Legislators Tally Gifts From Special Interests

Assemblywoman Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley), vice chairwoman of the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee, went on a $5,171, one-week trip to London and Paris in September with other legislators, paid for by Pacific Telesis.

State Sen. Ed Davis (R-Valencia), a member of the Senate Insurance Committee, took a $3,124 weekend trip to London in June with his wife and two other lawmakers, courtesy of the London-based insurance broker for the Los Angeles County Bar Assn.

These special-interest-financed trips--as well as gifts and speaking fees--are not only legal, but are commonplace among California lawmakers. Elected officials are required to include them in their annual economic interest reports that were filed with the Fair Political Practices Commission last week.

The statewide pacesetter is Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), who established a legislative record in 1987 by collecting more than $161,000 in gifts and speaking fees, including expense-paid trips to Austria, Great Britain, Ireland and Japan.

A review of the public reports of the nine San Fernando Valley-area lawmakers found no one close to Brown’s level. In fact, three legislators--Davis, Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda) and state Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara)--have their speaking fees donated to charities and public-interest groups. Several others received small sums for speeches and participation on panels.

‘Subject to Misinterpretation’

“There’s a cloud over honorariums that is subject to misinterpretation,” said Katz, who steered $2,100 from six lectures to five nonprofit groups.

“I appreciated the opportunity to speak to the groups, but I was not interested in making money from it and felt it was a chance to help organizations that I believe in.”

Gifts were another matter, though here, too, the amounts involved for area lawmakers were not extravagant.

The records show, for example, that an agricultural association gave Hart $450 worth of box-seat tickets for horse shows; Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Tarzana) was given a season football pass, jacket and brunches worth $376 by UCLA, his alma mater, and Assemblywoman Marian W. La Follette (R-Northridge) accepted dinners and a commemorative gift from the Southern Pacific Transportation Co. worth $210.

Katz received tickets to Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers basketball games from an oil company, a lobbyist for a utility company and others last year. The total value was $366.

He said he took the tickets, some of which he gave away, because they are “no big deal. . . . It’s such a minor thing.”

The biggest beneficiary was Davis, whose 21 gifts were worth $9,056.

UCLA Football Tickets

Besides the London trip, the ex-Los Angeles police chief accepted dinner, a limousine ride and tickets for two valued at $1,506 for the 59th Academy Awards ceremonies from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers; a $1,262 tour of state water projects sponsored by the Metropolitan Water District; season football tickets from UCLA worth $300; Los Angeles Raiders football tickets valued at $168 from the California Museum of Science and Industry, and tickets worth $48 for the Joffrey Ballet from the Philip Morris Corp.

Asked if taking such gifts might create the appearance that he is obligated to his benefactors, Davis said: “You have to look at each individual thing. I think you have to look at what the gift is. . . . There are some people I wouldn’t take a theater ticket from.”

Public-interest watchdog groups, such as California Common Cause, have criticized legislators who accept substantial gifts and speaking fees from special interests. Two initiatives that will appear on the June ballot would limit the amount legislators can receive from individuals.

One measure would restrict to $2,000 over two years the honorariums and gifts from any person other than a member of the officeholder’s or candidate’s family. The other would limit gifts and fees for speeches or articles about the governmental process from any source to $1,000 in a calendar year.

“In some ways, honorariums and gifts are infinitely worse than campaign contributions because they go right in the person’s pocket,” said Walter Zelman, executive director of Common Cause. “Large amounts given to legislators do raise certain questions” about whether the transaction will make lawmakers more sympathetic to a donor’s interests.

However, Zelman said legislators who must travel or prepare extensively for a speech are entitled to reasonable compensation.

Foreign travel for research on an issue falls into a gray area, Zelman said, although it becomes more questionable when lawmakers take their spouses along.

“Most of these trips involve a certain amount of work and a certain amount of learning and a certain amount of pleasure,” he said. “In many cases, there’s really no conflict of interest in taking the money and the trip.”

Wright and Davis said their travels gave them educational opportunities that otherwise would not have been available to them. Both said they had no problem accepting a trip paid for by an industry that might later seek their vote or support for legislation.

“A trip for a week where you spend four days in one city and four days in another is certainly not going to change your vote on an issue,” Wright said.

Members of the Senate and Assembly committees that oversee utilities took the European trip to learn about advanced telephone technology in France and the effect of telephone deregulation in England, according to Bob Jacobson, the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee consultant. He said Pacific Telesis, which hopes to provide such technology in the United States, had offered to pay for the venture as a public relations gesture.

Davis said the purpose of his London trip was to find out more about lawyers’ malpractice insurance at a time when the State Bar of California was proposing a mandatory statewide malpractice program. The Los Angeles County Bar Assn., which has its own voluntary insurance program, opposed the proposal, he said.

The mandatory insurance proposal subsequently has been withdrawn.

Davis reported that the trip was paid for by the county bar association. Association President Larry R. Feldman said the costs were underwritten by the London broker for the association’s insurance program.

“This was an opportunity to learn something significant that would help my work on the insurance committee,” Davis said. “I was engaged every minute in those three days learning things. It was a very fast business trip.”

Davis said the expense-paid trip left him under no obligation, especially since “going to London for a three-day trip is a hardship.”

He said he took his wife because “life is too short to be separated, so Bobbie goes wherever I go.”

Without industry sponsorship, Davis said he could not afford to make such educational trips. Lawmakers receive $40,816 a year in salary and a living allowance of $87 a day when the Legislature is in session.

Davis is one of five Valley-area legislators who reported accepting no speaking or panel fees. The other four--Wright, La Follette and Assemblymen Tom Bane (D-Tarzana) and Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks)--received fees ranging from a total of $500 to $2,500.

Hart steered $4,750 from 14 speeches to charities. State Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys) and Friedman did not list any speaking fees.

“I want my message to be something I deliver because I think it’s important rather than because I want the money,” Davis said.

Sometimes, he added, the event’s sponsor will become less interested in having him speak after learning that Davis will not accept the honorarium.

“Their motivation might well be to have you feel some obligation,” Davis said. “And I don’t want that feeling with any group.”