Governor

Signed a bill (AB220) by Assemblyman Gary A. Condit (D-Ceres) to provide for voluntary fingerprinting of kindergartners to help parents find stolen or missing children.

Assembly Floor Action:

Methane Gas: Approved and sent to the governor on a 66-0 vote a bill (SB1458) by Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) calling for a study of abandoned oil and gas wells in Los Angeles to determine which have an accumulation of methane gas and make recommendations on how to remove it. The legislation was sparked by a March 24 incident in the Fairfax District in which 22 people were injured because of a well leak explosion.

Drunk Driving: Approved and sent to the governor on a 78-0 vote a bill (AB331) by Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda) to require a 48-hour jail sentence for a first-degree drunk driving conviction if the motorist refuses to take a sobriety test.

Bicycles: Approved and sent to the governor on a 55-12 vote a bill (AB522) by Assemblyman Jack O’Connell (D-Carpinteria) to prohibit bicycle riders from wearing radio headsets while pedaling on streets and highways.

Senate Floor Action:

Japanese: Approved and sent to the governor on a 22-0 vote a bill (AB198) by Assemblyman Phillip Isenberg (D-Sacramento) to repeal a 42-year-old state law used to fire state employees of Japanese ancestry during World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Parole: Approved and sent to the Assembly on a 27-5 vote a constitutional amendment (SCA9) by Sen. Daniel E. Boatwright (D-Concord) to allow the governor to rescind the action of the state Board of Prison Terms in cases involving the parole of first- and second-degree murderers. If approved by the Legislature, it would have to be ratified by the voters.

Self-Esteem: Approved and sent to the governor on a 31-3 vote a bill (AB23) by Assemblyman John Vasconcellos (D. Santa Clara) to create a 24-member Commission to Study the Causal Relationship Between Self-Esteem, Personal Responsibility and Social Problems to study linkage with violence, crime, child abuse and drug abuse. The bill also would appropriate $750,000 to finance commission activities.

Drunk Driving: Approved on a 31-2 vote a bill (AB144) by Assemblyman Robert W. Naylor (R-Menlo Park) to require a 10-day jail sentence for a person convicted of a second drunk driving offense with a blood alcohol content of 0.20% or more. It now returns to the lower house for concurrence in Senate amendments.

Unregistered Motor Vehicles: Approved on a 30-2 vote a bill (AB2000) by Assemblyman Gray Davis (D-Los Angeles) to increase fines for operating unregistered motor vehicles after a one-time, three-month amnesty period to allow car owners to pay back fees without penalty. There are an estimated 1.2 million unregistered vehicles in California. It now goes back to the Assembly for approval of Senate changes.

Miscellany New Assembly Chief of Staff: Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) has named Richard Ross to be his $74,460-a-year chief of staff. Ross, 35, replaces Steve Thompson, who resigned to go into private business. Ross will continue to operate his own private political public relations firm, which has engineered many victorious Assembly Democratic legislative campaigns on behalf of Brown.