Deukmejian Names Five to Lottery Panel

Gov. George Deukmejian announced Tuesday his long-delayed appointments to the five-member commission that will run the state lottery approved by voters last November, choosing a mix of Californians that includes the Compton city manager and the former head of the Los Angeles schools system.

However, there was no indication when the lottery, already two months behind schedule in preparing for start-up, will begin operations.

The commission’s first act will be to meet with Deukmejian and begin the task of choosing a lottery director, which the governor said “shouldn’t take too long.” The search for a director is expected to center in the 17 states that currently have lotteries.

Named to the commission:

- William J. Johnston, 58, of Los Angeles, former superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

- Laverta S. Montgomery, 48, of Compton, the city manager of Compton.

- John M. Price, 65, of Mendocino, former district attorney for Sacramento County.

- Howard E. Varner, 59, of Pacific Palisades, chairman and former president of Host International of Santa Monica, a restaurant chain.

- Kennard W. Webster, 64, of the Palm Springs suburb of Bermuda Dunes, a former partner in the accounting firm of Deloitte Haskins & Sells.

Deukmejian was required by the initiative creating the lottery to make the appointments by last Dec. 6, so that lottery tickets could go on sale by March 21. There was no penalty for missing the deadline, however, and the governor attributed the delay to the extensive background investigations that were done on each appointee.

Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp’s office described the background checks as “the most detailed” it has done on any gubernatorial appointees.

Johnston, Montgomery and Varner are Republicans and Price and Webster are Democrats, thus complying with a requirement in the initiative that no more than three members be of the same political party. Price fulfills the requirement that at least one commissioner have at least five years’ experience in law enforcement; Webster fulfills the requirement that one commissioner be a certified public accountant.

“I think this is a uniquely qualified group, whose outstanding backgrounds in the fields of business, education, law enforcement and public administration are essential for the enormous task of establishing and operating a statewide lottery,” Deukmejian said.

”. . . I plan to immediately discuss the selection of the lottery commission’s executive director with the (appointees), and we will be moving ahead on that selection with the same thoroughness with which we have chosen these commissioners.

History will record that the first glitch in the lottery, which is expected to produce as much as $500 million a year in revenue for public education, occurred when Deukmejian selected the length of commissioners’ terms by pulling their names out of a 10-gallon hat.

He inadvertently assigned a one-year term to Varner, but the initiative calls for the first commissioners to serve staggered terms of two, three, four and five years. A subsequent clarification from his press office noted that Varner had been assigned a two-year term, Webster to three years, Price to four years and Montgomery and Johnston to five years each.

Work on the commission is expected to be virtually a full-time job for the next several months, as decisions are made on everything from the types of lottery games to the recipients of lucrative supply and public relations contracts. The new commissioners will receive $100, plus expenses, for each day they meet.

Scope of Job

“They certainly do realize the scope of the assignment responsibility, and they certainly agreed to devote as much time as is necessary to do the job properly,” Deukmejian said.

The appointments require confirmation by the state Senate. That will not delay the start of the commission’s work, because appointees can serve for up to a year without being confirmed.

Deukmejian said he will ask the Senate to expedite the confirmation process, but Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) said his house “will not take any less time than is necessary to complete the normal confirmation process.”

“We expect to give these appointees as much consideration as the governor gave them,” he said.

Although the new commissioners were in the Capitol on Tuesday and posed for a group picture, they declined to answer questions from reporters. Consequently, it was unclear what their positions were on the initiative that created their new jobs.

Deukmejian, who opposed the lottery and said two weeks ago that he would not take part in advertising and promotional schemes for it, said he thinks “there were some who may have voted against it, but I . . . know there were some in the group that did vote for it.”