Legislators From Valley Gain Muscle : Delegation Wins Plums in Sacramento Assignments

No one can recall a time in recent memory when the San Fernando Valley delegation has had so many muscles to flex in Sacramento.

The memory search began last week when the legislative leadership in the state Assembly and Senate announced what politicians would be chairing committees during the current session.

Valley-area Assembly members did well for themselves, picking up three new committee leadership posts. Those were added to the two Senate committee chairmanships already held by Valley legislators.

Also, one Valley Assembly member retained his spot on the Assembly Rules Committee, which decides what committee hears what bills and is therefore so important that a membership on it almost equals a committee chairmanship. In fact, Rules Committee members are precluded from being committee chairmen.

‘Valley Coming of Age’

Several Valley legislators also were named as vice committee chairpersons.

“The Valley is coming of age politically,” Assemblyman Gray Davis (D-Sherman Oaks), who was named chairman of the Housing and Community Development Committee, declared.

Also named to chairmanships were Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda), to the Transportation Committee, and Assemblywoman Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) to the newly resurrected Governmental Relations Committee.

Of the three committees, the most important is Katz’s Transportation Committee, which considers legislation dealing with highways and transportation systems.

In addition, Assemblyman Pat Nolan of Glendale recently took over as the Assembly’s GOP leader. Although technically not in the Valley, area politicians included Nolan when they talked about the Valley’s rise in power.

In the Senate, Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys) held onto his chairmanship of the influential Insurance, Claims and Corporation Committee, and Gary Hart (D-Woodland Hills) remained in charge of the Education Committee.

Two area Republicans also picked up vice chairmanships in the Senate. Republicans Ed Davis of Valencia is now vice chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Newton Russell (R-Glendale) was appointed vice chairman of the Banking and Commerce Committee. Russell also is vice chairman of the Energy and Public Utilities Committee.

Looking Out for Constituents

Although Valley legislators have held leadership positions before, no one could recall the Valley holding so many at one time.

Valley legislators suggested that their promotions would allow them to better look out for the interests of their constituents.

For instance, one of the first things Katz said he will do as Transportation chairman will be to make sure the Valley is getting enough money from Sacramento.

Katz said he will scrutinize large and small projects, from proposed freeway expansion allocations to soundproofing and landscaping, to see that the Valley gets its share.

But others said it remains to be seen what this newly found clout will mean to Valley residents.

Assemblyman Tom Bane (D-Van Nuys), who belongs to the powerful Rules Committee, said that the benefits of having a cluster of Valley chairman is too nebulous to measure with a ruler, although he said committee chairmen in general carry more clout in the Capitol, even in other committees.

“The strength of the committee chair does not stop at the committee he or she chairs,” Bane said. So, for instance, when Katz is endorsing a bill before another committee, the members will keep in mind that he holds the Transportation purse strings.

Robbins agrees that those chairmanships can come in handy when the Valley wants something. For example, he predicted the Valley delegation’s influence would ensure that the money for an Indian museum he favors to house relics found near Los Encinos State Historic Park would be earmarked this year, and that money for magnet schools in the Valley would not be touched.

Far Cry From 1970s

Robbins said the Valley’s power is a far cry from its nadir in the mid- and late 1970s, when Valley assemblymen didn’t stay in office long and couldn’t build up seniority.

It’s not that anyone sees the Valley’s good fortune as a threat to the dynamics of state politics; legislators from the North, particularly in the Assembly, still maintain a headlock on the most powerful jobs in the Assembly--speaker and chairmen of the Ways and Means and Rules committees.

But Robbins said he sees the Valley delegation as more powerful than any others except San Francisco’s, Santa Clara County’s and possibly that of downtown Los Angeles. He said downtown might outgun the Valley, not because of its legislative delegation, but because of its wealthy business interests.

“If you divided the state into 9 or 10 geographic areas, we’re probably third,” Robbins said.

Democratic Assemblywoman Maxine Waters of Los Angeles said she thinks there was no particular plan to give the Valley more power this year. She said it is unlikely that Speaker Willie L. Brown Jr. (D-San Francisco) “looked at the Valley and said, ‘I’m going to do something special for you guys’ ” when naming committee chairmen.

What happened is that both Katz, now in his third term, and Gray Davis, in his second, had gained enough seniority and power to earn chairmanships. Katz has been in Brown’s inner circle for several years and Davis, once chief of staff to former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., has gained favor partly because of his impressive campaign fund, which he often uses to support fellow Democrats.

Wright, also in her third term, got her committee in a different way. Willie Brown, who had previously denied any Republicans chairmanships because he was angry that they didn’t vote for his speakership last year, this year rewarded the minority party with several leadership posts, though on less important committees, because they joined in a general acclamation when he was reelected last December. According to several accounts, Brown told Nolan to make a list of who he wanted to be appointed and, in general, Brown stuck to that list.

The Valley delegation is not exactly a tightly knit group. The group only meets occasionally when some Valley-wide issue needs their attention, such as the proposed Metro Rail that would run from downtown Los Angeles to North Hollywood. The delegation decided that construction of the subway, which is now in doubt because the Reagan Administration has said it does not want to finance its share, should be started at both ends at the same time to ensure that the Valley wouldn’t be left out of the system should transportation funds not materialize.

But Katz said he does not expect to deal with any major Metro Rail issues this session.

Although last year state legislation earmarked $400 million as the state’s share of the 18.6-mile rapid transit project, this year the committee will consider a less important bill that would siphon tax money resulting from development along the proposed Metro Rail route into the project.

Katz, however, sidestepped sharing his personal opinion of the controversial $3.3-billion project, calling it a “moot point” because President Reagan “has made it very clear he’s not going to fund Metro Rail . . .. It doesn’t look like it’s in the cards.”

However, Nikolas Patsaouras, president of the Southern California Rapid Transit District, which would build and operate Metro Rail, said the Transportation Committee still plays a vital role in the project.

“It’s important we maintain our local and state commitments intact while they fight the battle in Washington,” said Patsaouras, who called Katz’s appointment as chairman a definite improvement over the former chairman Bruce E. Young, who, he said, “bottlenecked” legislation the SCRTD favored. Patsaouras said that, if California officials “start to have second thoughts, then we’ll have a more difficult time in Washington.”

Meanwhile, Katz said another immediate concern as chairman would be an estimated $800-million shortfall in highway construction funds as early as 1986. Decisions will have to be made to set priorities in anticipation of the upcoming crunch.

Private Enterprise

Katz added, “The days of the large-scale public work projects for transportation or anything else are long gone,” and new ways must be found to help fund large infrastructure projects which historically have been the responsibility of governments.

As head of the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee, Gray Davis said he plans to tackle such perennial problems as reasonably priced housing, discrimination against families looking for apartments, and the homeless. Although he conceded that the committee was not on his short list of preferred chairmanship assignments, he said he looked forward to the job, especially because of his past legislative efforts to get the state to take on housing discrimination against children.

Wright said she is not yet sure what her responsibilities will be on the Governmental Relations Committee.