SACRAMENTO FILE

Assembly Floor Action:

Santa Monica Mountains: Approved and sent to the Senate on a 59-7 vote a bill (AB 471) by Assemblyman Gray Davis (D-Los Angeles) to extend the life of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy from July 1, 1986, to July 1, 1990.

Committee Action: Child Molestation: The Assembly Ways and Means Committee approved a bill (SB 46) by Sen. Art Torres (D-South Pasadena) to allow child molestation victims to testify via closed-circuit television from outside the courtroom. A 15-1 vote sent the legislation to the lower house floor. It previously passed the Senate by a 28-8 margin. The legislation is designed to protect children who may be called to testify in the McMartin Pre-School molestation trial and similar cases.

Senate Floor Action: Death Penalty: Overrode death penalty opponents and approved a bill (SB 208) by Sen. Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) that would ask voters to give the Legislature power to amend without further voter approval the state’s capital punishment law enacted by the electorate in 1978. The proposal went to the Assembly on a 26-4 vote, where similar legislation has perished in previous years.

Committee Action: Methane Gas: The Senate Toxics and Public Safety Management Committee approved a bill (SB 1458) by Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) calling for a study of all abandoned oil and gas wells in Los Angeles to determine which wells have an accumulation of methane gas and make recommendations on how to remove it. A 4-0 vote sent the bill to the Appropriations Committee for further consideration. The legislation was sparked by a March 24 incident in which 22 people were injured because of a well leak that resulted in a methane gas explosion. The study also would cover wells in other high-risk areas located throughout the state.

Miscellany Governor for a Day: Senate leader Roberti will be acting governor for a day this weekend while both Deukmejian and Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy are out of the state, according to a one-paragraph press release put out by Roberti’s office. The governor will be the keynote speaker at a dinner Saturday in Washington marking the 70th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. McCarthy will be attending a lieutenant governor’s conference there this weekend.