Ethics Praised : Group Honors 3 Area Legislators Who Reject Fees

State Sens. Ed Davis (R-Valencia) and Alan Robbins (D-Tarzana) and Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Los Angeles) are among 12 state lawmakers praised by a citizens watchdog group for refusing to accept speaking fees from special-interest groups.

California Common Cause, an inveterate critic of such honorariums, will present Davis, Friedman and Assemblywoman Lucy Killea (D-San Diego) with the first “The Free (No Honoraria) Speech Award” in ceremonies at the lawmakers’ district offices today. The others will receive their framed certificates next week.

“With all the negative attention on ethics, or the lack thereof, we think it’s time to notice those legislators who go a step beyond and try to set an example,” said Mark Haarer, assistant director of California Common Cause, which supports a ban on the controversial speaking fees.

‘Appearance of a Connection’

“For the most part, honoraria are given not because the legislator is a good speaker but because some special-interest bill is pending. There seems to be a direct connection. If there’s not a connection, there’s an appearance of a connection.”

Davis, who directs special-interest groups to donate his speaking fees to charities, is more emphatic. “Honoraria is thinly disguised bribery,” he said.

Nine of those honored, including the three San Fernando Valley area lawmakers, did not take any fees, which also are given for participating in panel discussions, in 1987 and 1988. The other three are first-term Assembly members who have vowed not to accept such fees.

Common Cause said state lawmakers accepted $728,542 in speaking fees in 1988. Under Proposition 73, which was passed by voters last June, a lawmaker can accept only $1,000 a year for speeches on the governmental process from any group. There is no limit on speeches that do not focus on government.

Legislators are paid $40,816 a year. Their $88 daily fee for expenses when the Legislature is in session brings their annual total to about $67,700. Common Cause supports a salary increase in conjunction with a ban on honorariums, gifts and trips paid by outside groups or individuals.

Friedman said Thursday that he supports that approach. He called honorariums and gifts “a more serious cause of conflict of interests than campaign contributions.”

Robbins, one of the Legislature’s leading fund-raisers, said he stopped taking honorariums in 1986.

“It creates the appearance on the part of the people paying the money that they are entitled to something,” Robbins said. “They expect something, and I don’t want to create the appearance that I can be bought.”

Possible Target

The award comes shortly after reports that Robbins’ name has surfaced as a possible target in a four-year FBI investigation of political corruption and that he testified before a grand jury about fellow Sen. Joseph B. Montoya (D-Whittier). Robbins is said to believe that he is not a target of the inquiry.

“I have made it clear consistently that I was the one legislator who declined their offer of money,” Robbins said Thursday of the undercover FBI “sting” operation. “And, from the Common Cause analysis, I’ve declined other offers of money.”

Assemblyman John R. Lewis (R-Orange) also will receive the Common Cause award. Lewis is awaiting trial on a felony charge of forgery for his role in the mailing of thousands of 1986 campaign letters bearing the phony signature of then-President Ronald Reagan.

The others honored are Assemblymen Steve Clute (D-Riverside), Robert J. Campbell (D-Richmond), Chris Chandler (R-Yuba City) and Lloyd G. Connelly (D-Sacramento), and freshmen Assemblymen Bob Epple (D-Norwalk), Ted Lempert (D-San Mateo) and Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove).