State Senators Vote Down Measure Curbing Power of FPPC

The Senate, despite misgivings about aiding an adversary, the watchdog Fair Political Practices Commission, killed legislation Thursday that critics said would have gutted the agency’s power to investigate and discipline suspected political wrongdoers.

The bill was buried under an avalanche of 20 “no” votes, receiving only 10 favorable votes.

Among those on the losing side was the bill’s chief co-author, Sen. John Doolittle (R-Citrus Heights), who is being prosecuted by the agency for alleged political dirty tricks. He denied suggestions that the legislation was his way of gaining revenge against the commission.

The measure was carried by Sen. Joseph B. Montoya (D-Whittier), who argued in vain that the bill was needed to curb what he described as the commission’s “Gestapo” tactics in investigating public officials for possible election-law violations.

The commission was established by the voters in 1974 in the wake of the Watergate scandals. It is charged, among other things, with monitoring campaign contributions and expenditures, and taking action against people who violate campaign disclosure requirements.

One of the most controversial features of the defeated legislation would have required commission investigators to give advance warning to individuals under investigation.

Senate critics, some of whom have themselves been investigated by the commission, claimed that such a provision would allow subjects of investigations to destroy evidence.

Another controversial feature would have given both subjects and witnesses in commission cases so-called “Miranda rights,” requiring investigators to notify all parties that they had the right to remain silent, the right to be represented by an attorney, and that any statements could be subsequently used in administrative, civil or criminal proceedings.

Another provision would have required agreement by four of the five members of the commission before actions could be taken, as opposed to the three votes now required.

In killing the measure, lawmakers said provisions of the proposed law were so tough that the public would not tolerate them.

Sen. Alfred E. Alquist (D-San Jose), who voted against the bill, said he “painfully” recalled that in 1974 Edmund G. Brown Jr. “got himself elected governor by parading up and down this state casting doubts on the integrity of this Legislature, saying we needed a watchdog agency to look over our shoulder and keep us honest.”

Noting a long list of opponents to the bill, Alquist said, “There must be something wrong with a bill that is opposed not only by the FPPC, but by the attorney general, the Department of Finance, the Department of General Services, most district attorneys, the California Union of Safety Employees and Common Cause.”

Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles) claimed that the bill would make rules guiding commission investigations even tougher than those governing criminal cases. “Public officials should not be given preferential treatment,” he argued during the floor debate.

“It will only add fuel to the flames of public discontent over a process that they perceive as tainted,” Rosenthal asserted.

Doolittle, defending his motives for pushing hard for passage of the legislation, claimed that he had no “personal interest” in the bill, which was amended so that it would not apply to his case. But he said charges against him gave him firsthand knowledge of “abuses in the process.”

He claimed that commission investigations were stacked against defendants because state administrative law empowered the agency to act as “the judge, the jury and the prosector” all rolled into one powerful body.

Doolittle and several aides face a total of $8,000 in fines stemming from a last-minute mailing that was sent out on behalf of Democratic candidate Jack Hornsby, who was running against Doolittle in 1984. Specifically, they were charged by the FPPC with making a non-monetary contribution to Hornsby in the form of “volunteer” services by Doolittle campaign workers.

Doolittle’s chief opponent in the race was then-Sen. Ray Johnson of Chico, a Republican-turned-independent. Johnson, with more appeal to Democrats than the conservative Doolittle, has said the mailing promoting Democrat Hornsby was a major factor in his defeat.