Robinson Accused of Trying to Kill Bill : But Assemblyman Says Seymour’s Measure Needs More Work

Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim) on Wednesday angrily accused Assemblyman Richard Robinson (D-Garden Grove) of trying to kill a bill aimed at speeding truck drivers after the measure was sent to an obscure subcomittee chaired by Robinson.

In an uncharacteristic show of anger, Seymour denounced the referral during a hearing of the Assembly Transportation Committee and again afterward in an impromptu hallway press conference with reporters.

The bill would allow the California Highway Patrol to use 15 solid color squad cars--instead of familiar black-and-white ones--in a yearlong experiment to catch speeding truck drivers.

Officers Handicapped

CHP Assistant Chief Dwight Helmick said truck drivers are able to skillfully defy speed laws through the use of citizens band radios and the extended view they are afforded from the cabs of their rigs. Patrol officers are virtually powerless to catch them, Helmick said.

Seymour charged that Robinson and Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda), the Transportation Committee chairman, were most likely killing the measure at the behest of the Teamsters Union, which opposed the planned experiment.

Robinson’s subcommittee on the California Highway Patrol has never before held a hearing on any legislation. But in a 7-4 vote along party lines, Democratic members of the Transportation Committee sent Seymour’s bill to the subcomittee for a hearing.

‘No Other Reason’

“The bill was referred to that subcommittee to let Mr. Robinson kill it. There can be no other reason,” Seymour told reporters. “You must know that Mr. Robinson is a very powerful legislator, and if he doesn’t want the bill to go out, it’s dead.”

Robinson denied the accusation. He said that Seymour’s bill was “inartfully drafted” and “way too broad,” but that there is still time to enact the measure this year if Seymour “is reasonable.”

“It is not dead unless Sen. Seymour wants it to be dead. . . . But if Sen. Seymour says it is up or down on the bill like it is, yes, the bill is dead,” Robinson said.

The CHP’s Helmick said the subcommittee referral was “disappointing.” But he said Robinson, who has been a consistent supporter of CHP programs, was raising legitimate concerns about Seymour’s bill.

Seymour’s View

Seymour said, however, that the major concern mentioned by Robinson and other legislators had already been addressed in the measure “as clearly as it can be said.”

The proposed legislation states that the “primary purpose” of the officers in the special patrol cars would be to enforce speed laws as they apply to truckers. However, patrol officers would still be expected to enforce laws if they observed automobile drivers operating their vehicles dangerously, Seymour said.

However, Robinson said the bill’s wording on that point was not good enough.

“The patrol’s reputation is at stake unless we tell them exactly what we want to accomplish in these pilot programs,” Robinson said. “If they had a candy-striped patrol car that starts pulling cars over, then rapidly you get a Mickey Mouse reputation.”