State Legislators Showered With Presents, Fees

As 1988 wound to a close, corporate California showered state lawmakers and their families with luxury trips, elaborate gifts and generous speech-making fees to foster relationships with the men and women who decide issues critical to their industries.

There were trips to Hawaii, Florida, New Orleans and Palm Springs and less costly boating, golfing and Disneyland excursions. Gifts included the ordinary bottles of liquor, boxes of candy, bouquets of flowers and the extraordinary--a $251 engraved crystal paperweight from the California Cable Television Assn. for Assemblyman Frank Hill (R-Whittier) and a $669 wedding present for Assemblyman Mike Roos (D-Los Angeles), compliments of the California Retailers Assn.

The honorarium--the fee lawmakers are paid for a speaking engagement--retained its popularity with lobbying groups, which paid 39 different legislators sums ranging from $2,000 to $250 for a single appearance at their conventions and seminars.

The corporate largess was revealed Wednesday in year-end quarterly statements filed with Secretary of State March Fong Eu by hundreds of associations and businesses that lobby the Legislature.

Many of the lobbying groups directed their generosity at lawmakers serving on committees that had direct responsibility for legislation affecting their industry.

The Ladbroke Racing Corp., for example, disclosed that it had treated Assemblyman Stan Statham and his administrative assistant to a 10-day stay in a $290-a-night room at the Park Lane Hotel in London. In reporting the gift, the out-of-state corporation promoted the Oak Run Republican to “senator.” Statham is a member of the Assembly Governmental Organization that handles racing legislation.

The California Trial Lawyers Assn. spent $1,450 on lodging and air fare for Assemblyman Elihu Harris (D-Oakland) and his wife to spend nearly a week at the Waiohai Hotel in Kauai, Hawaii. A spokesman said Harris was invited to address an association seminar because of his involvement as chairman of the Assembly Judiciary Committee in legislation affecting the practice of law.

Harris was paid a $1,500 honorarium for his appearance.

The California Cable Television Assn. provided lodging and meals at the Disneyland Hotel for seven lawmakers and their family members to attend the Western Cable Show, an industry trade show. A lobbyist for the association said the legislators, who were paid $750 each for their participation in round-table discussions, were invited to be “educated” about industry problems that would come before their committees.

Representatives of two large companies that maintain a lobbying presence in Sacramento--the Atlantic Richfield Co. and Pfizer Pharmaceuticals--showed up during legislative conferences in Hawaii and Beijing to pick up the dinner tabs for lawmakers and their families.

Meanwhile, documents filed with the secretary of state’s office showed that Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) collected $5.1 million in campaign contributions last year and spent $4.7 million in a successful battle to retain his Democratic majority and wrest three seats away from Republicans. The additional seats gave him the exact number of votes he needed to retain his powerful leadership post.

Among the Speaker’s most generous benefactors from the private sector were the California Teachers Assn., $40,250; California Labor Federation, $30,299; California Restaurant Assn., $29,000; Philip Morris USA, $15,000; California Service Station and Auto Repair Assn., $12,500, and Joint Council of Teamsters, $12,500.

Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) collected slightly more than $2 million in campaign contributions and spent approximately the same amount of money in 1988, the documents showed.

Roberti’s largest single expenditure was $642,749 in cash, services, and loans to help reelect Sen. Cecil N. Green (D-Norwalk). Green defeated Republican Don Knabe, an aide to Los Angeles Supervisor Deane Dana, in a tight race that cost more than $2 million.

Big contributors to the Senate leader included former Democratic Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr.’s USA Committee of Los Angeles, $10,000; California Nurses Assn. Political Action Committee, $10,000; California Trial Lawyers, $9,000, and California Teamsters Public Affairs Council, $6,500.

Roberti also received sizable contributions from the California State Council of Service Employees, $20,000; California Professional Firefighters PAC, $12,500; Los Angeles businessman Frederick W. Field, $11,500; California Retailers Assn. Good Government Committee, $9,200, and California Beer and Wine Wholesalers Assn., $6,000.