Taxpayers and Lobbyists Pick Up Travel Tab for Lawmakers

Many California legislators don’t have to dream of faraway places. They’ve been there.

To Paris and London, Brazil and New Zealand, Singapore and Bombay.

And what’s more, they didn’t have to pay. A variety of special interests are willing to pick up much of the tab. State funds and campaign treasuries pay for the rest.

In a detailed study of free travel by legislators during the last legislative session, The Times found that:

* Legislative staffers on the public payroll solicited travel money for legislators from private sources, including lobbyists, even though state law prohibits lobbyists from making or arranging gifts to a lawmaker in excess of $10 a month.

* The Senate two years ago set up an office to help arrange trips that took dozens of legislators to places as distant as Cairo and Beijing. On most of the trips, legislative employees planned the itineraries and acted as tour guides.

* Other travel by legislators, including leisurely fishing trips in Northern California and conferences in Bermuda, was planned and paid for directly by corporations or trade groups backing bills before the Legislature.

* The taxpayers helped foot the bill for a number of trips, including 25 outside the country to such faraway places as Australia, Hong Kong and South Korea.

* Special-interest money for some legislative travel was distributed by private organizations, in effect obscuring its true source.

Legislators defend the travel as helpful, even vital, to California but say they need to turn to special interests for financing because taxpayers are reluctant to pay the bill.

The costs are substantial.

In their financial disclosure reports for the 1987-88 session, lawmakers reported receiving gifts totaling $744,000 for travel, an average of $6,200 per lawmaker.

Most of that money came from private sources. But some of it, about $64,000, came from foreign governments, which themselves have a stake in California tax and trade policies.

Dependence on Special Interests

Critics and even some lawmakers say they are troubled by the Legislature’s dependence on special interests for travel expenses.

“In my ideal world,” said Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), the state would pay for the travel. “But I’m an American politician, I’m a California politician, and I have to recognize what my constituents think is proper. And they love having international meetings, and I think they want us to learn about the world, and they don’t want to pay for it.”

Roberti minimized the extent to which legislative employees have called on lobbyists and special interests to cover the cost of legislative travel, but defended the practice.

“What would be more improper would be to treat California as if it is a banana republic or a backwater somewhere else,” Roberti said. “I think that the American people are pretty comfortable having private industry pay for certain things if they think there is a reason for it.”

At a press conference earlier this year, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) upbraided a reporter for assuming that a free trip would influence the voting behavior of legislators. “It is the ultimate in cynicism,” Brown said, “to assume automatically that it is (an attempt to buy a vote).”

Trip Funding Criticized

But others say that allowing special interests to pay for travel is troubling.

“Private money is not disinterested,” said UCLA law professor Daniel H. Lowenstein, the first chairman of the state Fair Political Practices Commission. “Some private groups make these kinds of gifts in an effort to create good will. It’s not in the public interest to allow them to create good will with public officials in that way. If we decide to save a few pennies by letting them send our legislators all over the world we’ll pay for it 1,000 times over.”

In fact, the Legislature does pay certain expenses for lawmakers traveling out of state or outside the country.

Over the last two years, Speaker Brown authorized state funds for five Assembly members to travel outside the United States at a cost to taxpayers of $15,080. By far the most expensive was a three-week trip by Assemblywoman Sunny Mojonnier (R-Encinitas), who talked to officials in Spain and Portugal about the upcoming 500th anniversary of Columbus’ first transatlantic voyage. Mojonnier was reimbursed $6,648, including $4,374 for food and lodging, according to Assembly records.

In the last two years, the Senate paid $50,424 for out-of-country trips by 14 senators, according to Senate figures.

The biggest beneficiary by far was Sen. Jim Ellis (R-San Diego), who received $11,003 for trips to Australia and London. He made the trips last summer and fall, despite the fact that he was already a lame duck legislator, having announced many months before that he would not seek reelection.

Need for Outside Sources

However, tax dollars for travel were in relatively short supply during the 1987-88 session and many legislators looked to outside sources to pay for trips.

In 1987, the Senate established the Senate Office of Protocol, primarily to receive the hundreds of foreign dignitaries who visit the state Capitol each year, Roberti said.

But the office’s four state-paid employees also planned or helped arrange 17 trips that took about 40 legislators out of the country in a two-year period.

Employees of the office accompanied lawmakers on 10 of those trips, serving as tour guides and taking care of such “nitty-gritty” problems as handling the baggage, according to senators who went along.

When a delegation of senators and spouses held a dinner for Egyptian and American diplomats in Cairo last November, the protocol office’s associate director, Chris Kockinis, paid for the meal with her credit card. A month later, she sent bills totaling $1,008 to the California Optometric Assn. and the California Retailers Assn., thanking them for hosting the dinner, although no one from either group attended.

