Governor Vetoes Condor, Border Pollution Bills

Gov. George Deukmejian on Tuesday vetoed bills that would have given a major new tax exemption to the San Diego-based tuna fleet, created a special commission to study border pollution problems, helped the California condor and protected publicly owned airports like Lindbergh Field from noise lawsuits.

But the Republican governor signed two measures of special interest to San Diegans on Tuesday--one to create a veterans outreach program and another sought by local school officials outlawing stun guns and electronic Tasers on school campuses.

Deukmejian, who had vetoed a record number of bills since taking office, added to the totals as he worked late at his Capitol office to take action on hundreds of bills before the midnight Tuesday deadline.

Both the airport noise measure and the tuna boat helicopter tax exemption were similar to bills Deukmejian had vetoed before.

But Assemblyman Peter Chacon (D-San Diego), who said the tax break is badly needed by the ailing tuna industry, said this year’s bill was considerably narrower than one the governor vetoed last year. The measure would have made helicopters used in deep-sea fishing exempt from state sales taxes--a law that would save boat owners $15,000 on the purchase of a $250,000 chopper.

“Current law already provides this industry considerable tax advantages . . . and . . . I am concerned about the proliferation of tax exemptions,” Deukmejian said.

The veto of the measure to limit lawsuits on airport noise was the third by Deukmejian in four years.

“I have indicated that I do not agree with the apparent intent of this legislation, which is to preclude homeowners’ ” access to courts, Deukmejian said in a terse veto message that noted he had vetoed similar bills in 1983 and 1984. Deukmejian said the bill by Assemblyman Richard Robinson (D-Garden Grove) was a “drastic solution,” and indicated that a once-a-year limit on noise lawsuits would be more “reasonable.” Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed in recent years by residents neighboring Lindbergh Field and several other airports around the state, including those in Burbank, Orange County and San Francisco.

The governor also vetoed a measure by Assemblywoman Lucy Killea (D-San Diego) that would have appropriated $1.5 million to the San Diego Zoo to expand its breeding program to preserve the California condor.

Deukmejian’s veto of a measure by Assemblyman Steve Peace (D-Chula Vista) to create the International Border Pollution Control Authority was also not a major surprise. The governor said new authority would have duplicated responsibilities of the federal Environmental Protection Agency and state and regional water quality control boards.

The authority had also been envisioned to oversee the construction and operation of major sewage treatment facilities to curb sewage flows across the Mexican border. But legislation by Assembly Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) to finance the sewage facilities stalled in the Legislature this year.

A measure by Chacon that was signed by Deukmejian will set up veterans outreach programs in San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Officially dubbed the “California Veterans Appreciation Act of 1986,” the measure calls for programs to assist veterans in finding counseling and treatment services for post-traumatic stress disorders and drug and alcohol problems.

Peace has said his measure on stun guns and other so-called self-defense weapons will correct “a mistake” made by the Legislature last year.

The measure, which was proposed by school officials in San Diego, repeals an 8-month-old law that allowed teachers and other school personnel to arm them selves with the high-tech battery-operated weapons, which leave their victims temporarily dazed and immobilized from an electric shock.

Legislators who backed last year’s bill, California’s first attempt to regulate stun guns, said they never intended to allow teachers to use them. But an amendment to the measure barring them on school campuses--even to be carried by teen-agers legally entitled to carry them elsewhere--made a specific exception for practically everyone employed by a school district.

Although the weight of that exception was disputed, San Diego city school officials feared it would prevent them from adopting their own policy banning the devices.

Concerned about the possible legal repercussions, school officials have given three teachers permission to carry the weapons this year. But a school board policy adopted in January requires in effect that they be registered with the principal’s office and securely locked up whenever the teachers are not carrying them.

Under the bill signed Tuesday, stun guns will not be allowed on school campuses at all. The measure by Peace also makes it illegal to carry stun guns, Tasers or tear-gas weapons in courthouses.

Stun guns, which resemble television remote control units, have been marketed as self-defense weapons by a Texas firm for about three years. They retail for around $90 each, including batteries and a charger.

Three states--Michigan, Rhode Island and Hawaii--have banned them outright. Several others, including California, rushed to restrict their use last year after five New York City police officers were indicted for using stun guns to torture four men arrested on drug charges.

An aide to Peace said his bill was expanded to deal with other self-defense weapons and to ban them at courthouses at the request of the San Diego County marshal’s office, which provides courthouse security.