Bradley Will Do Battle for Truck Ban : To Lobby Legislators Against State Bill Backed by Industry

Mayor Tom Bradley said Tuesday that he will personally grab the reins of an intense city lobbying effort and go to the state Capitol today to argue against a state bill that would kill his proposal to ban trucks from city streets during rush hour.

City officials have consistently opposed the state effort for several months, but with a key vote looming in the state Assembly Ways and Means Committee today, Bradley will take the unusual step of appearing before the committee as well as personally working legislators in the hallways and back rooms of the Capitol.

“I will go to Sacramento to try to convince the Ways and Means Committee that they ought to keep out of this matter,” Bradley said at a press conference called to discuss another topic Tuesday. “I plan to talk to every member of that committee” before the final vote is taken.

Backed by Truckers

The bill is backed by the California trucking industry and was the price the industry demanded earlier this year for agreeing to a major statewide transportation construction program that includes a proposed tax increase.

Although he has been one of the best known politicians in the state for two decades, Bradley has only rarely attempted to flex his political muscle in Sacramento in recent years. As reports of Bradley’s plans made the rounds of the Capitol on Tuesday, opponents and allies alike agreed that it was an unusual maneuver for him, but they all wondered just how much difference, if any, the mayor’s presence would have on the bill’s outcome.

“Any time you have a major public figure such as Bradley appear at a committee hearing, it has an impact,” said an aide to Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco). “But I don’t know if it will gain him any votes.”

Nonetheless, the aide noted that at a minimum, Bradley’s presence will put the spotlight of publicity on Los Angeles area lawmakers, and “it would make me think long and hard about opposing the mayor on this.”

Affords a Platform

The event also gives the mayor, currently the target of several ethics probes, a platform on an issue of great interest to city residents and could prop up his sagging political profile, legislative aides said.

Still, opponents and proponents alike predict a close vote in the committee, and they agree that the only certainty is that the issue will be hotly debated.

The bill before the Ways and Means Committee would preempt Los Angeles’ ability to regulate truck traffic on city streets. The city of Los Angeles has proposed banning 70% of all truck traffic during morning and afternoon rush hours. The truck ban is the linchpin of Bradley’s sweeping traffic initiative launched two years ago, and it is the last major element of the plan to be adopted.

‘We’re Not Lobbying’

In contrast to Bradley’s planned public display, Tom Schumacher, the chief lobbyist for the California Trucking Assn., is on vacation this week and his chief deputy is out of state on a business trip. Karen Rasmussen, director of governmental and industry affairs for the trade group, said, “We’re not lobbying the bill at all.”

The truckers, she said, expect success by relying on an agreement reached earlier this year by the governor’s staff, legislative leaders and industry officials on the sweeping transportation construction and fuel tax program. The trucking industry agreed not to oppose that package of six bills adopted in the spring, but in return demanded a preemption of the Los Angeles proposal to ban rush-hour truck traffic.

“This is an agreement,” Rasmussen said. “It is up to them (the legislators) to make sure it passes.”

Bradley, however, is planning a major effort. As he enters the committee chambers today he will have in tow an unusual coalition of interest groups aimed at appealing to the complete political spectrum. With him will be representatives of the Teamsters Union, the California Manufacturers Assn. and the Sierra Club, according to Deputy Mayor Mike Gage.

The bill’s author, Sen. William Campbell (R-Hacienda Heights) is counting on lawmakers to honor their collective commitment made to the truckers in the transportation compromise, according to Campbell aide Tom Burns. “We’re going into the committee hearing,” Burns said, “and we don’t know what is going to happen.”