Turned to Lobbyist

Last year, when the Senate wanted to send two of its members--Republican Ed Davis of Valencia and Democrat Milton Marks of San Francisco--to Mexico City, the protocol office turned to Dennis Flatt, chief lobbyist for the California Assn. of Hospitals and Health Systems for help. The association provided $1,892 to cover expenses.

But the state Political Reform Act specifically prohibits lobbyists from providing gifts to a legislator in excess of $10 a month or from arranging or acting as an intermediary for such gifts. Just what it means to “arrange” or “act as an intermediary” is not always clear. Recently, the Fair Political Practices Commission fined a lobbying firm $1,000 because it allowed a client to use its offices and staff for a reception.

The hospital association’s spokeswoman, Lori Aldrete, said Flatt merely passed along the request for help on the Mexico City trip to the group’s executives, who are not subject to the $10 limit.

The Senate protocol staff has gone to other lobbyists as well in its search for funds for trips. Responding to one of those requests last year, veteran lobbyist George Steffes said he called on one of his clients, the California Mobilehome Park Owners Alliance. Individual members of the group contributed $2,000 to Sacramento State University’s Hornet Foundation for a legislative trade mission to India and Thailand.

Like other lobbyists who have passed along requests for funds, Steffes said he avoids making or arranging such sizable gifts for legislators. “The fact that it was going through Sac State made it different, made it an academic thing,” he said.

Funding Source Disputed

The director of the Senate protocol office, Susan Foreman, accompanied legislators on several trips, including one to Israel in 1987. The legislators on that trip reported receiving a total of $13,296 in travel expenses from American Associates of Ben Gurion University. Foreman got $2,605.

But the true source of funding for the trip is in dispute. The current director of the Beverly Hills-based group, Mark Friedman, said that his office did not pay those travel expenses, although it did help coordinate the trip.

“We’re in existence for the explicit purpose of raising money for the university,” Friedman said. “We would not be underwriting costs for a visit of the sort you described.”

The state’s largest teachers union, the California Teachers Assn., helped pay for other trips to Israel--travel organized and led by the Democratic chairman of the Assembly Rules Committee, Tom Bane of Tarzana, and his wife, Marlene.

Accompanying legislators on a Bane-led trip last November was Alice Huffman, the teacher association’s manager of governmental relations in Sacramento. “If the implication is because we go on a trip we have an edge with a member, that is a little shortsighted on both sides,” Huffman said. “All it does is cause one to have a better understanding of members.”

Two legislators on that same trip--Republican Assemblywomen Cathie Wright of Simi Valley and Bev Hansen of Santa Rosa--reported that the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, a charitable group, paid all or part of their costs. But Ron Rieder, a spokesman for the council, said that he believed the Banes raised the money. “We arranged the trip but didn’t fund it. The funds were privately raised.”

Declined to Discuss Details

Assemblyman Bane refused to discuss the Israel trip in detail, but said that his own costs were paid by his campaign committee, which reported paying $6,300 to the council last year.

Frequently, corporations or groups with a direct interest in legislation simply paid for legislative travel outright. Among those who did were:

* Pfizer Inc., which last year paid $17,098 for a four-day trip to Bermuda for three legislators, their spouses and two legislative aides. The trip came while the Legislature was still considering a Pfizer bill that would have helped the company ward off lawsuits from foreign citizens. The bill failed.

* California Co-Composting Systems Inc., which spent $18,600 to help send Speaker Brown, Assemblywoman Gwen Moore (D-Los Angeles) and Sen. William A. Craven (R-Oceanside) to Austria in 1987 to see highway sound and safety barriers made out of a mix of sewage sludge and garbage. The trips came soon after passage of a Craven bill requiring the state to test such products, which have been in use in Europe for 30 years.

* Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which routinely pays most of the expenses for legislators’ trips to the Academy Awards ceremonies in Los Angeles--including hotel room, limousine service, tickets to the ceremonies and, in some cases, air fare. Legislative leaders decided which of their colleagues could go. The total bill for 20 legislators and their guests over the past two years was $34,293. During the same period, the lobbying group won approval of a measure assuring the industry of a sales tax break estimated at up to $9 million a year. All 20 legislators voted for the measure.

* Pacific Telesis, which paid out $74,313 for legislators’ travel, most of it for a 1987 trip by Assembly and Senate utility committee members--along with their spouses--to London and Paris. The committees control most state legislation directly affecting the company and its subsidiary, Pacific Bell. The chairs of the two committees, Assemblywoman Moore and Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles), decided which of their colleagues would be invited on the trip, said company lobbyist Paul Henry. The phone company has been in the middle of numerous legislative battles, ranging from yellow pages to cable television.

Rosenthal was one of several legislators who contended that lawmakers who take such trips often turn around and vote against the special interests that paid for them.

“The trips are fruitful,” he said. “They should be paid for by the Senate. . . . At the moment there’s no prospect of it.”

