Bills Pushed to Let Governor Name Aides to 3 Top Jobs

Legislation that would allow Gov. George Deukmejian to appoint top aides to three high-paying patronage jobs near the end of his term without Senate confirmation appeared headed for final approval in the closing hours of the 1989 legislative session.

In addition, the Legislature approved a bill that would allow lawyer-legislators who put their Bar Assn. membership on inactive status to qualify for judicial appointments.

The jobs in question--judgeships and positions on full-time state boards--are regarded as political plums, and the appointments are jealously guarded prerogatives of gubernatorial power.

Changing the rules for the appointments was part of the last-minute horse-trading as the Legislature moved toward its Friday recess.

‘Golden Parachutes’

Some Democratic lawmakers complained bitterly that the Republican governor would be able to appoint three members of his personal staff to $85,000-a-year jobs without Senate confirmation. The positions were variously described as “golden parachutes” or “soft-landing pads” for Deukmejian staffers who will likely lose their jobs when a new governor takes office in January of 1991. (Deukmejian announced earlier this year that he would not run for a third term.)

Deukmejian Administration officials deny that the governor will use his appointment powers to provide jobs for particular members of his personal staff.

“The governor has not even focused on those appointments,” Deukmejian Press Secretary Kevin Brett said. “It would be premature to even speculate about who would fill them.”

Deukmejian himself had no comment on rumors that he had specific staff members in mind for the posts.

Similarly, Democratic legislative leaders deny that the bill that clarifies a state constitutional restriction on judicial appointments was intended to aid any specific legislators who would like to be appointed as judges.

Broad Powers

Two of the Deukmejian appointments that are outside the review of the Senate would be to a new, full-time solid waste management board with broad powers over local governments’ trash disposal and recycling efforts. The appointments were negotiated by Deukmejian and legislative leaders, who would also be able to name members to the board.

The third job would be a seat on the Public Employment Relations Board. Republican Sen. Ed Davis (R-Valencia) amended a bill to allow Deukmejian to fill a position on that board without Senate confirmation. The job becomes vacant in November, 1990, two months before Deukmejian is due to leave office.

Several legislative sources who asked not to be named said that Deukmejian officials were “unabashed” about wanting to use the appointments to reward Deukmejian Administration stalwarts.

Sen. Ralph C. Dills (D-Gardena) was one of several legislators who argued against exempting the Deukmejian appointments from Senate confirmation.

‘Ought to Protect It’

“I don’t see any good, valid reason why we in the Senate should give up this prerogative,” Dills said. “I think we ought to protect it and guard it as long as we can until there is a good and sufficient reason to prove that we don’t do our job properly.”

Davis described the exemption to Senate confirmation as a “trade-off.” In return for a one-time exemption for the Employment Relations Board post, Deukmejian agreed to what Davis described as “a quid pro quo “ -- allowing the Senate to confirm the appointment of the chief of the State Police.

Davis also carried a bill that would allow a number of legislators to qualify for judgeships under a constitutional provision requiring five years’ membership in the State Bar immediately before appointment to the Municipal Court bench and 10 years’ membership before appointment to the Superior or Appeals courts.

Rather than pay annual dues of $417 a year for active Bar membership, several legislators have chosen to switch to inactive status, which costs them $50 a year, according to Senate Democratic Leader Barry Keene of Benicia. Keene said he was one of those who had chosen inactive status.

Constitutional Requirement

Pressed by Keene and others, Davis agreed to include language in a bill that states that inactive membership satisfies the constitutional requirement--clearing the way for Keene and others to be named to judgeships.

Davis said he expects Republican U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson to be the next governor of California, which would cut Keene and most other Democrats out of hope for a judicial appointment.

As originally drafted, the provision applied only to legislators, members of Congress and law professors. But Davis amended it to qualify any inactive member of the State Bar.