Successes and Failures Mark 1986 Session of Legislature

It has been a roller coaster year in the Capitol for many issues affecting the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys, but most of them had been resolved by the time the Legislature on Saturday unexpectedly extended its session until Sept. 15 instead of adjourning for the year as scheduled.

“It was a year of probably more ups and downs than any other,” Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys), a 13-year veteran of the Legislature, said of Valley-area projects.

Those along for the up-again, down-again ride included Valley-area residents opposed to building a state prison in the Santa Clarita Valley, those opposed to a controversial Medi-Cal program called Expanded Choice and environmentalists who watched the fortunes of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy rise and fall throughout the year.

Still unresolved, but unlikely to come up again this year, was the issue of funding for Mission College in the northeast Valley. An 11th-hour effort to resurrect a bill to earmark $8.95 million to build a campus for the college was rejected by the Senate Budget Committee Saturday on a 4-3 vote.

“If we had another few hours, maybe we could pull in a few committee members more and get it out,” Robbins said of the bill.

Resurrection Unlikely

Though no issue is ever dead until the Legislature actually adjourns, there appeared to be little hope that there would be any action this year.

“We got very, very close,” said Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda), who tried to breathe new life into the measure this week. “We’ll just come back again in January. Mission College will be built.”

In rebuffing the project, Senate Budget Committee members said it was just too late in the session to set aside money for one campus when other community colleges need funds, too.

Construction money for the 11-year-old college--which has been meeting in storefronts in the northeast Valley--was vetoed by Gov. George Deukmejian from the budget passed by the Legislature in June.

Although Mission College is not a case in point, Valley legislators say one important indication of their success is found by looking at projects they kept out of their backyard.

One of those was a proposed state prison in Saugus near Magic Mountain. The site was suggested by Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley as an alternative to a proposed East Los Angeles prison.

Threat of Prison Eases

The threat of a prison in Saugus, however, eased when the Legislature shifted its attention to the East Los Angeles site. Even though the issue of where to build the prison was left hanging Saturday, there was no further talk about the Saugus site.

Sen. Ed Davis (R-Valencia), a member of a joint legislative committee that oversees prison construction, said that, even if the Saugus site is revived, “I know I could kill this thing.”

Lawmakers also helped block implementation of the Medi-Cal pilot project called Expanded Choice, which was supposed to start this year in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys, Burbank and Glendale. The experiment’s creators hoped to increase access and improve the quality of health care to recipients. But hundreds of critics representing recipients and physicians questioned whether the state could meet its goals.

It was also an up and down, and finally up, year for the Santa Monica Conservancy, which wound up with funds for its top acquisition priorities--the 1,690-acre Circle X Ranch south of Thousand Oaks and 345 acres at Roberts Ranch in Malibu’s Solstice Canyon--as well as $166,500 for grant programs.

‘Achieved Priorities’

“We will have achieved our No. 1 and No. 2 priorities and part of our No. 3 priority,” said Joseph Edmiston, executive director of the conservancy.

Indeed, Assemblyman Gray Davis (D-Los Angeles), who has been the key legislative champion of the mountains, said, referring to the budget, that “given the fact that this was a tight year, we did very well.”

In January, the governor’s budget had contained no money for the conservancy to buy undeveloped land. The Legislature later sent the governor a budget with $11 million in acquisition funds for the conservancy. Deukmejian reduced it almost in half.

Funds were eventually restored for the properties in Ventura County and Malibu.

Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) was particularly delighted with the acquisition of Circle X Ranch, which has been owned by the Los Angeles Area Council of Boy Scouts. He said the property is at the very center of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy’s trail system.

The ranch, he said, is “one of the most important acquisitions ever obtained. . . . It’s one of those rare actions of government where everyone wins and no one loses.”

But Valley legislators did not always get all the money they wanted for their pet projects.

For instance, Robbins, who is known for his tenacity on local issues, continued to fight for an Indian museum at Los Encinos State Park. In June, the Legislature passed a bill, which was signed by the governor, that provides $195,000 to remodel the second floor of the Garnier House at the park to display Indian artifacts from a site believed to be the “Lost Village of Encino.” However, Robbins initially had proposed a much more ambitious plan to spend $11 million to buy land at the park and build a museum.

Robbins and McClintock were more successful in getting a bill approved which was designed to attract an $150-million printing plant to Pacoima. The measure would exempt firms that print advertising catalogues from the 6% state sales tax. Robbins said he expects Wisconsin-based Quad/Graphics to move to Pacoima if the tax break becomes law.

Gov. George Deukmejian had indicated he would sign the measure.

Robbins also successfully ushered through the Legislature a bill designed to accelerate construction of a courthouse in North Hollywood by two years and increase its size. Land acquisition is expected to begin next year.

Water an Issue

One of the most heated debates on a local issue this year centered on the makeup of the Castaic Lake Water Agency and the best way for it to bring more water into the booming Santa Clarita Valley.

A bill by Assemblywoman Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley), which is on the governor’s desk, would allow the agency to buy surplus state water from San Joaquin Valley farmers, levy water connection fees and add four non-elected water company representatives to the seven-member elected water agency board.

The original version was controversial because it would have exempted the new members from state conflict-of-interest codes and state anti-corruption statutes. Under the final version, they are exempted from the conflict codes but subject to the anti-corruption statutes.

The painful experiences of Valley residents also influenced legislation this year.

The death of an Encino teen-ager at the hands of a wrong-way driver on a stretch of the San Bernardino Freeway inspired Katz to author a bill that cracks down on impaired drivers.

The bill, later signed by the governor, requires drivers whom police judge to be impaired to report to a state Department of Motor Vehicle office for a special driver’s test. Impaired drivers are now referred to the DMV, but it sometimes takes 30 to 45 days for them to be retested.

Dilemma on Therapist

The Legislature also addressed a dilemma that had faced a North Hollywood marriage and family therapist. The therapist had rented a room in her home to a 25-year-old man who later turned out to be a drug addict. But a lengthy eviction process allowed the tenant, who refused to pay his rent, to remain several months after he was asked to leave.

“I just got enraged. I felt violated. . . . It became a kind of a rape,” the therapist said.

A bill by Assemblyman Tom Bane (D-Tarzana) shortens the eviction process for tenants who share a home with the owner. The bill is on the governor’s desk.

The Valley was also the butt of a few jokes this year.

Lawmakers snickered when Robbins pushed through a resolution urging the state Department of Transportation to cooperate in a plan to paint murals depicting the life of Tarzan on freeway underpasses in Tarzana. The community is named for the legendary lord of the jungle.

If money is raised for the murals, they will be painted on six underpasses as part of next year’s 75th anniversary of the first published adventures of the English nobleman raised by the apes in the jungle.