Governor Questions Mayor’s Sincerity on Oil Drilling Issue

Gov. George Deukmejian charged Tuesday that Mayor Tom Bradley’s reversal on oil drilling along the Pacific Palisades coastline indicates the mayor was “less than sincere” when he wrote Deukmejian last summer attacking the governor’s support for drilling in Santa Monica Bay.

Deukmejian also said it is “fairly obvious, based on the number of comments sent in my direction,” including the Santa Monica Bay letter, that Bradley, now in the midst of a reelection campaign for mayor, is planning another run for governor in 1986.

The Republican governor, apparently with an eye on his own reelection bid next year, made his comments at a rare full-scale Los Angeles press conference in which he disclosed that he plans to hold more such meetings with Southern California reporters “in the months ahead.”

Since no Los Angeles television station maintains a bureau in the Capitol, it is the one way Deukmejian can assure himself television exposure in the state’s most densely populated area and do so on the home turf of Bradley, whom he views as his likely Democratic opponent.

The press conference also afforded Deukmejian the opportunity of adding to the criticism Bradley already has been getting on the Palisades issue from his mayoral race opponent, Councilman John Ferraro.

Deukmejian and Bradley have sparred at a distance ever since the 1982 gubernatorial race.

Prior to his announcement nearly two weeks ago that he had approved Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s bitterly contested proposal to drill for oil along the Palisades coastline, Bradley had appeared to be trying to draw clear distinctions between himself and Deukmejian on environmental issues and had fired off several letters to the governor attacking his environmental policies.

In the letter that Deukmejian referred to Tuesday, Bradley criticized the governor for his “apparent misunderstanding of the importance of an offshore leasing moratorium protecting the Santa Monica Bay and other extremely sensitive environmental areas from oil drilling.”

But there is considerable speculation that city approval of oil drilling in the Palisades will threaten the moratorium on oil development in the bay, and Deukmejian, responding to questions, was quick to pounce on that fact Tuesday.

“Just last July he (Bradley) had written to me opposing the drilling for oil in the Santa Monica Bay area,” the governor said. “In view of the fact he had written me such a letter just last July and now went ahead and approved this action to drill not very far from that area seemed to kind of indicate to me that perhaps his letter of last July was less than sincere.”

He described Bradley’s turnaround as “surprising.”

The political significance of Deukmejian’s press conference Tuesday was not lost on the Mayor’s Office.

“We hope the governor does not intend to insert himself into a non-partisan mayor’s race by holding a series of unique press conferences in Los Angeles. We think the citizens of Los Angeles would resent any such political intrusion,” said Deputy Mayor Thomas K. Houston.

Houston also disputed Deukmejian’s suggestion that Bradley was in any way backing down on his opposition to drilling in Santa Monica Bay.

“We did write the letter (to Deukmejian) last July when the governor suggested that the moratorium be lifted and that drilling begin in Santa Monica Bay,” Houston said. “We led that fight in Congress, defeated the governor and got that moratorium (on drilling in the bay) extended. . . . We will continue to lead the fight before Congress and against the governor to protect the Santa Monica Bay itself from drilling.”

Other than his comments on the mayor, Deukmejian broke little new ground in his 30-minute session.

He said that although he is a month overdue in appointing the five-member commission to run the new state lottery approved by voters in last November’s election, there is no reason to think that any of his appointees has run into problems during background checks.

“We want it to be very complete,” he said of the appointment process.