San Diego Assault Squad Fizzles : Fog, Timing Defuse County’s Sacramento Lobbying Effort

Top officials in San Diego County have been talking a lot lately about getting more attention in the state capital, where 120 legislators, a few dozen appointed administrators and the governor annually decide the county’s fiscal fate.

So it was with some excitement and more than a little optimism that the county made plans to fly all five members of the Board of Supervisors and the two highest-ranking appointed officials here for 24 hours of lobbying and socializing with the powers that be.

But what was to be a full-fledged assault on state government officials turned into little more than a scouting expedition Wednesday when three of the five board members and the county’s top administrator got stuck in San Diego and were forced to cancel their trip.

Supervisor Brian Bilbray, scheduled to arrive Tuesday night, stayed in San Diego to handle what his staff called a personal problem. Supervisors Susan Golding and Leon Williams and Chief Administrator Norman Hickey never got beyond San Diego’s Lindbergh Field. A dense Sacramento fog forced cancellation of their early-morning flight Wednesday.

That left the chore in the hands of Supervisors Paul Eckert and George Bailey, who arrived in Sacramento Tuesday afternoon, along with David Janssen, the county’s assistant administrator, and John Sweeten, director of intergovernmental affairs.

Their ranks thinned, the county troops missed all three legislative hearings at which they had planned to testify. At one hearing, an Assembly committee put off action on a bill that would give San Diego and San Francisco counties $65,000 each to start Veterans’ Affairs offices. With no one at the meeting representing San Diego, several committee members questioned the county’s need for the money.

“If they really want to do it, $65,000 is not going to stop them,” said Assemblyman Curtis Tucker (D-Inglewood). “We’re not talking about two impoverished counties here. We’re talking about two very well-funded county operations that are derelict in their duties to the veterans.”

Tucker’s attitude about San Diego was just the opposite of the impression county supervisors had hoped to convey here: that San Diego County government is poorly funded in comparison with other counties and, as a result, faces crises in areas ranging from mental health services to the criminal justice system.

Eckert and Bailey did what they could to get the point across, reminding officials in the administration of Gov. George Deukmejian at a cocktail reception that the county is about to file a lawsuit seeking to force the state to fund health and social services equally in all counties. They also managed to see Deukmejian for 15 minutes in his office Wednesday afternoon.

And over lunch at Frank Fat’s, a popular watering hole for legislators, the two supervisors used blunt language in a discussion of the county’s woes with six of the county’s 11 state legislators.

The supervisors didn’t change any minds on what is shaping up to be the spring’s most controversial issue in San Diego County: whether the sales tax should be increased half a cent on the dollar to pay for a $420-million jail and courthouse construction program.

Assemblyman Bill Bradley (R-San Marcos) has agreed to sponsor the legislation the county needs to place the issue on the June 3 ballot, but several members of the county’s delegation are lukewarm about the idea, in part because they have already agreed to support a similar measure on the November ballot to fund transportation projects. Assemblyman Steve Peace (D-Chula Vista) didn’t attend the county’s functions here but vowed in an interview to try to block the sales tax authorization measure.

Still, Peace said the county’s effort to raise its profile in the capital fits well with the current Board of Supervisors’ more aggressive attitude toward Sacramento. Golding, Bailey and Bilbray joined the board a little more than a year ago.

“The county’s reputation has made it somewhat difficult for the delegation to get things done for them,” Peace said. “But that was a previous board and a previous administration. This board is doing a very good job in attempting to get a handle on it and do an aggressive job.”

Assemblyman Larry Stirling (R-San Diego), who has had a few run-ins with the county in the last year, said he also thought the visit was productive.

“We’re all in the business of conflict resolution,” Stirling said. “Sometimes, the conflicts are among us, among old friends. The symbolism of them coming to Sacramento and spending their own time to say hello and get their message out is a real positive gesture.”

Sweeten, who advises the board on legislation, and Patricia Gayman, the county’s lobbyist, said the board members’ Sacramento trip was aimed more at curing a long-term problem than any one issue.

“There’s a value in having face-to-face conversations with the people who are going to make the decisions,” Gayman said. “It’s part of a bigger project to come up and tell people, ‘Hey folks, we’re in real trouble.’ ”

Sweeten added: “This is kind of like softening them up with long-range artillery before moving in with the troops.”