Prison Guards to Lower Sights When Aiming Legislative Gifts

Stung by reaction to a $10,000 award it gave Assemblywoman Sunny Mojonnier (R-Encinitas), a state prison guards group may lower the amount of any future gifts and change the way the recipients are selected.

Don Novey, president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., said the group’s gift to Mojonnier apparently “broke the sound barrier” of capital politics because it was so far in excess of the amount lobbying groups typically give legislators as gifts or in payment for speeches.

Novey said the award to Mojonnier, given because she left her sickbed after major surgery last summer to vote for a key bill that the prison guards were supporting, may have appeared improper because it was based on a single action by the lawmaker.

The state attorney general’s office said there is no law against such a gift as long as a legislator does not agree in advance to vote a certain way in exchange for the money.

But Novey said negative reaction to the gift--primarily in the news media--has prompted the correctional officers’ group to reassess its awards policy.

“If you’re somewhat out of line or there’s a hint at being out of line, you ought to drag yourself in and reassess your position and show that you can monitor yourself,” Novey said. He said the group is considering lowering the amount of the awards, spreading the funds among more lawmakers, and basing the selections on criteria broader than just a single vote or action.

Novey said the correctional officers decided to give the awards as a way to attract the attention of legislators who are lavished with campaign funds, gifts and speech-making fees by powerful industry groups.

“We are not the flashy, money-rich industry that banking, insurance, manufacturing or medicine is,” Novey said, referring to the groups that normally contribute heavily to legislative campaigns and pay the largest speaking fees or honorariums. “Our special interest is public protection.”