In some cases, globe-trotting legislators say they have only a vague idea of which companies are actually paying for their trips.

Atlantic Encounter

The most notable example is Atlantic Encounter, a mysterious European-based group that provided $73,889 for travel to London, Dublin, Rome and Madrid for eight Assembly members during the 1987-88 legislative session, plus $18,026 in speaking fees.

Among those making these trips were several top Assembly leaders, including Speaker Brown, Mike Roos (D-Los Angeles), Thomas M. Hannigan (D-Fairfield) and Frank Hill (R-Whittier).

Hannigan, the Assembly Democrats’ floor leader, described Atlantic Encounter as “an association of multinational organizations” that tries to inform policy makers about issues affecting Europe. One of the companies was Mars Inc., he said. The candy manufacturer reported spending $126,000 to lobby the Legislature over the past two years.

When five top legislative leaders flew to Tokyo in 1987, their expenses were paid for by the Japan Institute for Social and Economic Affairs, which is funded by private industry. Sadami (Chris) Wada, a New York-based official for Sony Corp. who deals with legislators, said he made recommendations on which lawmakers should be invited, attended a Sacramento briefing for legislators by the Japanese Consulate, and joined the travelers for part of a trip. The total cost of the trips was reported at $36,950.

Senate leader Roberti went on one institute-paid trip. Defending such privately financed travel as good for the state, he said: “There’s always the presumption that anything enjoyable is bad, and that’s not true.”

Republican Sen. Larry Stirling of San Diego agreed. “It may be trite and banal to say it, but travel is broadening,” said the senator, who reported a gift of $2,000 from the Chinese People’s Institute for a trip last year to China.

Times staff writers Noel K. Wilson and Daniel M. Weintraub contributed to this story.

TOP TRAVELERS--TOP CONTRIBUTORS The following lawmakers received the most gifts of travel during the 1987-88 legislative session, according to their annual financial disclosure reports:

1. Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) $34,628; includes trips on immigration issues paid for by federal government and one trip to Vietnam paid for by Vietnamese immigrants in the U.S.

2. Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles) $33,204; numerous trips on energy, utility and health issues, paid for by utilities, pharmaceutical manufacturers and others.

3. Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) $27,471; travel to Europe and Japan, paid for by Atlantic Encounter, Japan Institute, California Co-Composting and others.

4. Assemblyman Frank Hill (R-Whittier) $27,298; two trips to Europe, plus condos and fishing trips in California.

5. Assemblyman Mike Roos (D-Los Angeles) $26,609; travel to Europe, Bermuda and New Zealand, paid for by special-interest groups and other sources.

6. Assemblywoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) $26,549; several trips for speeches to political, civil rights and black business groups.

7. Sen. Joseph B. Montoya (D-Whittier) $24,414; numerous trips, foreign and U.S., paid by health, energy and other groups.

8. Assemblyman Thomas M. Hannigan (D-Fairfield) $23,728; trips to Europe and Japan, paid for by Atlantic Encounter and Japan Institute.

9. Assemblyman Pat Johnston (D-Stockton) $23,461; travel for speeches in U.S. and to Europe, paid for by Atlantic Encounter.

10. Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) $22,172; trips to Israel, Germany, Poland and Colorado in 1987, paid for by Lorimar Telepictures, producers of a film starring his wife, Jane Fonda.

TOP 10 CONTRIBUTORS TO LEGISLATIVE TRAVEL

The following organizations provided California legislators with the most money for travel during the last legislative session, according to the legislators’ annual financial disclosure statements:

1. Pacific Telesis, $74,313; parent of Pacific Bell, paid for travel to Paris and London for members of key committees that decide rules for telephone companies.

2. Atlantic Encounter, $73,889; European-based, provided trips to Europe for top Assembly leaders and spouses. Connected to multinational corporations, also paid speaking fees.

3. Japan Institute for Social and Economic Affairs, $36,950; an arm of the Japanese equivalent of a national chamber of commerce. Funded by Japanese industry, the institute took legislative leaders to Tokyo.

4. Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, $34,293; bargaining and lobbying group, representing major studios and producers. Arranged for 20 lawmakers to attend the Academy Awards ceremonies.

5. Pfizer Inc., $29,160; manufacturer of drugs and medical devices, flew legislators to Bermuda for company-organized conference.

6. Lorimar Telepictures, $22,037; production company, provided four trips for Assemblyman Tom Hayden and his actress-wife, Jane Fonda.

7. Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs, $20,200; partly funded by the Chinese government, the institute hosts foreign dignitaries and pays for their expenses while traveling in China.

8. California Co-Composting Systems, $18,600; company seeking to sell state highway barriers made of treated sewage sludge and garbage, flew legislators to Austria.

9. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, $14,082; German labor federation, provided travel to Germany for legislators and staff.

10. American Associates of Ben Gurion University, $13,296; U.S. organization helped arrange legislative trips to Israel, but money came from other sources.