations, but the governor’s aides rejected him.

Guards had viewed Virga, formerly a negotiator for the union, as a turncoat since he went to work for the department.

In the conference call with reporters, the governor’s Cabinet secretary, Fred Aguiar, disputed that the union had influenced decisions on appointments. “That is inaccurate,” he said.

Woodford declined interview requests, and Virga could not be reached for comment.

As for meetings with the guards union, an administration official said communication had increased after a broad staff shake-up that began several months ago with the appointment of Schwarzenegger’s new chief of staff, Democrat Susan Kennedy. They said Kennedy had lunch with union President Mike Jimenez and had taken part in at least one other meeting with union officials.

Kennedy has participated in perhaps 10 meetings with other unions, the official said.

The group’s executive vice president and chief spokesman, Chuck Alexander, could not be reached for comment Thursday. But on Wednesday, Lance Corcoran, a lobbyist for the guards, said the suggestion that the union was “the bad guy” responsible for the recent resignations was absurd.

“All we’ve ever asked was the opportunity to have a voice” in the management of corrections, Corcoran said. Now, he added, “this administration has signaled that they are interested in communication, but I think they’ve indicated that to nurses, teachers, firefighters and other groups as well.”

Corcoran added that if the guards union “were running the prisons, like everybody thinks we are, they’d be a lot better, safer and more efficient.”

Tilton has served as a program budget manager for the Department of Finance since 2003, overseeing corrections, consumer services and several other areas.

In the 1980s and ‘90s, he was deputy director of administrative services in corrections, responsible for peace officer selection, personnel, training, budget matters and environmental health and safety.

Tilton said his tenure would be temporary, while the administration conducts a nationwide search for a permanent secretary. His top priority, he said, was to “put the department’s fiscal house in order” and “assemble a management team to turn the department around.”

He also said he was shocked to find that many of the inmate education and work programs that existed when he last worked in the department were gone. He vowed to push for their return.

One challenge before Tilton is that the union’s five-year contract with the state, covering 30,000 prison guards, parole agents, medical technicians and others, is due to expire July 2. Contract talks between the union and the Schwarzenegger administration have not yet begun.