New Year’s Wish List : San Diego Agencies Will Seek New Laws in 1987

San Diego governmental agencies will be asking the 1987-88 Legislature to consider an ambitious list of proposals on issues ranging from animal cruelty to vicious pets, and driver license suspensions to housing for the very poor.

The city and county government wish lists, still not complete, include mundane and technical matters of local-only concern as well as some major statewide issues.

Local officials have so far put together 23 proposals for state laws, which will be added to a significant list of leftovers from last session, including the cleanup of Mexican sewage and pollution along the border, court funding reform, medical care for the working poor and a more equitable distribution of state money for drug and alcohol programs.

For the most part, the proposals are still mere ideas--they have neither been translated into the legal language the local officials want written into state law nor sold to legislators.

But county lobbyists say Assemblywoman Lucy Killea (D-San Diego) has agreed to write a bill ensuring that welfare recipients who find work earn a paycheck before their welfare benefits are cut off. Also, Assemblyman Larry Stirling (R-San Diego) has agreed to sponsor a bill that would nearly double state funding for county-owned Edgemoor Geriatric Hospital.

Both are issues with which the two lawmakers have been involved in recent years.

Stirling, who has pressured county officials in recent years to improve conditions at Edgemoor, said he has agreed to carry the measure for the 323-bed Santee hospital because the current state reimbursement rate is inadequate. County officials say a San Francisco facility that provides a similar level of care gets a $102 daily per patient reimbursement from the state.

But because the reimbursement maximum is $54.41 for nursing facilities not attached to a hospital, the Medi-Cal reimbursement for Edgemoor--a one-of-a-kind operation--is at the lower rate.

“We get 54 bucks a day for what San Francisco gets a hundred for,” said John Sweeten, the county’s director of intergovernmental affairs. “We suffer as a result and our citizens suffer as a result.”

Killea said the county’s proposal regarding welfare benefits is similar to a bill she carried last year.

“The philosophy behind it is that one of the deterrents for people accepting a job is they cannot afford that month’s rent or grocery money to feed their families,” she said.

Killea said as other counties implement the state’s new “workfare” program, which is patterned after a four-year-old experiment in San Diego, other legislators will recognize the need for the provision. Opponents of the measure this year, including Gov. George Deukmejian’s Department of Finance, estimated the proposal could add $6.7 million a year to California’s already high welfare costs. But Killea said that figure was a matter for dispute and she has some ideas for addressing such cost concerns.

Three county proposals regarding animals came from San Diego County Supervisor Susan Golding.

County officials will face an uphill battle getting the Legislature to pass a bill that would make it illegal to transport animals in the rear of pickup trucks. In recent years, groups representing hunters have successfully fought off similar proposals, and they are almost certain to oppose this one as well. In a disappointment to San Diego officials, the County Supervisors Assn. of California, the major state lobbying groups for county governments, has also indicated it will oppose the measure.

But county officials say the reaction is more positive toward another county proposal that will make it illegal to leave an animal in a car without proper ventilation. While law enforcement officials have cited people under “general neglect and cruelty laws,” there are no specific state laws on the subject.

Another measure suggested by Golding would create a felony statute that could be used to prosecute animal owners who let their pets attack other people. Sweeten said the current law, written in 1872, is so cumbersome that it is almost useless unless an animal’s victim dies.

“This establishes a good neighbor policy when it comes to managing things that should be under your control,” Sweeten said.

Other ideas in the city and county legislative package include:

- A proposal that would let deputy marshals take away guns when they are dispatched to the scene of domestic squabbles. Current law gives sheriff deputies and municipal police officers such authority. But deputy marshals, who often serve civil papers in divorce cases in San Diego, have no specific authorization for taking away guns.

- Permission from the Legislature to replace three juvenile court referees--attorneys with special appointments to act as judges--with full-time Superior Court judges. Referee salaries are mainly paid by counties; the state government pays most of a judge’s salary. But county officials say it is mainly “flexibility and efficiency,” not money, that prompted the proposal. Referees are precluded from hearing certain types of cases.

- A measure that would allow the county to use in-house staff for construction and remodeling projects up to $200,000. Currently, only Los Angeles County can use in-house staff for projects over $50,000, an exception the city was granted because of its size.