Legislators List 1988 Bounty in Fees, Gifts

State legislators representing the San Gabriel Valley took free trips to Japan, Vietnam and Egypt, received gifts ranging from Las Vegas shows to country club memberships and were paid more than $186,000 for speeches they made last year.

Travel expenses and other gifts valued at more than $87,000, along with honorariums for speeches, articles and personal appearances, were reported by the legislators in statements they filed with the state Fair Political Practices Commission.

Three senators, William Campbell (R-Hacienda Heights), Joseph B. Montoya (D-Whittier) and Art Torres (D-Los Angeles), and two assemblymen, Pat Nolan (R-Glendale) and Frank Hill (R-Whittier), received more than 80% of the nearly $275,000 in gifts and fees reported by the 15 legislators who represent the San Gabriel Valley.

Montoya, Nolan and Hill are targets of an FBI investigation of political corruption in Sacramento. In disclosure statements, Montoya reported receiving $3,000 and Hill acknowledged he got $2,500 in honorariums from Peachstate Capitol West Inc., a bogus company created to seek special interest legislation as part of an FBI sting. Nolan reported $10,000 in campaign contributions from Peachstate last year. The Capitol offices of all three legislators were searched by the FBI last August.

Assemblyman Charles M. Calderon (D-Whittier), who reported $828 in gifts and $3,250 in speech fees, said he believes the Legislature should ban honorariums entirely in order to repair its tarnished reputation.

Calderon said that even if legislators deserve the fees they receive for lending their expertise to symposiums and for delivering speeches, the payments nonetheless create “an appearance of vote-buying,” and “cast an ominous shadow over the Legislature.”

The assemblyman said most gifts and honorariums go to only a few lawmakers, but give “a black eye” to everyone.

Calderon said the embarrassment created by the FBI sting has not discouraged trade groups and corporations from offering honorariums in Sacramento, nor dissuaded lawmakers from accepting them.

Jerry Haleva, chief of staff for Campbell, said the senator is receiving as many requests to deliver paid speeches this year as he did last year. He said Campbell, who made 30 paid speeches in 1988, averages one speech request a week.

Haleva defended Campbell’s acceptance of fees of up to $5,000 a speech, asserting that the senator, unlike some legislators who get paid for speeches, is in demand because of his speaking ability.

“He is an orator in his own right,” Haleva said, pointing out that Campbell often has been described as “a witty and entertaining speaker.”

Campbell, who has been in the Legislature for more than 20 years and represents a district that stretches from West Covina to Laguna Niguel, ranked third in honorariums among legislators in 1988, trailing only Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) and Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles).

Fees Exceed Salary

In fact, Campbell’s total fees of $46,900 for 30 speeches exceeded his state salary. Legislators are paid $40,816 a year, plus $88 a day while the Legislature is in session.

The speech fee payments to Campbell ranged from $150 from a labor group, the United Domestic Workers of America, to $5,000 from Russell T. Bundy Associates, an Ohio manufacturer. Haleva said Campbell was invited to give a motivational speech to the Ohio company’s employees because the company’s president had known Campbell for years and was familiar with his speaking ability.

Campbell also received $5,000 from a Jewish organization, the Friends of Lubavitch, for a speech on the plight of Soviet Jews he gave in New Orleans while attending the Republican National Convention. Haleva said Campbell was invited to speak because he founded a legislative organization concerned with the problems of Jews in the Soviet Union.

The most expensive gift reported by Campbell was $3,140 from Pfizer Pharmaceuticals to cover “air fare, accommodations, recreation and gifts” at a conference in Bermuda on issues facing state governments.

$1,000 Limit

While the demand for speeches by the senator remains high, Haleva said, his income from honorariums is certain to be hurt by new rules that took effect Jan. 1. In 1988, lawmakers were permitted to receive unlimited gifts and speech fees, but now are limited to a maximum of $1,000 a year from each source. The ceiling was established by a voter-approved initiative sponsored by Montoya and two other legislators.

Montoya, whose district stretches from Monterey Park east to La Puente, reported $36,550 in honorariums and nearly $8,500 in gifts last year. The cash payments included $5,000 for speaking to the Los Angeles County Medical Assn., $4,000 for speaking to a group of swap meet operators and $3,000 for touring and speaking at a plant in Illinois owned by Baxter Healthcare Corp.

Montoya reported accepting $3,000 from a beauty college for attending the videotaping of a “hair and nail fashion show” in Santa Ana. MetPath Inc., a clinical laboratory, paid $1,740 in air fare and $2,000 in cash for Montoya to speak at a meeting at the company’s headquarters in Teterboro, N.J., last June.

Many of the payments to Montoya were from medical firms, health organizations and other groups concerned with legislation that comes before the Senate Business and Professions Committee, which Montoya heads.

