L.A. Prison Bill ‘Locked Up’ in New Clash

Compromise legislation to build two prisons in Los Angeles County suffered a major setback in the Assembly on Wednesday when a handful of urban Democrats blocked its passage in a fight over minority hiring and a last-minute proposal for a third prison.

The bill, which had passed the Senate on Monday after nearly two years of stalemate, was rejected on a vote of 51-19. That was three short of the two-thirds majority required, but the bill was given another chance in a hearing scheduled today.

Supporters, however, expressed concern that many lawmakers will be leaving early on a four-week legislative recess, making a resolution uncertain until the Assembly reconvenes in mid-August.

“If we don’t have the votes, we’ll just wait,” said Assemblyman Steve Peace (D-Chula Vista), who carried the bill on the Assembly floor.

The bill’s rejection is a blow to Gov. George Deukmejian, who has campaigned hard for a Los Angeles prison but refused to say publicly--or privately to lawmakers--whether he would sign the Senate-passed compromise.

Kevin Brett, Deukmejian’s press secretary, said after Monday’s vote that it was, nonetheless, clear to lawmakers that Deukmejian will sign the legislation. And he charged that “it would be irresponsible” for the Assembly to begin its recess without first passing the bill.

“The governor naturally is disappointed that once again a measure siting a state prison in Los Angeles County has been held up,” Brett said.

Deukmejian has long supported construction of a prison in an industrial area near Los Angeles’ heavily Latino and Democratic Eastside. The compromise bill would authorize a second prison as well in a largely Republican area near the Mira Loma jail west of Lancaster.

For the short term, rejection of the bill means the state is unable to occupy two new prisons in San Diego and near Stockton that by law must remain empty until the Los Angeles prison dispute is resolved. The Department of Corrections reports that California’s prison system is operating at 170% of capacity, and the state is wasting $800,000 each month in costs associated with the unopened prisons.

The Assembly’s action was unexpected largely because members of the lower house have on at least four occasions passed bills to locate a prison in Los Angeles County.

Also, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) had declared on several occasions that any prison bill passed by the Senate would be passed in the Assembly as well. Since he made that statement, however, Brown has distanced himself from the bill, saying it represents a personal conflict of interest because one of his private law clients--Southern Pacific-Santa Fe--is a major landholder within the Eastside prison site.

The vote to reject the bill came after Assemblyman Phillip D. Wyman (R-Tehachapi), whose district encompasses the Lancaster area, proposed an amendment to replace both the Mira Loma and Eastside prison proposals with a single prison in an uninhabited high desert area near Gorman, known as Hungry Valley.

Wyman’s amendment drew opposition from Deukmejian and the entire Republican caucus but was supported by Democrats who represent the Eastside and other inner-city districts.

The amendment was shelved along with a Democratic-proposed plan to require that 40% of all prison contracts be awarded to minority and female-owned businesses. The affirmative-action plan is strongly supported by the Assembly’s Democratic leadership.

With the defeat of those two amendments, supporters of the prison compromise were unable to round up enough support for the bill.

Later, Sen. Robert Presley (D-Riverside), author of the bill and chief negotiator of the compromise, told reporters that he believed that the Democrats would back down and vote for the prison compromise if the governor agreed to place the affirmative-action requirements in separate legislation seeking to build a so-called superconducting super collider in the Sacramento Valley.

Wyman said he, too, believed Democrats were holding the prison bill hostage until an agreement could be forged. “I don’t know what the negotiations are, but I’m afraid they don’t have a whole lot to do with the issues that are of concern to me,” Wyman complained. “We may be in a phase called, ‘Let’s make a deal.’ ”

Deukmejian spokesman Brett confirmed that the governor has offered to “discuss” the affirmative-action issue with Assembly leaders. But he cautioned that Deukmejian will not trade support of that issue for passage of the prison bill.

“We do not believe that this bill should be held up for an extraneous issue,” Brett said.

Monday’s vote was not without its drama. At one point, Republican Sunny Mojonnier of Encinitas, who had been away from the Capitol for five weeks recuperating from surgery, had to be helped into the chambers to cast what supporters had thought would be the deciding vote.

Meanwhile, aides to the governor and officials of the Department of Corrections buttonholed lawmakers at the rear of the chambers as it became clear that bill would go down.

Some legislative aides complained privately that if Deukmejian had made his intention to sign the compromise bill clear from the beginning, much of the opposition may have been blunted.

But others, including GOP Leader Pat Nolan of Glendale, said Deukmejian’s decision to play it close to the vest was a deliberate strategy to avoid being blackmailed as the bill moved through the Senate as well as the Assembly.

“Every time he said something was acceptable, (Senate President Pro Tem David A.) Roberti would raise the ante,” Nolan said. “He would always come up with new conditions.”