Governor Takes a Break From Crises : Says Poison, Fire, Insect Problems Are Best Handled by Experts

There was Gov. George Deukmejian in his white shirt and his tightly knotted tie last week, bottle-feeding a fawn near the Oregon border.

“Look up, governor,” called out a news photographer, one of a group who had followed Deukmejian to the Conservation Corps Center outside Yreka. The governor obliged, smiling for the cameras.

Short of leaving the state, Deukmejian and the motherless fawn were about as far as they could be from the watermelon fields of Kern County and the cheese factories of Los Angeles that have caused the most serious health crises of Deukmejian’s Administration.

In the last six weeks, Deukmejian has effectively distanced himself from a string of disasters, letting his subordinates take the lead in public.

Doesn’t Think It Helps

“I don’t think it does a lot of good for a politician, including the governor, to get up and make all kinds of statements about issues,” Deukmejian said several weeks ago when asked about his silence on the cheese crisis.

“The most important thing is to handle these problems. . . . We’re letting the professional people, the technical people who know what they’re talking about, do their work and do their talking rather than having me or some other person making comments about the problem,” he said.

Since the middle of June, his Administration has faced three major emergencies and the potential for a fourth disaster:

- On June 13, the state began recalling Mexican-style cheese that was eventually linked to the deaths of 84 people and another 161 illnesses. Two cheese-producing companies were closed, but the state has come under fire for laxity in its inspection program.

- Over the July Fourth weekend, state officials discovered that watermelons poisoned with the pesticide aldicarb were causing sickness among consumers. More than 500 illnesses were linked to the tainted fruit, raising questions about the effectiveness of state pesticide controls.

- Three people died, 470 were injured and 215 homes were destroyed in a rash of more than 1,000 fires that began June 27 and swept through such communities as San Diego, Baldwin Hills and Los Gatos. State and local firefighters were overwhelmed and called in help from 20 other states, including Alaska.

- Bees discovered June 14 in Kern County proved last week to be the feared Africanized honey bees, popularly known as “killer bees.” The belligerent insects, which have been known to attack animals and humans, pose a threat to agriculture because they can displace domestic honey bees that are more efficient pollinators.

Throughout these episodes, the most visible state spokesmen have been Food and Agriculture Director Clare Berryhill and Health Director Kenneth Kizer.

Deukmejian, meanwhile, has generally occupied himself with other matters, except for well-publicized visits to the scenes of recent fires.

Major Media Event

He flew over or visited five of the largest fire scenes, including Baldwin Hills and San Diego. He declared a state of emergency in six counties and the city of Los Angeles. And he offered $50,000 rewards for the capture of arsonists responsible for the blazes.

In Los Gatos, his tour turned into one of the largest media events of his governorship, as dozens of television camera crews and photographers tripped over each other to get shots of the governor walking through the firefighters’ command center. The cameras rolled as Deukmejian slipped into the mess line of hungry firefighters and sat down to lunch with a crew.

According to Steven A. Merksamer, the governor’s chief of staff, Deukmejian chose not to seek publicity from the cheese and melon problems.

“There’s been no attempt to exploit these crises,” he said. “My own view is that the best politics is good government. . . . People are going to remember come election day. They’re going to remember he just did the job and didn’t run around trying to showboat. George Deukmejian is not a showboater.”

Has Gotten Involved

But behind the scenes, Merksamer said, the governor has taken a “hands-on” approach. “The governor has been fully informed and in fact involved in those areas in which gubernatorial decisions are required,” Merksamer said.

Deukmejian well remembers California’s Mediterranean fruit fly infestation of 1981, a disaster widely believed to have seriously damaged then-Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr.’s political career.

At first, Brown left handling of the crisis to his experts at the Department of Food and Agriculture. Ultimately, however, he jumped into the middle of the controversy over aerial spraying of pesticides in residential areas. He anguished publicly over his decisions, alienating both farmers and residents.

The lessons are not lost on Deukmejian and his staff.

Scientific Advice Ignored

At a July 10 press conference in Los Angeles, Deukmejian drew a distinction between his cheese and melon crises and Brown’s Medfly episode. Brown ignored scientific advice to begin aerial spraying of pesticides, Deukmejian said, leading to costly delays in the eradication effort.

“Our approach has been that we rely on the people who are knowledgeable, not the politicians who do not have a first-hand knowledge of these subjects,” he said.

So far, Deukmejian’s top staff members say they are pleased with the way the Administration has handled the recent disasters, which have presented one of the toughest challenges of Deukmejian’s two and a half years as governor.

“The fact that they have all come one on top of the other has tested our ability to manage,” said one Deukmejian aide who asked not to be identified. “We’re very satisfied with how well our most senior people have responded and that ultimately reflects well on the governor.”

Takes Cautious Approach

The governor’s low-profile style, the aide said, is not inspired by politics but is a reflection of his cautious approach to management.

The handling of the crises, he said, has been characteristic of Deukmejian: “Don’t jump until you feel comfortable that you understand all of the facts. Don’t try to gain some kind of short-term political advantage by some short-term act that may come back to haunt you. Have the confidence in the ability of your people to sort through the technical issues and make the right decisions.”

The timing of last week’s two-day trip to Yreka and other remote regions of Northern California was a coincidence, said Larry Thomas, the governor’s press secretary. The campaign-style swing through seven counties had been planned for months and was not designed to distract attention from the crises to the south, he said.

Nevertheless, the whirlwind trip presented the governor in a multitude of unusual settings remote from the problems facing Berryhill, Kizer and his other appointees: Deukmejian fed the fawn, fed salmon at a fish hatchery, sawed a log in two, walked through a prison yard, toured a sawmill, inspected an air tanker used to fight fires and visited historic state parks.

“The last six weeks if anything demonstrate and probably reinforce what has come to be a fairly widespread belief that George Deukmejian is a sound manager of the public’s business,” Thomas said.