Nolan, who resigned as Assembly Republican leader in November, received more than $26,000 for speaking engagements. He reported payments of $4,000 for two speeches to the Grocery Manufacturers Association of America and $3,000 for a speech to the board of directors of the California Retailers Assn.

Among nearly $8,000 in gifts, Nolan listed $1,200 in accommodations from Sunrise/Desert Partners, a Palm Desert builder that is planning a resort in the city of Indian Wells.

Hill also benefited from Sunrise/Desert Partners, reporting a $4,000 honorarium, $541 in meals and accommodations and $490 in air fare. The Whittier legislator, whose district takes in the southeastern part of the valley, including Diamond Bar, Hacienda Heights, Rowland Heights and Walnut, received more than $32,000 in honorariums and $20,000 in gifts last year, including a trip he took to Europe with his wife. About $14,000 worth of expenses on the European trip were paid by Atlantic Encounter, a trade promotion organization based in Paris.

Torres, whose district includes South Pasadena, reported a $5,000 trip to Austria in July, a $5,200 trip to Vietnam in September and a $10,600 trip to Japan in November. Expenses were paid by the Sony Corp. and foreign trade groups. Aides said Torres was unavailable to comment last week about the trips because he was traveling in Vietnam.

Sen. Newton Russell (R-Glendale), whose district includes part of Pasadena, traveled to Cairo with his wife in November as part of a state delegation invited by the Egyptian government to discuss investment, trade and other issues. Russell received $1,500 in meals, lodging and transportation. He also reported $4,220 in free memberships from Altadena Town and Country Club, Lakeside and Oakmont country clubs and the Verdugo Club.

Assemblyman Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles), whose district includes part of Pasadena, reported $6,200 in honorariums, including $1,000 from Campaign Management of Newport Beach, which ran a multimillion-dollar campaign last year for an insurance initiative sponsored by Polanco that failed at the polls. The assemblyman also reported more than $10,000 in income from R.G. Polanco & Associates, a consulting firm he owns.

Assemblywoman Sally Tanner (D-Baldwin Park), who heads the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee, reported $4,600 in speech fees from Arco and chemical manufacturers, plus $1,000 for speaking at the grand opening of an auctioneering business in the City of Industry.

Sen. Don Rogers (R-Bakersfield), whose district extends into Pasadena, attended the Academy Awards last year as a guest of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, a gift he valued at nearly $2,000. He also received a dinner and show, valued at $247, from the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas.

Few Gifts, No Gifts

Assemblyman Richard L. Mountjoy (R-Monrovia), who seldom accepts gifts or honorariums, reported $1,000 to cover travel e xpenses and a speaking fee he received from an appearance at a California Medical Assn. meeting in Reno.

Sen. H. L. (Bill) Richardson, who retired from the Senate at the end of last year, was the only San Gabriel Valley legislator who reported no gifts. His honorariums consisted of $800 for speeches and $600 as an author’s fee from a publisher.

Sen. Bill Leonard (R-Big Bear), Richardson’s successor in a district that extends from Azusa eastward to San Bernadino County, reported less than $1,500 in gifts and $2,400 in honorariums, including $150 from The Times for a commentary he wrote on welfare reform.

Leonard said he has no qualms about accepting honorariums because of the extra effort and research required to prepare speeches.

But, he said, he would vote to ban honorariums if that could be coupled with other political reforms, including a ban on per diem payments to lawmakers, and a salary increase to offset the loss in income.

Leonard said that putting money into salaries rather than concealing it in per diem payments and other benefits would be a straightforward approach. But, he said, it is not clear that the public would be willing to raise salaries high enough--perhaps double--to offset the drop in income.

1988 GIFTS AND FEES TO ASSEMBLY MEMBERS

GIFTS SPEECHES Charles Bader (R-Pomona) $1,180 $2,550 Charles M. Calderon (D-Whittier) 828 3,250 Frank Hill (R-Whittier) 20,045 32,367 William H. Lancaster (R-Covina) 407 500 Richard L. Mountjoy (R-Monrovia) 1,106 1,000 Pat Nolan (R-Glendale) 7,990 26,143 Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) 609 6,200 Sally Tanner (D-Baldwin Park) 619 5,600

1988 GIFTS AND FEES TO SENATE MEMBERS

GIFTS SPEECHES Ruben S. Ayala (D-Chino) 2,323 500 William Campbell (R-Hacienda Heights) 5,534 46,900 Bill Leonard* (R-Big Bear) 1,496 2,400 Joseph B. Montoya (D-Whittier) 8,498 36,550 *H.L. (Bill) Richardson (R-Glendora) 0 1,400 Don Rogers (R-Bakersfield) 3,330 3,700 Newton R. Russell (R-Glendale) 7,669 2,350 Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) 25,911 15,500

*Richardson retired at the end of 1988 and was succeeded by Leonard, who until then was an assemblyman from Redlands.

Source: state Fair Political Practices Commission