Mojonnier Accepted a $10,000 ‘Gift’ After Votes

Assemblywoman Sunny Mojonnier received a $10,000 award last year for leaving her sickbed and casting a vote in favor of legislation to locate a new state prison in Los Angeles, according to the president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., which gave her the money.

Mojonnier (R-Encinitas) reported the gift as a speaking fee, or honorarium, on her annual statement of economic interests, which she filed Tuesday with the Fair Political Practices Commission.

But Don Novey, president of the prison guards group, said in an interview with The Times that the money was in recognition of Mojonnier’s votes July 15 and 16 in favor of a measure to build a prison in Los Angeles, a decision that was needed before the state could open two already-constructed prisons in San Diego and Stockton.

‘It Meant a Lot to Our Profession’

Novey said Mojonnier was the first recipient of the association’s “Spirit of America Award,” given for “an act that helps the corrections profession above and beyond the call of duty.”

“This lady had just had serious major surgery and she came to the Capitol and cast a key vote for the passage of the Los Angeles prison site measure,” Novey said. “It meant a lot to our profession.”

When pressed about the connection between Mojonnier’s vote and the $10,000, Novey said the lawmaker would have been given the award just for coming to the Capitol, even if she had been unable for some reason to cast the vote.

“It was for her heroic act,” Novey said. “It was not just the vote but getting out of the sickbed. If she had died (en route to the chamber) we still would have given (her) the award.”

Novey said it would be “unfortunate” if it appeared the payment was tied directly to Mojonnier’s vote and not her “heroic act.” But, asked if Mojonnier would have received the cash had she left her sickbed to vote against the bill, Novey said:

“Probably not, to be honest.”

Mojonnier said in an interview that she received a “beautiful bronze eagle” from the correctional officers and considered the $10,000 to be a payment for the speech she gave in accepting the award.

‘It Was Not a Reward for the Way I Voted’

“It was not, as far as I’m concerned, a reward for the way I voted,” she said of the money. “If in fact it was something to reward me, it was for the fact that I did what I did when I was ill and went out of my way.”

Mojonnier said she did not consider it odd that the association would pay her $10,000 for a speech. That amount is several times larger than she has ever been paid before for speaking and well above what other rank-and-file legislators are normally paid.

The correctional officers group usually pays legislators about $1,000 for a speech, Novey said. But he said the payment to Mojonnier was for the award, not compensation for her speech.

The unusual award by the association apparently is the first of its kind in Sacramento. It was not clear Tuesday whether such a payment to a legislator violates any state laws. Novey said he thought it did not, because the association had no contact with Mojonnier before the vote and the $10,000 was not promised to her on the condition that she vote for the bill.

Steve White, chief assistant to Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp, said he did not know of any law prohibiting such an award. But White withheld judgment on the matter until experts in the office could check further on the legal issue involved.

“Interest groups commonly contribute to legislators whose votes they like,” White said. “I have never seen a situation where an organization specifically rewarded in cash a legislator for a specific vote and announced it as such.”

As it turned out, Mojonnier’s vote July 15--cast after she had been absent from the Capitol for five weeks recuperating from a hysterectomy--wasn’t enough to win passage of the bill, which fell three votes short of the 54 needed for passage. Mojonnier returned to the chamber July 16 and voted for the bill again, but by then the measure had been amended and was approved with four votes to spare.

Two-Year Deadlock

Passage of the bill ended a two-year deadlock between Gov. George Deukmejian and Los Angeles-area legislators over whether a prison would be built in the county. Earlier legislation had tied the opening of other new prisons to the Los Angeles decision, and the correctional officers group was lobbying heavily for the measure because hundreds of its members assigned to work at the San Diego and Stockton prisons had been left in limbo by the dispute.

Novey said the association also gave a $10,000 award to Sen. Robert Presley (D-Riverside), author of the Los Angeles prison bill and a longtime supporter of the correctional officers association. Presley’s award, Novey said, was in recognition of his support over the years.

The awards were presented to the lawmakers in November at the association’s annual convention in Reno, Novey said.